Spring 2020 One Room Challenge here we come! We have long enjoyed watching all the Featured designers and thought this was our chance to get in on the fun as a guest participant.

For Season 2 of our DIY Network show Big Texas Fix, there will be an episode featuring the renovation of the 1921 Paganucci Corner Store. The old Galveston corner stores used to be lively neighborhood assets and have always sparked our interest. This location felt like the perfect place to bring back the Cordray Drugstore, which operated from 1918 to 1965, long gone from the corner of 15th and Post Office!

COVID 19 has posed many issues with the reopening of Cordray Drugstore, which will feature our take on an old fashioned sandwich and ice cream shop. In an effort to not let any grass grow under our feet (as anyone who knows us would expect), we have decided to move forward and begin work on the upstairs living quarters of the store!

Though I can’t say what our plans are just yet (you’d never guess) for this space I can promise all will be revealed by the end of the One Room Challenge and it’s huge news!

So if you’ve stuck around this far, it’s time to get to the meat and potatoes of the challenge – the room. At some point the owners of this building closed in a back porch and made this area the kitchen. It’s a small space and doesn’t have much going for it at all. It’s dirty, dated and ready for some love.

This project will be budget friendly, and we want to make sure to incorporate DIY projects that you can do in your own home even if you don’t want to demo and start over! My mom always said she was only capable of stapling, taping and gluing (no sewing). True story…she once super glued my sisters underwear! As you can probably imagine it didn’t go well! ❤️ you mom! We plan to do plenty of projects my mom could do….so you can too!

Paired with butcher block counters this project will stay on budget. But what is the budget!?! No idea! We plan to use as much stuff from our garages and storage units as we can to save money (for purposes of tracking we will say what items cost). We may even reuse the biscuit colored sink currently in the kitchen (against Michael’s wishes). Another solid plan I have to make this project affordable is to keep the tan 12×12 tile. This is a common tile we run across and I’m set on making a beautiful kitchen including this tile!

Unfortunately for this kitchen the cabinets are all particle board and have received a ton of humidity and water damage. They have to go. The biggest budget spend will be cabinets, but we will be using the unfinished cabinets from off the shelf at Home Depot for this project. These definitely aren’t top of the line AT ALL, but they will work for this space and can fit into almost any budget you may have! Make sure to follow Save 1900 on Instagram and Facebook because we are going to let you make some choices along the way including the cabinet paint color and more!

All updates and day to day working on the project will be on Instagram and FB posts and stories. So ready? Set. Go! 8 weeks to finish and we want your help with the design decisions. We got this.

12 Comments

  1. Paul

    Great Post!

  2. Morgan

    Can’t wait to see what y’all come up with! How exciting!

    • Ashley Cordray

      You need to get back so we can have our film girl

  3. Elaine

    You two!!! We have to limit watching your show to one a day so it lasts longer. Our new favorite home duo!! You make us want to move to Galveston and be your helpers. Haha

    • Ashley Cordray

      Come on down to Galveston! It’s a great place to live or just vacation. Thanks for following along!

  4. Lar

    Where are you guys, been waiting! Nothing to do with Mr. Virus out there.
    Wow great show!

  5. Barbara

    Dying for Season 2! Any date yet for when it starts airing?

    • Anonymous

      ME TOO!!!

  6. Jullie White

    We love GALVESTON and vacation there at our condo every December!! We just ran across your show while working on our own house in Arkansas…. binge watching!!!!! Hope to run into y’all around town in December;)

  7. MatthewLak

  8. Debbie Young

    So I can watch this one room challange episode by episode? I know this sounds ridiculous but where and how can I do this? Have FB but not instagram, I’m an old CA grandma who isn’t very tech savy. xo

  9. Eliscia

    Can’t wait to see the completed project! Thank you for sharing and promising to make it easy for us glue staple, tape people! ❤