April 6, 2025 • 14 mins
Everyone dreams of a home makeover, but budgets often get in the way. Enter Kristen Coutts, who specializes in life-changing renovations for those told they can't afford them. Armed with clever, cost-saving hacks, she transforms outdated spaces into fresh, functional homes-proving no budget is too small for a stunning upgrade.
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Watch the promo:
Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_fhqdid688
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-like-it-s-live--4113802/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning. How are you doing today, Kristin, I'm wonderful,
How are you doing? Fantastic? And I'm so excited to
share a conversation with you because I think we're headed
into times right now where we're going to learn a
lot from Beer Budget Reno and we're going to incorporate
it into our own personal lives.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
So what I love about this show is that it
is there are tangible tips and tricks that you can
take away to do renos affordably in your own home.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
So, you know, one of the things that I.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Do in order to bring down the cost of renovations
is get my clients and homeowners involved, So I teach
them how to use power tools, they get to work
on their own project. So not only do they bring
down the cost of their project, but they, you know,
get to feel empowered and excited that they were able
to put their own mark on their own home.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
What do you do with people like myself who I
fear this because I've got to replace a lot of things,
a lot of wood on my deck here, and I
don't want to go out there because those people that
are rebuilding decks right now are asking for a boatload
of money, so I have to do it by myself,
but I've got the fear I'm not the only one.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yes, And that's that's kind of actually how this business started.
I don't have a background in construction. I had never
picked up a power tool before. But you know, after
I moved into my home that needed a total gut job,
I was getting quotes that, to your point for a
deck were tens and twenties of thousands of dollars. I
don't have that kind of money, so you know, I
decided to self teach and do it myself, and it
(01:23):
turned into this renovation business and now the show. And
you know, I would just say, it's like it's ripping
off the band aid of that first piece of fear.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
And it's something that we do on the show is
I wanted to.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Bring that element of, you know, empowering people to use
tools and taking away that fear and instilling confidence. I
wanted to bring that element into the show because I
wanted to show people that the tools can be intimidating,
and they can be scary, they can be loud, but
once you learn how to do them safely, you know
your area are gonna have your own deck in no time.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, my neighbors are always looking at me. They're going,
you have a skill saw now, dude, I think you
need to press practice. And I'm gonna listen to Fred
because he gave me a bunch of wood to practice
with so I can get that skill down before I
go in to do the real job exactly.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
And that's all it is. It's practice. And what I
love about power tools is the skill is so transferable.
Once you do your deck, you can also frame your house.
You can also build shed, you can also build a
beautiful acces wall in your home. You learn that skill once,
you learn that sol once and then there is no
limit to what you can do in your home.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
What are you learning from the average American who is
basically begging you for some success inside their home. I mean,
we've got to be teaching you something too.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I think for me it's been so rewarding because I
think people put off renovations because they think they're so
expensive or they think they're unattainable. And the number of
people who I see, you know, go on social media
and they're saving videos and they're pinning things to interest
and say I'll do them one day. And you know,
my thing is is I'm like, I want to show
do it today because you can. And you know, things
(02:56):
that I'm learning from people is that you know, they're
excited to renovate their home, they're excited to learn, they're
excited to kind of move into this next chapter of
their lives.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
And it's been really fun for me there.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
You know, is one person on the show, Katie, who
is a new mom and you know, my second daughter,
my second child. We had our kids about a week apart,
and I could see sort of the phase that she
was in of having a new kid and understanding the
layout of her home with now losing her office and
losing her gym and losing all of these things because
to make room for the baby. And you know, it's
(03:30):
really fun to kind of like walk clients through that
sort of new phase of their life because the renel
sometimes isn't about the renal, right, it's about the why
behind the rental, why they need it, why they need
to do at what it symbolizes, And it's really cool
to see the transformation in people, not just the home.
And that's been really rewarding for me and like a
(03:51):
great learning experience for me as well. To, you know,
just hit that fact home that this is this is
about people's lives and it's more than a room.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
I love the way that you are dedicated to your community.
How did you get that inside your heart?
Speaker 3 (04:05):
So, I mean, I had a couple of runo experiences
in the past that weren't super fun. So I had
a number of people in my home and I knew
nothing about renovations. I didn't know if they were cutting corners.
I didn't know if they were kind of like pulling
the wool over my eyes, charging me too much. I
didn't necessarily feel safe with all the folks that were
coming through my home. And it was like, I don't
(04:27):
want people to experience this. I don't want women to
experience this. So, you know, being a woman in a
very male dominated industry, it was like my personal mission
to make sure that this experience felt safe and comfortable
and fun for people, and making sure that they felt
like they were getting their money's worth and they weren't
getting taken advantage of.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
And it's just something that's a value that is instilled
in me to my core.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
You know, you you bring up something very important there,
make it fun because that's one of the things that
I love about living inside this forest is that when
it's time to prune the trees, Yes, you know, it
does hit me in the soul because I'm hurting another
living thing. But the thing is, my wife and I
work together. We make fun, is what we do.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah. Not everything has to be so serious.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
We don't have to, you know, just say like I
got to get this done, and I'm going to be
doing flooring for the next four hours and this is born.
Put on some music, have a little dance party, like
you know, have have a great time with it. And
that's another thing I love about design is I find
that a lot of design these days can be a
little bit stuffy, and it's like, paint everything white and
(05:33):
have everything be white oak, and have it be this
show home. I'm not a big believer in living in
a show home. I'm about living in a home that.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Works for you and brings you joy.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
One of the things you're going to see in the
in the show is I actually make over my son's room.
So it hasn't been really touched since he you know,
I made his original nursery and now he's growing up
and he's moving on to elementary school. And he's growing up,
so the needs his needs of a vault and I
wanted to change it, and I asked him what he wanted,
and he's like, I want a rainbow in my room,
clue and pink and purple and yellow. And I was like, yeah, buddy,
(06:06):
let's do it, Like, let's have fun. Let's make this
a room that brings you joy, and let's let's have
this a room that you love being in. And one day,
when you're over it cool, we'll paint it over again.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
I don't know how you're gonna be able to do that.
My daughter's room is still exactly the way that she
had it as a teenager. And my grandkids come in
and just look at the walls and everything that was
put up there, and because they're capturing a moment that
when their mother was was their age.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah, and it's like it's the coolest thing.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
And it really lends itself to people's personalities and a
time of their life that they're in. And it's like,
who cares about resale? When you're ready for resale, have
somebody come through your entire house, talk to the bottom
white and like call it a day.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
You know. But like while you're there, love your home,
have fun.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
This is every bit the reason why I love a
show like this. We've got more Christian Coots coming up next. Hey,
thanks for coming back to my conversation with Christian Kots.
But is it okay to live in what I call
a side at home? In other words, I did not
cut the boards exactly perfect. Okay, the floor is a
little bit weird here. When I put up the backsplashing
on the brand new oven, it doesn't look perfect. Let's
(07:09):
put something up and hide it.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
I mean like, it just depends how intense your OCD
is now like it to be. If after like a
glass of wine, you're like, whoa, this is even more
crooked and it's gonna bug you at night, you know,
then it's something i'd say like try again, right, use
your practice. Would that you've got outside try it again?
But no, like houses don't have to be perfect. The
(07:33):
thing is, even if you yourself love perfection, the house
that you move into or the house that you're in,
is not going to be perfect. Your walls aren't going
to be level, things aren't going to be plumb, and
you just kind of have to work around them. You're
gonna have that one weird bump out in the room
that is gonna destroy your design, but you work with it.
Because one of the things is when we're doing renos
on a budget, a lot of the times we have
to work with it. I'm not going to have the money,
(07:55):
the tens of thousands of dollars to take down that
one little wall.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Because we need to do this on a shoe string.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
So it's about taking those laws in your home, really
embracing them, and turning them into features.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I'll tell you what I'm really thinking is going to
happen as we grow into this future with the threat
of the recession and things like that. My father he
took his family, We tore people's houses down and use
that wood to build his home. And when you go
back to Billings, Montana right now, that damn house is
still strong as hell.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
That's why I say you don't get sweat equity without
putting in sweat. Once you do that, oh my gosh,
your your house is, you know, protected from the big
bad wolf.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Nothing's blowing that down.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
But Christian, my god, my arm's still hurt from pulling
all those nails.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Oh yeah, that work.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Don't get the budget savings without having to do some
of the gruntwork.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
You know, do you find yourself driving around neighborhoods looking
at what people are throwing away, saying I could use that.
That's going home with me right now.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Oh, I am a certified dumpster diver.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
You're going to throw out a perfect good cabinet on
the side of your street.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I'm gonna take it. I'm gonna take it, and it's
either going in my home or I'm gonna make it
over and I'm gonna go and give.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
It to somebody. I'm gonna go give it to a school.
I'm gonna go give it to somebody who needs it.
Because why are we throwing out things that are perfectly fine?
It's again something we do on the show. We're not
throwing out things that aren't broken. I'm gonna take your
old bookshelf that you've had sitting there from the nineties,
and I'm gonna put trim on it and wallpaper and
do all kinds of things to it, and it's gonna
look brand new and perfect for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
See. I love that attitude because that, to me is
the opportunity to slow down time and allowed time to
give you something that nobody else has.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
And you don't have to spend the budget on it either.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Yeah, because if you're gonna go buy like, think about
how beautiful some of the worksmanship in the wood was
from you know, the nineties.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
You're getting these gorgeous wood cabinets.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Now, you know you're not gonna be able to find
that kind of thing and you're gonna pay, you know,
hundreds of dollars for something that's you know, composite wood
and plastic and whatever it is. It's like, take those
old things that you have, you can make them all
for next to nothing.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
All you need is a can of paint.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
So when you when you put your focus on a
champagne taste on a beer budget, do you go into
a place called restore and then and go in there
and buy the old crafty stuff and then bring it home.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Yeah? Sometimes, for sure.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
There's one person on the show they didn't have They
needed a bedroom, they needed a full bedroom, and I
had probably about five hundred bucks to do their entire room.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Wow, And I was like, I gotta go.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
I gotta go on like an internet marketplace and I
got to go find something.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
And I found a bed frame for one hundred dollars
and made it over and I said, this is this
is your new room. I have. You know a woman
on the show who was having her first child.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
I had thirty five hundred dollars to do three full rooms,
and I was like, I can't get brand new furniture here.
So I went and got a crib from my friend
for free, and that's painted it and that's what the
baby's sleeping in now. It's just, you know, we're gonna
get crafty about what we do so that we can
save money. It's not going to be in bad taste.
Nothing's dirty, nothing it's gross, something's grimy. It's just let's
(10:59):
reuse instead of throwing them into landfills.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
You know, it's really interesting and people think I'm kind
of weird when I say this. We live in this
generation where everything looks like the Brady Bunch home. But
on the inside of the home we've got I want
to replace walls and put them someplace else. But it's
not that easy.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
No.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
When things are structural, those are places where I say,
don't cut costs right.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Structural electrical plumbing, those.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Are things where you want to spend the money because
do you want to make sure that your home is
structurally sound. You want to make sure that you're safe.
Do you want to make sure no fires are going
to happen? Those are the places you want to spend money.
But then where you can get creative is on how
you decorate it, how you really make it feel home.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
What is the one thing that we're doing wrong? Is
it going I can't do this, just just spend the money.
I don't care, just spend the money. Is that is
that the biggest problem? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (11:47):
I would say it's one of two things. It's either yup,
put up my hands and say I don't want to
do it. Someone else take care of it. So, yeah,
go ahead and spend one hundred thousand dollars on something
that you can get done for thirty that's problem number one.
Problem number two is going, yeah, this is going to
cost me one hundred thousand dollars, so I'm never going
to do it. And then they just don't, and then
they live in a home that they're unhappy with, not
realizing how affordable can truly be if they did some
(12:08):
of it themselves and that they found creative solutions.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I always look at people who don't light up their
house at night. I wonder if they're not in love
with their home.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Maybe maybe maybe they don't have the right lighting in there,
Maybe they don't want their home, maybe they don't want
lukie loose coming from outside.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Yeah, any number, any number of things.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
But yeah, Like I mean, I would just say, if
you're not proud of your home, you can there are
things that you can do that don't cost an arm.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
And a life.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I'm just so blown away that you started this out
as just a social media project. I mean, where did
you find the confidence, in the courage to be able
to put yourself out there that far.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
I you know, a lot of people tell me that
I am confident, and I actually just tell them.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
That I have like next level delusion.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
I decided, if you scroll way back to the first
post on my social media I go, welcome to my
new interior Design and Innovations company. I did not even
own a single tool at that time. I had not
even a painting at that time, Like, I had no
idea how to do any of it. I just was like,
I'm moving into this home. I've wanted to do this
for a long time. I was that person sitting home
(13:13):
at home and saving things to Instagram and to Pinterest
into whatever, and I'd never done anything, and I was like,
this is now time to put up or zip it,
you know.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I was like, I'm moving into this house.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
I'm going to use my own house as my practice home,
as my case study on how I'm going to figure
this all out. I'm going to show the mistakes. I
want to be real, I want to be authentic. I
want people to learn and figure out how to do
this to their own homes as well.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
So I just I went with it. I documented it.
I did make mistakes.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
They're now fewer and further between because I have gained
the confidence that I have learned the skill.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
But at the beginning, yeah, I was.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
I was learning right alongside people who are watching. So
I just I gained confidence as I finished the project
and started the next one. So it's like it was
like what we were talking about with your software, your deck.
It's like you learned how to do it once you
gain that confidence, and then you're like, yeah, now I
actually think I can go build this shed. Now I
think I can actually go do this. So it's like
the confidence came with doing the projects.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Wow, you got to come back to this show, anytime
in the future. The door is always going to be
open for you.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Thank you so much for having me. It's been such
a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Will you be brilliant today?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Okay, thank you so much, and I hope you tune
into the show.
Good morning. How are you doing today, Kristin, I'm wonderful,
How are you doing? Fantastic? And I'm so excited to
share a conversation with you because I think we're headed
into times right now where we're going to learn a
lot from Beer Budget Reno and we're going to incorporate
it into our own personal lives.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
So what I love about this show is that it
is there are tangible tips and tricks that you can
take away to do renos affordably in your own home.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
So, you know, one of the things that I.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Do in order to bring down the cost of renovations
is get my clients and homeowners involved, So I teach
them how to use power tools, they get to work
on their own project. So not only do they bring
down the cost of their project, but they, you know,
get to feel empowered and excited that they were able
to put their own mark on their own home.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
What do you do with people like myself who I
fear this because I've got to replace a lot of things,
a lot of wood on my deck here, and I
don't want to go out there because those people that
are rebuilding decks right now are asking for a boatload
of money, so I have to do it by myself,
but I've got the fear I'm not the only one.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yes, And that's that's kind of actually how this business started.
I don't have a background in construction. I had never
picked up a power tool before. But you know, after
I moved into my home that needed a total gut job,
I was getting quotes that, to your point for a
deck were tens and twenties of thousands of dollars. I
don't have that kind of money, so you know, I
decided to self teach and do it myself, and it
(01:23):
turned into this renovation business and now the show. And
you know, I would just say, it's like it's ripping
off the band aid of that first piece of fear.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
And it's something that we do on the show is
I wanted to.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Bring that element of, you know, empowering people to use
tools and taking away that fear and instilling confidence. I
wanted to bring that element into the show because I
wanted to show people that the tools can be intimidating,
and they can be scary, they can be loud, but
once you learn how to do them safely, you know
your area are gonna have your own deck in no time.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, my neighbors are always looking at me. They're going,
you have a skill saw now, dude, I think you
need to press practice. And I'm gonna listen to Fred
because he gave me a bunch of wood to practice
with so I can get that skill down before I
go in to do the real job exactly.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
And that's all it is. It's practice. And what I
love about power tools is the skill is so transferable.
Once you do your deck, you can also frame your house.
You can also build shed, you can also build a
beautiful acces wall in your home. You learn that skill once,
you learn that sol once and then there is no
limit to what you can do in your home.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
What are you learning from the average American who is
basically begging you for some success inside their home. I mean,
we've got to be teaching you something too.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I think for me it's been so rewarding because I
think people put off renovations because they think they're so
expensive or they think they're unattainable. And the number of
people who I see, you know, go on social media
and they're saving videos and they're pinning things to interest
and say I'll do them one day. And you know,
my thing is is I'm like, I want to show
do it today because you can. And you know, things
(02:56):
that I'm learning from people is that you know, they're
excited to renovate their home, they're excited to learn, they're
excited to kind of move into this next chapter of
their lives.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
And it's been really fun for me there.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
You know, is one person on the show, Katie, who
is a new mom and you know, my second daughter,
my second child. We had our kids about a week apart,
and I could see sort of the phase that she
was in of having a new kid and understanding the
layout of her home with now losing her office and
losing her gym and losing all of these things because
to make room for the baby. And you know, it's
(03:30):
really fun to kind of like walk clients through that
sort of new phase of their life because the renel
sometimes isn't about the renal, right, it's about the why
behind the rental, why they need it, why they need
to do at what it symbolizes, And it's really cool
to see the transformation in people, not just the home.
And that's been really rewarding for me and like a
(03:51):
great learning experience for me as well. To, you know,
just hit that fact home that this is this is
about people's lives and it's more than a room.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
I love the way that you are dedicated to your community.
How did you get that inside your heart?
Speaker 3 (04:05):
So, I mean, I had a couple of runo experiences
in the past that weren't super fun. So I had
a number of people in my home and I knew
nothing about renovations. I didn't know if they were cutting corners.
I didn't know if they were kind of like pulling
the wool over my eyes, charging me too much. I
didn't necessarily feel safe with all the folks that were
coming through my home. And it was like, I don't
(04:27):
want people to experience this. I don't want women to
experience this. So, you know, being a woman in a
very male dominated industry, it was like my personal mission
to make sure that this experience felt safe and comfortable
and fun for people, and making sure that they felt
like they were getting their money's worth and they weren't
getting taken advantage of.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
And it's just something that's a value that is instilled
in me to my core.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
You know, you you bring up something very important there,
make it fun because that's one of the things that
I love about living inside this forest is that when
it's time to prune the trees, Yes, you know, it
does hit me in the soul because I'm hurting another
living thing. But the thing is, my wife and I
work together. We make fun, is what we do.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah. Not everything has to be so serious.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
We don't have to, you know, just say like I
got to get this done, and I'm going to be
doing flooring for the next four hours and this is born.
Put on some music, have a little dance party, like
you know, have have a great time with it. And
that's another thing I love about design is I find
that a lot of design these days can be a
little bit stuffy, and it's like, paint everything white and
(05:33):
have everything be white oak, and have it be this
show home. I'm not a big believer in living in
a show home. I'm about living in a home that.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Works for you and brings you joy.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
One of the things you're going to see in the
in the show is I actually make over my son's room.
So it hasn't been really touched since he you know,
I made his original nursery and now he's growing up
and he's moving on to elementary school. And he's growing up,
so the needs his needs of a vault and I
wanted to change it, and I asked him what he wanted,
and he's like, I want a rainbow in my room,
clue and pink and purple and yellow. And I was like, yeah, buddy,
(06:06):
let's do it, Like, let's have fun. Let's make this
a room that brings you joy, and let's let's have
this a room that you love being in. And one day,
when you're over it cool, we'll paint it over again.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
I don't know how you're gonna be able to do that.
My daughter's room is still exactly the way that she
had it as a teenager. And my grandkids come in
and just look at the walls and everything that was
put up there, and because they're capturing a moment that
when their mother was was their age.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah, and it's like it's the coolest thing.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
And it really lends itself to people's personalities and a
time of their life that they're in. And it's like,
who cares about resale? When you're ready for resale, have
somebody come through your entire house, talk to the bottom
white and like call it a day.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
You know. But like while you're there, love your home,
have fun.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
This is every bit the reason why I love a
show like this. We've got more Christian Coots coming up next. Hey,
thanks for coming back to my conversation with Christian Kots.
But is it okay to live in what I call
a side at home? In other words, I did not
cut the boards exactly perfect. Okay, the floor is a
little bit weird here. When I put up the backsplashing
on the brand new oven, it doesn't look perfect. Let's
(07:09):
put something up and hide it.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
I mean like, it just depends how intense your OCD
is now like it to be. If after like a
glass of wine, you're like, whoa, this is even more
crooked and it's gonna bug you at night, you know,
then it's something i'd say like try again, right, use
your practice. Would that you've got outside try it again?
But no, like houses don't have to be perfect. The
(07:33):
thing is, even if you yourself love perfection, the house
that you move into or the house that you're in,
is not going to be perfect. Your walls aren't going
to be level, things aren't going to be plumb, and
you just kind of have to work around them. You're
gonna have that one weird bump out in the room
that is gonna destroy your design, but you work with it.
Because one of the things is when we're doing renos
on a budget, a lot of the times we have
to work with it. I'm not going to have the money,
(07:55):
the tens of thousands of dollars to take down that
one little wall.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Because we need to do this on a shoe string.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
So it's about taking those laws in your home, really
embracing them, and turning them into features.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I'll tell you what I'm really thinking is going to
happen as we grow into this future with the threat
of the recession and things like that. My father he
took his family, We tore people's houses down and use
that wood to build his home. And when you go
back to Billings, Montana right now, that damn house is
still strong as hell.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
That's why I say you don't get sweat equity without
putting in sweat. Once you do that, oh my gosh,
your your house is, you know, protected from the big
bad wolf.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Nothing's blowing that down.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
But Christian, my god, my arm's still hurt from pulling
all those nails.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Oh yeah, that work.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Don't get the budget savings without having to do some
of the gruntwork.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
You know, do you find yourself driving around neighborhoods looking
at what people are throwing away, saying I could use that.
That's going home with me right now.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Oh, I am a certified dumpster diver.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
You're going to throw out a perfect good cabinet on
the side of your street.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I'm gonna take it. I'm gonna take it, and it's
either going in my home or I'm gonna make it
over and I'm gonna go and give.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
It to somebody. I'm gonna go give it to a school.
I'm gonna go give it to somebody who needs it.
Because why are we throwing out things that are perfectly fine?
It's again something we do on the show. We're not
throwing out things that aren't broken. I'm gonna take your
old bookshelf that you've had sitting there from the nineties,
and I'm gonna put trim on it and wallpaper and
do all kinds of things to it, and it's gonna
look brand new and perfect for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
See. I love that attitude because that, to me is
the opportunity to slow down time and allowed time to
give you something that nobody else has.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
And you don't have to spend the budget on it either.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Yeah, because if you're gonna go buy like, think about
how beautiful some of the worksmanship in the wood was
from you know, the nineties.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
You're getting these gorgeous wood cabinets.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Now, you know you're not gonna be able to find
that kind of thing and you're gonna pay, you know,
hundreds of dollars for something that's you know, composite wood
and plastic and whatever it is. It's like, take those
old things that you have, you can make them all
for next to nothing.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
All you need is a can of paint.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
So when you when you put your focus on a
champagne taste on a beer budget, do you go into
a place called restore and then and go in there
and buy the old crafty stuff and then bring it home.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Yeah? Sometimes, for sure.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
There's one person on the show they didn't have They
needed a bedroom, they needed a full bedroom, and I
had probably about five hundred bucks to do their entire room.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Wow, And I was like, I gotta go.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
I gotta go on like an internet marketplace and I
got to go find something.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
And I found a bed frame for one hundred dollars
and made it over and I said, this is this
is your new room. I have. You know a woman
on the show who was having her first child.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
I had thirty five hundred dollars to do three full rooms,
and I was like, I can't get brand new furniture here.
So I went and got a crib from my friend
for free, and that's painted it and that's what the
baby's sleeping in now. It's just, you know, we're gonna
get crafty about what we do so that we can
save money. It's not going to be in bad taste.
Nothing's dirty, nothing it's gross, something's grimy. It's just let's
(10:59):
reuse instead of throwing them into landfills.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
You know, it's really interesting and people think I'm kind
of weird when I say this. We live in this
generation where everything looks like the Brady Bunch home. But
on the inside of the home we've got I want
to replace walls and put them someplace else. But it's
not that easy.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
No.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
When things are structural, those are places where I say,
don't cut costs right.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Structural electrical plumbing, those.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Are things where you want to spend the money because
do you want to make sure that your home is
structurally sound. You want to make sure that you're safe.
Do you want to make sure no fires are going
to happen? Those are the places you want to spend money.
But then where you can get creative is on how
you decorate it, how you really make it feel home.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
What is the one thing that we're doing wrong? Is
it going I can't do this, just just spend the money.
I don't care, just spend the money. Is that is
that the biggest problem? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (11:47):
I would say it's one of two things. It's either yup,
put up my hands and say I don't want to
do it. Someone else take care of it. So, yeah,
go ahead and spend one hundred thousand dollars on something
that you can get done for thirty that's problem number one.
Problem number two is going, yeah, this is going to
cost me one hundred thousand dollars, so I'm never going
to do it. And then they just don't, and then
they live in a home that they're unhappy with, not
realizing how affordable can truly be if they did some
(12:08):
of it themselves and that they found creative solutions.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I always look at people who don't light up their
house at night. I wonder if they're not in love
with their home.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Maybe maybe maybe they don't have the right lighting in there,
Maybe they don't want their home, maybe they don't want
lukie loose coming from outside.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Yeah, any number, any number of things.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
But yeah, Like I mean, I would just say, if
you're not proud of your home, you can there are
things that you can do that don't cost an arm.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
And a life.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I'm just so blown away that you started this out
as just a social media project. I mean, where did
you find the confidence, in the courage to be able
to put yourself out there that far.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
I you know, a lot of people tell me that
I am confident, and I actually just tell them.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
That I have like next level delusion.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
I decided, if you scroll way back to the first
post on my social media I go, welcome to my
new interior Design and Innovations company. I did not even
own a single tool at that time. I had not
even a painting at that time, Like, I had no
idea how to do any of it. I just was like,
I'm moving into this home. I've wanted to do this
for a long time. I was that person sitting home
(13:13):
at home and saving things to Instagram and to Pinterest
into whatever, and I'd never done anything, and I was like,
this is now time to put up or zip it,
you know.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I was like, I'm moving into this house.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
I'm going to use my own house as my practice home,
as my case study on how I'm going to figure
this all out. I'm going to show the mistakes. I
want to be real, I want to be authentic. I
want people to learn and figure out how to do
this to their own homes as well.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
So I just I went with it. I documented it.
I did make mistakes.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
They're now fewer and further between because I have gained
the confidence that I have learned the skill.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
But at the beginning, yeah, I was.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
I was learning right alongside people who are watching. So
I just I gained confidence as I finished the project
and started the next one. So it's like it was
like what we were talking about with your software, your deck.
It's like you learned how to do it once you
gain that confidence, and then you're like, yeah, now I
actually think I can go build this shed. Now I
think I can actually go do this. So it's like
the confidence came with doing the projects.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Wow, you got to come back to this show, anytime
in the future. The door is always going to be
open for you.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Thank you so much for having me. It's been such
a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Will you be brilliant today?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Okay, thank you so much, and I hope you tune
into the show.
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