We REMODELED Our CABIN in 24 Minutes (Before + After)

Happy day! In this video, we're transforming our dingy 50-year-old cabin into a beautiful farm stay, and at the end, we're testing our handiwork. Some friends are coming and we've got to get this thing beautiful for our guests. Our cabin had this weird smell, was dark and dingy and cramped.

It did have a weird smell that I think was coming from the logs. I had a log cabin guy come out and he said that this is what a 40-year-old cabin smells like. But I'm happy to report the smell is gone. The kitchen was super small, strange layout. You had to walk through the bathroom to get to the back bedroom and the laundry room.

We know this because we lived here during our homestead house remodel. Can't walk in your room because of your Legos. No way. And look at this tidy room. And honestly, my worst fear of coming over here is not coming through, Rebecca. It's right in here. The The cabin was limping along okay, I guess. And then we had a grease fire. House almost burned down.

What?

Are you okay?

The grease lit on fire.

We barely got it out. How did you get it out?

We had to use the fire extinguisher. Everything's—

The fire extinguisher?

The house is full of smoke and the fire extinguisher dust is everywhere. Oh my gosh, you can see the smoke coming out of the house.

Oh no. They got a little excited with the wings. Get a fire extinguisher. But it's like it snowed in here. We got a little bit of insurance money We felt like we had a decision to make. Do we put that bit into the cabin and just get it back to where it was, put a Band-Aid on it? Or do we take that money and start it towards total complete remodel? We don't do that. We should probably just call it a rebuild. And then Jonah expressed interest in moving in this cabin when he got married. Talk to me about your plans to live in this cabin one day. I guess when I get a little older and get married, I'll come and live in here. What inspires you to do that? I don't know, it's just because it's on our land. Why not just leave and spend $500,000 on a house? I don't know, it's a little bit of a cheaper option. And you and Mom are right there. Yeah, I like to think that's the one. That's the one. I thought, well, this could be the perfect scenario. Jonah helps us build this cabin, it keeps costs down, he can have it when he gets married. My trick for keeping the adults children around, a house, a little bit of land. And until he gets married, we can rent it to recoup our costs. So we took the plunge and got to work. The low ceiling will be taken out and we'll have vault ceilings instead. We'll put in foam insulation to maximize energy. We'll get the bathroom out of the middle of the house, and it won't be the hallway to the master bath. There are no windows on the south side and a chimney. That's where the sun is, so let's open that up. Construction is complete. As we're about to find out, the job isn't nearly complete. We still have to stage the place and finish landscaping, and we're the only ones who can do that. It turns out to be quite a bit more than we thought it would be. Our friends are coming very soon. It's countdown time, and we want to give them a wonderful experience. We are so close, Rebecca. The trades are coming.

Um, HVAC came this week.

Electrician comes next, and then it's the floor. So it smells nice in here. It doesn't have that weird smell. Is that going to come back, or is it going to still smell good? We got to get on the landscaping. Okay, handy having these machines, isn't it? We've been having to hire a landscaper. That's not bad. This is gonna look really nice. Okay, how far is that? Okay. 290. No, you got to do by feet, which is 24 feet. I'm getting stressed. You stressed? All right, I need chill. Josiah's pulling this up. I'm gonna touch up a lot around the logs. There you go. Wait, rake from that side to that side. This is better. Y'all are getting into it now. Look at this, Mom. Ain't this better?

Yeah, they're talking trash about it.

Been so right about fixing up the stuff on our farm, isn't it?

There is. I wish our goalie felt the same.

Tamp it, and then we're gonna mix these old rocks. New rocks hopefully should be coming any minute. You guys want to know what we're at. $300 for this gravel, $600 for the rock. Is that it?

How much for the gas?

$50 for the tamper, but we get to keep that. Jonah's grading. I feel like this is a special day, the whole family coming together on a different project. It's not necessarily food related. Trash needs to be picked up first. Grab something to put trash in. Does it still look a hair high? It's— it may be a hair. It might be there. You want to grade this a hair more this way? You haven't done that yet. Okay, too much going on at once, and he's doing something I didn't even say. Going on our dirt path, but we're gonna make steps here. I guess you can do that, but I don't know if you need to. Open this. I think we're gonna need more. What? We're still gonna need more. Whose job was this? This is looking fantastic. Okay, you gotta seed and hay it. If it rains, it's gonna wash all this dirt away, so just please put some hay on it. The seeds will dry up, especially in this dry— after this, can you water it down, sprinkle it down? This looks so good, Randolph. You done spread out the hay. We're not supposed to. Yeah, it said, it said we were going to put down the fire pit. Well, you got that over here. You want to go get the machine and we'll put that closer and put the rock pit on in? Okay, that's inviting. That's exactly what I envisioned. How's that? Randolph's installing. You have 2 feet or more, you got to have a railing. Okay, yeah, see? It's just a mess. We got a plan?

So what I've just been doing— you can come in here and see.

Yeah.

It is a rough sweep.

Okay, this is good. This is what I'm talking about. Yeah. Well, you don't want to adult in the moment, but once when— once you get it over with, you feel pretty good about it. We did the right thing. Ain't nobody gonna do that for us. Looks good. So proud of this. It looks so good. Does that work?

Uh-huh.

You let the guy in today?

Uh-huh.

Hey, you got your mirror up in the bathroom.

Oh good.

Let's go see that. Hey, it's getting real, babe. Are we at the year mark on this?

Um, yes, I think.

Can you believe this? We started— we remodeled our house, we went through the hurricane, we lost your mom, and then we started another remodel. Are we bats? All right, don't stay in here long. It smells great. Plug in the plug. Plug in the plug and then back it out without scratching the floor. Becky, don't be in here if you don't have to be. I'm gonna open up all these windows, air it out. The week before Thanksgiving We've got to get this thing staged because we're recouping some of our money. Let's see it empty. This is our home this week. Can we get some before and after shots? Unfinished and then finished. Here we go. Before. Hopefully that has the screws in them. Let me get the before shot in this room before you start building stuff. Oh, just hoping to have those beds up before she got here. Specter comes. You did a fantastic job on designing this cabin.

Thanks.

Hold on, guys, that might leave. Boy, I'm glad that she did come because I thought we were gonna put bunk beds in both beds, both rooms. Yes. So you're gonna put two bunk beds in here?

2 sets?

Yeah, one set. Okay, that makes sure— get a bunk bed that's not written on. We don't have any that are not written. Well, then less written. I think this is actually going to be easier than I thought. Well, I thought we were going to be putting together a bunch of bunk beds.

It's going to be a lot of work on me. Yeah, I know, because once we get this in, then we can—

there's really not much we can do.

See more of what I— well, then I'm gonna need you to help me hang curtain rods. Okay, and I'm trying to think of what else. Just bring stuff over and like see what we need, see what we need in the kitchen.

It's critical we get it staged, uh, this Thanksgiving week so you know what you need to buy on the Black Friday sales. Hey, we get to get our garage back! Can we take everything that needs assembled and have the boys assemble it?

Yeah, so this, this This.

Go. All right, all right, we got a load of stuff we can have the boys put together. I would maybe cut that and then you don't have to rip Styrofoam. Just look, Lily, that's gonna be very hard to clean up. Ah, Lily, you did all this by yourself? No, Josiah helped you.

Yeah.

Are you guys following the instructions?

No.

Yeah, they're looking at the pictures. Nice. Find every piece? No, I guess not. But close enough. Day 1 of staging behind us. That's pretty, Jonah. Was that your idea to put the rocks under there? Yeah, I just put them under there. Okay, porch is looking good. Planter is looking good. Fresh mulch. He dug out around our barrier so we can actually see the logs now. What's your duty?

I'm hanging up the shower curtain. Nice. Like, isn't that cute?

It is.

And it matches. It kind of matches this.

Hey, you did it! You hang a shower curtain. One more load, hopefully. Good job, bud. Keep it going.

I'm on the way up.

Can you help me grab this? This Facebook Marketplace score is nice. These feel almost brand new. Watch out. And I don't think it's going to go well with our—

with our rust.

It's a little faded, it's a little roadswear.

Could also— a solid line would get spray painted.

Good idea. Chairs are nice too, Beck.

They're decent.

What are you talking about? Great.

Got them off the Facebook Marketplace.

Counters had to get re-tongue-oiled, but they look good. This lady's just plowing right through, through lunch.

Well, no, I've got it in the oven.

It's another day. We're one day closer. That is two grungy. We got another couch coming. Hey, you guys put the couch on these gray ones. Please don't jump on them. Oh, that's it. Hey, why do you think this blue couch looks like this? What's your mission today?

I'm just gonna clean up, and I'm a little like, what's going on here? It's like dirty.

It's grungy in the world. Is there an extra bed under here?

Yes, I did. So we have a 7th person.

What do you think about this one?

I think it's gonna be great. I hope it is.

1, 2, 3! And there you go. We've only got a few days until our guests arrive, and look at this mess.

These are heavy-duty tools. Guess how much?

$10. What?

Like a dollar a thing. It's— this was— came from, uh—

stainless steel?

Ross. Yeah, stainless steel. Yeah. Dang. Pull it, pull it outside.

I thought right there would be good.

Put like right outside like that.

Getting our folks some electric candles just in case they want to, they don't want to blind themselves at night. They want to go to sleep with the sun. Let's assess the damage. How you feeling?

I feel very stressed out.

I'm gonna give you all the kids.

Great.

Except for Gideon. I'm gonna go— we're gonna pick up in the house.

It could be a blessing or maybe not. I'm doing my own repairs now.

What's wrong?

Um, it just had a funny smell from—

here, can you give me that?

Grab over there and see if you can— Yes, honey. This has to be— this needed to be replaced. It was kind of gross.

The painting looks really good. Having to be really careful because I want to do a reveal for you guys. I don't want to show you everything just yet. It is crunch time. Our friends will be here in 6 hours. Counter's getting cleaned, cleared off. Not without snafus though. These curtains, we want to advertise blackout curtains. They don't quite— it's just kind of a— I don't know, that's not blackout. They're too narrow. We've taken the door off. I measured 27 inches. If the door even swings— oh wow, it's gonna do it! It's gonna do it! Oh yeah! Describe the staging process.

Overwhelming, tiring. I'm done buying stuff. I never want to buy anything again.

How many things did you buy?

So many things. I bought so many curtains. I bought so many curtains because I didn't know what I wanted, and I had bought a curtain, and then when I got it in the space, I was like, this doesn't really look good. So then I bought 3 sets of curtains and one of them worked out perfectly. And then like in the back bedroom, curtain situation was rough. In the front bedroom, like I have a lot of things to return. It was fun. I feel like I got to express my creativity.

The friends are in the yard, so it's gonna have to wait, but I've got some before and after pics. You will not believe it. Let's show that after we get our friends' reaction. Our friends will be here in 5 minutes. You guys want a quick reveal? Oh my gosh, what a mirror! Why didn't we have this when we lived over here? Rebecca, phenomenal job! Thanks. How does this feel?

It feels great.

Does this not mean for celebration?

I kind of wish we would have done this to our house.

Actually decorated it. Yeah, we kind of ran them out of money at the very end. This is different because this is an investment, so we gotta learn how to treat ourselves, huh? We're going to finish our house over there. Wait, this is just nice shot everywhere, and it sounds good too. There's enough sound buff. It's not like our house where we have such—

where we're like, right?

All right, you want me to let them in?

Yeah. Are they here?

Okay, go let them in. Jonah, you want to start the tour on the porch?

Shh, I don't care.

All right, come on.

You guys are standing there like you're a Christmas card.

This is HGTV vlog style. It's a good thing we had you because you made us actually do it.

You gave the final push.

Yeah, you gave a reason to get it done.

We didn't prolong it anymore.

Thanks for trusting us.

You're welcome.

Yeah, you picked a nice cold day to—

I know.

Hey guys.

You picked a nice Day, because you're the first, so everything is brand new. Oh yeah, yeah.

So if there's a dent in something, it'll definitely—

yeah, it's okay.

Beautiful.

Have you even been over here, Caleb?

This is totally new.

Okay, it's so nice.

Beautiful.

This, uh, wood is from our land.

Really? There used to be a chimney right there.

There used to be a gigantic chimney that came out like so far.

Seems like there's a lot of story here.

Tell them the story, Jonah.

What's the story?

Where's Jonah? Of what?

He left.

Jonah sanded all the logs. He hopes to live here one day with his wife. It's our secret to keeping the kids around— build a house on the property.

Giving the house away.

You can have this house or you can go half a million dollars into debt somewhere else.

I know, right? My kids were all girls in here working, and they're like, Mom, we should have done this before we lived here. I was like, yeah, we probably never left.

It was a depressing year.

So we've got 2 guest rooms here.

How excited are you guys going to a new place, spend the night? Airbnb.

All the sheets, like, yeah, it's like they're all like— this is like all great stuff for all of us.

Yes, uncommon. Yeah, we usually end up sleeping at all like pallets on the ground and like maybe so the height.

Yeah, and actually right now we— all of the kids are currently sleeping in the same room.

Yeah, because we're getting ready.

There you go. That was us last year in the old house.

So we've got a queen in here and then we've got 3 twins in this size.

So, okay, here we go. Here's some other options. We got a trundle. Who's the top bunker? You like the top bunk? You do?

Yeah, there's towels and stuff in here, so If you guys— there's towels and washcloths.

Has this fire pit ever been used?

No.

Oh my, so maybe we need to break it.

So that—

what—

that stone, is that the same stone that's on the, um, that's the sidewalk?

Yeah, that's leftover from the sidewalk. Now check out the before and after shots, and then we'll get our friends' reaction of how they liked it. Then, now.

Then—

now! Our friends are settling in. I wonder how they'll like it. We'll find out tomorrow. How would you like it though? We're gonna give away 2 free nights in our cabin. Come, come stay at the Holler. 2 free nights, 1 morning farm experience with me. QR code, Austin. QR code plus link down in the description. Completely free giveaway when you join our newsletter down in the description. How was the cabin?

Good.

Where'd y'all sleep?

We slept in the room with the trundle bed.

Hey!

So one of the cool things about those beds was they zip up the sides.

Yeah, like a sleeping bag.

It's like a sleeping bag, but it's a bed.

That was the highlight of your boys. Yeah.

Where's he at? Jenna's still inside.

I said, how'd you like it? And he said, I love those beds.

Yeah, they are.

That's not what we thought would get everybody excited.

I know. In fact, I was actually got pushback from people on it, and they were like, I don't think this is a good idea.

Fans are really cool. Yeah, we were mesmerized. That's what I was about, those fans. So check out the fans.

I thought you would like the lamps. Yeah, yeah, the big mirrors.

Yeah, the big mirror is fun. We had to keep Iris from putting her hands on it.

It wasn't successful. It's okay, it's okay. We'll have to wash it.

There might be a cleaning list.

It'll, it'll be on the cleaning list. Okay, there's like some sort of—

all right, Mr. Henry, I have a present.

A lemongrass scent. All right, hey, furniture is shower.

That beats the old grungy—

Oh, heating in the bathroom.

She's getting excited about that.

I was like, wait, what?

Yeah, what about this view?

Wow, the sunset comes through the upper— We actually, this morning Alethea called me and she said it looks like cotton candy. I thought maybe she was talking about a cat that you guys had called Cotton Candy. I was like, No, it was the sky. It was cotton candy just coming through this, the big opening in the living room.

It's beautiful.

And even in the morning, even though this— you don't see the sunrise, if you open the curtains you can still slowly see the farm. Yeah, and it's beautiful.

Hey, okay, Bailey meets Josh's wife.

That's awesome.

And, uh, we got our first entry in there.

Oh, awesome!

This is it.

Handmade, handmade, hand-stitched.

Oh, I love it.

And this is actually— so this is leftover from the leather whenever like the cow had that.

Really?

Yeah. Oh, that's neat. And y'all signed it.

And we signed the first entry.

We signed the first entry.

But there's lots of room left.

Oh, I love that. This is a bookmark that you guys can take with you. Okay.

They loved it and I think you will too. Be sure to get into the giveaway. Happy day.