Over the past few weeks, my handy hubby and I have been working on a variety of long-overdue house projects. Of course, we have enlisted the help of our rather handy children (they have grown up in a DIY environment and have often learned how to do various jobs alongside us.)
The biggest and most needed job we did these past few weeks was rip out the very outdated carpet from each of the three bedrooms in our home and replace it with a durable laminate plank floor. This job alone made each room feel cleaner and smell tremendously better! (I hate to admit that the carpet was absolutely DISGUSTING!)
In the early days, we often had to divide and conquer as the children were too small to help or simply be left unattended. Nowadays, we each get a task (or several) to complete in a set time frame. We often try to make a detailed schedule, especially if tasks overlap a specific location (i.e., painting and flooring in the same room.)
Each time we complete a DIY project around our home (and previous homes over the years,) we learn something new to add to our list of renovation knowledge. We have made, and still make, many mistakes on projects, but in theory we are getting better at this whole DIY thing. Possibly (and this may be overstepping a few lines, so bear with me) we are getting to the point where we can share a few of our learned tips so others can benefit from them!
So, here goes….
RENO TIPS from The Average DIY-ers
- MAKE A PLAN: I somewhat mentioned this above, and in other posts on other topics, but always start by making a detailed list of the project you are wanting to complete, a list of tools or items needed to complete the job, and a timeline of when things should roughly take place. Be generous with time and equipment, as it is much better to have extra than not enough!
- HAVE A BUYING DAY: Taking the list from above, spend an entire day purchasing and organizing the items bought once you get home. Do not rush through the store; check over your list several times; be thorough in this step. Goodness, even stand in the middle of the store for a few minutes prior to checking out to think through all that is in your cart and may have been forgotten about. (We have been known to do this on many, many occasions.)
- BUY GOOD QUALITY ITEMS: This is something we have learned the hard way (actually, all of the tips I am sharing have been learned the hard way…) Often times, when we are working on a project, especially a larger one, we know we have a lot of things to purchase, so we try to save money in any way we can. From buying a lesser expensive flooring style as opposed to the gorgeous one, to reusing supplies that we have saved from previous projects. (To do this well, we have started an inventory list for our shop so we can know what saved tools and equipment we have left over from other projects.) But, the biggest thing we have learned in this is while it is okay to skimp on some things, not everything cheaper is better. In our most recent painting project, I learned the very hard way that buying the cheapest paint is the worst idea every. (On what planet would anyone need to paint a space with scratchable, NOT-durable paint?! See video below for more info!) Spending less than $10 more would have provided a much better paint option that will not be ruined by a sneeze…
- SET A REALISTIC TIMELINE: In our biggest project to date, we advantageously set our timeline to a significantly unrealistic 1 week. We “planned” for my hubby to be off work (actually in between jobs) for that time and figured we could do. it. all. in 7 days. Nope. Guess how long that project ended up taking? More like 3, and some little things that continued on for many days after. Now we plan several extra days in any of our projects, knowing that what’s behind the walls often eats up more time than we can see.
- ENLIST HELP: Now that our kids are older (and on their way to being bigger than me!) they are fully capable of doing some heaving lifting during projects. We can even task them with an entire job, knowing they will be able to do it. But there are some projects that we either can’t do without help from friends or from professionals. Knowing when to ask for help or hire help is a great way to save your back and still get the job done!
RENOVATION VIDEOS
Check out our most recent reno projects in the videos below!
RENO BLOG POSTS
Interested in reading about some of our projects at our “farmhouse”? Check out the posts below!
