Over the past several years, we have completed A LOT of renovation projects. In case you didn’t know, Bradley and I decided to buy a total fixer upper, and then during the closing process, we found out that I was pregnant. 🙂 Our timeline was definitely altered when we found out this “small” piece of information, which is why it has taken us much longer than we originally planned. We have learned a lot during our various house projects, and I feel like I could write 100 posts on this topic. After a lot of experiences and learnings throughout these projects, I have come up with a list of 5 questions that you should ask yourself before you decide to renovate. We have loved the challenge, but these are things you should seriously consider prior to making any major renovation commitments:
Are you planning on living at home during the construction process? If your answer is yes, then you need to prepare for the fact that your home life is going to temporarily change DRASTICALLY! Be prepared for a constant mess, and dust EVERYWHERE! If you think that I am kidding, then please see below:
Yes, this is how we lived for MONTHS AND MONTHS!! I am so pleased with the results, but I am not going to lie…..it was very hard at times! It seemed like just when you cleaned up a room, something else would cause it to get dirty again. Below is a picture of when we added casing to our various doorways throughout the house. Not only was there a mess in the floor, but it got dust throughout the entire bottom floor of our home. To read more on this process, then click HERE.
How long do you think the renovation will take? Whatever number you come up with, you should add about 20 percent – lol. For example, we were told that our kitchen would be done by July 26th. As you know, we are almost to September and it still isn’t completely done (sigh…..). Although we do have a new fully functional kitchen, we are still waiting on a few of the doors to arrive that are being replaced. There is some minor work (caulking around the trim, finishing the floor trim, etc…) that needs to be done, so the construction crew wants to do it all at once in conjunction with the doors. This can be super frustrating for impatient people, so make sure you are okay with a longer timeline before you sign up for any type of renovation project. For more on our kitchen renovation, click HERE and HERE.
Below is showing our dining room renovation, when we were deciding on how the paneling should fit on the walls. With two engineers trying to agree on a design, it is safe to say that it took some time!!! 🙂 We went through repeated iterations of various looks, with lots of measuring and cutting!!! If you want to see more on our dining room renovation, then click HERE.
Luckily, it all worked out and we ended up with this final design:
If you are renovating a bathroom, please be prepared for the fact that you will be short a bathroom for an extended period of time!!! I know this seems obvious, but this can really affect your home life if you don’t have many bathrooms. Our “pretty powder room” took MUCH longer than we thought, which meant we didn’t have a functional bathroom on the main floor of our home for A LONG TIME! Below is an in-process shot, but if you want to read more on the transformation, then click HERE!!!
I LOVE the final product, but this project took FOREVER to finish (yes, that is a painting of my dog in the mirror’s reflection – LOL)!!!
How much work really needs to be done? Speaking from experience, I can almost assure you that there will be more work in the end than you originally thought. Does wiring need to be relocated, will your existing floor have to be altered with a new cabinet addition, etc??? Plans rarely go perfectly, so make sure you are aware that most any “simple” renovation project is much more complex than people think.
For example, during our kitchen replacement, we kept the wall color the same as before (below), to reduce the amount of “work” that was required. However, as soon as they patched the walls from taking down the former backsplash, this Mommy still had to get out her paint can and perform some major touch ups!!!
Also, during Madeline’s closet renovation, we thought that it was going to be super easy. It actually took quite a bit of time, due to the drying time of the paint and dry wall. If you want to see more on this closet transformation, then click HERE!
This took SO MUCH longer than I originally thought (it was also, unfortunately, much more expensive)!!!!
The final product is below:
What are your plans for your pets and/or children? Luckily, most of our major renovation was done while I was pregnant. However, we did have our sweet Lucy to deal with during the first stages of our renovation process. Overall, she didn’t really mess with much, with the exception of the painting drop cloth. If you don’t believe me, then take a look below:
Lucy also typically liked to pose in front of all of her hard work during picture taking time! LOL!! 🙂
If you do have pets and/or children who tend to get into things, then you need to really think about how you are going to deal with this during your projects. You definitely do not want them to get into anything that could get them hurt, so please plan ahead!
What is your budget? If you listen to nothing else that I tell you, then PLEASE listen to this….extra items WILL come up, so your project will cost more than you originally planned!!!! Make sure and have some padding in your budget to cover these added expenses!!! You never know what you will find hiding when you start tearing down walls or even adding cabinets.
An unplanned expense that we had to deal with was the wallpaper in the powder room. Although only the top half of the room was papered, we still ran out of paper at the very end (we were SO CLOSE to being done). Of course, the paper only came in double rolls, which meant we had to spend A LOT of extra money just to get the extra paper – BOO! We also had to special order the extra roll, which took about an extra two weeks to arrive.
For those of you who are curious, below is the paper we went with from Thibaut. I will warn you that it is on the expensive side, but their paper is absolutely beautiful in person. I would totally recommend this line if you only need paper for a small area.
All in all, I am very happy with the work we have done with our home. However, I want to stress to you the fact that you will be making some short term sacrifices for the long term reward. Make sure you recognize these sacrifices on the front end to avoid lots of frustration on the back end of your project! 🙂 Happy Renovating!!!
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