This month has been sooooo rewarding and fun. We wrapped up my sister’s kitchen (shot and edited), finished the beautiful Beth room makeover (shot, still editing), and flew to California to install our Velux tiny house (shooting in November). It was three weeks of huge back-to-back, all team-sponsored makeovers, which is so fun and took all of our time (and more). Marlee is swimming in footage, sorting through 6 months of banked videos (staring at me all day, oof), with every second of the process for each project. I’m so grateful for my team, y’all. They are really killing it. But that’s all to say that I didn’t set foot in the guest cottage for weeks until last weekend, when I was scrambling to clean up for our annual fall school fundraiser (a big outdoor family movie night). I’ve perhaps overextended myself:) But the good (and stressful) news is that we have upcoming holiday shoots in the guest cottage in mid-October, which means at least 2 rooms need to be done enough to deck their halls. But first let’s talk about my intent with this project and, well, how it’s changed. I’ve learned a lot about myself in this one – again.

One of my biggest personality flaws is my optimistic thinking/hoping I can do things that I can’t. My vegetable garden is the best proof of this – AGAIN. I want to be the person who can do the things, but a combination of not having the time, skills, or natural propensity stops me. Once again, I also wholly underestimated the level of time and skill needed to DIY remodel anything. I had such a vision and fantasy of Brian and I doing a lot of the work ourselves (the reclaimed cladding, the DIY cabinets, installing the flooring, painting). We thought we’d hire people to coach us and learn along the way, but that didn’t happen (also, no one really wants to coach a newbie person with iPhones in their face). The learning curve is steep, and DIY remodeling is shockingly time-consuming (so much respect…so much). I told you all what we were going to DIY versus hire out months ago, and well, I think we all know where this post is going…

On DIY Cladding The Walls And Laying The Flooring

When our framers were done reinforcing the ceiling and installing the skylights, they offered to start the flooring and cladding the walls next week. It had been delivered and was piled up, and they were standing next to it, literally holding the nail gun. This wasn’t our intent – we were going to do this part ourselves (and it was one of the reasons we got reclaimed wood – you don’t have to be as precious or precise with it). Brian and I looked at each other, then at our calendars, and we said YES with regret and relief. We realized we had no time to dedicate to this for the foreseeable future (without canceling all our summer family plans and me turning down so much paid work). The original point of us doing it ourselves, versus hiring it out, was the experience of learning and the satisfaction of the hard work (we really liked stripping and painting the upstairs together over a weekend – but that is super low skill compared to this). We knew we’d hire out for the ceiling but genuinely thought we could at least do the kitchen flooring ourselves. Once we saw that pile of wood, we lost all DIY excitement. The reality of the upcoming months of hard work, stress, and likely bickering set in.

So we gave Mike and Fred the thumbs up to install the flooring and clad the walls, which took them a few weeks – probably10-12 full days- with 2 guys who have a TON of experience, tools, and skills (and they aren’t even done yet). This proved to us even more that we couldn’t have done it – it would have taken us months and probably not been great for our marriage or family dynamic (Brian would rather host the school auction, changing costumes 6 times, than spend months making wrong cuts of expensive material). Working with reclaimed wood means that, sure, things are a bit more forgiving (nail holes are easily hidden, flaws are part of the beauty, etc.). Still, there are way more cuts because you have to avoid huge cracks and holes and also place things in a way that looks more even (not just put all the dark together – making sure it’s tonally balanced). I think had I not announced to the world that we were going to DIY some of these elements, I wouldn’t be writing this walk-of-shame post today. But I was so sure this was something we could tackle ourselves! I’m working on reducing my negative self-talk, so I won’t share some of my thoughts. Let’s just say “hard lessons were learned”. Again.

So my lessons are the same ones that I keep having to learn – that I don’t have endless bandwidth and that just because I want to do something doesn’t mean I have the time to learn how to do it properly. And that DIY remodeling is so incredibly time-consuming and requires so much precision and skill that I may never have. The fact is, our business model is not set up for me to dedicate weeks to physical labor – I literally have to be on camera 2-3 days a week, design room makeovers, have 8-10 meetings a week, and have to write the blog. I have such an incredible team that leads so much of the execution of the content, but aside from human cloning, it’s ridiculous of me to think I could do this. Time is finite, money isn’t. We all know that story. So yah. I looked my reality in the face and hired out (again, with equal parts regret and relief). Let me be clear – I’m not embarrassed that I hired out (most people should if they have the budget). I’m embarrassed that once again I thought I could do something that I couldn’t, after promising with such confidence that I could.

That’s all to say that things are moving forward just better and more expensive than we predicted. Nothing to complain about here; I just hope you guys aren’t disappointed that I don’t have lots of fun “things I learned while laying our own flooring” tips and posts. Honestly, there are so many DIY content creators that you should follow instead for this remodeling content anyway – they are better at it, and their business models are built around producing that type of content (Fariha Nasir, Angela Rose, Kyle Ortiz, Renee Renovates, Ashley Tate, Anika Gandhi, Danielle Guerrero, The Grit And Polish, Carli Alves, Sarah Randall, Jenna Phipps – and so many more!). I know what I’m good at, and deep down I know that I have never been good at measuring or precision. If it’s up to me, I take the shortcut and say, “eh, it’s good enough” because I’m impatient, I want to move on to the fun stuff, and I know that I can cover it with a flower arrangement (this is not something I’m proud of, just being honest). I’m a perfectionist when it comes to so many things – hanging art, styling shelves, even pulling together renovation materials, and I love obsessing about how to make a room look full of personality while being functional. But construction precision is not, and will never be, my strength. I also really believe that we should all do the things that make us feel good, or better, things that we are already naturally inclined towards that put us in a flow state, and ya’ll, we should hire out the right people who are aligned with their naturally inclined skills. Not that we shouldn’t learn new things or accept new challenges – I truly don’t want to be that person, and I know that convenience + privilege impairs personal growth. But man, when we looked at that stack of wood after it arrived, we knew what we should have done all along – hire the right people. I have so much new respect for what skilled home remodelers do. It’s clear to me I am not one of them, which is all good (it has to be, lol).

But Wait, What Is The Actual Update With The Wood Cladding??

Right. At the time of writing this (Sunday), the game room is almost finished, the kitchen flooring is done, and 1/2 the bathroom ceiling is clad. By the end of next week, the bathroom should be all closed up, and the kitchen will have beadboard panels ready to paint. There is a decent amount of extremely time-consuming but low-skill repair work (pulling staples out of the walls and ceiling). So we are figuring out who does that, and when. It’s looking awesome. It’s a bit more rustic than I like (by nature of the wood), so I might put a big coat of sealant on it to bring out the richness of the grain and even out the contrast, but we’ll see.

Rough Plumbing Done!

The rough plumbing is done. It was pretty minimal – a bathroom with a toilet, urinal, sink, and a shower, and a kitchen with a sink. Not even a dishwasher (for now) or a fridge that required plumbing. The first quote was $25k, which surprised us; the second came in at $15k, so we hired them. So far, they did a great job, and I’ll link them up after the fixtures are installed if we love working with them.

Electrical

As of today, 1/2 of the light fixtures and outlets are installed. The living room looks great. They installed the dining room/kitchen chandelier too short, and it looks more like a semi-flush (they left a stem out, and I was out of town when it happened). So I need to find out if they left enough wire to take it down and add the 12″ it needs, but if not, I’ll move that upstairs to the pink room (which I hadn’t ordered for yet but planned on a multi-bulb semi-flush) and then re-order a chandelier for over the dining table. The bathroom has all the rough electrical but no fixtures until they finish cladding the walls (and I haven’t ordered the ceiling fixture yet, so I need to get on that – ooh, maybe I could move the dining room one there? Stay tuned). I’m way behind on ordering outlets and light switches, so some are just plastic that we’ll replace, and some are nicer fixtures that I panic-ordered on Amazon. We are basically attempting to do paintable outlets in the painted rooms, and black or an antique brass in the wood room (but avoiding splurging on outlets altogether). I’ll likely splurge on light switches since they are more visible at eye-level and will pop out really badly in such an older home (and fine, yes, I’m a light switch snob).

Staining The Game Room Floor

The game room needs to be shot as a big holiday dinner party in a couple of weeks, so I have to get on staining the floor. We had the floor sanded down to the original wood, but it’s in OK shape (tons of dents and dark oil stains), so we are going to go darker with it and plan on covering it with a rug, versus putting down prettier flooring. Is it weird that I’d rather splurge on a rug than redo the flooring altogether? Maybe eventually I’ll do both, but for now a big old vintage rug is going to cover so much of it that it seems silly to spend more money trying to make the flooring extremely beautiful. I think staining will be good enough.

Doors And Trim Work

Oof. I really need to get on this. Some of the doors are sweet and janky and worth investing in properly. Some of them should just be replaced (janky doors can be so annoying TBH, if you use them frequently, but since we won’t live in this house, we are figuring out the solution that makes the most sense). But all of them have vintage hardware that I fantasize about taking off, having cleaned, and reusing. So we’ll see. It’s not super time-critical, but we all know that rehanging doors is extremely annoying, so I’d like to do it while I have the guys here cladding. Stay tuned.

Kitchen Cabinets

Literally haven’t had time to think about this. What I have had the time to do is design two other sets of kitchen cabinets, and boy was it easier to have a cabinet maker make them. LOL…. I know. The fridge and electric range have arrived (both black Smeg and awesome), and I still have the white hanging sink that is feeling SO WHITE to me. Realistically, I won’t be able to finish the kitchen til early next year. I’m still really excited about it, but a lot is up in the air, and I need time to think/design.

The Upstairs

The old light blue prop room and the upstairs landing are almost there (shootable but not dialed in). So I think after these holiday shoots we’ll be able to put more energy and time into finishing them up for real use (or more shoots). I don’t love writing up in the pink room yet or spending too much time there. I think I’m just a whore for abundant natural light, and while it’s cozy and would be a fantastic bedroom or TV room/play room, I don’t love being in there for hours (whereas in my sunroom I can stay all day). Definitely considering skylights, but I don’t want to mess with the vintage exterior roofline. So I’m not sure it’s going to be the meeting room that we predicted, but that’s ok. The two new huge windows downstairs and the skylights in the game room are pulling me to set up shop down there instead.

The Old Prop Room

This one, we had to shoot the Quilt vignette, but the rest of the room is still under construction. So it’s this hilarious mix of a totally styled-out desk vignette, next to a busted window. It’s the lowest priority because we aren’t sure of its future purpose, but I have some fun design plans for it regardless.

What About That Weird Bathroom???

In the name of deep diving into uncomfortable levels of transparency (title of my memoir??) I’ll give you a full update of every element soon. It just deserves its own post. It’s coming along, but things have had to change for a variety of complicated reasons – some out of my control, some due to the aforementioned “biting off more than I could chew”. It may or may not be another “walk of shame” post, but I kinda think that’s what you are here for (not solely, of course, but hopefully it keeps you coming back rather than just showing off a clean end result). Schaudenfraude is alive and well on the internet, but hopefully you guys are excited enough to see how it turns out to keep coming back.

****UPDATE: As I’m editing this post (Wednesday morning, 6 am, lol), I just realized all the lights were on for the first time!!! The electrician came back yesterday to tweak the dining table chandelier (which looks great now) and put bulbs in all the fixtures. We accidentally left them on, apparently. But my goodness, it all of a sudden feels like a home!! Maybe someday we’ll even have running water!!?? You know…for the urinal 🙂