Hayley

“My boyfriend and I bought a condo and took two weeks off work to renovate it ourselves. We painted almost every wall, took out tile in the kitchen, put up a new backsplash, did the fireplace, installed new lighting and shelving, painted the kitchen cabinets, fixed the wainscoting—we did so much work.

It was an intensive two weeks—we were up at 6 every morning and worked until 9 or 10 every night. We read a lot. It might sound silly to say you can do this through reading, but there’s a lot out there, you just have to figure out what’s reliable.

The most valuable thing I learned was when to ask for help and have someone [more experienced] come in. The fireplace tile was old and ugly, but it turned out to be so thick and laid in so heavily, that ripping it out would have pulled up the entire floorboard. We had to have someone come in to help us tile over that, because we didn’t have the material to apply over tile.

I love design, and I got so much joy doing the interior design work. It’s been amazing to see this idea I’ve had in my head for so long actually come to life and now be my house. Everything came out better than I could have imagined!"

Life, Chicago, FacebookHollie ConroyMay 30, 2018