Remodeling and the single woman

The low-cost remodel of this 1948 Long Beach house has so many things going for it I don't know where to start.

While the hardwood floors were already in pretty good condition when Janet Foster bought this place, everything else you see is her doing, with the help of her dad.

Note the one red wall at the back of the living room, which is suspiciously like the red I just painted my house. The crown moldings that set it off were cut and installed by Janet and her dad.

I love the combination of the flat-screen TV attached to the wall and surrounded by shelves and cabinets. Janet ordered those pieces online, received them in a bundle on her front porch and assembled them herself.

The couches are cool too. While Janet works in Internet technology at a university, she took design classes at UCLA. There, she learned that she could design her own couches and have them made. And so she did.

In the kitchen, the wall between it and a laundry room was taken out to make the kitchen bigger.

As I launch into my own remodeling projects, I find people like Janet inspiring beyond words.

See before photos and the full story.