Q: You’re putting time and energy into this “temporary” job for your bathroom (not to mention some money), so why not just go ahead and do the full gut job? I know you guys watch money really well, but isn’t this not the most cost-effective in the long-run? :) – Karen
A: This is a great question, and we thought it would be fun to elaborate on the subject. Because it’s safe to say that we love saving a buck, but we also like showing an old house some love and making it feel like home, so here’s our take. First of all, I think a lot of people think like Karen does – in fact we had that same exact instinct when we moved into our first house. It was so tempting to just to freeze a room until we had the budget to completely redo it.
But we slowly learned that sometimes a small “sweat investment” in the form of a few upgrades to tide you over for a year or two until you can save up the loot to fully redo a room (and really think it through) is completely worth the Phase 1 effort and the small amount of money you might sink into that interim upgrade. And sometimes doing a few small things to improve a space before diving into a bigger redo can actually save you money because they give you a chance to (inexpensively!) figure out what you like and what you don’t like as you go. It can definitely cost you more if you don’t discover those things until the middle of a big gut job when time is money and the stakes are a lot higher.
Let’s take our current bathroom makeover, where we’re aiming to spend around $100-200 on a Phase 1 makeover.
We got to the point where we just couldn’t live with the old carpet in there for another day, so to us, showing the room some interim love just made a lot more sense than living with things that made us groan for a few more years. Especially since inexpensive updates like a few cans of paint and a new mirror (which can always be used in another room down the line) can easily make it a lot more pleasant in there. Note: this is just a photoshopped rendering of our plans, but next week we hope to have the floors stenciled!
Why not just get to gutting things right away? Well, we learned all the way back in our first house (even before we started blogging) that doing a full renovation when you only live somewhere a few months means you might not have time to think everything through. For example, it took us over a year of living with our first kitchen to realize that if we closed off a door we’d gain 70% more counter space. Had we rushed into a renovation, we never would have come up with that plan – so we’d have new counters and cabinets – but the same cramped layout that we started with.
Soon after moving in we did a Phase 1 makeover while we saved up for a more major reno down the line. Just some paint on the cabinets and peel and stick tile on the floors (along with updating a few appliances that we reused when we fully redid the room). Let me just tell you, it was so worth enjoying a somewhat updated kitchen for that time (during which we got married in the backyard and had 75 of our friends and family over). Sure, we spent a weekend painting the cabinets, another weekend updating the floor, and dug into our savings for about $150 just for Phase 1 (that’s a guess at the total cost for the primer, paint, and the peel & stick tile) but the “return” on that money & time investment was that for over a year we got to walk into a room that felt fresher, cleaner, and more like us, instead of feeling stuck or frozen in the before shot for over a year.
When we had finally saved up the money – and had fully thought it through – we got to renovate that kitchen and ended up loving the outcome. It was completely worth the small time/effort up front for a Phase 1 update while we saved our pennies, and the fact that we ended up with a completely redone space that we adored (with a lot more function than anything we could have slapped together right away after moving in) definitely confirmed that this phase-by-phase, over-time method just seems to work for us.
The same thing happened in our full bathroom at that first house of ours. We started with this carpeted and crocheted space…
… and we did some simple updates like pulling up the carpeting, re-caulking things, adding some paint, and bringing in some sweet art, new lighting, and accessories to tide us over for a few years.
But up close both the floor and wall tile was cracked and damaged, so although we loved it, we sadly couldn’t salvage it.
So when we finally had the money and time to tackle a full gut-job a few years later, we were excited to dive in. And thanks to spending a lot of time planning every step, we only spent around $1800 on a full bathroom renovation, including rebuilding this room from the studs (new walls, new trim) along with a new marble tile floor, new fixtures, a tub/shower that we tiled to the ceiling, a new custom vanity, etc.
But it was certainly nice not to spend years living with this carpeted bathroom with a duck curtain, and do that Phase 1 update – even though we couldn’t fly out of the gate with a full renovation immediately.
So this method has been serving us well for a while now (holy cow, over seven years!) and we expect that nearly every room of our current house will have a multi-phase progression since we’re planning to be in this house for a nice long time. We don’t want to rush into anything without fully thinking it through and we’d like to save up for things that we truly will love for the long haul. But that doesn’t mean we have to live with old carpeting and wallpaper – and that we can’t toss up a little paint up, hang some art, update some light fixtures or faucets, and generally make the place feel fresher and more like us as we plan those larger scale undertakings and squirrel away some money.
In fact I think moving forward and experimenting within a certain space (not just in your head or while staring at a picture in a magazine) is a really helpful step when it comes to getting it right down the road with your major renovation. This was our first attempt at our first house’s bathroom. Scary, eh? But it turns out we had to paint the windowsill black and toss up a blue pashmina to learn that it was NOT what we liked (I thought it would be “so Domino magazine” and it was so… bad).
So we course corrected as we went, and ended up with a room that we could really enjoy in the interim, which then led to a brand new bathroom that we loved even more down the road. I guess one way to look at it would be that those small updates over time are like stairs. They build to a better result, and they bridge the gap between your before to your after. Without Phase 1 in here, we might never have arrived at that “love it” Phase 2 result, which might now have led us to a “love it even more!” Phase 3 outcome. So expecting to freeze at “before” and then skip right to “after” might not happen for everyone. But for us, that step-by-step approach over time just seems to get us from point A to point C without as much stress as attempting to skip right from what we hate to what we love in one fell swoop.
And sometimes it’s amazing to see how a few updates like paint, art, a window treatment, and a few accessories can bring an old room back from the brink without a major makeover down the line. Yes, in some cases a Phase 1 update can help you see that you don’t need to gut something at all (hello, money savings!) – and realizing that you can actually work with what you have can be the equivalent of finding a thousand dollar bill in your couch cushion. Take our $51 guest bathroom mini makeover, for example. We had pretty much planned to work with this tile from the start (it was in great shape and we thought the vintage yellow tone was charming) so we hoped this bathroom just needed a few cosmetic fixes… but others who came over couldn’t see how it would ever work without bringing in the sledgehammer.
All we did was paint, add a window treatment, hang some art, and remove some bad elements (like the mirror that reflected every guest’s full body while they sat on the toilet) but when the decorating dust cleared, even my mom was saying “you’ve made a believer out of me.”
So you might think a room needs a full gut job, but experimenting with some affordable for-now fixes might just prove otherwise and save you a whole lot of money and effort down the line. And the only way to find that out sometimes is by diving into Phase 1. So if you wait and skip right to Gut Job, you might never know how charming a room can be with just a few wallet-saving fixes. Our hall bathroom was a slightly more involved update than our guest room (we framed out the mirror and added a built-in shelf), but the tile was still in great shape, so we got to work with almost everything that was there already. Note: pardon the yellow cast on this picture, it was move-in day and I was rushing around shooting in the wrong mode.
After spending just $168, we had a completely fresh looking room.
The cool thing about this method is that if Phase 1 does the trick, you’re done! And you’re probably thanking your lucky stars you didn’t go straight to full-reno mode. And if Phase 1 only serves to “tide you over” instead of majorly saving you from a bigger renovation, it’s still a win because you get to smile more as you save up and percolate on Phase 2 plans down the line. Plus going through the thought process of Phase 1 can better help you pinpoint what you still don’t love about a room (the layout, damaged tile, missing counter space, etc) and you get this bonus “learning experience” before jumping into any major construction down the road.
What about you guys. How do you balance your desire for a space that feels fresh and homey without blowing a bunch of cash you don’t quite have? I’m sure it’s different for everyone, so I’d love to hear what works for you. Do you do the ol’ freeze thing and just try not to think about all the things that bug you? Or do you sprinkle in some inexpensive updates along the way? Don’t get me wrong, we still have a bunch of rooms that we’ve been ignoring for months (can’t do ’em all at once!) but I like to think that those “we just can’t take this anymore” moments are what help us decide what needs a Phase 1 intervention most of all, and then we can dive right into that with some gusto.
Update – Wanna know where we got something in our house or what paint colors we used? Just click on this button:
Liz says
Totally off-topic but, whatever happened with your stair runner? Did you ever receive and install the one you spoke about recently?
I’m all for living in a space – I hate to spend money on something that will only be ripped out in the near future. That being said, are there inexpensive updates that you can make to the bathroom that will be there for the long haul – after you do the full remodel? Aesthetically, a new sink could be really inexpensive but make a huge impact. A painted subfloor could visually be a cool interim solution but seems like a lot of work to only cover up soon. Our master bath is hideous too but I’m fighting the urge to make any changes (other than paint the walls) until we can gut it.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yeah the runner finally came! We actually mentioned that in yesterday’s wallpaper removal post (among those bullets of all the things I hope to tackle soon). We just have to paint the walls/ceiling over the stairs (don’t want to do that afterwards and risk dripping on our new runner) and then we’re ready to go! As for your thoughts on a new sink vs. a painted subfloor, to us, investing in a new sink that fits our current vanity (which is tricky to find since it’s a non-standard size and could run us around $100) feels like a lot when we’ll be adding a double vanity down the line anyway. Meanwhile, stenciling those floors will only take us a few hours (we have a new stenciling method that we discovered for our book that’s much faster/easier) and it’ll only cost us a $12 quart or two of paint. So in our heads it’s just the way to go in Phase 1, but I’m sure it’s different for everyone!
xo,
s
Judy says
Seems to me Phase 1 makes even more sense for you guys (in instances where it might not for others) since we get twice the number of makeovers to read about!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha! It’s true. It’s so funny that this has been our method since even before we blogged as a hobby (we did Phase 1 of the bathroom and kitchen about a year before starting this blog) but it turns out it works for blogging too! We get to learn (and share) more lessons, try out new projects, and generally just take our time getting to the “after” – usually takes us a bunch of tries to get things right anyway!
xo
s
Felicia says
This is meant as a general comment and not a reply to a specific post but..
I love Phase 1! We all deserve to live in a beautiful space, now, instead of years from now, and that can happen on any budget with an open imagination. Beautiful spaces inspire (look at your blog!) and put you in such a wonderful mood. One of my favorite places to visit was the home of my friend who was a single mom, managing a fast food restaurant. She decorated her home with things you would find at family dollar, kmart etc and painted her walls, changed lighting. It was so chic and minimalist before it was in.
Wendy @ New Moms Talk says
Phase 1 seems a bit like appetizers or sampling in stores. Sometimes you’re hungry, you just want to try something, or you’re not sure what you totally want to eat but you need to eat something.
You eat a bit, maybe you like it, maybe you don’t, but it fills the spot (hopefully). You learn from it and then when you sit down for a meal, you know what you want and you truly and deeply enjoy it.
We’re currently doing a bit of Phase 1 work on our house and if we were to dive into everything I might just explode. Even full on with one room.
The sampling/Phase 1 approach is helping us to stay calm and really explore what’s best for each room and yard space.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I love a food analogy!
xo
s
Ashley says
This is such a great analogy!
Reenie says
Great post…. a lil paint and new accressories make a room look and feel brand new. :)
Ariane says
It’s exactly like buying a bunch of paint samples to try out around a house. You spend a little on something you wont use after all but it makes you make good choices ! Take care. PS : I wrote a post in English on my blog for the people I know in the US, you might want to take a look at it ;) http://www.carrement-marteau.com/welcome-aboard/
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Ariane! Off to check it out!
xo
s
Katie {deranchification} says
I totally agree with the phased approach – we’ve been in our house 10 years now and are still deciding exactly what we want to do when we gut our kitchen and one of our bathrooms but we spent a little money on each of them in the first few years to make them bearable. Hopefully, at least one of those phase 2’s is coming soon :)
Pam the Goatherd says
Same here. We’ve been in our house for 16 years now and are still working on phase 1 in some of the rooms. We were forced to do a half-gut on our master bath (and ONLY bathroom) when the fiberglass tub cracked around the drain and the water was rotting out the floor underneath. We rebuilt the tub area, put down peel-and-stick flooring, painted the walls, towel racks & switchplates, and cabinets. Eventually (if we stay in this house) we will replace the cabinets, sink and toilet, and put down a nicer vinyl floor.
Three years ago we finally did the full gut of our kitchen – took out a peninsula cabinet that was a huge space waster and replaced it with a stainless steel work table with storage underneath. Ripped out the “pantry” cabinets that wrapped around the fridge that were so deep and dark that I literally had to use a flashlight to find things that were stored in them. Replaced them with two hutches that I build using plans from Ana White. That move alone doubled our counter space and put things right in plain view without needing a flashlight!
When we first moved in, our three kids were in elementary school, so we did a phase 1 paint job in their room and let them put up posters and pictures and shelves as they wanted. Now that they are grown and have their own places I have been slowly working on changing their room into my sewing room. I’ve been saving up pictures of what I like for many years and I think I finally have put together a plan for gutting and remodeling that room that will work well for me.
I am one of those people who want to do a remodel/redecorate that will last for years and years (because I don’t have the money to keep doing it over and over until I get it right), so doing things in phases assures that I will really like the results.
Pat says
So glad to hear we are not the only ones in a 10 year holding pattern on a house. We will be in our house 10 years next year. In the first couple of years we did a bunch of phase I improvements to make the main living areas bearable too. We originally planned to save for phase II improvements but things changed for us financially and we will have to live with phase I for a longer time than we planned. I am glad we at least did the phase I improvements:)
Sara says
This is such an interesting take on DIY home updates! I love how honest you always are, J+S – you help your readers to think honestly about what would work for us, too!
As for our home, which was built in 2006, I’m doing everything that I can to inject some charm into this newer home. While everything is rather “pretty” looking (nice kitchen cabinets, appliances, vanities in the bathrooms, etc.), it took painting a chalkboard wall in the kitchen (for $15!) and adding $100 worth of photo canvases of our little guy (who is 16 months!) to make our home feel charming. Sure, we want to eventually repaint the walls throughout the home (the previous owners were big beige fans, which isn’t really my taste), but for now, tossing a little cash here and there to make it feel like our home is working for us.
Thanks for this post!
Elle says
I love that you addressed this topic! I have found in renovating our 50s ranch, that it is hard to figure out where to begin when you feel like every room needs the sledgehammer treatment. Taking the time to live in our home has allowed us to think through our projects and has made us realize what we really want in the end. I love the idea of phases and appreciate your post today! Thank You!
Jennifer says
I was raised on the “ITS ONLY TEMPORARY” principle. I think it took 20 years of buying and swapping out inexpensive furniture, painting and diy for my mother to start realizing exactly what she wanted in her house. It just takes time.
Now that I have my own home, I completely understand her madness! Sometimes it takes painting a room yellow to realize that you don’t really like yellow. Like we did here:
http://www.jjmodern.com/2013/07/26/master-bedroom-redo/
I think that most of the time there has to be a Phase 1 and sometimes a phase 2 or 3. Most people don’t get it perfect on the first try. I know I don’t!
YoungHouseLove says
Amen! I don’t think we’ve gotten any space right on the first try in 7 years of this thing! Haha!
xo
s
Tanya says
I really really need to show this article to my husband, because your mentality is how I like to work, too, and it’s been hard for me to convince him that sometimes small changes can really transform a space! (Part of why I love your blog is that your before/after pics are always right by each other and they fit on my screen just right ^_^ )
This is such a well-worded argument for the Phase 1 frame of mind! Thank you!
Rachel B. says
Agreed, agreed, agreed! We moved into our first home about 2 years ago and had a big imagination about what we would accomplish in this 100 year old house. 2 years later, we’ve painted most of the rooms and are just starting tackling our first major reno with the bathroom. I know personally that my tastes can change from day to day, so I like to give myself a while to mull over a design and if I am still loving the ideas months and months later, then its time to go forward. (This also gives your spouse time to work up the courage to tell you they hate an idea or they don’t think they can handle that project).
I don’t think “phase 1” projects are a waste at all because there’s more value in a home than just dollar signs. Getting enjoyment out of your home is a different kind of value. (As is not being embarrassed to invite people over because you have a room trapped in a time warp). SO… tally your budget, re-tally your budget, be patient for the perfect sale or deal, learn as much as you can about your DIY, and make sure that you’re not getting in over your head with the tasks involved or the cash involved.
So in conclusion, it’s not all about money in the end. There’s something to be said for maintaining your sanity.
YoungHouseLove says
I love that about value in a home that’s more than just dollar signs. Everyday enjoyment = value for miles. Amen!
xo
s
Starr @ The Kiefer Cottage says
Until two things happen, we’ll be in phase 1 “make us a bit happier” of work on our house. 1) I can outearn daycare expenses and 2) we quit having to fix things like faulty wiring and cutting down trees. I just couldn’t look at my ugly oak cabinetry one more second, so we recently painted it. It’s not a permanent solution, but it works for now!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, that’s such a great method!
xo
s
audrey m says
I’m glad y’all answered this question because I’ve been mulling it over in our (old) new house myself. We’d like to do some major renovations (like moving bathrooms to new locations big) but I’ve wondered if it’s worth doing a few updates in the mean time.
Kelly says
Yes! Home improvements in phases are the only way that I can mentally survive living in a fixer upper. We have been here 6 years, and are maybe 1/4 of the way through what we hope to finish. We tore down a wall in our kitchen and after 1 year of living with the dining room color and kitchen color in one room, I splurged and painted the walls all one color. I also ripped down some cabinets and used some of the wood from our torn down wall to make open shelving. I painted a white subway tile backsplash too. It was all under $100. It not only gave me the a fresh look, but I actually really like it and can live with it for a few more years, until we’ve saved up to do the most expensive project in our house. The best part? Knowing that my changes are not permanent allows me to be more creative than I would if I had to live with it for the next 20 years.
Mia says
Kelly, your last sentence is an excellent and freeing perspective on the phase concept. Thanks for that!
Melissa says
I’m a big believer in phase-one projects. We just moved into a new (old) home that needs a lot of updating. Though the kitchen had been partially updated with granite counters, stainless appliances, and subway backsplash, it still had the original cabinets, an awful white-tile floor, and a not ideal layout. Other projects, like a new roof, take priority over a full redo, so we had the cabinets painted (from pale yellow to a mid-tone blue-gray), put on new hardware, swapped out the lighting, and put down an area rug. It’s far from perfect, but it looks good enough to buy us time – at least a year or two – until we have the money for a complete renovation.
Jessica says
I agree-we are on our fifth house, and we always do small projects to make the house livable while we save/plan for a bigger reno.
Nicole says
Thank you for this post! We’re moving in two weeks into a house that only needs paint in some rooms, but a major reno in others – but those are 5 or so years down the road for us. Love the idea of freshening up a space on the cheap to make it livable and will definitely be doing lots of that in our new kitchen and bath!
Crystal says
Do you have a tutorial somewhere about painting cabinets? I’d like to paint the cabinets in our bathrooms and eventually the kitchen, and not exactly sure where to start.
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, on our Projects page you can find that (in the most popular category and the painting category I think).
xo
s
Lindsey says
We have a couple phase-1 bathrooms to work with, and I feel that with paint and accessories, we can live with them for our 5-year redo. The tile is all in good shape, so we’ll be living and enjoying it for a while and dream of what’s to come. Thanks for giving me ideas with your master bathroom – do you plan to poly your floors after painting?
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, I think since we have some Safecoat on hand already (it’s prego-friendly since it’s eco and free since we have it on hand) we’ll slap some on for added protection in there!
xo
s
Kiera says
Great Post- thanks! we moved into a ‘phase 2’ house but spent way too much doing a partial phase 1 and now I feel paralyzed. Of course a leaky pipe discovered this week might just throw us into phase 2 after all. At some point I’d love to see a post on overcoming the fear of accessorizing (and maybe you have already done this!). My mantle is bare because I just can seem to ‘get er done’. Homegoods is overwhelming– everything looks like tchotchke in there and I can’t picture it in the house! (Can you tell I work in spreadsheets for a living!– creative muscle is sadly underused)
Christy says
Haha….I know what you mean. My advice is to just grab a few things that you might like and try them out. You can return them if it’s not right! I brought home four different tries at drapes before choosing the right ones. Of course, my credit card company called to make sure it was really ME making all those returns! A bit embarrassing, but it beats being frozen with indecision. :)
Heidi says
I completely agree with the phased approach! We bought our house two years ago and our bathrooms got a coat of paint, new knobs, and new light fixtures to hold us over until we do bigger gut jobs someday. I’m actually having trouble with the argument for why NOT to make them pretty for cheap while you save for the big job!
rachel says
For me, phase 1 is whatever it takes to make it feel like your own and not someone else’s house. In some rooms that may mean just throwing some art up on the wall and in others new paint.
When we moved into our house there were several rooms that I insisted be painted before moving in. (Eggplant purple and sunshine yellow are just not colors I can live with day to day!) It allowed me to live in the space and a few years later we were able to re-do our bathroom and repaint a previously re-painted room. I didn’t feel like it was a waste of time. It had made the room liveable for the time being.
Michelle says
I’ve had that same question about the “phase 1” approach, but I think I’m now beginning to see the beauty of it. In addition to all the benefits you listed, there just isn’t the time to go “full reno” with every room when you first move into a house (especially an old fixer upper). My husband and I recently bought our first house a few months ago and has been quite the project. We’ve been slowly making progress since we moved in, making some “temporary” updates and some “final” ones. It’s nice to be able to make the space our own with these “first phase approaches” while also being able to focus our time and money on the rooms undergoing more intense construction.
YoungHouseLove says
Yes! We have learned that it usually takes us years just to paint every room, let alone really “redo” them, so sometimes doing a little bit more to make a space that you use/see a lot a little special while you slowly work your way through an it’ll-take-us-years renovation is so nice!
xo
s
Jen @ Jen Spends says
Different strokes for different folks. I agree that sometimes it’s worth investing in your happiness. I’m the type that is very bothered by ugly or non-functional design. I can’t settle down and focus on other things (like working to save money for a BIG project) if something else is bugging me. I’ve done a few band-aid projects as well just so I can feel happy while I work toward the bigger goal.
Lesley says
I’ve left far too many rooms on hold waiting until we could afford the full gut jobs we wanted to do. We lived in a completely nonfunctional kitchen for EIGHT YEARS, I literally went in there without turning on the light for the most part because I couldn’t bare to look at it. Then when the liquor cabinet door fell off in my hand one day, I lost it!
I spent 8 years breaking nails on knobless cabinets when a quick coat of paint on the wood trim and some knobs would have cost less than $100 and a 1/2 day of work ages in advance.
We have live here now for 12 years and I still peer up at our partially patched light blue ceiling… (it looks like a faux cloudy sky in a baby’s room) I already have the paint even for “post reno”, but no budget to reno. I think this weekend the paint is going down, or should I say up?
YoungHouseLove says
Wahoo! Go Lesley!
xo
s
Lesley says
Oops, forgot to comment about furniture. That is NOT something I do a phase 1 of. When my parents were retiring and moving out of their last family home (of 18 years) my mom was ditching a whole bunch of their furniture. When my sister and I asked about a few of the pieces she replied emphatically, “DO NOT spend a penny on ‘just for now’ furniture, wait it out and invest in quality. That entire side of the garage is full of furniture we were ‘just going to have until we found what we wanted’ but once you put a book on the shelf or something in the drawer is ends up staying… for 25 years.”
We have both lived with partially empty rooms until we found what we really wanted and it has been so worth it. Even with that philosophy I have pieces that I grew out of but I have been able to resell (in one case back to the antique store I bought it at), for the same as or more than our purchase price.
YoungHouseLove says
I think you’re really smart about that Lesley! There were lots of hand-me-downs and stuff in our first house (and even in our second and our current house, actually) but there is beauty to just leaving a corner empty until you find the perfect thing that you LOVE. Nate Berkus always says to guard your threshold and be choosy about what you bring into your space, and I think there’s so much truth to that. I’m all for small improvements with paint and fixtures and accessories (when you find a few that you LOVE) while you work with what you have, but filling a room with cheap “eh” stuff in the meantime can cloud your vision down the line for sure!
xo
s
Leah says
On the “just for now” furniture, I agree in some senses. I have spent any $$ on my just for now stuff. It’s all hand-me-downs from friends, coworkers, etc. I’ve never even paid for a TV in my life despite owning plenty. While you’re right that the furniture sticks around for longer than you realize, I still like the bridge (given that I didn’t drop cash) to knowing what I want. We’d had three hand-me-down couches, and each one reminds me of what I’d really like eventually. Now, it’s just saving up pennies to get that just-right couch finally into my living room. In the meantime, at least we have something to sit on.
The key is being willing to give up the good-enough but not great furniture. If you spend too much on it, I think it’s hard to let go. Since ours was all free, I don’t have a problem passing it on to someone else when we find something that fits better.
YoungHouseLove says
Great points Leah! I love hearing how everyone thinks about these things!
xo
s
Jen. says
At least it was the door to the liquor cabinet, so you could more easily drown your sorrows! ;)
Teresa @ wherelovemeetslife says
You know, you guys are so right!!! Major renos take time and if you really are unhappy with how things are now it can really bring you down. How your home feels can shape a day! :) I’m all for the Phase 1 stuff. Over the years, I have been able to learn so much from those type of projects.
Lee Ann says
Right now, I’m debating the same thing with my 80s kitchen. It needs lots of TLC, but every time I find the perfect idea for the renovation, I tell myself to wait a little while. Inevitably, I come across another photo, another H.GTV show, or another blog idea that makes me think: “Oo, maybe that’s better.” So I’ve done nothing. I think the phrase that fits me is: “Paralysis by analysis.”
YoungHouseLove says
Haha! That phrase cracks me up!
xo
s
Carrie says
That’s my method as well.. paralysis by analysis :/ So frustrating!!!
Mel says
Yep I suffer badly from this, I just don’t know where to start. I have been writing out the to-do list and it terrifies me :) I am going to start by working for 2 hours a couple times a week. My problem is really old carpet :)
I have also been trying to find the post where you talk about cleaning floor tiles but cannot find it, can you help me?
Mel :)
Kelly says
I totally agree! When we bought our 100-plus-year-old farmhouse and jumped right into gutting the entire first floor, I bought some paint and gave everything that was staying (bathroom and bedrooms) a facelift. All it involved was a little primer & paint, a new shower rod & curtain, and some window curtains. It makes a huge difference living in someone else’s mess or living in your own mess, as I like to put it. So even if we have been living with only stud walls downstairs for a year, at least when we go upstairs it feels like us, not someplace we inherited. :)
heather says
I haven’t read the post yet because I want to give my perspective before I read someone else’s. My answer to the question is that “phase 1” investments can be cost-effective, but they can be more than that – they can be relieving. It all depends on your timeline, the type of funds your investing, and your own values. What might be worth it to one person may not be worth it to another – this is because we all have varying importance of different values.
For us personally, “phase 1” type fixes cost very little but have done a lot for us. Even though we knew we were building an addition and gutting the entire original house, we painted the interior. First, this helped with our appraisal. Second, it helped with sanity. We bought the house over six years ago, and only a year and a half ago did we start the addition (we had plenty of other things to do in the mean time – including building a garage, a barn, a garden, a retaining wall…you get the point – we were busy). We are quickly moving towards gutting the entire interior. I wouldn’t change spending some money on paint for anything. For our values, it was worth every cent and hour spent.
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, I love that theory! Feeling more peaceful at home and less aggravated = totally worth the effort!
xo
s
heather says
Just finished the post and I second the answer. I also am pretty sure I could use Sherry as a proof-reader for my comments. My grammar is on vacation.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, so is mine! We’re in it together!
xo
s
Jenn @ HomeStyleReport says
I completely agree with your train of thought on Phase 1 projects! There are so many awesome possible outcomes that I feel like it’s almost crazy not to do them…at least that has been my experience. I also feel like the whole phase 1/living with what you don’t LOVE is a right of passage. At our age, we’re just getting into the swing of homeownership and careers…you have to work for what you want!
Elizabeth K. says
At first, I didn’t agree with the Phase approach – I’m kind of lazy, and my thought was to just hold out until we could do what we really wanted. However, I changed my tune when dealing with the horrible outdoor carpet that was in our kitchen. My in-laws kept on us about just switching it for some cheap peel and stick tile (they found some for a great deal at an outlet). And since we did not have the money to build the subfloor and get the tile we really wanted, my husband and I finally decided to take their suggestion… and you know what? It was the best decision. Now I don’t dread one of my kids spilling a large container of yogurt on the floor (totally happened and cleaning that off the carpet was a nightmare!).
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, I love hearing that Elizabeth! I totally agree that at first it feels like an alien mindset! I wanted to save every last penny for “the main event” at first too!
xo
s
Kara says
Totally on board with this approach. We did a full gut of our bathroom before we moved in (because I couldn’t be in the room with gagging), and I have regrets.
For one, the tile. It’s polished porcelain that looks like crema marfil marble and we got a great price on it, but my dad and husband installed it and, uh, made some mistakes. Several of the tiles are cracked, and now the price has more than quadrupled so it will cost a fortune to replace them (if we even can? Please guide me on this issue), and the tiles run all the way under the vanity so we can’t easily replace the entire floor. Ugh.
Also? We bought a fiberglass tub and shower surround in spite of my gut instinct to splurge on a nice tub and tile the surround. I hate hate hate it.
Those are two painful and expensive lessons. Not sure I could have learned them any other way though.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh no Kara! I’m so sorry to hear that! But the good news is they have been learned! Banked, and remembered, baby! Now you’re wiser and stronger than yesterday (isn’t that a Britney Spears song?).
xo
s
Kara says
Hah! It is. My lonliness ain’t killin me no more.
My next bathroom is gonna be off the hook.
YoungHouseLove says
Wooot!!!!
xo
s
Joanne says
Such a great post! Thanks for this! We’ve been in our house for 5 years now and have been doing our share of both phase 1 and bigger, for-the-long-term projects, but we still haven’t saved the dough to renovate our nasty, 1960s oak kitchen. BUT, I think you’ve finally convince me to paint the darn cabinets already! In reality, that big kitchen reno won’t be happening for another 5 years. It’s actually a fun challenge seeing how much change you can make with very little $, kind of like closet shopping when you can’t afford a new fall wardrobe! :-)
Laura says
I’ve learned to try to keep in mind to not let *the perfect be the enemy of the good* whenever I want to do something. In our first house (a big ol’ Victorian with tons of work in every room!) we had a living room with ugly blue walls and 70s wall-to-wall carpeting. The walls were livable but we held off on even changing the ugly blue color because the sheet rock was installed poorly, needed repairs, etc. and we thought we should *do it right* the first time. Ten years later we moved out and left ugly blue walls behind. I learned right then that I should have just spent $40 on paint and had a color I enjoyed despite the need to do repairs later.
YoungHouseLove says
Such a good quote!
xo
s
Jordan says
This is exactly what we our doing in our home right now! We see the logic of spending (wisely and very little) on smaller upgrades to make our home feel better until we have saved enough to do the entire reno! It is very important in our home since we bought it as a foreclosure, there are many things needing facelifts!
JR says
Thanks for this post Sherry, just the nudge we needed. We are totally in that stage now, where we think that Phase 1 is just a waste of time and money, but who knows when we will save up money for the full reno. We might as well enjoy an updated and more pleasant looking home in the interim.
heather says
JR, you might find that phase 1 might nudge you towards what you really love – or don’t. I thought I loved bright colors on the walls/ceilings because of blogs I had seen that did it. As a test I painted the ceiling of our bathroom a yellow color that I loved.
Let me tell you – it turns out that I HATE painted ceilings in my house, and I absolutely do not like bright colors on the walls. I am so incredibly thankful I didn’t just go all out and paint a completely finished room a bright color that would take forever to repaint. The bathroom I painted is getting completely gutted within the next year. For $6.00 of paint it was a great lesson learned and in the end, a huuuuggee time saver.
Laurie says
I’m all for a stage 1 makeover. Sometimes the space is just so hideous you need to do something, especially when you are just moving in to a new house. We had the ugliest counters in the kitchen and we replaced those immediately, even though we knew we were going to gut the kitchen, but I think its important to get a feel for your space before making any major decisions.
Johanna P says
I think small phase one projects are really important. You can do crazy stuff like add a pop of colour that you normally wouldn’t with a small lick of paint or some accessories. You can see how the room can breathe by just stripping some wallpaper. A simple update of a door handle can make a door feel new and transformed. By doing a small phase one project
it can help you define what direction you will take with the room.
Christa Mae says
I’m SO grateful for this post and it couldn’t have come at a better time! After nearly a year in our first house and no major changes to the terrible interiors, I’m getting antsy to make a few cost-effective improvements. Working in phases definitely seems like an appropriate way to go – and that peel and stick tile in your first kitchen is actually pretty cute! Definitely an option I’ll be looking into. Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
I’m so glad! Aw, I love hearing from all of you guys. So many interesting perspectives and fun quotes.
xo
s
Deanna says
This is exactly where we are with our 1969 fixer! I am in the process of painting and glazing the existing cabinets. It’s less than a $100 redo..but will tide us over for awhile until we can afford a complete remodel of the kitchen.
Laurea says
I am currently using the phasing approach as a way to help customize our apartment. Realistically, all we can do is small cosmetic changes (which we are lucky to be able to do as renters) so its nice to see a post about these small changes and how valuable they are.
I just semi-redid our bathroom, which started with teal sponge-painted walls. My sister wrote a blog post about it on her new blog: maggielapp.com which has some pictures. I took more before shots but I somehow lost them, but you can see some of the teal action going on above the sink. In any case, it was gross. Its not quite there yet, but it feels WORLDS better than it did before.
Britt Fisher says
This seriously is the single greatest thing I’ve learned from you guys since becoming a “youngster,” lol. I used to be a “no-patience,” gut from the start kind of girl… and now I’m perfectly fine with taking my time in a space… and have learned that when I do, I love the space all the more because I really let it evolve rather than trying to make every decision at once!
After almost 2 years of living in our house (and just sewing a few pillows and tossing up some art along with our old furniture, standard paint, etc.) we are finally getting ready to start in on the main living space and really make it something we swoon over. (Hint: our wall color is going to be “moonshine” – thanks for that too!) :)
Karen in VA says
I’m with you guys. I have to live in a house at least 6 months before it tells me what it wants. My BF thinks I’m a bit nuts, but I have to experience the space before changing it. With the house I just bought in the summer, I’ve been very fortunate – the guys I bought from had great taste and had done quite a few high end upgrades (i.e. beautiful glass bowl sinks in 2 of the bathrooms and great landscaping), so I am probably only going to change paint colors at a later date.
Heidi says
I think if you have a space in your home that you are 100% embarrased of when visitors come over – then you MUST do something to remedy the situation temporarily. If you can update the room for less than the cost of your monthly cell phone bill – JUST DO IT!! At least you won’t hang your head in shame everytime you walk into that room.
Tons of great advice in this post. Thank you!
Embeth says
We don’t do phase 1 projects (for the most part), but we also take our time to make changes. We lived with our 30-year old kitchen (which was a bad renovation of a much older kitchen) for two years before deciding on what we wanted and beginning work. The new kitchen has changed our experience of the house and is much lovelier, but we could deal with the old kitchen just fine.
We are about half-way through our house (an 1880 house that could use major work in every house.) For us, the unrenovated rooms are still liveable, and we can always go to the renovated rooms to remind ourselves what we have to look forward to and why the wait is worth it.
I think the key to any approach is taking your time.
Wendy says
I *still* love that first kitchen. It was actually the inspiration for my kitchen reno last year! (But your granite is no longer available so we went with “Silver Cloud.”) :-)
YoungHouseLove says
Sounds so pretty!
xo
s
Angela says
I completely agree with you guys. I have been living with my kitchen for 7 years! I hate it but if I had jumped in right away and had done a full reno, I would not have the awesome kitchen makeover that we are about to embark on. Living in the space, especially now that we have children, has helped me get a better vision for the space and how it might flow better with the chaos that ensues everyday in there now that we are a family of 4.
Steph says
Phase 1-style projects seem to be an exercise in patience and being “intentional” with your home. Kind of like keeping your car clean shouldn’t affect how it runs but it somehow does. . .? I guess there are examples of bad phasing (this is now a term). I once put nice new countertops on cabinets whose layout/condition would never be right and I wished I had waited. . .Totally agreeing with moderate spending on “temporary” fixes. Great topic!
Steph says
By the way, didn’t mean anything against the commenter who replaced countertops before a gut job. . .we used an expensive marble and kind of went “half way” and that’s where the error was : )
YoungHouseLove says
I know exactly what you mean!
xo
s
kodie says
I completely agree. Our 51 year old house needed an update in every. single. room. 2 1/2 years in, we have touched every room but still have a lot of work to do. Some rooms are completely done (bedrooms, living room, family room), but others are still in the process of being completed. And of course, our initial timeline got railroaded by a foundation problem. 6 weeks after moving in, severe drought caused the foundation to crack and our kitchen remodel funds went to the nice guys at the foundation repair company. :( Our kitchen remodel was put on hold for another year, but we never would have gone the direction we eventually did if we hadn’t lived with that horrible kitchen for 18 months before tearing into it!
Sarah says
I hated my master bath. I debated whether to do a phase 1 since I haven’t ruled out a larger remodel in there. Well, I did make some changes. They’ve taken some time, and not too much money, and I love it so much better now! To the point that I could totally live with it. I read about some people who buy a house and redo the kitchen immediately before they move in. I look at what they did and love it, but it just usually takes me a little time to figure things out – even if I have the money.
Katie O says
I’m all about the phases as well. Currently, we only have one bathroom in our entire house, and that’s on the first level (all our bedrooms are upstairs though). A “longish” term goal is to do an addition upstairs, turning our “1 1/2 story house” into a true “2 story house”. I’m trying to make our smaller (only) bathroom work for now, and my husband is kind of fighting me on it, stating it will be completely redone once the addition comes in (we’re planning to take out the full tub and just have a shower in the bath on the main floor once the addition is done). It doesn’t make sense to me not to update it to work for us now (such as ripping out the too small closet for something that actually will fit towels), while we’re saving for the addition. PLUS, I enjoy doing it! If you like to stencil and are looking forward to doing it (which I would be!), then it’s not a waste of time or money!
YoungHouseLove says
Amen! We get excited about taking little risks we might not take in a big expensive reno, like the floor stencil, so we’re so excited for $12 quarts of paint we can dive in and have some fun!
xo
s