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 transform, as a result of I’ve been fascinated 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 toilet rework) was in its third yr, and it nonetheless wasn’t completed.
Once you buy a fixer higher, that’s simply the way it goes. Clearly, some rooms are so much much less concerned (dwelling rooms, bedrooms, and so on.), whereas others are a complete 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 Transform — 7 months
Our kitchen was virtually a whole DIY rework. After we moved into our home in October 2013, the kitchen appeared like this…
It’s so unusual wanting 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 aspect of the wall on the precise is the music room.
It was about March 2014 after I began tearing issues up — eradicating cupboards, eradicating the previous flooring, rearranging issues to see how I wished the kitchen rework organized, and so on. So in March 2014, the kitchen had gone from dangerous to worse, and appeared like this…
So March 2014 is what I take into account the start of this kitchen rework. It ended up being a whole down-to-the-studs tear out.
The wall within the image beneath is the wall reverse the one proven within the two footage above. That is the wall the place the “wall of cupboards” is immediately, with the music room on the left, and the breakfast room and pantry on the precise.
Except hiring a professional to maneuver the plumbing and fuel traces, this was a DIY mission from starting to finish. (I wasn’t the one DIYer concerned. I did have some household assist with among the huge initiatives, like pouring the concrete counter tops.)
I labored fairly steadily on this rework, and put in some very lengthy days regularly. (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 finally finished, and I had my inexperienced and gold kitchen.
The kitchen seems to be fairly a bit completely different immediately as a result of I repainted it in 2017, and reduce into the wall so as to add a cased opening into the lounge.
However these have been simply minor adjustments alongside the way in which. The precise kitchen rework took seven months.
Hallway Lavatory — 6 months
After we moved into our home, that is what the hallway toilet appeared like…
We lived with that rest room 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 implies that the grime beneath our home was fully 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 anything that requires me to crawl below 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 below the home a NO. It’s simply…NO. By no means. I’ll by no means go below below our home.)
That was one other room that I labored on very steadily, placing in some very lengthy days, until it was finished in July 2015.
The hallway toilet got a little makeover in 2019 to add some warm colors to it. As I started to find my love for heat colours along with my beloved teals and greens, I wished so as to add these to this room.
However that makeover simply included a number of beauty adjustments. The precise rework of this room in 2015 took six months.
Dwelling Room — 6 Years
Figuring out how lengthy the lounge rework 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 to start with figuring out that these have been “lipstick on a pig” kinds of initiatives.
The room began out wanting like this…
I put fairly a bit of labor into it to get the room wanting like this…
And but, I knew that every one of that was simply momentary. The polystyrene ceiling tiles have been nonetheless there, the ceiling mild wasn’t centered, the drywall was previous 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 rework for this room to be once we (my father-in-law and I) began tearing out the previous drywall in April 2015…
Eliminating the polystyrene ceiling tiles and the previous drywall, insulating the partitions, and putting in the brand new drywall actually felt just like the official begin of this rework. That’s after I was nonetheless engaged on the toilet rework, however I wished to make the most of 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 once we lastly acquired new home windows to exchange the previous, mismatched, drafty home windows.
However so far as really getting the room to the purpose the place I’d name it completed? Properly, 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 manner, and I had a living room that was actually finished in a way that I loved after 7.5 years of dwelling on this home. That implies that from the start of this room’s rework till I had the room completed in a manner that I actually liked took six years. Wow!
The music room and entryway had comparable 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 similar 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 greatest to attempt to separate that huge room right into a front room and an entryway by the location of the furnishings. And since I consider these as two separate areas, I’ve adorned them as such (but additionally in a manner that they coordinate with one another).
This room appeared like this once we purchased the home, with the “entryway” being the realm with the door and the wall to the precise of the door.
Identical to the lounge, I did some “lipstick on a pig” makeover makes an attempt to start with that I knew have been going to be momentary. So I take into account the start of this rework to be April 2015 (the identical as the lounge and music room), which is when the previous drywall got here down and the brand new went up.
And identical to the lounge, this space took me a number of makes an attempt to seek out simply what I preferred. When I finished this area in October 2018, that is what it appeared like…
It has gone by way of some minor adjustments between then and now. The credenza acquired a little bit of a makeover. Among the hen prints have been eliminated and changed with mirrors. I added some throw pillows.
However that 2018 date is after I take into account this are to have lastly been completed, which implies 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 stuffed with a eating desk and chairs wouldn’t be sensible. I wanted this room to be open by way of the center in order that he can get by way of this space simply.
I used this room to experiment with a number of concepts, like varied wall remedies. However identical to the lounge and entryway, I take into account the start of this rework to be April 2015 when the previous drywall and polystyrene ceiling tiles got here down, and the brand new drywall went up.
This room was a little bit completely different from the lounge and entryway. Whereas I actually put effort into adorning these areas (and failed a number of occasions earlier than succeeding), that didn’t occur fairly to that extent within the music room.
I imply, I did throw out plenty 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 turned the forgotten room. I used to be busy with different issues, so this room was uncared for for lengthy stretches of time.
However I finally did get it finished in May 2021, only a week or two after I completed the lounge, which places this room on the six-year mark as properly.
Breakfast Room — 10 months
The breakfast room and pantry remodels have been began round July 2016. That’s after I acquired 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 ground. The room appeared like this at that time.
So by that point, I had already eliminated the inexperienced carpet, among the skinny plywood that lined the entire partitions, and among the plywood that lined the ceiling.
That ground was lined in asbestos tiles, so fairly 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 will be degree with the kitchen ground as soon as the hardwood ground was put in.
That concrete was poured in August 2016, and this rework was formally underway. The breakfast room was finished in May 2017, which implies 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 completely different now since we’re utilizing it as a short lived sitting room (after Matt’s occupational therapist informed him he wanted to spend extra 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 once we get the addition constructed. For now, this room has changed in looks and in function.
Stroll-In Pantry — 2.5 years
As I acknowledged above, the walk-in pantry and breakfast room was once one lengthy room. That is what the again portion of that room appeared like after I was able to get began on the rework.
However whereas these two areas have been began on the similar time, I didn’t get the pantry finished until January 2019. Since this room was tucked behind closed doorways, it was fairly simple to place it out of my thoughts and concentrate on different issues.
So whereas the breakfast room rework took me 10 months to complete, the pantry ended up taking me 2.5 years to complete.
And at last…
Visitor Bed room — 14 months
After we purchased our home, the visitor bed room appeared like this…
And shortly after we purchased the home, I eliminated the carpet and refinished the ground. Then once 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 transform this room. I take into account the beginning of the visitor bed room rework to be November 2019.
That’s when our contractor tore out and moved the wall within the hallway, tore out the previous 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 gymnasium, eliminated the window on the precise aspect, 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 appeared 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 all the pieces down for some time. So I don’t actually know the way lengthy this room would have taken in any other case.
It’s fascinating to look again and see these timelines. For me, it’s fascinating to see that the rooms that ought to have been a breeze (front room, entryway, music room) have been the rooms that took me the longest. And the rooms that concerned far more work (kitchen and hallway toilet) have been those that took the shortest period of time.
Perhaps 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 once we think about all the pieces 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 can even inform you that wanting again at these timelines (six years for a front room!?) makes me really feel a complete lot much less insecure in regards to the year-and-a-half that our enormous grasp toilet has taken me to this point. That rest room 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 toilet timeline proper now. 🙂
Addicted 2 Adorning is the place I share my DIY and adorning journey as I rework and embellish 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 the vast majority of the work on the home on my own. You can learn more about me here.
I hope you’ll be a part of me on my DIY and adorning journey! If you wish to comply with my initiatives and progress, you possibly can subscribe beneath and have every new submit delivered to your e mail inbox. That manner you’ll by no means miss a factor!
