If you watch network house restoration shows, you are certainly familiar with Michael and Ashley Cordray’s ‘Restoring Galveston’ where the local Galveston Island couple features homes they renovate and sell. ‘Restoring Galveston’ has returned for a seventh season in November 2024.
Galveston is home to some of the most charming and historic homes. From traditional cottages to majestic homes with grand entrances, pillars, and architectural details, The Cordrays have a niche for spotting hidden gems waiting to be showcased. Michael’s favorite thing to highlight is their beloved city of Galveston. “Galveston is a spectacular town, with so much to offer, always something going on. Still affordable compared to many other coastal communities,” he says. “We’d still be doing this regardless of the production company or not.”
Michael explained while they both have their favorite paint colors and materials to work with, they don’t buy anything in bulk to use over multiple projects. Each project is custom. No pallets of tile or backsplash to save money over time. Each house has its own personalization with their influence. “We’ve already been incredibly involved from the start,” shares Michael. “We have our own unique style and let each house speak for itself.”
During this season’s show, Michael and Ashley worked with the homeowners and took their input and during the renovation process they curated and incorporated their own style pulling it together in the end for a fantastic reveal. Michael explained that the perfect scenario on paper is that timelines are executed and completed on time, not only for the production company, but also for the displaced homeowners, as seen in this most recent season’s episode. In this instance, time certainly was of the essence and the couple made it a priority.
One dynamic in the timeline is of course the challenge of weather emergencies that crop up unexpectedly. Hurricanes can cause issues or delays and rain delays have happened. Fortunately, the couple has not
had major weather-related incidents to overcome over the past eight years, but there are those days when predicted or not, rain happens. Sometimes, the next day is the big house reveal and they might still be painting the exterior of a home. “It does always seem to rain though, the day before a reveal when you need to move everything!”, Michael says laughing.
The couple does not find it challenging to strike a work life family life balance. The successful couple is deliberate about spending time with their family and carving out episodic meaningful time throughout the workday as a result.
Fortunately for Michael and Ashley, Galveston is a smaller community where their projects are not as spread out from various locations, offices, and warehouses. The proximity helps the couple maintain balance and not miss a beat managing their family obligations geographically. Between the hotel, the ice cream shop, and rental properties they manage, and other residential client projects, Michael and Ashley remain very hands-on during the process.
“We are as busy as anyone I know,” says Michael. “Somedays it does not feel that anyone is as busy as we are, but I think we do a really good job of family time. We take the girls to school each morning and
pick them up. Even throughout the day, geographically, Galveston helps us since everything is so close. Sometimes we can come home for lunch with the girls and see the girls before our evening family time.”
From start to finish Michael shared that the project comes together fairly quickly. Typically, the seasons have a longer runway to work with but not this season. While working on one project, the couple is simultaneously looking at purchasing the next eight properties. The couple has always owned their property that they work on. The network stands behind them as the couple collects along the way. Michael admits with a laugh that they face storage issues. From old lumber to old furniture, the couple
buys something and might not have an immediate use for it but know the right project will come up where it will be perfect.
“Ashley's always had the ability to come up with fun ideas; I embrace it, execute it, and fight it sometimes,” Michael joked. “We always roll with our unique style and tend to fight trends.” Michael shared how he and Ashley had different ideas on a current restaurant project underway. He wanted an 80s or 90s vibe, bright color schemes, and Ashley wanted more muted tones, very vintage like a 20s or 30s vibe. As a result, they ended up settling on a 60s 70s theme from a color perspective. The interior still reflects a modern flair.
“A lot of times you go into projects with the best of intentions, but you don’t know what is behind the wall until the drywall comes down,” says Michael. “We’ve seen enough projects to expect the worst and
typically we are pleasantly surprised. Usually, it’s some fun original materials like shiplap or painted beadboard, or something fun that can change the course of the design.”
“One thing we are fluid with is finding something and embracing it, rather than sticking to what we’ve started with and designed on paper,” he says. “We will be sporadic and change on the fly if something
presents itself as a good reason.”
Early Stages
Michael and Ashley both had full-time jobs, they were working on one house themselves, on nights and weekends they were contractors, carpenters, painters, literally doing everything themselves and
simultaneously Michael was posting photos of fun, old rundown Galveston properties and the network was looking for an affordable beach community and that is how they landed the project.
“Somehow, the production company thought that the couple flipping one house could produce a television show and do eight or more at the same time,” shared Michael. “Which still seems crazy, but with my background in sales, we convinced them we could do it, and we have.”
While the couple knows the ins and outs of the industry, there are pivots and situations arise. Many wonder how scripted the episodes we see on t.v. are, and Michael said that usually they wing it. They both know the intricacies they need to talk about but there is no script and the two figure it out as they go along with the viewers. Michael shared that the network films a lot of material, and they spend a lot of time on the projects for what amounts to about 40 minutes of television material.
A past favorite reveal that sticks out with Michael was his mom’s house back a few seasons ago. “It was fun to give back to her,” shares Michael. “She still lives in the same house I was brought home from the
hospital in.” Michael said she would have never done that for herself, and they gave her a new space that she now loves to entertain in.
The Pink Shack episode, one of the couple’s first ones, was a house they bought for next to nothing and everyone told them they overpaid because it was in such disrepair. Some of the projects that are
underdogs are their favorites shared Michael. Everyone sees the potential in some of these types of houses and that’s the fun in it, the underdog ones that often look like they don’t have anything going on,
but then when you peel back some layers you highlight those things and make them special. We love those the most shared Michael.
“Love is the most important ingredient,” says Michael. “It’s like cooking, you add love, and it works out.”
“A lot of times you go into projects with the best of intentions, but you don’t know what is behind the wall until the drywall comes down,” says Michael.
Ashley always had the ability to come up with fun ideas; I embrace it, execute it, and fight it sometimes.
“Love is the most important ingredient,” says Michael. “It’s like cooking, you add love, and it works out.”