Written by: Sarah J. Dills/Photos by: Kathleen Finnerty
When Michelle and Nick Young moved cross-country from California to Florida, they used Michelle’s blog to keep their family and friends up-to-date on the process of their home renovation. “We both really wanted to buy a house and set roots, but felt like northern California was too expensive,” Michelle explains of their move. “My parents live in Melbourne Beach, which is our only tie to Florida. One day Nick saw a job with his company in the area. “He’d already started looking at houses before he texted me to tell me about the job.”
Things progressed quickly once Nick got Michelle on board. The couple visited Florida for a week right before Thanksgiving and looked at houses with their Realtor, Nancy Wood, of The Wood Team, Coldwell Banker, who was recommended by a high school friend of Michelle’s.
“We told her we wanted a single level home that was move-in ready,” Michelle explains. “What we found and fell in love with was a two-story home that needed a lot of work.” Michelle says she knew the moment they pulled up to the house that it was meant to be their home. “I did not want a cookie-cutter house. I wanted something that had some style with a traditional looking exterior. As soon as we pulled up and saw the outside, I said, ‘This is it.’” The couple immediately put an offer on the house and began a four-month journey into the world of home renovation.
BIY (Blog It Yourself)
But the process of home renovation was new territory for the couple. “We watched HGTV and talked about what we’d like in a house, but we didn’t have any experience,” Michelle says with a laugh. “I pictured knocking out walls, transforming the kitchen, making it modern with a lot of light.”
The couple closed on the house in 25 days, which didn’t give Michelle long to pack every box in their three-bedroom house in California. “It had a full basement and a big garage,” Michelle describes.
Once the boxes and furniture were packed in the moving van, Nick and Michelle flew to Florida on December 15th. “For a couple of weeks we stayed at a hotel and lived in our house with nothing until our stuff got here.”
On January 17th, the contractors came in and gutted the main living area of the home. “We didn’t dilly dally around,” Michelle says.
There were four different types of flooring on the main level, and there were several unnecessary walls that made the space feel choppy and divided. Michelle wanted to open the space and create unison with wood-look tile. She used her blog to get input from friends all over the country.
“A year-and-a-half ago, I left a job and was looking for another,” Michelle begins. “I wanted to keep writing, so I started the blog for that reason. I write about our travels, recipes and DIY projects.”
“When we lived in California, we enjoyed buying pieces at estate sales and redoing them. That was why I felt comfortable coming into this house knowing we could transform it.”
There are great videos and posts on Michelle’s blog about the renovation project, including a video of Nick walking in for the first time to see all of the walls torn out of his house.
Roughing it
“We basically lived upstairs in our bedroom,” Michelle says of their six-week renovation. “We bought a table I could use as a desk, and we bought a toaster for my bedside table.”
The couple ate a lot of take-out and says there were nights they would look at each other too exhausted to even decide what to eat. To put a real twist on the renovation, Nick was going through radiation treatments for cancer. “Starting right about the time of construction, he would get up every morning at 5:15 and drive to radiation, which was about an hour from our house,” Michelle explains. “The biggest obstacles were trying to keep him relaxed, stress-free and rested.”
Nick recently saw his doctor in California and learned that he’s in complete remission now with no major side effects. “We knew that once we got through this, it was going to be Easy Street.”
Making a house a home
“Our Realtor was awesome! I cannot say enough good things about Nancy,” Michelle says. “Before we even closed on our house, Nancy opened her Rolodex of contacts and we had dates set for painters to come in and our contractors to start work.”
“Nancy set all that up. Nick had to be out here for work, so he met contractors and would FaceTime with me in California.”
Once the demo and construction were completed, Michelle turned to five of her girlfriends across the country for design advice. She was looking to give the updated house a coastal vibe.
“I would take pictures of color swatches on the wall and send it to them so they would weigh in.”
Michelle trusted Don Polson Painting to create her vision of a bright and airy space, using Sherwin-Williams paints On The Rocks on the top of the walls with Pure White on the wainscoting. The beams in the living room were painted with Westchester Gray to give the space a warm, cozy feeling.
The couple worked with Jen Carreno at Rare Hues in Carrollwood to buy furniture and accessories for their new space. Michelle says she was amazing to work with and helped them tie the space together.
But the main area of transformation was in the couple’s kitchen, which was once a dark and dated space with wood cabinetry and a dark green floral stencil border. Michelle and Nick worked with Chris Robinson of Tampa Home Pro, Inc. to transform the space into an open entertaining area. The wall separating the kitchen from the living room was removed, and white shaker cabinets were installed. “The cabinets are divine,” Michelle describes. “Obsessing about an island, I scoured the Internet and found some amazing spindled legs. Chris and his crew built the island, which I painted the same color as the ceiling beams in the family room.”
Floating shelves hang on the subway tile backsplash, creating a perfect focal wall. A farmhouse sink and quartz countertops finish the space. Off the kitchen is a dining nook that leads out to the screened-in pool and patio. Michelle decorated the dining nook with vintage pieces she’s refurbished.
“I love our kitchen. My parents and Nick’s son came, and I made a huge pot of spaghetti to celebrate. We just really, really, really love our house.”
“There were some tears along the way, but it all worked out somehow,” Michelle says. “Would I do it the way I did it again? Yeah, I totally would.”
Resources: Contractor: Chris Robinson, Tampa Home Pro; Paint: Sherwin-Williams; Painting contractor: Don Polson Painting; Furniture and accessories: Macy’s; Rare Hues; Realtor: Nancy Wood, The Wood Team, Coldwell Banker