Here’s How Long My Past Remodels Have Taken…

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 serious 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 nearly 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 quite a bit much less concerned (dwelling rooms, bedrooms, and many others.), 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 Transform — 7 months

Our kitchen was nearly a whole DIY transform. After we moved into our home in October 2013, the kitchen regarded 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 suitable is the music room.

It was about March 2014 once I began tearing issues up — eradicating cupboards, eradicating the previous flooring, rearranging issues to see how I wished the kitchen transform organized, and many others. So in March 2014, the kitchen had gone from unhealthy to worse, and regarded like this…

So March 2014 is what I think about the start of this kitchen transform. 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 photos above. That is the wall the place the “wall of cupboards” is at the moment, with the music room on the left, and the breakfast room and pantry on the suitable.

Excluding hiring a professional to maneuver the plumbing and fuel strains, this was a DIY challenge from starting to finish. (I wasn’t the one DIYer concerned. I did have some household assist with among the large initiatives, 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 fairly a bit completely different at the moment 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 had been simply minor modifications alongside the way in which. The precise kitchen transform took seven months.

Hallway Lavatory — 6 months

After we moved into our home, that is what the hallway lavatory regarded like…

We lived with that rest room for a bit of 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 right down to the ground joists, which signifies that the grime 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 challenge. (I don’t do plumbing or the rest that requires me to crawl underneath 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 underneath the home a NO. It’s simply…NO. By no means. I’ll by no means go underneath underneath 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 acquired a bit of 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 wished 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.

Dwelling Room — 6 Years

Figuring out how lengthy the lounge transform took is a bit of bit more difficult 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 realizing that these had been “lipstick on a pig” sorts 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 non permanent. The polystyrene ceiling tiles had 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 transform for this room to be after 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 transform. That’s once I was nonetheless engaged on the lavatory transform, however I wished to reap the benefits of his go to and have him assist me with this large challenge that I used to be too afraid to do on my own.

After which it was October of 2015 after 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? 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 manner, and I had a lounge that was really completed in a manner 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 manner that I actually beloved 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 accomplished my finest to attempt to separate that large 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 manner that they coordinate with one another).

This room regarded like this after we purchased the home, with the “entryway” being the realm with the door and the wall to the suitable of the door.

Similar to the lounge, I did some “lipstick on a pig” makeover makes an attempt at first that I knew had been going to be non permanent. 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 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 search out simply what I preferred. After I completed this space in October 2018, that is what it regarded like…

It has gone by some minor modifications between then and now. The credenza acquired a little bit of a makeover. Among the fowl prints had 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 meant 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 full of a eating desk and chairs wouldn’t be sensible. I wanted this room to be open by the center in order that he can get by this space simply.

I used this room to experiment with a number of concepts, like numerous wall remedies. However identical to the lounge and entryway, I think about the start of this transform 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 bit of 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 numerous 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 making an attempt 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 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 had been began round July 2016. That’s once 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 regarded like this at that time.

So by that point, I had already eliminated the inexperienced carpet, among the skinny plywood that lined all the partitions, and among the plywood that lined the ceiling.

That ground was lined in asbestos tiles, so somewhat 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 convey the ground as much as the purpose it wanted to be in order that it might be degree with the kitchen ground as soon as the hardwood ground 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 fairly a bit completely different now since we’re utilizing it as a brief sitting room (after Matt’s occupational therapist informed him he wanted to spend extra day out 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 and in perform.

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 regarded like once I was able to get began on the transform.

However whereas these two areas had been began on the similar 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 give attention to 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 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 health club, eliminated the window on the suitable aspect, and had the stonemasons shut up the opening on the outside, and many others.

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 all the things down for some time. So I don’t actually understand how 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) had been the rooms that took me the longest. And the rooms that concerned far more work (kitchen and hallway lavatory) had 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 must go at our personal tempo. One other DIYer’s tempo actually isn’t related to our personal lives after we think about all the things else that all of us must 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 also can let you know that wanting again at these timelines (six years for a lounge!?) makes me really feel an entire lot much less insecure in regards to the year-and-a-half that our enormous grasp lavatory 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 lavatory timeline proper now. 🙂