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My Houzz: Kristen Bell's Surprise Renovation for Her Sister - YouTube
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[3]
To me, home means the place
that you're drawn to.
[7]
Home should in some ways feel
like a vacation from the world.
[12]
It shouldn't be some place
that you wanna escape from.
[15]
It should be a place
you wanna escape to.
[17]
I'm Kristen Bell,
and this is my Houzz.
[25]
I grew up in Detroit,
I'm the runt of three girls.
[29]
and my sisters and I
are all three years apart.
[32]
They've seen me at my worst,
they've seen me at my best.
[34]
They treat me
the exact same way.
[37]
I'm doing this renovation
for my sister Sara.
[39]
She's honestly in my eyes, a superwoman,
[42]
always the glue and the mortar
of our family.
[44]
She is married to Tom
who she started dating in high school,
[48]
she has four kids.
[50]
She's one of the hardest workers and never ever complains.
[54]
Sara takes on a lot
of the responsibility
[56]
for the whole family on her shoulders.
[59]
She takes the kids to volunteer
at the local animal shelter.
[63]
She takes care of my grandmother
[64]
and it leaves her almost no time for herself.
[67]
Getting the chance to spoil her
and create a space
[71]
that functions better for her family
[73]
would just be such an epic surprise.
[76]
And I think it's gonna be overwhelming
for both of us.
[79]
I'm really excited.
[82]
Sara's house was built in the '60s,
it's smallish
[86]
and it has three bedrooms, one toilet,
and one tiny sink.
[90]
And then there's this huge basement,
[93]
Sara set up a great couch area,
toy area,
[96]
but in truth,
they've outgrown everything down there.
[100]
The biggest portion of the basement is
this huge unfinished laundry area
[103]
which is mostly just storage.
[106]
And then sort of tucked into the corner
is the kids' art centre.
[110]
And then there's an office,
it's a lot of wasted space.
[113]
I specifically chose the basement
[115]
because, Sara hasn't had the time
to re-imagine it,
[118]
so I just wanted to figure out a way to
sort of maximise their house
[121]
and make the basement some place
they would all gravitate towards.
[125]
Sara's very self-sufficient,
me stepping in
[128]
and saying, "Hey, can I have the keys to your house
[131]
and give you a special surprise,"
is a little overwhelming for her.
[134]
She thought about it and she said,
"Yeah, you know what?
[136]
Why not?"
[137]
So I've arranged that they stay
out of the house during the renovation.
[141]
I'm thrilled that she trusts me
[143]
and I really hope that I make the decisions
[145]
that she will love and
enjoy in her home.
[150]
I'm 2,000 miles away.
[152]
I live in Los Angeles and
Sara lives in Detroit.
[155]
So I turned to Houzz to
redesign every detail of my sister's basement.
[159]
Houzz is basically a design hub,
[162]
a website and an app where you can get
everything done for a renovation,
[165]
start to finish.
[167]
You can look at inspiration pictures
[169]
and then you can actually
shop those pictures.
[172]
So in choosing a designer,
I went to the Houzz website
[175]
and looked at a bunch of different profiles
of designers
[178]
in the Detroit area.
[179]
I found designer
Melissa Kennedy from Meadowlark,
[182]
that does both the design
and the build.
[184]
And I thought that Melissa's aesthetic
was really great
[187]
and once I looked at her profile
[189]
and saw she had really amazing and
stellar reviews,
[192]
I knew she was the one that I wanted to trust
with this project.
[196]
Melissa has flown out to Los Angeles,
[198]
so we could meet in person to go over
the design ideas for Sara's house.
[202]
So living in this three-bedroom house
is my sister Sara,
[207]
her husband Tom,
and their four kids.
[209]
But it's really tight.
[210]
There's three bedrooms.
There's one bathroom.
[212]
And they have this amazing basement
and a lot of it is not finished.
[215]
The kids don't wanna go down there,
[217]
'cause it's dark
and it's, you know, sort of grody.
[220]
So I just wanna make that
something that's welcoming
[223]
and something that will basically double the space
they have in the house.
[227]
Hopefully, if we make it comfortable
and inviting.
[229]
Spaces where each kid
feels like it's their own.
[232]
Yeah.
[233]
They'll start to own it and
go down there more.
[234]
That would be ideal.
[236]
Another thing that's really important,
Lucy,
[237]
my 11-year-old niece
is growing into being a teenager
[241]
with three boys in the house.
[243]
I feel like there's space in the
basement to build her a bedroom.
[246]
Yeah, and it's a great idea.
[248]
I think this will give Lucy
a lot of freedom to come into her own,
[253]
she'll have a space where
she can think about who she is
[257]
and not really have to think about picking up
after her brothers.
[260]
Okay, and add a bathroom there
so that they have a second bathroom.
[263]
Let's look at some of the inspirations
for the basement space then.
[265]
So you put this picture
in the Ideabook.
[267]
Ideabooks is a place where you
can store pictures
[271]
or products for your design and
you can share those with other people.
[275]
So, Melissa and I started an ideabook
for each room
[278]
and then we're able to pull pictures
or items into each folder
[283]
and then view it
whenever it works for us.
[285]
It saves us a ton of time
where we have one design file
[290]
where we can both add to it,
delete, or edit.
[293]
I think this picture, it feels like we are
maximising all of this space,
[298]
love the idea of how welcoming
this couch feels,
[301]
using the inspiration from this picture
[303]
with a little bit more colour
would be really ideal.
[307]
I really wanna create a seating area
that like beckons them,
[310]
that just feels like a gigantic bed...
[312]
Yeah.
[313]
For all of them to pile
on top of each other.
[315]
So this picture
really resonates with me
[319]
when I think about Sara's space
and partly because the open ceilings,
[323]
let's talk about
the ceiling treatment in the basement.
[325]
Yeah.
[327]
The basement at her house has a
fairly low ceiling
[329]
and it gets even lower
with the dropped-in ceiling
[330]
that they have right now.
Yeah.
[332]
What do you think about the
open ceiling?
[334]
As opposed to keeping it finished,
I don't know.
[336]
So Houzz has this great function called,
Design Dilemma.
[340]
So a Design Dilemma on Houzz can be quickly solved
by posting a question.
[344]
If we're undecided about
[345]
where to go with the open ceiling or
the closed ceiling,
[347]
we can post it to the Houzz community
and get feedback.
[350]
That would help me
make the decision, yes.
[352]
Okay, good. I'll post it.
[353]
So let's look at Lucy's room.
[355]
So tell me why you added this picture.
[357]
I really like how there are aspects to this bedroom
[360]
that can grow with her,
[362]
and I also really love the, like, whimsical bedding
[364]
to give it, like, a really girly feel.
[366]
So let's talk a little bit about the bathroom.
[368]
It will be the guest bathroom basically.
[370]
I think I put this picture in,
specifically for the mirror,
[373]
what do you think of that mirror?
[374]
I do like that mirror.
[376]
One of the great things about Houzz is that
[378]
if I find an object that I like,
like this mirror.
[380]
If I hover over it,
and a white square appears,
[383]
I can click on that and it takes me to
the shop on Houzz to purchase it.
[387]
- Let's get it. - Let's do it.
[389]
And let's keep shopping.
[390]
So I put this in
our ideabook
[393]
because, I know my nephews,
they're wild animals.
[397]
I feel like they would really gravitate towards
a game table,
[399]
so I'd love to get one down there.
[401]
Do you think it will fit?
[402]
I think we can make it fit in the space.
[403]
Yeah.
[404]
And we'll also have access to Tom,
my brother-in-law.
[408]
He, I know is really excited about sort of helping
deliver this for Sara,
[412]
so you are gonna feel like a member
of the family
[414]
'cause he's gonna be involved
every step of the way.
[416]
Okay.
[417]
So I think this all looks great
[419]
and I hope that we can really perfect
this space
[421]
and make it something that
they will want to live in.
[424]
Yeah, I think we can do it.
[425]
I'm up for the challenge.
[427]
The idea of spoiling my sister
when I know how good she's been to me,
[429]
it's gonna be really fun.
[438]
Today, Melissa is meeting my
brother-in-law Tom at his and Sara's house
[441]
to get started on clearing everything out
[444]
before finalising the
renovation plan.
[446]
Getting through today is a big deal.
[448]
It's gonna take a lot of emotional energy
[449]
and a lot of choices to make,
what to keep?
[452]
What to get rid of?
[453]
What memories to hold onto?
[455]
You guys moved in here how many years ago?
[457]
Twelve.
[458]
It was just the two of us so,
[459]
I mean, it was perfect and now six, it's really...
[462]
It's getting tight.
[463]
This house is where they've made
all their memories
[465]
and now they've built
this big beautiful family.
[468]
But it's just busting out of
the windows of this house.
[471]
This living area space, it's gonna be a
completely open palette,
[474]
all the interior walls come down, it all goes.
[477]
So we'll go into the laundry room area…
[479]
Yeah, this is the laundry room.
[481]
- Oh, here's half your basement.
- Yeah.
[482]
- It's a little bit of space here, yeah?
- Yeah.
[484]
Kristen really wanted to give your boys
a reason to come downstairs,
[488]
so we're gonna have a wall
[489]
that separates the fun room from the laundry room.
[491]
Oh, okay.
- Okay, into the office.
[493]
This is gonna become Lucy's room.
- Wow
[495]
We're gonna be able to put
an egress window in
[497]
and so right over here on this wall
[501]
is gonna be a large window
to let a lot of natural light in...
[503]
So it won't feel like she's
in a basement bedroom.
[505]
No kidding, yeah, that's huge
- Yeah, it is.
[507]
Anything that has meaning?
[509]
This dresser,
this was Sara, her mom and dad,
[511]
you know, they've had it for years.
[513]
I know for sure Sara
would want to have this.
[515]
- Keep this. - Yeah.
[516]
Okay, so there's a lot to do
to get this place cleaned out.
[519]
Let's start packing.
[521]
My brother Tom and Melissa
are moving everything out
[524]
and getting ready to start the demo.
[534]
If you're ready, we're gonna start by
demolishing everything around here.
[538]
Tom, I think is gonna be the most excited
about all of this.
[542]
- Every boy's dream,
I get to demolish some stuff. - Good.
[544]
And we're gonna hook Tom up with the sledgehammer,
[546]
so he can take the first
punch at the walls.
[548]
Have at it? All right, cool.
[553]
Let's tear it off.
[576]
It's been four weeks since
the renovation started on my sister's house
[580]
and today Tom and Melissa are stopping by
to get a progress report.
[585]
- Wow!
- Holy cow! Look at this thing.
[587]
This is crazy, look what you've done.
[589]
This is crazy, look what you've done.
[590]
This looks amazing.
[591]
Look at this.
[592]
Sara had told me a few times
[595]
that she likes this sort of nook bed
in my living room
[598]
and it's a place where
the kids always gravitate.
[600]
So we wanted to build exactly that
underneath their stairs.
[604]
That, that is gonna be huge.
[605]
The kids are gonna love that,
I mean, I think that after all of this,
[608]
they'll probably love to fight
over that the most.
[610]
So this is gonna be the living room area.
[613]
Okay, so the TV is going here, right?
[615]
I kind of need HDMI cables and stuff.
[618]
Running the wire would be difficult
[619]
if we had already drywalled the ceiling.
[622]
Kristen and I polled
the Houzz community to ask them,
[624]
should we or should we not
drywall the ceiling.
[627]
And in my opinion we won,
the Houzz community has spoken,
[630]
they said to leave
the ceiling open.
[631]
So this is gonna make it really easy for us
[633]
to add HDMI cable
or whatever you need.
[636]
You wanna move into Lucy's room?
[638]
Sure.
[639]
What do you think?
[640]
Oh, my god, look at the window, all right.
[642]
Amazing that how much light is in here.
[644]
Lucy's room is
really developing nicely,
[645]
the way that the egress window
[648]
lets light into the space
just really expands it.
[651]
All right, so, there's a ton to get done.
[652]
We'll get paint samples
on the wall,
[654]
hopefully, we'll be able to
talk with Kristen a little bit.
[656]
Let's get to work.
[666]
This is the colour
that I think Sara likes.
[669]
So you wanna call Kristen?
[670]
Yeah, she's done this mess so far,
so let's give her a call.
[672]
Let's do it.
[673]
Melissa and I talk about every other day,
[676]
about measurements or paint colours,
[678]
things that I didn't know anything about
before I started this renovation.
[684]
Hi, brother.
[685]
Hey, hey, hey. What's going on?
[687]
What's going on with you?
[688]
Just in the basement that's empty.
[692]
Oh, my gosh.
[694]
And we started to play around with some
paint colours.
[697]
We wanna show you the colour
around the TV wall.
[700]
So what do you think about this one?
[703]
I like them both.
[704]
Tom, are you favouring one or the other?
[705]
So I like the one above.
[707]
I kind of like the one above too.
Okay, good.
[709]
Okay, so let's look at the
stairway loft space,
[712]
that's where that bed is going to be.
[715]
Uh, great idea, by the way.
[716]
Right now, I have painted a green.
[719]
Oh, I like that.
[720]
So there's one more colour,
can we look at Lucy's room?
[722]
- Yeah, yeah. - Great.
[724]
Well, that's bigger
than I thought.
[726]
So that colour on the wall,
it's a pretty pale pink colour.
[731]
So I like the pink but I'd love to
put it into the ideabook
[735]
that we have on Houzz where
we sort of can see everything
[740]
that we're putting in her room,
I don't wanna use too much pastel...
[743]
Yep, that's great. I'll edit it.
[744]
And I just wanna make sure
she has the space
[746]
that can transition to when she gets older.
[749]
Okay, well, you guys, this looks fantastic.
[751]
I cannot wait to actually see it in person.
[753]
I will be there in a few weeks.
[755]
- Bye. - Bye.
[763]
I'm finally here in Detroit.
[765]
I am really excited to see everything.
[767]
I've just seen all the pictures
[770]
and I'm excited to really get
my hands dirty today.
[772]
Hello.
[773]
Guys, do you need help?
[774]
Oh, good to see ya.
Oh, good timing, yeah.
[777]
Do you need help?
Or are you all done?
[780]
No, there's more to move.
How are you?
[782]
- I'm good, how are you? - Good.
[783]
I cannot believe how good
it looks down here.
[786]
Melissa killed it.
[788]
Walking downstairs,
it felt like a whole new house
[791]
and we found everything on Houzz.
[795]
It was so difficult for me
even with the pictures to,
[797]
to really picture everything but this looks better
than I expected.
[800]
Does it even look like, yeah, the same house now?
[802]
- No, not at all. - So different.
[804]
We've got work to do.
[805]
I think the family's life is hopefully
gonna get easier.
[808]
I've got most of the weight, Tom,
so you should be good.
[811]
I see the kids playing down there.
[813]
This is great.
You can put your feet up on it.
[815]
I see the boys staying out of
my sister's hair
[817]
for more than a minute and a half.
[819]
Yes. Perfect.
[822]
I can see Lucy feeling like
she has her own space,
[825]
not feeling cramped
by her little brothers.
[827]
Our parents didn't have
the purple knobs.
[829]
No.
[830]
That's an upgrade,
just for Lucy.
[832]
Okay, then these tables get moved on either
side of the couches.
[835]
Can you guys put this over here,
please?
[836]
- Oh, Tom it’s so heavy.
- Yeah.
[837]
I lived with my sister 20 years ago.
[840]
I'm pretty sure I know her style,
but she lives in Detroit.
[844]
I live in L.A.,
we do have different likes and dislikes,
[847]
so I could be way off base here.
[850]
Okay, this is it.
[852]
Last thing to place.
[853]
Nice.
- Exhausting, we did it.
[857]
Think Sara's on her way.
[859]
Oh, god. Okay, get out of here.
[861]
All right. I'm out.
[862]
- Okay. - Good luck.
[863]
Thank you.
[864]
I’m nervous.
[866]
Okay, take a deep breath.
[867]
When Kristen said,
I had to get out of my house
[870]
for longer than I was comfortable with,
[872]
I had a lot of questions and just had
to be prepared for a surprise.
[877]
I didn't know what was gonna happen.
[882]
Oh, I love it.
[892]
You do?
[895]
A little sister always
looks up to her big sister.
[898]
No matter what age you are.
[900]
And I want her to be happy.
[904]
I want to please her. I want her to think
I did a good job.
[906]
It’s so different.
[908]
Right.
[909]
I love it.
I love the open ceiling.
[911]
I love whatever's happening
next to our TV.
[915]
I wanna get into it, all of it,
this is crazy.
[918]
We wanted to re-imagine the nook
that the kids like in my house,
[922]
So they can go into a little cave but you
have toy storage underneath.
[927]
Let me show you the living room.
[930]
I do love it,
it's very homey.
[932]
It's me. Love.
[933]
Obviously, we kept
my very favourite painting.
[936]
I kind of took a big swing here.
[938]
This is a convertible pool,
air hockey, ping pong table.
[942]
They're gonna love it.
[944]
Okay, I'm hoping that they do.
[946]
So homework desk, arts and crafts.
[949]
I'm excited, I'm excited,
this is crazy.
[951]
Do you wanna see the new bathroom?
[954]
- Yes. - Yes.
[958]
Oh, my gosh.
[960]
I love the vanity. The vanity is amazing.
[962]
Yes, yes.
[963]
That was the goal.
[964]
Okay, so I'm most excited to
show you the next thing,
[967]
I hope I did a good job.
[972]
Oh, this is crazy.
[973]
She is gonna love it.
[974]
This is amazing. This is awesome.
[976]
Tried to update
mom and dad's dresser.
[980]
Oh, it looks good. She is going to love it.
[982]
It looks so good.
[984]
- I'm so happy.
- So good.
[986]
I love it.
[987]
When I look around the basement, I see a lot of Kristen down here.
[990]
I feel like she's put her special touch
[994]
in a lot of different spots
for everybody.
[996]
I know you poured your heart into this
for me and all of us,
[1002]
and thank you is not enough.
[1007]
I saw her face and I saw her welling up.
[1009]
She's always been very quiet and very calm.
[1012]
That was a huge reaction for
her which is exactly what I wanted.
[1016]
- Melissa? -Yeah.
[1017]
- Do you wanna come down here? - Yes.
[1019]
Tom, come down too.
[1021]
This is your husband Tom.
[1022]
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
[1023]
How do you like it, baby?
[1025]
I love it, I love it.
[1026]
- Hey. - The designer Melissa.
[1028]
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you too.
[1030]
This is amazing, this looks really, really good.
[1033]
- You like it? - Yes.
[1034]
Good. I'm so relieved.
[1036]
I'm so happy that Sara
loves the space, I'm thrilled.
[1040]
There isn't one thing I said, I would change nothing.
[1043]
- Really? - Really?
[1044]
- No. - That's huge.
[1045]
Yeah.
[1046]
Mason and Ben are gonna
love the game area for sure.
[1051]
Oh, my god.
[1053]
Oh, my god.
[1054]
Oh, my god.
[1057]
I think the kids are gonna be standing
[1059]
on all the furniture pieces
within five minutes,
[1062]
if they're not,
we have a problem.
[1063]
- What? - Lucy, are you crying?
[1068]
And Lucy's gonna think that this whole basement
is Lucy's.
[1072]
Okay, open em
[1075]
That's... Oh, my god.
[1077]
It's mine.
[1079]
It's yours.
[1080]
- No brothers. - So cool.
[1083]
This is her apartment and
you can come in if you have to.
[1088]
I love it.
[1090]
You look so happy.
[1092]
You deserve it.
[1093]
I could immediately tell that she loved it.
[1096]
Hi, guys.
[1098]
Do you like it?
[1099]
Oh, it's beautiful.
[1101]
I have wanted to do something like this
[1104]
for my sister
and her family for a very long time.
[1106]
I cannot believe
this is finally over.
[1108]
This was such a crazy whirlwind.
[1111]
Sara, I'm so honoured to
be able to give this to you
[1115]
'cause you really, really deserve it and
we all love you very much.
[1118]
Thank you, I love you.
[1120]
- Cheers. - Cheers.
[1121]
Cheers.
[1123]
To my sister, thank you for
all that you've done.
[1126]
I'm forever grateful.
[1129]
It's a huge change for the family
[1131]
and I never would have been able to pull it off without Houzz.
[1133]
With this great technology
[1137]
that let us share all of this
designing between Michigan and California.
[1141]
Hopefully, it'll feel like a sort of new beginning
[1145]
and who knows, maybe, they'll have more kids.
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