The Part of Building a Dream House No One Talks About

I’m writing this from the kitchen island of our beach house—the island that, just a few months ago, still existed only as a rendering on my laptop. Now it holds a mug of coffee and a big wood bowl full of tomatoes, peaches, and avocados from the farm stand down the road.

A few days after we moved our stuff in, I was going through my journals and found an entry from three years ago. We were in the middle of permitting delays that had already dragged on for two years, with no end in sight. I’d spilled all my frustration onto the page—and underneath it, this search for meaning in the delays and setbacks. I knew I didn’t want this chapter to be something we simply had to “get through.” I wanted the waiting to be its own kind of gift. I wanted to come out of it more patient, grateful, and maybe a little stronger.

Reading it now, from this kitchen, felt surreal. (And I also wanted to give past Camille a hug and tell her to chill out and give herself permission to feel the negative emotions too—still working on that.)

Here’s the quick version for anyone new here: this whole project began as a slightly unhinged pandemic decision. Stuck at home in Austin in the summer of 2020, Adam and I kept circling back to our longtime dream of “someday” having a house in Malibu. For the first time, we started asking whether someday could be sooner than we thought.

So, we started looking at listings online, and Adam found a property that neither of us could stop thinking about. It was over our budget and needed a ton of work, but we knew we had to at least see it. I’ll never forget flying out to tour this funky 1950s bungalow. The floor plan made zero sense, the guest house had the original carpet, and there were a suspicious number of security cameras left behind by a previous owner who’d apparently been running some kind of business we still don’t fully understand, lol.

But underneath it all, there was the light. The ocean breeze. The sunset over Zuma Beach that felt like pure magic. A few months later, we got the keys—and had absolutely no idea what we’d just signed up for.

Keep reading for what happened during those six years, plus a peek at my camera roll from the house these past few weeks. THANK YOU to all of you who have been following along on this journey for the past few years. ❤️