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Have you ever watched an HGTV show and thought to yourself, “I wish I could do that to my house.” Let me tell you firsthand … you can.
My husband, Mikel, and I became Signal Mountain residents at the end of 2021, when we bought a ’70s house on a cute corner lot. We fell in love with the space and all its charm - pocket doors, a brick entryway, interior French doors and more. Being able to see past the old wallpaper and outdated fixtures though, we saw the potential of what it could become. And we hit the ground running on renovations immediately. The ink wasn’t even dry on the contracts when we headed up the mountain to start on something … anything. We were just so happy to start.
But even before our offer was accepted, we knew if we got the house, we wanted to do the renovations ourselves. The bones of the house were solid, and we loved the layout, but all the cosmetics were wrong. Like center-placed-cabinet-hardware and pink-floral-wallpaper wrong.
We wanted the satisfaction of knowing we did it.
I will admit though, looking back on this journey, we under estimated the timeline of how long it would take. Grossly underestimated. I’m pretty sure our new neighbors were very weary of us; the only sighting of this random new couple moving in was after 9 p.m. We did all the renovations at night, after our full-time jobs. It made for very long days. But we kept moving along. What we thought would be three months - ended up being seven.
About two months in, I started chronicling our renovations journey on Instagram. Learning how to use the Stories feature, I started posting almost everyday. Between taking polls on choosing paint colors, to showing us sanding or removing wallpaper, everyone wanted to see. I was surprised at how many of my friends couldn't wait to see what the day’s renovations entailed.
I am most certainly not an “influencer,” but people were enthralled with our DIY renovations. I got countless “You could have your own HGTV show” comments. A friend I hadn't seen in years came up to me in a store and told me how great everything was looking. I told Mikel, “See, people do like my videos!”
Our first major project of the house was actually getting all the asbestos-filled popcorn ceilings removed. We left that to the professionals before our work truly began: painting. It’s truly amazing how just paint can transform the look and feel of a space. From top to bottom, crown molding to baseboards, we painted the entire house. It turned into a brand new house … well, sort of.
Some people may be afraid or don’t think they are good at painting, but rest assured, you can do it. Making sure floors are covered and using painters tape, it’s hard to mess up. And, if you get some of the wall color on the ceiling (like I did a lot), just touch up those spots with ceiling paint. It’s not the end of the world.
The kitchen area is probably our most changed space in the entire house. Imagine this: cherry stained cabinets with big outdated center pulls; a captain’s rail all along the top of the cabinets; a beige and brown countertop and backsplash; and faux brick behind the stove. There was not much to be desired. But I quickly got to work sanding and painting all 6,000 cabinets, while Mikel and his dad worked on the soffit. They created a board and batten look, something to mimic what we wanted in our adjacent dining room.
Trial and error taught us what worked and what didn’t. With renovating an older home, there are quirks you would not believe. Not everything is level. Not everything is where it should be.
Once we got our new countertops and sink installed, Mikel and I watched countless YouTube videos about tiling. Feeling confident, we started re-tiling the backsplash. Using white grout to hide any imperfections was the easiest design choice we made.
Are we pros? No.
Is it perfect? No.
But we did it.
After what felt like months, or maybe just a couple of weeks, we moved on to the dining room. Originally the dining room had a piece of trim as the chair railing and wallpaper on top. Once again, not much to be desired. But I wanted a dramatic wall treatment. We mapped out our design in the driveway, measuring and re-measuring everything.
Now, let’s remember this is an older home. So if you thought it was a “one-and-done” job, you would be mistaken. We had to re-adjust and change pieces so many times. In theory, every vertical piece of wood should be the same height. Nope. It was a process, to say the least. But once we finally got our 4-foot high board and batten pieces leveled and nailed to the walls, we caulked, sanded and painted them.
Are we pros? No.
Is it perfect? Definitely not.
But we did it.
Once we moved into the house after seven months, we tackled some other projects, big and small. With extra leftover wood, we added a feature wall to our bedroom. Every window pull and cabinet hinge got a new coat of paint. All the bedrooms had curtains and rods installed, and countless other details.
I will say the biggest pain in our side was our staircase. And, of course, we left it until the end. Who knows why.
We removed the carpet and runner, only to reveal poor quality wood and lots and lots of staple holes. At some point we will completely gut the stairs and get new ones we can stain, as well as add new spindles and posts, the whole nine yards. Bur for right now, to match the rest of our DIY house, we decided to fix them ourselves. We sanded, sealed, caulked, filled and sanded more. Primer and paint were next, and with the help of YouTube again, we learned how to nail down the stair runner correctly.
Are we pros? No.
Is it perfect? Absolutely not.
But we did it.
The idea of fixing up an entire house is quite daunting indeed. But knowing you are the one who re-tiled the kitchen backsplash or re-finished the staircase is a pretty great feeling, I will admit.
I’m not afraid to use a big electric saw because I’ve already used one when I added tongue-and-groove beadboard to our laundry space. I’m comfortable with a nail gun because I’ve already used one to put a runner down. If you just try it, you’ll learn it’s not that hard, really. Getting over being afraid and nervous is the biggest hurdle.
Every once in a while I get close to something, see its imperfections and wish I could fix it. But when I watch some HGTV show, I realize that they don’t zoom in on the trim of that room, or on the grout lines of those tiles. So, of course, everything looks perfect. So, then I step back and look at our house and know, we did it.
by Kendall Southerland
My husband, Mikel, and I became Signal Mountain residents at the end of 2021, when we bought a ’70s house on a cute corner lot. We fell in love with the space and all its charm - pocket doors, a brick entryway, interior French doors and more. Being able to see past the old wallpaper and outdated fixtures though, we saw the potential of what it could become. And we hit the ground running on renovations immediately. The ink wasn’t even dry on the contracts when we headed up the mountain to start on something … anything. We were just so happy to start.
But even before our offer was accepted, we knew if we got the house, we wanted to do the renovations ourselves. The bones of the house were solid, and we loved the layout, but all the cosmetics were wrong. Like center-placed-cabinet-hardware and pink-floral-wallpaper wrong.
We wanted the satisfaction of knowing we did it.
I will admit though, looking back on this journey, we under estimated the timeline of how long it would take. Grossly underestimated. I’m pretty sure our new neighbors were very weary of us; the only sighting of this random new couple moving in was after 9 p.m. We did all the renovations at night, after our full-time jobs. It made for very long days. But we kept moving along. What we thought would be three months - ended up being seven.
About two months in, I started chronicling our renovations journey on Instagram. Learning how to use the Stories feature, I started posting almost everyday. Between taking polls on choosing paint colors, to showing us sanding or removing wallpaper, everyone wanted to see. I was surprised at how many of my friends couldn't wait to see what the day’s renovations entailed.
I am most certainly not an “influencer,” but people were enthralled with our DIY renovations. I got countless “You could have your own HGTV show” comments. A friend I hadn't seen in years came up to me in a store and told me how great everything was looking. I told Mikel, “See, people do like my videos!”
Our first major project of the house was actually getting all the asbestos-filled popcorn ceilings removed. We left that to the professionals before our work truly began: painting. It’s truly amazing how just paint can transform the look and feel of a space. From top to bottom, crown molding to baseboards, we painted the entire house. It turned into a brand new house … well, sort of.
Some people may be afraid or don’t think they are good at painting, but rest assured, you can do it. Making sure floors are covered and using painters tape, it’s hard to mess up. And, if you get some of the wall color on the ceiling (like I did a lot), just touch up those spots with ceiling paint. It’s not the end of the world.
The kitchen area is probably our most changed space in the entire house. Imagine this: cherry stained cabinets with big outdated center pulls; a captain’s rail all along the top of the cabinets; a beige and brown countertop and backsplash; and faux brick behind the stove. There was not much to be desired. But I quickly got to work sanding and painting all 6,000 cabinets, while Mikel and his dad worked on the soffit. They created a board and batten look, something to mimic what we wanted in our adjacent dining room.
Trial and error taught us what worked and what didn’t. With renovating an older home, there are quirks you would not believe. Not everything is level. Not everything is where it should be.
Once we got our new countertops and sink installed, Mikel and I watched countless YouTube videos about tiling. Feeling confident, we started re-tiling the backsplash. Using white grout to hide any imperfections was the easiest design choice we made.
Are we pros? No.
Is it perfect? No.
But we did it.
After what felt like months, or maybe just a couple of weeks, we moved on to the dining room. Originally the dining room had a piece of trim as the chair railing and wallpaper on top. Once again, not much to be desired. But I wanted a dramatic wall treatment. We mapped out our design in the driveway, measuring and re-measuring everything.
Now, let’s remember this is an older home. So if you thought it was a “one-and-done” job, you would be mistaken. We had to re-adjust and change pieces so many times. In theory, every vertical piece of wood should be the same height. Nope. It was a process, to say the least. But once we finally got our 4-foot high board and batten pieces leveled and nailed to the walls, we caulked, sanded and painted them.
Are we pros? No.
Is it perfect? Definitely not.
But we did it.
Once we moved into the house after seven months, we tackled some other projects, big and small. With extra leftover wood, we added a feature wall to our bedroom. Every window pull and cabinet hinge got a new coat of paint. All the bedrooms had curtains and rods installed, and countless other details.
I will say the biggest pain in our side was our staircase. And, of course, we left it until the end. Who knows why.
We removed the carpet and runner, only to reveal poor quality wood and lots and lots of staple holes. At some point we will completely gut the stairs and get new ones we can stain, as well as add new spindles and posts, the whole nine yards. Bur for right now, to match the rest of our DIY house, we decided to fix them ourselves. We sanded, sealed, caulked, filled and sanded more. Primer and paint were next, and with the help of YouTube again, we learned how to nail down the stair runner correctly.
Are we pros? No.
Is it perfect? Absolutely not.
But we did it.
The idea of fixing up an entire house is quite daunting indeed. But knowing you are the one who re-tiled the kitchen backsplash or re-finished the staircase is a pretty great feeling, I will admit.
I’m not afraid to use a big electric saw because I’ve already used one when I added tongue-and-groove beadboard to our laundry space. I’m comfortable with a nail gun because I’ve already used one to put a runner down. If you just try it, you’ll learn it’s not that hard, really. Getting over being afraid and nervous is the biggest hurdle.
Every once in a while I get close to something, see its imperfections and wish I could fix it. But when I watch some HGTV show, I realize that they don’t zoom in on the trim of that room, or on the grout lines of those tiles. So, of course, everything looks perfect. So, then I step back and look at our house and know, we did it.
by Kendall Southerland
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