Hey friends! In this Q3 newsletter, I write about: watching dogs on Rover, turning our house into an Airbnb, a cross-country roadtrip, moving to NYC, wedding planning (April 2025!), extreme bird watching and intense tree spotting, Inciardi mini print vending machines, and more. Figured I'd share some of the neat things I've been seeing.
🐕 Rover Dogs
Late last year up until when we moved in July, Maddie and I had been hosting dogs through Rover. It was a fun way to scratch the dog itch while making a little extra side cash. (We used this to fund our vacation to Thailand!) We got to a point where we started getting return dog visitors and mostly kept to watching the ones we knew we liked. Major shoutout to Zoey, I miss you!!!
I got a Polaroid camera and would take photos of the dogs to share with owners. I think it helped us get more positive reviews so we could get more requests and over time start charging a little more.
We just got back on Rover in NY. I'm excited to watch some more dogs!
🏠 Airbnb Hosting: What I Learned
We got our Denver house listed on Airbnb before moving. Here's what I learned and the tools that have been game-changers:
Things I've learned:
Professional photos are worth it. We had someone come shoot the place and bookings immediately picked up. I learned that there are different types of real estate photographers. Find one that does Airbnb's.
Price it competitively at first to get reviews, then adjust up
A detailed house manual saves you from answering the same questions over and over. I've also been tweaking my automated guest messaging a lot to help answer commonly asked questions.
Smart locks are essential for remote hosting. I have a Schlage one. It syncs with Airbnb so guests get codes automatically that are valid just for their dates/times of their stay.
Add-ons: I bought two bikes that I store in the basement because our neighborhood is bike friendly. I thought this was genius. I have them set to where they can be rented for $50 per bike for the whole stay and they get the code to the bike lock once they purchase it. No takers so far.
Tools I'm using:
PriceLabs for dynamic pricing (set it and forget it). I'm a huge fan of Pricelabs so far. It's $20 a month and it pulls in different factors like demand, seasonality, holidays, special events, etc and adjusts your price accordingly.
Schlage lock for smart lock access codes
Happy Guest: I'm testing this out. I'm trying it for guest communication + enabling the bike add-ons.
OwnerRez for property management system. This syncs with Airbnb, VRBO, etc so that the calendars all speak to eachother and I can make updates in one place.
So far, we've had pretty good luck. No major emergencies. It's a little stressful sometimes when guests reach out about needing something, but I anticipated this being part of the game.
🪱 Happy Worm Summer Camp: Year 2
This was the second year of Happy Worm Summer Camp in St Louis, and it keeps getting better. If you don't know what this is, last year I put on an adult summer camp for about 20 of our friends. It was really fun. We played volleyball for hours, had Wormlympics, grilled, finished a puzzle, took a photography class, and more. We decided to run it back, with the same crew + a few first timers. This year, one friend built a massive slip & slide which was for sure the highlight. We had a pregnancy announcement! We had a hot dog grilling and showing contest (Best in Show). We played more volleyball. Had a drag show. Maddie cooked a 5 course meal.
I've had a few people reach out about doing a 2nd summer camp weekend. I was nervous to do it this year because I wasn't sure if I could get enough people. If you're interested, let me know and I may try to plan Weekend 2 next year!
🚗 A Cross-Country Roadtrip
In August, we roadtripped from Denver to NYC, stopping in KC to spend time with my parents and STL for summer camp. I hit 4 new states, Maddie hit 3. We went to 3 National Parks, met up with friends and family, did a few client onsites and had one of the best smoothies of my life. We didn't see any "World's Largest 'Things'".
The Route & Highlights:
Mammoth Cave National Park (Kentucky): This NP is neat. We did the Historic Tour which takes you deep into the cave system. It's one of the world's longest known cave system. It's massive. I will say, I personally thought Carlsbad Caverns was cooler. But still insane to think about how big of a cave Mammoth Cave is. On our way to Louisville, we detoured to a place called Bernheim Forest. It's a huge botanical garden with a ton of cool art installations. Worth a visit!
Louisville: Quick stop. We weren't super impressed. I will say, Paul's Fruit Market is a 10/10. Fruit-centric grocery store. Very wholesome. Incredible selections. I had two juices. A lady at the register was wearing an iconic forest green 'Paul's Fruit' sweatshirt. I told her I wanted to buy one and she offered to bring an one of her millions of extras the next day. I told her we were just passing through and ended up buying one a few days later on Ebay. A friend of mine saw my antics on Instagram and let me know that his brother-in-law own's Paul's! (He's not Paul; Paul passed away years ago). Our next stop was Cincinatti and we detoured here as well, to a little 'town' called Rabbit Hash. It's cute, right along the water, artsy and also a big motorcycle hangout spot. It's a whole vibe. If you have the chance, make the visit.
Cincinnati: Stayed with our friends Ben & Katie. Cinci is a pretty cool city! They seem to have a lot of good restaurants. Lots going on. Continuing on the grocery store tangent, they also have an insane grocery store. The most insane grocery store I had ever been to. Jungle Jim's. It's an IKEA sized grocery store meets Rainforest Cafe. that features cereal mascot animatronics, aisles with groceries from like most countries, and a bunch of weird, absurd stuff. You gotta go.
New River Gorge National Park (West Virginia): Did a client visit here and got to do the Bridge Walk—a 3-hour guided walk along the catwalk beneath the New River Gorge Bridge, 850+ feet above the river. Incredible views. They also have a big yearly festival called Bridge Day. Rapelling, BASE jumping, etc. Hundreds and hundreds of vendors. Sounds amazing. Hope to go at some point.
Washington, DC: Quick overnight stop. We met up with Maddie's family. Didn't have a ton of time here. We walked through Georgetown which is a VERY cute neighborhood. I also had the best pita of my life. The place was called Yellow. Recommend.
Philadelphia: Stayed with our friends, Jake and Leah! We walked a ton. They just bought a house in South Philly and it's an A+. Very cute, old, charming house. Leah recommended a smoothie spot. It was one of my top 5 favorite smoothies. Riverwards Produce. Seriously phenomenal. If you're in Philly, go here. The next morning, we finished out the roadtrip and made it to our new home in Brooklyn, NY!
Moving Tips:
We used U-Pack for the move. It was a good experience. I recommend them.
They drop off the trailer on a day that you choose
You pack a trailer, they drive it to the destination
WAY cheaper than full-service movers ($2,400 for Denver to NY)
We were given a few days to load it, but just four hours to unload it in NY
I was worried about this. I thought it would take like 2 days on both ends. Not true for us. Partially because we weren't moving much of our furniture (it's in the Airbnb). But it actually moves pretty quick. Took us about 4-5 hours to load it all up. Maybe 2 hours to unload it all.
🌳 Longs Peak Summit
I had a Colorado bucketlist. One of the things on the list was summiting Long's Peak. My friend Nate agreed to do it with me! It's one of Colorado's most iconic 14ers. It's also the deadliest. I think partly because it is fairly exposed but more because it's the one 14er close to Estes Park which is where a lot of tourists go. It's a monster of a day hike—15 miles round trip with about 5,000 feet of elevation gain.
We left at 2am to beat afternoon thunderstorms. We took the Keyhole Route, which is the "easiest" way up, but it still involves some serious scrambling and exposure. If you're going to do it, start early!
🗽 Welcome to New York
We made it to NY on September 1st! We had three visitors in the first two weeks, which was overwhelming but also made the apartment feel like home faster. We didn't have any furniture but we've been going wild on Facebook Marketplace and are getting there!
Things We've Done:
US Open: Went with Luke and my sister-in-law Roze. We saw Jannik Sinner and Naomi Osaka play. I also got a ball boy's official ball boy shirt! He was done working and had a spare. It was a little sweaty. I'm guessing it was the one he was wearing while ball boy-ing.
Bridge Running: Ran across the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge with my friend Tommy. Iconic and fun!
Chiefs vs. Giants Game: I went to MetLife Stadium for this one and discovered American Dream mall, which is right next to the stadium. Apparently it has a wave pool inside. I want to go so bad. I love wave pools.
Fallingwater: Abruptly left NYC for a work trip to visit Fallingwater in Pennsylvania. Incredible. Clap clap clap.
🎉 Maddie and Ian Get Married!
We're planning a wedding for April 2026. We have a venue. We're going to have BBQ. Our friend Jake is going to officiate it! If anyone has wedding planning tips, we'll take them.
🎨 Ana Inciardi Mini Print Vending Machines
I got really into these mini print vending machines by artist Ana Inciardi. They're scattered around various cities, and you never know what print you'll get—it's $1 for a surprise print.
You can find a map of all the vending machine locations here: anainciardi.com
We decided to put together all our food themed prints in a shadow box and display them in our kitchen.
Received a Minion waffle maker as a "welcome to New York" gift from my friends, Anthony & Kelly. I've made seven delicious waffles with it so far. I plan to make many more waffles from it. Cmon over and I will make you one.
🎧 Nothing Ear Pods
My AirPods broke, and instead of buying another pair, I'm trying 'Nothing' Ear Pods. They're comfortable, sound great, and cost significantly less than Apple's Airpods. They have really good sound cancellation. I was really confused when I first put them on and I now love it.
If you're in the market for new earbuds and don't need the Apple ecosystem integration, check them out.
📺 Listers Documentary
Watched the "Listers" documentary. It's really freaking good. It's about two brothers who spend a year getting super into Extreme Birdwatching. It's hilarious. Makes me want to quit my job and get way too deep into a hobby. It's extremely well done.
That's it from me. I hope you found something interesting in this Q3 newsletter! Send me an email or message me on IG: @ian_pea with any comments or thoughts.
