Some memories, warmth, and the people that are in it

I'm Kyrie Irving and this is My Houzz

I will always be from New Jersey

that's where my father's house is that's where I grew up

It's where I get my attitude from

it's where I get some of my personality from

My dad's name is Drederick

Man, he sacrificed a lot

ultimately gave up his dream to play basketball professionally

He chose to, you know work nine hours a day

a nine to five

And he would divide the time up of working all day

and then teaching me how to play basketball

or dropping my sister off at a dance class

He was really a super dad

I want to do this renovation for my dad

because, you know, he worked his tail off to get the house

and provide for myself and my sister

He deserves it

It's his first house

I think he wanted it to be his only house

That's where I grew up

and I respect him even more for wanting to keep it

But I know that there's always things

that he wants to improve on in the house

My dad's house is great

but I think it's time to see some new looks

and make the house more functional

and I think it should be a little bit more spacious

The dining room is to the right of the living room

the walls are so closed off

and it's definitely something that we just need to open up

From there, you walk through a small door

and enter the kitchen

Definitely fix up the island area as well as the sink

There are a lot of memories of me

being in that kitchen washing dishes all night

and me and my dad having really long talks

My dad has an idea that we're doing something special for him

but he doesn't necessarily know exactly what

He trusts me enough

that I'll get the right team to really fix up the house

I live in Cleveland and my Dad's house is in West Orange, New Jersey

So I turned to Houzz for this renovation

Houzz is the perfect app that has everything you need to get inspired

find a professional, go shopping and get advice all in one place

I went to houzz.com

looked up for local designers in West Orange, New Jersey

and along came Jules

Found her profile looked at some of her designs

I thought that she can find that balance

between modern and traditional

Jules and I scheduled a meeting here in Cleveland

to go over the design ideas for my Dad's house

Before we jump in, I want to ask you

about the "hungry and humble" sign on your wall, tell me about it

It's a mantra that my dad gave me

to really live by through basketball and life

just always having a hunger for more and always striving for perfection

And then humility, it's one of the most important things

that makes me who I am and I developed it from my family

Walking into this kitchen and seeing this wonderful mantra

that means so much to Kyrie

just speaks to how much family means to him

So is there anything you think your dad might really like?

So he loves really old finishes with a modern sense

Okay

You know, as blue is his favourite colour, I think...

Okay

Something to play on with navy

but a little flare of some colours here and there

- That sounds perfect - Yeah

Jules set up an ideabook on Houzz to collaborate from

She can show me different ideas she has

and I can add to what she has already done

Where I think we should start is in the living room

I'll go to the...

- To this one? - Yeah

I picked this picture because of the fireplace

Do you guys use the fireplace quite often?

Yeah, we use it

- Yes, we use it - Which is so nice

A lot of times, yeah

And to have seating around a fireplace

again, it just ties back to this

you know, wonderful tight-knit family that you guys are

and I'd like to highlight that in the space

You know, make it a fresh happy room

I'd like to incorporate a nice rug...

I think he'd like to see that

Okay, well, wonderful

Do you guys entertain?

My dad throws these incredible parties

but people are just going in different spaces in the house

and that's where everybody kind of lounges around

Some of the rooms feel a little closed in

I would love to see more of that light shine into the kitchen

So I'm sort of thinking

what if we could create a larger entrance into the dining room

maybe try to open up that space a little more

Speaking with Kyrie

I feel it's really important to break through some of these walls

It's going to dramatically improve how they function in the house

I really want to embrace that

and warm the dining room up as much as possible

When we have our family gatherings that's where we go all the time

In the dining room

I still want to keep our big table

I think that he would want to maintain

the feeling within that room

Right

And I want to, I want to keep that

One of the things I wanted to talk to you about

for the dining room is a storage piece

I love the idea behind it

I think it will be great for our big party gatherings...

Okay

And things that we're having over at our house

Great

We'll just click Add to Cart and then you just purchase it

and you can either check out or keep shopping

Seems pretty easy

And so one of the things that really struck me with your kitchen

is you have this really small island that has storage in it

That was all my dad's idea

Well, I get the idea...

Nope, that had nothing to do with me

- Nothing to do with me - What did you think of it

I don't sit in the kitchen

I stand in the kitchen

Okay, okay

Just because I know my knees can't get up to the island

Your knees...

Well, you can't get any knees because the countertop ends...

- All his idea - Right, okay

So I'd like to come up with a better solution for him

Me too

And then I would like to incorporate one fixture

that comes down from the ceiling a pendant fixture, in the kitchen

I liked this one for maybe over the island

Always make a statement no matter what

Okay, click on the piece add it to cart, purchase, and voila

So I've got some ideas going on about the kitchen

but one thing that I really wanted to run by you was the tile

Bold navy blue with a hint of orange

I like the design

Artistically, I think people will come in and be like

"Hey, where did you get this tile from?"

which is always a conversation starter

It has a wow factor about it, I like it

So let's get it

When you retire from basketball

you might have a new career ahead of you

I appreciate that, I appreciate that

But that's not gonna be for a super long time

- Yeah, no, no - Okay

Not for a long time

Not for a long time, but thank you

My sister Asia will be taking over the reins with you from here

while I go through my season

So I know she's excited

I can't wait to get Asia's input as well

And it is very, very important

very important that we kinda get this right

Excited

- So nice meeting you - Yes, ma'am

- Thank you - Thank you so much

Really appreciate it

I'm using Asia, my sister

as my other set of eyes and she's in Jersey already

so it works out that she can be close to the project

- Welcome - Thank you

- I'm Jules - Asia

It's a pleasure to meet you

It's a pleasure to meet you as well

Well then, I know you have some great things planned for us

Yeah, yeah

You know what let's start in the kitchen

- Yes, this way - Okay, you lead the way

Okay

We want to make this a really inviting space

because, you know, everyone congregates in the kitchen

which makes it really fun

It does

But I'd love to maybe try to open it up a little more

so you have more of a flow going on

Great idea, I'm excited

Let's take a look at the dining room

and see how we can work that out

Okay

You know, the first thing I noticed

in the dining room coming in is this step

I would love to see that go away

That would be great because a couple of people have tripped over there

Especially during his parties

- Yes - Yeah, yeah

We need to resolve that issue, absolutely

Yes, we do

So, Asia, when we were in the kitchen

we talked about sort of pushing out

This is the wall that we're talking about

I would love to see this wall

just completely open up as much as possible

It's hard to get your head around it

- Yes, it is - It's a major change

But what would happen here is

then you'll have a completely transformed

flow of traffic in this space

And it'll be better

You want to show me the living room?

- Yes - Okay, great, let's take a look

This way

Okay

So we don't really use this room a lot

All right, well we need to change that

Okay

You guys do a lot of socialising at the parties

We do

So we need to accommodate people

for comfortable seating and conversation areas

maybe some new paint colors, opening up the windows

Before you know it

it'll be a room that you guys want to spend so much time in

- I'm excited for that - Okay, good

So I think that this is gonna be a wonderful project

But wait, there's one more room

that I think we should take a look at

This will be a great surprise for the project

- Oh, I love surprises - Yes

- Let's take a look - Oh, excellent

Wow

So this is our trophy room

Tell me why your dad has so much of Kyrie's trophies in here

So he likes to give him his accomplishments

just as a gift to him like, as a thank you

- That's so meaningful - Yes

- That is so meaningful - It is

It's very special

So this is gonna be an awesome transformation

and a really special wonderful surprise

- Yes - So we need to get started

Today is demo day at my Dad's house

Oh, here he is

- Hey, Anthony - Hey, Jules, how are you?

- Great to see you - Good to see you again

I'd like you to meet Asia

- Hi, Anthony, nice to meet you - Hi, Asia

So this is the other side of the wall facing the dining room

We're gonna take the finishes off of here too today

So we'll be able to see right through from one room to the other

and even at that point we'll get a feel of the open space