diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 22a6be0b9..b031ce185 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ test/logs
 coverage.txt
 docs/_build
 docs/tools
+*.log
 
 scripts/wal2json/wal2json
 scripts/cutWALUntil/cutWALUntil
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 787fd7180..b991bcc4e 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -42,15 +42,18 @@ Run `bash scripts/glide/status.sh` to get a list of vendored dependencies that m
 
 ## Vagrant
 
-If you are a [Vagrant](https://www.vagrantup.com/) user, all you have to do to get started hacking Tendermint is:
+If you are a [Vagrant](https://www.vagrantup.com/) user, you can get started hacking Tendermint with the commands below.
+
+NOTE: In case you installed Vagrant in 2017, you might need to run
+`vagrant box update` to upgrade to the latest `ubuntu/xenial64`.
 
 ```
 vagrant up
 vagrant ssh
-cd ~/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint
 make test
 ```
 
+
 ## Testing
 
 All repos should be hooked up to circle.
@@ -97,4 +100,4 @@ especially `go-p2p` and `go-rpc`, as their versions are referenced in tendermint
 - push to hotfix-vX.X.X to run the extended integration tests on the CI
 - merge hotfix-vX.X.X to master
 - merge hotfix-vX.X.X to develop
-- delete the hotfix-vX.X.X branch
\ No newline at end of file
+- delete the hotfix-vX.X.X branch
diff --git a/Vagrantfile b/Vagrantfile
index 12cfce475..ee878649d 100644
--- a/Vagrantfile
+++ b/Vagrantfile
@@ -24,26 +24,29 @@ Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
     apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends wget curl jq \
         make shellcheck bsdmainutils psmisc
     apt-get install -y docker-ce golang-1.9-go
+    apt-get install -y language-pack-en
+
+    # cleanup
+    apt-get autoremove -y
 
     # needed for docker
-    usermod -a -G docker ubuntu
+    usermod -a -G docker vagrant
 
-    # use "EOF" not EOF to avoid variable substitution of $PATH
-    cat << "EOF" >> /home/ubuntu/.bash_profile
-export PATH=$PATH:/usr/lib/go-1.9/bin:/home/ubuntu/go/bin
-export GOPATH=/home/ubuntu/go
-export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
-cd go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint
-EOF
+    # set env variables
+    echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/usr/lib/go-1.9/bin:/home/vagrant/go/bin' >> /home/vagrant/.bash_profile
+    echo 'export GOPATH=/home/vagrant/go' >> /home/vagrant/.bash_profile
+    echo 'export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8' >> /home/vagrant/.bash_profile
+    echo 'cd go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint' >> /home/vagrant/.bash_profile
 
-    mkdir -p /home/ubuntu/go/bin
-    mkdir -p /home/ubuntu/go/src/github.com/tendermint
-    ln -s /vagrant /home/ubuntu/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint
+    mkdir -p /home/vagrant/go/bin
+    mkdir -p /home/vagrant/go/src/github.com/tendermint
+    ln -s /vagrant /home/vagrant/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint
 
-    chown -R ubuntu:ubuntu /home/ubuntu/go
-    chown ubuntu:ubuntu /home/ubuntu/.bash_profile
+    chown -R vagrant:vagrant /home/vagrant/go
+    chown vagrant:vagrant /home/vagrant/.bash_profile
 
     # get all deps and tools, ready to install/test
-    su - ubuntu -c 'cd /home/ubuntu/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint && make get_tools && make get_vendor_deps'
+    su - vagrant  -c 'source /home/vagrant/.bash_profile'
+    su - vagrant -c 'cd /home/vagrant/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint && make get_tools && make get_vendor_deps'
   SHELL
 end