ABOUT

The Blanco Bungalow

It all started as a blog. Documenting the design and restoration of our first home, a 1920’s, 1200-square-foot Spanish Bungalow, in Long Beach, California. However, after ripping off my first tile, I knew this was going to be much more.

We moved to Long Beach in October 2018 from Venice Beach, CA. After giving birth to my son, Coyote in 2017, we both decided it was time to purchase our first home. My dream was always a little Spanish Bungalow loaded with charm and history. We looked and looked for months in Los Angeles, but couldn’t afford anything. Not wanting to leave LA, but both still needing to be in close proximity for work, we started expanding our search and found an adorable little up-and-coming neighborhood called Wrigley in Long Beach that we could afford. I found a listing that didn’t look too promising (our realtor seemed shocked when I said I wanted to look at it), but I saw the red tile Spanish roof and arches, and I knew we had to take a look. There was purple carpet, brown walls, no sunlight, and it needed some serious love, but we saw her good bones and all the potential. We restored her project by project, taking us exactly four years. We’ve learned everything as we went (mostly from youtube videos:), and some projects don’t go quite as planned, but I loved every minute of it.

In January 2022, we took a month-long trip to Portugal, and after that trip, decided we were ready to sell our beloved home. We planned on keeping our first Bungalow forever and never selling. However, after the pandemic, we decided it was time to shake things up and try something new. We’re currently on the hunt for the next Blanco Bungalow. My hopes are that it will be a beautiful historic property with wood-beamed ceilings, a large stone fireplace, and heaps of Portuguese charm. Stay tuned to see what we find, and follow along on Instagram for house hunting and more….

I hope you’ll continue to follow along with me.

♥

With Gratitude,

Laura Genevieve

The Blanco Bungalow