Dr. Jackie Walters Shares an Update on Her Home’s Gut Renovation: "It's Hard Living”

Dr. Jackie Walters recently invited Home & Design to her gorgeous Atlanta manse for a tour — but she made it very clear that things were about to change. “This is our new home, which in a few months will be an even newer home,” Jackie told us. “What you see today may not ever be the same because things will be changing.”

Wondering if the renovation has commenced? When we recently caught up with Jackie, she confirmed that the construction is going full steam ahead… and that she’s living in the basement while her house is being gutted!

“So we have no dry walls, we have studs,” she explained. “The addition to the house has been added, so you can’t see anything but studs, and I decided to go on and do the upstairs while at it. So, it’s hard living. I think some of this laryngitis may come from the fact that we’re living in the basement and the dust is finding its way in.”

Yikes! Anyone who’s lived through a major home renovation knows that it can be a soul-breaking process, but that the results are soooo worth it. Jackie is learning this first-hand, and she admitted to us she had no idea how challenging the process would be — or how much she would learn!

“The biggest obstacle I’ve learned is support walls,” she divulged. “You can’t just go in like HGTV and knock it out. You have to put metal beams in. I’ve learned pillars have to go in places. You’ve got lines you can’t cross outside without the city’s approval. You have to get a variance for this and a variance for — it’s a lot. A lot.”

The saying “ignorance is bliss” is certainly apropos in Jackie’s case. “I really thought it was a small undertaking — this is major. I probably should’ve just built a house, but that’s OK. I’m out in the ocean now. I keep looking back to see how I could turn back, but not turning back. Oh god, it’s major.”

We can’t wait to see the results, Jackie. Until then… maybe sleep in that gorgeous office of yours?!