Hurricane Kimble: Controlled Chaos of Building A New Home From Scratch

Kimble takes us inside the controlled chaos of building a new home from scratch — in a new city, with a new person, and a lot less square footage than she started with. From midnight sketches on graph paper to a chance encounter at a Greek restaurant, what started as a nesting project turned into a full community. This is what reckless optimism looks like when it gets buried in boxes.

In This Episode

• Kimble unpacks the real cost of reckless optimism — literally — as two households collide into 1,200 fewer square feet in a brand new city
• A 3 AM graph paper sketch kicks off a bedroom build 
• A solo drive, a Greek restaurant called Chris', and a stranger's "Welcome home" set off a chain of coincidences that connects Kimble to her entire design team
• The baby blue 12x12 room that became the podcast studio you're watching from right now

Transcript

Kimble: Beginnings are a magical and reliable constant. There's a newness, an excitement to fresh starts.

They're all the things that encourage and enable reckless optimism, curiosity, learning, adventure. And so, as I drove up to the new house, and so did the two, yes two, full moving trucks. I was impatient to get started in this new place.

Even though Mommy and I paid for unpacking , and packing our two households that we were combining into one, even though we had a huge yard sale at both places and seemingly appropriately consolidated downsizing our belongings over the months before we moved. It soon became clear that nesting was the first order of business. And we had lots of storage in the new house, which is a good thing. We kept the meticulously labeled bins that The Home Edit and A Fresh Face had used in my old home.

Also a good thing. But where would they go? How would we organize the decidedly different new space, to be our new home?

Now we arrived here the third week of September.

It was about exactly two years After-Boz. And we figured this space out mostly by December or January.

We had moved roughly, three quarters of what we had unpacked. We had gone through each house individually and decided what would get scaled down, what would get sold, what we could live without.

And here we were with all this stuff, and we had to figure out a way to fit those things into 1,200 square feet less, than what we started with.

We had not pared down enough. And it was a really good thing that we approached this new chore with reckless optimism, because otherwise it would have sucked.

Kitchen stuff was the easiest. And really it had to be done first 'cause girls gotta eat

The storage was so different. We didn't have that big old pantry. I'm gonna put an extra video of that big old pantry just 'cause it needs to be memorialized, it was something special. There was a lot of storage in this new kitchen, but it was drastically different. And we no longer had those magical organizers, so we had to do this ourself.

That hurt my head a little bit. But we did it, and we undid it, and we redid it. And finally, we got to a place where it looks pretty damn good. Nobody's going hungry. Now, it's possible that some of the things will expire before we find where they're hiding. But it's mostly okay. The other rooms were similarly challenging. The big stuff was obvious, but the details were tricky.

In hindsight, it seems much less daunting now than it did when we were buried in boxes, and 400 yards of The Container Store packing paper and struggling to locate the things we needed. I learned from a feng shui expert a long time ago, I think this was house two that I ever flipped, maybe three. She told me that you have about two years for your momentum of  moving in to wear off, and at that point, you learn to live with the things that are problems. I took that to heart, and I have never been willing to let it get to that two years.

I want the space to be done. I want to feel settled and calm and zen in my space, and I was not about to settle in this one. I was gonna fix the problem. So my Gen X nesting list was treated like most obstacles I am determined to overcome. I broke it down into the things that would kill me, they were my top priority, the things that would steal from me, oh, hell no. The things that distract me from my goals, and the lessons I've already learned.

Some of those things were huge.

For instance, when moving into Wilmington, North Carolina, I was warned about forever chemicals in our water. And so immediately we purchased a home water purifier. Best buy ever.

Now even the hose water is filtered and chemical free, and you know I love to drink from a hose. Things that steal from me. The security system, also important, also handled within the first week of moving in.

But let's be honest, the best part of nesting is creating sanctuary spaces. The welcoming dining room where family and friends will gather. The cocoon bedroom that closes out the world and ushers in a restful mode for a deep sleep. The bathroom spa space.


Well, I got a little ahead of myself, and I have already unboxed my first gift from one of our fabulous suppliers, Primeline. Primeline knows that I only travel in style. Now, it's going to be getting much hotter here in the coming months, but our current theme is the winter and the cozy, and the lovely and the comfortable.

So it was only  appropriate that I would have one of the puffy bags that has been so popular this season. Now, you may not know me, but you should know this. When I put a logo on something, I try to put a message, not just a logo. So this particular bag has my favorite saying on it, which is NOPE, and it is very subtle, just like me.

NOPE all the things that are wrong with this world. NOPE the things that will kill you, the things that steal from you, the things that distract you from your goals and the lessons that you have already learned. NOPE, NOPE, NOPE, NOPE. Now, I have been putting NOPE on things for a long, long time, but now I am sharing them with some folks.

This particular bag, for people of a larger stature than myself, would be an amazing lunch bag. Why is this important? Why is this chum, not swag? Well, this is chum, not swag, because lunch bags imply that you are going somewhere enjoyable for lunch. It is taking your show on the road and keeping it fresh.

Now, that is what I do all the time. I take your show on the road, and I keep it fresh. So why not live that message through this bag? There you have it. Chum, not swag. It is usable. It is portable. It goes to the places that I am going, to the heights that I will rise to. It is all the things.

This is one of Petunia's Picks.

Now, I woke up at 3:00 AM one morning, relatively soon after moving in, looking at this huge blank, white, vaulted ceiling wall of my primary bedroom. Frustrating. I grabbed a pad of graph paper that I always have sitting next to my bedside table, and I sketched out the perfect hotel-inspired wall of storage, vanity, and entertainment.

Now all I needed was someone to build it.

I call around, I check the best of Wilmington. I got myself a quote. I called my realtor for a recommendation on someone to build it, got a quote from them. Now, from my flipping days, I usually get three quotes. I felt pretty good about things so far, but I still needed that third  quote. And then the strangest thing happened.

I'm gonna take you back, try to explain this the best that I can. It's a little complicated, so just follow me here, okay? We're a week into living in Wilmington. I have these grand plans. I have a couple of handymen that I've gotten from my realtor, and they're working on the dog gate for the front porch and filling in the missing section of fence.

Those are easy things that didn't cost a lot of money, and we certainly got a good deal from the realtor's recommendation. But this big old wall, spa, hotel-inspired, storage magic, was gonna need to be really special. So there I am, and I'm walking down the street to this place called the Cargo District, which is fabulous and everybody should visit that.

And we walked into this lovely little shop. It was called Sherry and Carmin Black, or Carmin and Sherry Black. And it was home goods, a little bit of clothing, and there was a little design shop on the inside. And man, I walked in there and I just fell in love with all the aesthetic of all the things. And so I started talking to the owner.

And she whispers in my ear as I'm about to leave, "Hey, we're closing the shop on Saturday, so everything's gonna be 50% off." So as I do, I made myself a little list, and I was coming back on Saturday, and I was gonna shop that 50% off sale. Now, Carmin, the person I had been talking to, pointed out this lovely wooden spool thing that was sitting in the shop.

And so the first thing I bought on  Saturday when I came back, she called her mama, Sherry, and she got a price from her on this thing, and it was very reasonable. And so I asked her, to bring it on by. I was gonna get this thing delivered because it weighs a fuck ton, and that is an actual measurement term.

And she, because it weighed a fuck ton, needed to enlist the help of her brother. Now imagine my surprise to find out that her brother is a carpenter. He owns a company called Kind Carpentry, in Wilmington. So I hear this and I say, "Well, when he comes, have him bring his notepad. I would like to get a quote on this spa-inspired bedroom magic."

And so she brings him by to help her carry the spool. And we go and we take a look at that wall, and here's the thing about some of the other quotes I got. They came in, they looked at what I drew, hand-drawn on graph paper. They worked out the materials price. They didn't ask a whole lot of questions. We figured we'd get into that during the build process, 


World famous social media maven mascot Proforma Petunia here. I have been doing some more unboxing today. In my quest for chum, not swag, I have encountered yet another comfy slipper. Slippers are the footwear selection of the year for 2026. I've showed you before the Kozi Sherpa Slippers. These here are Kanata Group's Komfi Slippers.

Now, these are perfect for those days around the house or the office, where you just need a little slip-on to remind you that you are here and comfortable and worth it, and to remind you of your favorite message, "NOPE."

The slipper is so far and away superior to the high heel or the restrictive boots. It keeps your feet warm, in soft comfort.

It's easily removed or replaced on your feet with no pesky shoelaces, or Velcros or whatever closure you may be into. Let's keep it simple, people. Slip on, slip off, easy message. That, my friends, is chum, not swag.

You heard it here first.

Thank you, Kanata Group, for such an amazing job you have done this year on your slipper selections.

You have made this winter more bearable.

And they quoted me the wall.

What Christian Black,. did was take out his iPad and translate my drawing, make a couple modifications based on reality, which sometimes me and graph paper cannot conceive of,  and then he came back to me with an estimate. Now, the thing is, when I do business with somebody, that extra effort means a lot. If you were to measure it in weight terms, it might be a fuck ton. And so I was not gonna take...

His price was higher, but I was not gonna take his recommendations, which I truly fell in love with, and take them back to another person who had just taken the time to give me a reasonable quote and get them to do the modifications. The only fair and right thing to do was to use Kind Carpentry, and so I did.

And so here I am. I have brother and sister. I have bought a bunch of housewares from the shop  as it was clothing and a little bit- uh, closing and a little bit of clothing. I have made friends with Carmin 'cause she's the nicest human being I have met on this planet, and I now have her carpenter brother building my bedroom space, which I will show you in a minute.

It's pretty fabulous. And then I say, "Well, hey, Sherry," person we got the spool table from who I've not met yet, "is a designer, right?" And Carmin says, "Yes." And I say, "Great, then I would like to have her come and take a look at this space-" And get me a quote and some ideas on how to build that out. At the time, this was a baby blue poorly laid out, office space that needed to be turned into a 12 by 12 podcast studio.

And so we scheduled for Sherry to come in the next week.

Now sometime in that week I had been driving around town and I was coming back from an appointment I was having a bad day, as I do. Hell, I'm still mourning. You can tell me that two and a half years is long enough, but it is not. It will hit you like a ton of bricks. And as I'm driving back, I decide I'm gonna inject a little joy into my life.

I'd been here for a few weeks, and I had not yet had a lot of meat because my vegan mother and I had gone out discovering all the vegan restaurants in town. But I had not gone out and discovered any restaurants for meat. So I'm going to drive around the Cargo District area, and I'm gonna find myself a restaurant.

And as I pull up to this light, I see across the corner Chris' Restaurant. Now, I don't call him Chris all the time, but Boz's official name was Christopher, and he was frequently called Chris. And so I took this as a sign, and I drove my happy ass into the parking lot and decided to figure out what Chris' Restaurant was all about.

I swear this story is rambling, but it is going to a place. I promise you. It may go a little ADD route, but it's going to a place. So I walk into the restaurant. I'm like, "I wonder what kind of food Chris' Restaurant has."

Well, I am greeted at the door by this lovely Greek woman who explains to me that it is primarily Greek food, which is one of my favorites, and completely brings me back to my Greek grandmother cooking for me when I would go and visit her in Florida, which was a lot.

Now, nobody can touch my Grandma K's cooking, but I was willing to give this a shot. Let's see how Chris of Chris' Restaurant could do. So she told me, she looks around the restaurant, she says, "I want you to just pick any place you wanna sit." There's a wall of booths. There's some tables in the middle.

There's a big table with a bunch of folks at it to my left, and then there's the view to the kitchen, and then a little private meeting room. Lovely place. I took the booth in the corner. There's a little round table with one lady sitting at it next to me, and she turns to me and she says, "Welcome home."

Now, that's kind of strange. This is a stranger, but nobody in North Carolina is really a stranger, I have learned, which I love. And I say, "Home." She goes, "Yep, we're all friends here. Everybody comes back again and again and again." My favorite kind of restaurant. And I did have myself some pastitsio, and I see why the people come back again and again.

And I had myself a very simple Greek salad, which was lovely. And as I was sitting, eating, I was observing. I do that. And I noticed the lady at the table next to me who had welcomed me is talking to a lady in black at the table beside her, and the conversation turns to a cheetah pelt, I told you this was weird.

A strange series of events. And she mentions that the cheetah pelt is out in her car, and the lady says, "Bring in the cheetah pelt. I have a client who might wanna take a look at it." And so she brings in the cheetah pelt as I am checking out at the counter and about to be on my way. And I thought that was the end of that And I asked the proprietor if I could take a little video of the place for the podcast, and I did, and I got this great little pan of the room with all the people in it, just so I could remember this odd experience.

Fast-forward to the following week, when my appointment shows up at my door, and we're getting to know each other, just sitting on the couch downstairs and talking about the space, and we're about to go upstairs and walk around the space, and Sherry says to me, "So what do you think about Wilmington so far?"

And I raved about it. I said, "I've been coming to the area for 30-something years, so it's not new to me, but living here is new to me, and what I'm always amazed at is how kind the people are." And then I started to tell her about this story at Chris's restaurant. And I mentioned how the server had given me her phone number in case I needed to make some new friends and wanted to go out.

She was newly broken up and had a lot of time on her hands, and so I had a new friend. And I told her about the lady and the cheetah pelt, and she looked at her assistant, and she laughed, and she said, "Kimble, that was me. I was the lady in black who was trying to help the lady sell the cheetah pelt." And that is how I became friends with the entire Black family.

And we are still friends, and they are still showing me these lovely things around Wilmington, but what you should know is that this, that you see around you, is the result of Sherry's fabulous work. Now, we went through some iterations of the curtains, some delays on the wallpaper, because apparently this entire design of the wallpaper on the ceiling was discontinued.

But there were so many inquiries about it to Marimekko when we were going through all the different design houses that might have a little extra. They kept calling to figure out about this wallpaper. They, they actually reinstated the design so we could buy this stuff, so that's pretty cool. Some of the things in here are old, some of the things in here are IKEA.

Some of the things were assembled and kind of hacked and customized by my handyman people. And all in all, it is a perfect space and has become what I've always wanted it to be, which is this relatively soundproof, relatively cozy, flattering on your skin if I do say so  myself, podcast studio. And you will notice the art on the walls.

Most of it is from my friend Jennifer Quigley. Who now lives in Pennsylvania, originally from that area by way of Detroit and Nashville. We became friends, and she's another one of those people I have kept and will definitely come on the podcast one of these days when we can get some time to get together.

And now I'm gonna take you on a little tour of the place, show you what this nesting worked out to.

Come along with me.