Renovations always come with risks. On a new episode of HGTV’s Christina on the CoastChristina Hall’s clients faced some pretty brutal issues—including one that required them to live in their Huntington Beach, California, home with a partially open roof for three months.
The nearly year-long renovation involved transforming the homeowners’ closet and the crawl space behind it into a big primary bathroom. That required raising the ceiling and redoing the roof to increase the square footage. Mike Rose, Christina’s go-to contractor on the show, explained that a mistake in the plans was going to create what he estimated to be a two-week delay. It ended up being…three months.
It turned out the engineer the team was using for the project assumed the floor joists ran in one direction. In reality, they went a different way. Because of that, Rose’s team had planned the framing inaccurately. They had to stop construction, design new plans, resubmit them to the city, and wait for approval. “I think of all the projects we’ve done together, this is the absolute worst-case scenario you can have not only with plans but with the city,” Christina said of the situation that was out of their hands. “There’s been delay after delay after delay.”
Once the roof was taken care of, another problem arose: water damage. When new windows were installed in the bathroom, the team discovered that the old waterproof paper in the old house had gotten wet from a rain storm. To remedy it, all of the stucco on one side of the house and the old paper needed to be replaced—amounting to an extra $6,000 and a further delay.
To ease the stress of the renovation on her clients, Christina treated them to a sound bath in Malibu at Shakti Sound Bath. “We all need some healing,” Christina said.
While there were major headaches along the way, the completed renovation was well worth it for the homeowners, who felt especially refreshed and relaxed after the sound bath. Now, they can find peace in their upgraded bedroom after long days working in the ER.
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Associate Editor
Kelly Allen is the current Associate Editor at House Beautiful, where she covers design, pop culture, and travel for digital and the print magazine. She’s been with the team for nearly three years, attending industry events and covering a range of topics. When she’s not watching every new TV show and movie, she’s browsing vintage home stores, admiring hotel interiors, and wandering around New York City. She previously worked for Delish and Cosmopolitan. Follow her on Instagram.