In mid-February 2019, we packed up every single thing and moved out of our house. Actually, we had movers who did most of that packing and moving. We rented a house around the corner from Krog Street which was nice to get to stay in the neighborhood. I knew it would be a huge disruption in our lives to move out, have them renovate our house and then tell them how to put things back afterward. But, that was the reason I finally said yes to go ahead and do this crazy thing.
I bought the building twenty years ago and the decor has remained relatively the same all these years. Of course, we bought new furniture and renovated the bedrooms for the bed and breakfast, but the colorful retro-modern vibe remained intact.
I had been thinking about polishing the concrete floors and changing things up with the overall design, but that seemed to be an overwhelming and expensive proposition so we never got around to it. There was never a good time or enough money for a major overhaul. After three weeks of saying no, I agreed to go with it. I knew that I had four months to formulate my ideas of the new more sophisticated Urban Oasis, one month of their renovations and three months of filming. I knew the moment they finished shooting they’d want to get the hell out of here and their promise to restore everything to how I wanted it was going to take some doing.
The first thing was that I had to be ready for that day with every paint color for every wall, every light fixture in the whole house chosen, purchased and ready to install. And then I needed to make sure they got the job done. Since we wanted to be back in business, I also had to plan out all of the addition renovation and design that would happen on my dime after their crews left, including purchasing any new furnishings that we needed to be back in business.
I have to say, although their renovation of our place wasn’t my style, it did look great on camera and the design was perfect for a living space for seven twenty-somethings. You can watch the 12 episodes on Facebook Watch.
Check out the slides below to see the transition of the design of the dining area, the kitchen and our New Tricks office from the original Urban Oasis, to The Real World design and finally to the new more sophisticated Urban Oasis!
