Hi there, I’m Malia!
I’m passionate about keeping things clean, organized, and beautiful.
That’s why here at Successful Home People, you’ll find home organization products & tips, creative & functional DIY projects, and home decor & design inspiration.
So follow along on my journey and hopefully, you’ll find some tips and products that will help you too!
The origin of Successful Home People –
the Name and the Passion
THE SITUATION
In 2020, my husband and I bought our first house and were quickly thrust into the realities of homeownership.
Just two months after moving in, we discovered water seeping up through the kitchen floorboards when we ran the dishwasher.
To troubleshoot the problem we started examining our plumbing, and we noticed the pipes ran behind our cabinetry. That meant to see what the problem was, we’d have to tear out the cabinet backing. After doing that, we found the culprit: a cracked drainage pipe.
Since cabinetry hid the pipe it had gone unnoticed in the home inspection and by the previous owners. Additionally, what looked like years worth of black mold growth covered the pipe. This indicated the pipe had been broken for a very long time.
We had to remediate the mold, which resulted in the company we hired tearing out our sink, dishwasher, stove, and over half our cabinets. That meant we lost having a functional kitchen altogether!
To make matters worse, our insurance refused to cover the costs. This was a problem considering we had just put a downpayment on the house and had basically no savings left to our name. With such limited funds, hiring a contractor was out of the question. We had only one good option left: we’d have to rebuild the kitchen ourselves.
THE RESOLVE
Fortunately, my father-in-law has extensive carpentry and DIY skills and offered to help. He stayed with us for a few weeks, and not only assisted with the rebuild but also taught us how to do it ourselves.
With his guidance, we learned how to demolish tile, rebuild drywall, construct cabinets, lay flooring, and more. We also amassed an impressive collection of tools and gained invaluable DIY skills.
It was during this time that the name “Successful Home People” came into being. One sleep-deprived weekend morning during the seemingly endless rebuild, while headed to Home Depot, my husband sarcastically remarked, “Look at us, we’re successful home people!” We both burst out laughing at the absurdity of the title. It’s a story I’m sure is only funny if you were there, but it has become our mantra ever since.
THE BENEFIT
Overall, it was an intense crash course in homeownership. Although losing our kitchen for several months right after moving in was challenging (at one point during this adventure, we even cleaned a Thanksgiving turkey in the yard!), we are incredibly grateful for the skills, knowledge, and confidence we gained. They now allow us to tackle any home project that pops up or comes our way.
I’m definitely not an expert and am still learning and honing my DIY skills, but I hope you’ll join me on this journey! Together we can become successful home people!
