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Before: In 2022, Kara Harms and Robin Berenson, co-founders of lifestyle website Whimsey Soul based in San Francisco, bought this 1456-square-foot rental cabin in Arnold, California, with the intention to fix it up themselves.

Light wood floors, new drywall, and a fresh coat of white paint now gives the house a luminous quality. The front entry is to the right of the fireplace, and there are now better sight lines into the kitchen and dining area to the left.

After renting in San Francisco for a decade, DIY couple Molly Fiffer and Jeff Waldman bought 10 acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where the pair and their friends built a cabin compound complete with sheds, tree decks, a pavilion, a wood-fired hot tub, an outhouse, and an outdoor shower. The cabin is made from locally sourced, rough-sawn redwood, which the couple stained with nontoxic Eco Wood Treatment to give the panels an aged appearance and a dark patina.

005.GEB - Apartment Refurbishment in Madrid Photo: Carlos Antón