I want I may keep in mind whose reel it was that I noticed on Instagram the opposite day the place she confirmed how lengthy every room in her home took to rework, as a result of I’ve been excited about that ever since. I used to be so fascinated to see how one room took simply a few months, whereas one other room took virtually a yr, whereas one other room (her grasp lavatory transform) was in its third yr, and it nonetheless wasn’t completed.
While you buy a fixer higher, that’s simply the way it goes. Clearly, some rooms are lots much less concerned (dwelling rooms, bedrooms, and so on.), whereas others are an entire lot extra concerned and far more costly (loos and kitchens).
In order that made me curious. How lengthy did it take me to do every room in our home, from begin to end? Right here’s what I discovered…
Kitchen Rework — 7 months
Our kitchen was virtually an entire DIY transform. After we moved into our home in October 2013, the kitchen regarded like this…
It’s so unusual trying again at that. The doorway on the left leads to what’s now the breakfast room (quickly getting used as a sitting room/TV room). The wall with the cupboards is the place there may be now a cased opening going into the lounge. And simply on the opposite facet of the wall on the best is the music room.
It was about March 2014 once I began tearing issues up — eradicating cupboards, eradicating the outdated flooring, rearranging issues to see how I needed the kitchen transform organized, and so on. So in March 2014, the kitchen had gone from dangerous to worse, and regarded like this…
So March 2014 is what I think about the start of this kitchen transform. It ended up being an entire down-to-the-studs tear out.
The wall within the image beneath is the wall reverse the one proven within the two photos above. That is the wall the place the “wall of cupboards” is as we speak, with the music room on the left, and the breakfast room and pantry on the best.
Apart from hiring a professional to maneuver the plumbing and fuel strains, this was a DIY mission from starting to finish. (I wasn’t the one DIYer concerned. I did have some household assist with a few of the huge tasks, like pouring the concrete counter tops.)
I labored fairly steadily on this transform, and put in some very lengthy days frequently. (That was again when 12-hour work days weren’t uncommon for me. These days are lengthy gone.)
And it was in October 2014 that the room was lastly completed, and I had my inexperienced and gold kitchen.
The kitchen seems to be fairly a bit totally different as we speak as a result of I repainted it in 2017, and minimize into the wall so as to add a cased opening into the lounge.
However these have been simply minor modifications alongside the way in which. The precise kitchen transform took seven months.
Hallway Rest room — 6 months
After we moved into our home, that is what the hallway lavatory regarded like…
We lived with that loo for a little bit over a yr, after which in January 2015, I began tearing issues out.
This was additionally a down-to-the-studs tear out, and this was additionally the primary room I ever tore all the way down to the ground joists, which signifies that the dust beneath our home was utterly seen. Discuss feeling very nervous! I simply knew I had bitten off greater than I may chew, however I used to be decided to do it myself, and tried to take it one small step at a time in order that I wouldn’t get overwhelmed.
Apart from hiring a plumber to rearrange and replace the plumbing, the remainder of this room was a DIY mission. (I don’t do plumbing or the rest that requires me to crawl beneath the home. That’s the place I completely draw the road. The concept of snakes, black widows, brown recluse spiders, along with my claustrophobia, which has solely gotten worse as I’ve gotten older, makes going beneath the home a NO. It’s simply…NO. By no means. I’ll by no means go beneath beneath our home.)
That was one other room that I labored on very steadily, placing in some very lengthy days, till it was completed in July 2015.
The hallway lavatory bought a little bit makeover in 2019 so as to add some heat colours to it. As I started to find my love for heat colours along with my beloved teals and greens, I needed so as to add these to this room.
However that makeover simply included a number of beauty modifications. The precise transform of this room in 2015 took six months.
Residing Room — 6 Years
Figuring out how lengthy the lounge transform took is a little bit bit tougher to determine. I began placing some ornamental touches in the lounge as quickly as I may proper after we moved into the home, however I did so at first understanding that these have been “lipstick on a pig” sorts of tasks.
The room began out trying like this…
I put fairly a bit of labor into it to get the room trying like this…
And but, I knew that every one of that was simply short-term. The polystyrene ceiling tiles have been nonetheless there, the ceiling gentle wasn’t centered, the drywall was outdated and cracked, the home windows didn’t match and wanted to get replaced.
(That image nonetheless baffles me. Who the heck was I adorning for? ? That room doesn’t look something like “me.”)
So whereas I did all of that to make the room look presentable, I really matter the beginning of the transform for this room to be after we (my father-in-law and I) began tearing out the outdated drywall in April 2015…
Eliminating the polystyrene ceiling tiles and the outdated drywall, insulating the partitions, and putting in the brand new drywall actually felt just like the official begin of this transform. That’s once I was nonetheless engaged on the toilet transform, however I needed to benefit from his go to and have him assist me with this huge mission that I used to be too afraid to do on my own.
After which it was October of 2015 after we lastly bought new home windows to switch the outdated, mismatched, drafty home windows.
However so far as really getting the room to the purpose the place I’d name it completed? Effectively, that took till Could 2021.
This room gave me so many complications, and I had such a tough time getting my footing on this room. I attempted so many concepts that simply fell flat, together with one wayward try at turning the room right into a eating room.
However lastly, I discovered my method, and I had a lounge that was really completed in a method that I beloved after 7.5 years of dwelling on this home. That signifies that from the start of this room’s transform till I had the room completed in a method that I actually beloved took six years. Wow!
The music room and entryway had related timelines, though the entryway got here collectively a full two-and-a-half years earlier than the music room and the lounge. However the drywall in these areas was torn out and new drywall put in on the identical time, after which it took me some time to determine what I used to be doing in each of these areas.
Entryway — 3.5 years
We don’t even have an entryway. We simply have a entrance door that leads into an enormous room, however I’ve finished my finest to attempt to separate that huge room right into a lounge and an entryway by the position of the furnishings. And since I consider these as two separate areas, I’ve embellished them as such (but in addition in a method that they coordinate with one another).
This room regarded like this after we purchased the home, with the “entryway” being the world with the door and the wall to the best of the door.
Identical to the lounge, I did some “lipstick on a pig” makeover makes an attempt at first that I knew have been going to be short-term. So I think about the start of this transform to be April 2015 (the identical as the lounge and music room), which is when the outdated drywall got here down and the brand new went up.
And similar to the lounge, this space took me a number of makes an attempt to seek out simply what I favored. Once I completed this space in October 2018, that is what it regarded like…
It has gone via some minor modifications between then and now. The credenza bought a little bit of a makeover. A number of the fowl prints have been eliminated and changed with mirrors. I added some throw pillows.
However that 2018 date is once I think about this are to have lastly been completed, which signifies that this space took 3.5 years to complete.
Music Room — 6 years
Our music room was really supposed to be a eating room by the builder of the home. However since Matt makes use of a wheelchair to get round, having this room crammed with a eating desk and chairs wouldn’t be sensible. I wanted this room to be open via the center in order that he can get via this space simply.
I used this room to experiment with a number of concepts, like varied wall therapies. However similar to the lounge and entryway, I think about the start of this transform to be April 2015 when the outdated drywall and polystyrene ceiling tiles got here down, and the brand new drywall went up.
This room was a little bit totally different from the lounge and entryway. Whereas I actually put effort into adorning these areas (and failed a number of instances earlier than succeeding), that didn’t occur fairly to that extent within the music room.
I imply, I did throw out a number of concepts, and I even painted the partitions black at one level.
However after the brand new drywall went up, it wasn’t actually a matter of me attempting out 100 concepts and failing repeatedly (which was positively the story of the lounge and the entryway). It was extra that this grew to become the forgotten room. I used to be busy with different issues, so this room was uncared for for lengthy stretches of time.
However I lastly did get it completed in Could 2021, only a week or two after I completed the lounge, which places this room on the six-year mark as nicely.
Breakfast Room — 10 months
The breakfast room and pantry remodels have been began round July 2016. That’s once I bought the room (again then, it was only one lengthy room) cleared out and got here up with a plan to get the ground in that room leveled with the kitchen flooring. The room regarded like this at that time.
So by that point, I had already eliminated the inexperienced carpet, a few of the skinny plywood that coated the entire partitions, and a few of the plywood that coated the ceiling.
That flooring was coated in asbestos tiles, so quite than pull them up, I made a decision to have them encapsulated with a coat of concrete (this one room doesn’t have a pier and beam basis), which might additionally deliver the ground as much as the purpose it wanted to be in order that it might be stage with the kitchen flooring as soon as the hardwood flooring was put in.
That concrete was poured in August 2016, and this transform was formally underway. The breakfast room was completed in Could 2017, which signifies that this room was in progress for 10 months. And it was throughout that point that I additionally repainted the kitchen cupboards.
That room seems to be fairly a bit totally different now since we’re utilizing it as a brief sitting room (after Matt’s occupational therapist advised him he wanted to spend extra day trip of the mattress, and I needed to rapidly discover a place to place a recliner for him), however we’ll get our breakfast room again after we get the addition constructed. For now, this room has modified in seems to be and in operate.
Stroll-In Pantry — 2.5 years
As I said above, the walk-in pantry and breakfast room was once one lengthy room. That is what the again portion of that room regarded like once I was able to get began on the transform.
However whereas these two areas have been began on the identical time, I didn’t get the pantry completed till January 2019. Since this room was tucked behind closed doorways, it was fairly straightforward to place it out of my thoughts and concentrate on different issues.
So whereas the breakfast room transform took me 10 months to complete, the pantry ended up taking me 2.5 years to complete.
And eventually…
Visitor Bed room — 14 months
After we purchased our home, the visitor bed room regarded like this…
And shortly after we purchased the home, I eliminated the carpet and refinished the ground. Then after we had the brand new siding placed on the home, we had them shut up that doorway on the left.
However none of that was actually an effort to rework this room. I think about the beginning of the visitor bed room transform to be November 2019.
That’s when our contractor tore out and moved the wall within the hallway, tore out the outdated drywall on this room and put in new, closed up the door to the closet on this room, opened up each closets to the house health club, eliminated the window on the best facet, and had the stonemasons shut up the outlet on the outside, and so on.
By the point the contractor completed up his half, the room regarded like this…
I lastly completed the visitor bed room in January 2021, so it took 14 months. However these 14 months did embody a worldwide pandemic that shut the whole lot down for some time. So I don’t actually know the way lengthy this room would have taken in any other case.
It’s attention-grabbing to look again and see these timelines. For me, it’s attention-grabbing to see that the rooms that ought to have been a breeze (lounge, entryway, music room) have been the rooms that took me the longest. And the rooms that concerned far more work (kitchen and hallway lavatory) have been those that took the shortest period of time.
Possibly that’s as a result of I did these first, and I used to be far more excited and extra motivated. I don’t actually know the explanations.
However the backside line is that all of us need to go at our personal tempo. One other DIYer’s tempo actually isn’t related to our personal lives after we consider the whole lot else that all of us need to deal with in our private lives. A DIY journey is simply that — it’s a journey — and all of us have our personal very distinctive experiences.
And I may let you know that trying again at these timelines (six years for a lounge!?) makes me really feel an entire lot much less insecure concerning the year-and-a-half that our enormous grasp lavatory has taken me to date. That loo took WAY extra work, and has taken far much less time, than the lounge or music room. So I’m feeling fairly okay about my grasp lavatory timeline proper now. ?
Addicted 2 Adorning is the place I share my DIY and adorning journey as I transform and adorn the 1948 fixer higher that my husband, Matt, and I purchased in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do bodily work, so I do nearly all of the work on the home on my own. You may be taught extra about me right here.
I hope you’ll be part of me on my DIY and adorning journey! If you wish to comply with my tasks and progress, you possibly can subscribe beneath and have every new publish delivered to your e-mail inbox. That method you’ll by no means miss a factor!
