10 Lessons Learned for Remodeling

After going through two rather large remodels (8+ months on the first and 5 months and counting on this one) I have learned some lessons that might be valuable to anyone considering remodeling.

1. Your feet will be dirty the ENTIRE time. 

I know, you might have a plan to wear your shoes inside, but just wait...one run to the bathroom in the middle of the night and BAM.. filthy feet. No matter how much you sweep, vacuum and mop, the dirt will find you. I always cringe when I look at the bathmat and it gets browner as each family member uses the shower. 

2. The Never Ending Project 

There will be a day when you are sure  that the remodel will NEVER, EVER, EVER end and you will be living in a torn up house forever. I love remodeling so I think this stage hits me later than most, but it does come.

Easter weekend the demo on the kitchen began.

Two weeks ago.

3. The What Ifs...... 

The what ifs are a blessing and a curse. Your house is torn apart and down to the studs--- this is your moment to make changes! I love the what ifs! Some of Matt, Moose, and my best ideas have begun with a what if, but it can bite you in the bum. What ifs can drive up your budget if you stray to far from the original plan.

4. Do a lot of research. 

The first time I remodeled, I had no idea of what I was doing and hadn't really developed my sense of style, much less the confidence to tackle many of the projects I do now. Thankfully, Moose and his wife, Susy, were my saving grace and guided me through the whole venture. This time, I collected lots and lots of pictures and idea boards so that I could share what I was thinking of with out architect and Moose.

Farmhouse Board

Houzz

5. Be realistic about what you will do and what is off limits. 

Matt's "absolutely not" is anything to do with electricity. I speculate it has something to do with an electrical fire he had at his house as a teenager. Ask him about it. It is a good story! 

I still haven't conquered my fear of using power tools that can easily cut off your fingers. I need to work on this because it would open up a whole new world on what I can do while Matt is at work. 

6.  Surprises

Just resign yourself to the fact that there will be surprises. Surprises that end up impacting your budget. Matt is awake at 3 AM thinking about this. I am awake then thinking about design ideas (what ifs) and thinking about all the stuff we need to do. The blessing is that usually C or N are often in bed with us and have their feet in your face or squishing you on to 6 inches of the bed so you wouldn't be sleeping anyway. 

7. Plan for your fur babies. 

This time we just have our little cat Rosabelle and she spends her day under our bed while work is going on. I don't have to worry about her much, but when Lucy was alive it was another story. She was well known for walking across freshly laid tile (ignoring everyone's horrified gasps and desperate calls to get off). She ate spacers out of the tile walls when they were going up and basically was frequently in the way. We tried to keep her safe and out of trouble, but that took some planning. We were always brainstorming a Lucy Containment Area. 

8. There will be 70 billion decisions---really! 

Matt often comes home and asks what got done today? I think that he thinks I am exaggerating when I say "Moose and I talked about switches for 2 hours!" Matt says "How is that possible?" I will tell you how! All those switches are connected to lights and that leads to a thousand possibilities. Do you want the vanity lights and the overhead lights to come on at once with one switch? Do you want two switches? Do you want the switches right here on this side of the door or over here? What are you thinking of for bedroom lights? Do you want two switches on either side of the bed? How about when you walk in the room? And it goes on and on.... Then one of us will forget what we decided so Moose and I go through it again.

9. Privacy

Perhaps this one should be #1 and I am just grossly desensitized... choose people who you can basically live with for months on end because privacy will end when construction begins. I am pretty sure that Moose and Michael have seen all my bras and underwear (there is no where to put anything so clothes are stacked, well, everywhere), but they are so wonderful to pretend that they haven't.

There have been times that they have unloaded the wet clothes from the washing machine and started the dryer before disconnecting everything. They both try to give us as much privacy as possible, but most bathrooms around here don't have walls.

This one is big. Last time some creep stole my underwear out of my laundry basket. Yes, that happened. We speculate it was the drywallers. I asked Moose if he had a different team for this job before we even began. 

10. Wildlife and Dust

It might just be flies or a foreign cat that gets in the house scaring the who-haw out of you in the middle of the night, but the wildlife always gets in. 

Not that different than the wildlife is the the dust/ floating crap. It is standard operating procedure to always wash anything you are going to use, even if you just did it. The dust/dirt/construction crud/ has super powers beyond anything I have ever seen in any other setting. It spreads, it seeps, it sneaks into the smallest openings. I have learned to adjust my standard of clean and not let it make me crazy. 

Happy Fourth of July! 

The 4th is a fan favorite around here! Some people had to break out the decorations early, ie still in their jammies. Hope you have a great day!

In case you need Matt, he will be manning his typical 4th of July station (standing in the backyard scanning for possible fires with the garden hose close by), I really can't blame him since some kids lit the back side of our old lot on fire with fireworks. It was a big, scary fire. Two years later, different kids caught the roof of our neighbor's house on fire. 

I am beginning to think I have married into a family that has some sort of weird fire curse.