Day 1: Remodeling has begun! They’ve started tearing out walls!

What's up you guys? It's Graham here. So, so many people have asked me for update videos about the whole remodeling process and all the work I'm going to be doing, so this is that video.

Now, I realized I'm wearing the same shirt as the last time I filmed, and I just want to make it very clear, like this is purely just by coincidence. I have other shirts I wear. I have washed this since then. I don't wear this every day, so I just want to make that very clear.

Now, one of the main comments I got on the last video about me buying this place is whether or not I should open up that arch or whether or not I should just like blow it all out and have like a huge open kitchen. The first option is to get rid of everything here; the other option from here all the way up is going to be opened. I can turn this into a bar, so I'll have some sort of countertop here with some bar stools that you can put below this. All of this is going to be open, and behind that is going to be the stove.

Here's the big reveal about what I decided to do, and drum roll please... can anybody guess? It's all open! I had to do it. I had to do it, and honestly, I think it was the right choice to make. The problem was that I really wanted to keep the arch, and I really thought the arch was cool. But the main issue I was having is just configuring out the kitchen around that arch because ideally, I wanted to put the stove behind there and then have a countertop up above it, but it didn't leave a lot of room for anything else in the back, and it was just like a weird layout.

So, I decided all things considered, it's best just to spend the extra money, get rid of the whole thing, and just make it completely open. So, really quick, here's the before and here's after. So, here's my plan with the kitchen as of right now.

So, I'm going to be doing an island here, and it's going to kind of be an L-shape. So, I'm going to have some countertop over on this wall here that's going to extend out maybe about 4 and 1/2, 5 ft, maybe along the length of this or so, and that'll leave some space where you can put some bar stools on this side and keep it open completely. So, all of this is going to be open with the island here, and it'll kind of continue over this way here.

Now, this entryway I will likely wall this off and then be able to put the stove and refrigerator here with some more cabinetry up above on this side. Now, this whole area is reserved for the sink, and then I'm going to be doing the dishwasher on this side with some more cabinetry up here. So, that's so far how the kitchen is going to be laid out.

Now, with the floor, this floor has got to go pretty soon. We're going to be putting in some really cool Spanish tile down here. Then, I'm going to have the washer dryer over here, so this is still got to come out, but the washer dryer will be there. But the big one now is the bathroom, and I decided to completely reconfigure the bathroom in a way that makes a lot more sense. So, let me show it to you.

But on the way, I started to scrape the ceiling here, so this is all going to be smooth with like recess lighting. Now, here's the big one—there's the bathroom. So, the layout that was here before was that the bathtub was here with a shower, then the toilet, and then the vanity. But that's just a really shitty layout.

Oh, by the way, check out the really cool original Spanish—this is from like the 1920s—this tile. I had no idea this tile was down here. It's really cool. I wish I could save it; I can't. But anyway, okay, back to this, back to the whole layout thing. The layout that was here originally just was terrible.

So, what I'm going to be doing instead, all of this at the very end is going to be the shower. So, the shower is going to be all this whole thing at the very end. Then, I can have the toilet over here, and then that leaves all this space over here for the vanity, and then all of this can be open for like towel racks and like some nice stuff like that.

So anyway, the bathroom is going to be much, much better than what it was. So now that you've seen the inside, let's go to the outside. By the way, these are two questions I get asked a lot on these videos. The first one is how do I find a contractor? All of my contractors are found word of mouth. I want to make sure that I've seen their work and I know people who have used them before.

So, with that, I found amazing contractors just purely by asking around from people who have already had some work done and just asking who they've used. So, the second question I get asked a lot is how am I able to come up with all these ideas and like envision the space and come up with like what to put where? And I wish I had a cool answer for this, but the truth is just I've seen so many places.

Just keep in mind I've been doing this for nine years, and I've seen thousands of different places. So, when you start to see in like the hundreds of properties, you start to get ideas of what looks good and what doesn't look good. So, for me, coming up with all these ideas is really just like me rethinking of all the thousands of places that I've seen and then coming up with that concept in your own place.

In addition to that, I also like using websites like Pinterest. It's really cool. Instagram is really cool to come up with some of these ideas. By the way, for the kitchen, I just searched Spanish bungalow on Pinterest and came up with some cool ideas. Same thing with Instagram. I mean, you could just type in like what the type of house is and maybe come up with some different ideas from that.

So, I highly recommend you can always just look online and come up with different ideas or look on YouTube or Pinterest or Instagram or any of these websites. You can look it up and get some really cool ideas and then just try to transfer that to your own space.

So let me know your thoughts on this, but I found out which is kind of cool. My property line actually extends about a foot over on the right, and I had no idea right here. So thinking about planting ficus trees here and then putting up a gate in front right here, and that would make the place look a lot bigger. So let me know your thoughts. I'm kind of leaning towards doing this.

So here is what's left over of some of the demo, and then you can see the backyard. Right now my plan is to take out this awning, get rid of all the concrete here. I'm going to do some DG all along the bottom here so that'll really make it look a lot more modern, and then I'll probably do some sort of like build-out right here for a little bit of shade. I think it's going to look pretty cool.

Okay, so that's the update so far. So, I'll try to make one of these maybe like once a week or maybe like twice a week depending on how much work is done. But a lot is going to be done over the next like few weeks, so stay tuned. If you haven't already, click that subscribe button so you stay up to date with all of these new videos I'm putting out.

I will try to do as many of these sort of like update videos and like remodeling videos as I can. So, if you haven't already, click subscribe. Also, feel free to add me on Snapchat and Instagram. I post there like daily, so if you want to be a part of it there, make sure to add me.

Thank you again for watching, and until next time!