We have worked on 9 home remodels over the years. Some we have lived in; some have been investment properties. One thing that I have gotten very skilled at over the years, is making the most of a very small space. When we were first married, our apartment was 500 sq feet. There was one bedroom, one bathroom and the kitchen, dining and living room was all one room. We made the most of it and it didn’t feel very tiny. We also lived in a camper for 6 months, by that time we had a kiddo so it was more of a challenge, but it was good.
The home in these pictures below were of a house we bought and lived in during the pandemic. We purchased it when we came back from Costa Rica and had planned to rent it out when we moved to Nicaragua. If you’ve been following here, you know that we never did end up moving to Nicaragua. So we sold this tiny one, and moved into the home we are currently in. Speaking of the home we are currently remodeling; I need to do an update on our progress!
The other day during my Spanish lesson, my tutor told me I should consider online work as an interior designer. I’m not sure can take a decent space and make it magical but I sure can take a dingy space and make it clean and functional. Everyone loves a good before and after photo! Lucky for you, the befores are pretty dingy.
Before the Home Remodel
Let’s get started with some terrifying before photos. This little house was about 740 square feet and was in need of MAJOR tlc. The previous owner had smoked indoors and that ended up being a bear to clean up.
When we purchased the house, it was dirty and had not been cared for in quite a while. When we removed the carpet, there was a thick layer of dust and dirt between the carpet and subfloor.
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The house had also been smoked in for years. In the pictures above, it’s not just dirt and grime, but nicotine tar on the walls. I will never un-smell this house, that’s for sure. Even though the house was small, that nicotine got into every crevice. We started with this Original Krud Cutter but then moved to this heavier duty Krud Cutter. We mixed it with water in a garden pump like this one. Pretty sure we got ours at TSC, I think they pretty consistently run between $12-$25. And yes, we basically had to mop the ceiling. And after airing it out and letting it dry for several days. In retrospect, we would just demo all of this out instead of trying to save it. It slowed the remodel down significantly, but we were trying to save some money.
Bathroom and Laundry Room Remodel
The only bathroom in the house could only be accessed through this bedroom. It was a very weird use of space which we reconfigured. We made the entrance to the bathroom through the laundry room and closed off the wall in the bedroom. Something else we did but I don’t have any photos of, is rebuilt the floor of the bathroom and laundry room. We basically stripped this all back to the studs, rebuilt some of those studs and started over again. Worth It!
One of my favorite updates we made during this remodel was the on-demand water heater. We removed the old traditional hot-water tank and replaced it with this BLACK+DECKER 24kW 240 Volt 4.68GPM Tankless Electric Water Heater. We did have issues with the first one we got, but the replacement worked fine and the Black and Decker Customer Service was very easy to work with! I fell in love with on-demand/tankless hot water while living in Central America. Its lovely not running out of hot water and this saved us money and space.
Kitchen and Dining Remodel
We tried to keep the kitchen cabinets. However, they had been custom built and there was quite a bit of unfinished wood which was highly problematic with the aforementioned smoke and nicotine residue. We ended up custom building something that my brain came up with partly inspired by our time in Central America where there was often open shelving and also a photo on Joanna Gaine’s Instagram that was a photo from her potting shed, I believe. I will try to find it.
The white cabinet was a wonderful find. It fit perfectly. I think it was technically marketed as a bookshelf from Ikea, but it was the perfect fit so we drilled a hole in the back for the cords of the coffee maker. Overall, after remodeling, I loved this tiny little kitchen. It was one of the smallest we have lived in. A word to the wise, if you go with all open shelving, you are absolutely committing to minimalism and tidiness. I accepted the challenge, and we did it. Those baskets you can see under the second shelf were a life saver. They went along with the rustic, vibrant feel I was going for. I was not afraid to go bold with the paint color in here because it was so small. I was like worst case scenario; I can change it in a day.
Living and Dining Room Remodel
These two rooms were the greatest challenge. Not necessarily the most work, but the most challenging. The walls were crooked and wavy. They also had the most smoke residue. In hindsight, we would just rip all that out. By the time we spent time and money cleaning the ceilings and walls, using Kilz paint, then that not really working and ripping out most of the walls anyway, we should have just ripped it all out to start. It would have saved us time for sure and certain, and possibly money. The main thing I was concerned with, is that we would get done with the remodel and still have a smoky smell. Thankfully, that was not the case. The house smelled fine, but I will be honest, we have since turned down houses that had been smoked in because we now know how much time and money it took to get this
This little electric fireplace was one of our favorites. It made it so homey and was a great central heating element. We ended up installing a ship lap paneling in the dining room. It was cost effective and relatively easy to work with. However, it smelled very much like chemicals when cutting it, to the extent we wore respirators. I assume it was the glue that adhered the particle board together. Had I known that, we might have just opted for wood but alas we learned the lesson in a relatively small space.
Bedrooms
Somehow, I don’t have a photo of the completed room but check out the mountain mural my mom painted for our son to remind him of the mountains outside our home in Costa Rica. In order to make the most of this small space, we put a lofted bunk bed in our son’s room. It was super helpful, especially since at the time he could easily stand and play beneath it.
Making the Most of a Small Space
When you are living in a small space, the best advice I can give you is to get rid of a bunch of stuff, or at the very least, put it in storage. We knew this home would be temporary for us, and we had already downsized incredibly when we moved to Costa Rica. So we didn’t really have that much to get rid of, however the challenge then becomes not buying anything you that doesn’t really serve a purpose. Additionally, the cold truth is you have to be pretty committed to being tidy to live in a very small home. The whole, everything in its place thing is a necessity.
Ok so just for fun I am going to add some non-staged photos of the house to give you an idea of what it really looked like day-to-day. Staged photos are nice but every time I see those tiny home photos Im like, “Right, but what does it REALLY look like?!”
We had to rearrange furniture for Christmas, and we were still pretty up close and personal with the tree. The right side of the closet in our bedroom was the catch-all. And that picture of the laundry room and kitchen is before they were done and before I figured out a storage system that worked. The chaos that is that photo was not working for me. Which I suppose leads me to another point, storage is your friend in a small space.
A small note on paint color, the color in the living room, kitchen, and laundry room is a favorite of mine called “Whitened Sage” by Behr. I think I’ve used it in almost every project we’ve worked on. I think it works well in most spaces but especially in a small space because its got a wee bit of personality but not too overwhelming for small homes.
Any comments or questions, drop them below!
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