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Woman surprises grandparents with $ 10,000 bathroom renovation after traveling (exclusive)



Need to know

  • In April 2025, Barbara Polo, 70, and Octavio Cruz, 73, took a two -week trip to Cuba to sell their long -standing family home
  • When the couple returned to Miami they were in a huge shock
  • Their granddaughter, Nicole Chuarey, renovated their bathroom while they were gone

When a Miami pair went to a two-week trip to Cuba, they expected to return home to things just as they had left them.

What they didn’t expect was a full -blown Bathroom transformation – With the permission of their grandchildren.

Behind the scenes, a whirlwind renovation is underway, all driven by love, gratitude and a race against the clock.

“Honestly, I just wanted to give back,” Nicole Chuarey, their 24-year-old grandchildren, tells people. “My grandparents gave up so much when they left Cuba – their home, their lives – just so we could be close to their family here.”

“I wanted to do something that would make them feel special, something that showed them how much they still mean to all of us,” she adds.

Although Barbara Polo, 70 and Octavio Cruz, 73, hated their old, broken bathroom, they were not the kind of people to complain or ask for shiny new things. While the couple traveled back to Cuba in early April to sell their long -standing family home, Chuaire had to work.

Octavio Cruz, 73, and Barbara Polo, 70, left for 2 weeks to Cuba and returned to a bathroom surprise.

Nicole Cuaire


“They had no idea what we did. Not a clue,” Chuarey reveals. “They left to think that everything at home would be the same when they came back. We literally competed the clock to finish it before they got home.”

Although having two weeks the job was not easy. The project involved to throw away the bathroom, replacing trays, fixing outdated plumbing and installing all new fixtures. What started as a simple surprise was quickly turned into a large production.

“Two weeks – which sounds like a lot until you rip out trays, fix pipes, run to Home Depot every five minutes and try to keep everything secret,” she admits. “It felt like a reality show behind the scenes.”

Nicole Chuairey, her husband and her grandparents.

Nicole Cuaire


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Fortunately, the renovation was not a solo act. Chuaire’s husband helped, and they hired a craftsman and plumber to handle the more technical jobs. In the middle of the demolition, her mother became the remediation crew. “She literally wiped down dust while we still installed things,” she reminds. “It wasn’t just a construction project – it turned into the whole family’s moment.”

Time restrictions, mess, sleepless nights and budgetary barriers pressed all Chuarey and her team to their boundaries. “It was nights that we cleaned until 1 pm and tried to find out if plumbing would even work,” she says. “Besides, the financial side – it was a big stretch for us. But we continued to think about how my grandparents would feel when they saw it, and it kept us going.”

The total cost of The bathroom amounted to about $ 10,000But for Chuarey and her family it was money well. “It was not easy to pull off, but honestly, to make them feel loved and proud of their home again was invaluable,” she shares. “You can’t put a number on that kind of happiness.”

After Chuarey published the online renovation, some viewers questioned their design choices, such as the absence of security bars, given the age of the homeowners. “At first I completely cheated. I saw the first comment and immediately called my mother who,” Oh my God, we crushed? “, She says.

“But the real story is that my grandparents hated these bars. They wanted them to be gone but could not remove them themselves,” adds Chuarey. “We designed the bathroom based on what they wanted, not what people on the internet thought they needed.”

In the end Big Reveal made everything worthwhile. “To begin with, my grandmother thought we were just decorating. Then she paused, really looked around and just gipy,” she reminds. Her grandfather was stunned that everything had been done in just two weeks.

After seeing their grandparents in the recently completed space, Chuarey knew that the effort had paid off. “Seeing them smile like that – it made every dust, every stressful moment, completely worth it.”





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