I was lying in bed thinking about what random lessons we’ve learned in over nearly seven years of homeownership and DIY, and I realized it might make a good post. Shoulda woulda coulda – ya know? Here’s what I came up with (which is by no means all-inclusive, but hopefully will help someone else out there who’s just learning as they go like we’re apt to do). Who’s ready for number one? Ok, since I can’t actually hear you guys (but clearly you’re all screaming “we are!”), I’ll continue.
1. It’s not always best to blindly follow one sentence tips in home improvement magazines without knowing if they’ll work for your system/house. For example, we read somewhere that shoving a piece of insulation up your not-in-use chimney was a great way to save energy since you won’t be losing heat or cool air through the chimney. So we did it, just shoved in some insulation (warning: if you are eating or afraid of bugs, don’t read this tip).
A few weeks later after a lot of rain while John was away on a business trip I was walking into the kitchen, past the fireplace without my contacts in. And I saw what could best be described as a bunch of white pieces of rice on the floor. So I knelt down to look a little closer and they were… maggots. Crawling out of the fireplace.
Probably fifty or more of them. Thankfully I’m not too squeamish (although I did take a moment to resent John for missing this debacle entirely by being gone on business) so I used a paper towel to gather them all up and fling them outside. Then I shined a light up the chimney only to realize that somehow the chimney cap must have leaked and the moist insulation was the perfect place for a fly to lay her eggs, which had hatched and were now in their larvae stage.
How did I know they were flies? Because apparently I missed a few of them and a few days later flies were all over the house. Thankfully I could solve the problem by removing that nasty piece of insulation, resolving to get the chimney cap looked at (we later resealed it with some silicone caulk) and reminding myself that perhaps every one-sentence tip in a magazine isn’t a blanket this-is-definitely-best-for-your-house rule.
2. Don’t decorate around a stump. Just pay to get it ground instead of sinking money into trying to make it look like a pretty planter. Although I’m sure some folks could totally pull it off, we couldn’t. We thought we could, so we attempted to make a little octagonal planting bed with some wood on top of the stump but it always looked like a tree stump in the corner of our driveway with a weird wood planting bed on it. So when we later decided to get our pebble driveway paved for our backyard wedding, we jumped at the chance to finally get that stump ground once and for all so we could reclaim that corner of the driveway and no longer look at our mutton-dressed-as-lamb stump.
Note: here’s where I’d put a picture of the hideous octagonal planter that we built on top of our giant 3′ wide stump, but the thing was so ugly we never snapped a picture. But you can see the tree that we had to remove (it was dead when we bought the house) which left the stump in the background of this picture of the sunroom:
I think this is probably a wider concept, actually. For example, if you have an ugly obstacle (gross wallpaper you haven’t gotten around to removing), don’t try to pick art, drapes, and accessories in that color palette to try to make the ugly thing work if you don’t even like said ugly thing. If at all possible, just save up money (or wait to have some spare time) and remove it if you can. Then you can spend money and energy towards creating a room/feature that you love instead of spending money and sweat to try to disguise something that makes you twitch whenever you see it.
3. Plant things a safe distance from your house’s foundation. Some things we dug in at first were borderline too close, so we learned that even though planting a dwarf tree four feet from the house feels oddly far, from the street it looks just fine and it’s much better for the foundation (and the tree itself since it gets more sun and rain than it would if it was half-tucked under the eave of the house).
4. Spackle and drywall mud need to be smooth before you prime or paint. Primer and paint actually will enhance any irregularities, so they won’t hide any sins at all. And once those things are painted if they’re not smooth, you can no longer just easily sand them to make them smooth (paint is really hard to sand and get the same smooth look as caulk or putty or drywall mud before the paint is applied).
So when in doubt, we like to spackle and sand and spackle and sand – at least two rounds just to make sure we fill everything in that needs to be flush and sand everything down that needs to be smooth. The instinct is to hurry up and get done as quickly as possible, so you really have to fight yourself to make sure you sand things well so they’re nice and smooth (in the end it’ll save you lots of time since going back and trying to fix things after they’re painted over is a royal pain in the behind).
5. Your first idea isn’t always your best idea. Take our first house’s kitchen for example. For a while we were planning to just get new cabinets and put them in the same configuration as the old ones. But after a while of thinking and rethinking and brainstorming we came up with removing the door to the old dining room, making that a third bedroom (it already had a closet), moving the dining area off of another kitchen doorway in our extra-long-never-used living room, and making a completely functional and much more beautiful u-shaped kitchen instead of the old i-shaped counter that used to be there (we gained at least three times the storage and counter surface along with making our house more valuable since we added a bedroom).
Similarly, in our current house we initially wanted to add an island to the kitchen. And then we considered a banquet.
It took us a while to get to the peninsula idea, which we definitely think was the right way to go.
So try not to rush into anything major without really thinking and rethinking everything. We find that living in a house for a while to get a feel for it can give you major layout-change and floor-plan ideas that you never could have come up with if you renovated off the bat.
And there you have it. Five things we learned the hard way. Well, I guess the last one wasn’t something we learned the hard way because we rethought things enough to narrowly miss creating a similarly small and cramped kitchen in our first house and a room with an oddly placed island or banquette in our current house. But it’s still definitely a lesson we learned along the way. What have you guys learned the hard way? Share and share alike.
Update – Wanna know where we got something in our house or what paint colors we used? Just click on this button:
Anele @ Success Along the Weigh says
I wasn’t eating but the maggots still almost made me urp. I seriously have no concept of what I would do in that situation after I stopped screaming. Hazmats r Us would probably be my first stop.
Brenda says
I will definitely second #4! There is a spot on my apartment wall that must have been where something hung, but it was clearly not repaired properly, and the paint over the area makes it look 10 times worse.
I would say that it’s a good idea to view things from different angles. If you always look at a room from one direction (because of where the seating is facing), try a different angle. Maybe move some furniture. You might be inspired to use what you’ve got rather than start over or add new things.
Anna says
Different angle yes! Sometimes I hold a mirror up and look at a room that way just to get a totally different perspective.
Hayley says
I agree with #4 too! A great tip I got from a drywaller- hold a flashlight against the wall, pointing the light at the spot you just fixed. It helps you see where there is any uneven spots because the light will cast a shadow/highlight that you wouldn’t see until the paint was on. It’s the best tip ever!
YoungHouseLove says
So smart!
xo
s
Kate says
Plants too close to a house foundation are a pet peeve of mine. Glad to see you’re preachin’ the gospel of leaving some space!
Renee says
Oh man, I got chills just looking at the picture of you sanding….I can’t handle it. I have to leave the room – it gives me goosebumps all over! (I can’t even file my nails, ha)
Laura says
So true about planting close to your foundation. I see a lot of houses where people planted a little tree in front of the window and in time it completely blocks the window. The bigger the plant, the farther from the house. Unless you want to rip it out and do major repairs ten years from now…
Julia @ Chris Loves Julia says
We actually just did something similar for our Christmas card this year!! Three things we learned this year. This Chris’s (very sarcastic) tip. “Everyone says it’s the details that matter. We disagree. Details are nothing but minor issues meant to distract us from the bigger picture. Do you need an example? You need an example. Big picture: “We need to get rid of that ugly half wall in the family room.” That’s all you need to focus on. There’s a wall there, and there needs to not be a wall there. Evaluation over. Permits; electrical wiring; portions of the foundation that stick out uncomfortably far, requiring the ugly half wall to be there in the first place; those are all just details. The 20 or so holes you drill into your ceiling in an effort to find 6 evenly spaced areas, not being thronged by plumbing from the bathrooms above, to install recessed lighting, are much less important than just having recessed lighting. There’s a time for asking questions, and there’s a time for pulling’ the trigger. And once you’ve pulled the trigger the time for asking questions is over anyway, so don’t sweat the details and just go with it.”
He’s funny that one. And I couldn’t agree more about first ideas not always being best. We have been planning a pending kitchen remodel for a year. But when we are continually tweaking the plan every other week to make it better–I know we haven’t got THE one just yet.
Stefanie says
I could not agree with #2 more. I bought my house in October of 2011. I hated the honey oak cabinets but decided to do what they say and live with them for a while before making any changes (I always loved white cabinets in the kitchen, they’re just so bright and cheerful). I even tried getting a piece of art and painted the kitchen to try to make them flow a little better. Instead I ended up with a paint color that goes well with the cabinets but that I ended up hating just as much! I’m now in the stages of mentally preparing to paint those cabinets when it gets warmer out. I’m NOT looking forward to the process, but I know it will be worth it. :)
dana828 says
The spackle/drywall mud tip is SO important! And how about when installing drywall one should make sure to screw into a stud and not overlap pieces in random places around a room?? This is a lesson I hope the former owners of our home learned, as this is how they drywalled our 3-stall garage. The entire thing is a disaster, with drywall overlapping here and there, seemingly randomly connect with the WORST mud & tape job I have ever seen in my life. We would love to re-do it so we can paint the inside of the garage, but man, that’s a BIG job! We’ve lived in this house for 9 years and I still curse the former owners (who I actually see often in our small town) for it. It takes everything I have not to lay into them about the stupid things they did in this house…
YoungHouseLove says
Overlapping drywall? That is not a pretty visual. Urgh.
-John
Cher says
Was totally eating when I read this. You were right, I should have not read that first tip. But thanks for sharing the others, especially the one about not making do with something you can’t stand. There is a whole lot of that in my new-to-me old condo.
kiki says
OH.MY.GOSH. maggots. I’m dying a little. I’m not squeamish about some things, but…ew. Brave woman you are. I would have screamed and then screamed more and then maybe died. I’ve dealt with other gross stuff, but maggots…shudder. Big points to you, Sherry!
Hannah says
To this day, I’m so very very happy you guys decided against the banquet. I have a feeling that, though popular right now, they will end up looking very dated in a decade. I think you guys have made wonderful choices thus far! :)
Kat @ Withywindle says
Thanks for the great tips Sherry!
Another reason to grind dead tree stumps? They are thriving environments for pests like carpenter ants! If their stump is close to your house, they will on to your home next! We have had to grind a few stumps near our house for this very reason – even ones that are 15′ away!
Kat says
YES! This is so true.
Annie Reindl says
I’ve learned that cheap paint is NOT worth it!
I also agree with your statement about living with stuff for awhile first. We completely gutted our whole upstairs (down to studs and raised the ceiling height) right after we moved in (we had to do that for safety reasons) but I wish I would have trusted my gut on moving the washer and dryer upstairs. Its in a closet in our kitchen with bifold doors now and who likes to eat next to dirty laundry or listening to the washer? I kick myself for not moving it, but I was so grateful at the time that it wasn’t in the basement( meaning 2 flights of stairs to do the laundry!) Oh well- live and learn!
Erica - From Millstones to Milestones says
Great tips!
We had a memorable fireplace moment [as yet un-blogged] in our house. We went to tear out our fireplace about a year ago – it was just an insulated firebox and triple walled flu – not a true brick chimney – and found a mummified squirrel caught between the flu and the box!
Even though the house was vacant for nearly a year before we bought it – we shudder to think how long it had been there and count ourselves very lucky that in the few times we used the fireplace before installing an outdoor woodstove that it didn’t catch on fire in between the walls.
Ashley@AttemptsAtDomestication says
I definitely have learned not to rush things. I want to “finish” things around the house so badly but then I hate it and have to redo it because I jumped in without thinking. :P
Julia @ This Idiot's Guide says
Oh where do I start? A biggie is learning the importance of properly stripping before re-painting. We used a liquid deglosser on the trim (which was stained) in our house before painting it, and it clearly didn’t do the job because the paint has already peeled and chipped off in places (after only a couple months). Sanding must be the way to go! Either that or I have yet to learn how to make liquid deglosser work… could be a user error. You guys seem to use deglosser a lot, any tips or tricks??
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, if something is really glossy you’ll have to use liquid sandpaper or sand (deglosser just removes oils and stuff, like those on old kitchen cabinets, but it won’t remove poly or sealer). Hope it helps!
xo
s
Vanessa R says
I was just going to ask this same question! I just want to clarify what the difference is between liquid sandpaper and deglosser. I have the Klean Strip Liquid Sander Deglosser sold at Home Depot. http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100112667/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=deglosser&storeId=10051#.UMY6a5g8CSo I am about 8 months pregnant and the gal at the hardware store said this would be better than sanding the dresser I want to paint and use as a changing table. The dresser is stained and sealed currently. What is your opinion John and Sherry?
YoungHouseLove says
Hmm, I would read the back of that can but most liquid sander is much heavier duty (more chemicals) so you want something that’s no or low VOC and you should wear a mask anyway and do it outside, just to be safe! Hope it helps!
xo
s
Christina says
I made the spackle and paint mistake too in our bathroom. I would also add to the list– if you’re buying new furniture for a new house..you definitely want to buy things you will LOVE for awhile or go with cheaper options if you can. Save the extra money for improvements in other areas. Even if you think the house won’t need much work– they usually do. And- if you’re right and everything is peachy, then you have extra money saved for when something breaks / needs replacing.
Charlotte says
I’m feeling mildly validated that someone else had the maggot experience… we just forgot to deal with our chimney cap and had a little squirrel issue. I’ve felt sullied ever since… gack.
Kelly says
John and Sherry,
I think I can relate the most to #2. I tend to just dive in and try to fix a little thing, not realizing its the great big thing that I don’t like. I need to start looking at the bigger picture.
Thanks for all your tips. You guys ROCK!
Anna says
such a good reflection on the things you’ve learned! thanks for sharing the ugly and the bad as well as the good!
Emily says
How exactly DO you fix a drywall/spackle issue? In our kitchen there is a line where the mud wasn’t sanded smooth. Its been primed and painted and drives me crazy!
YoungHouseLove says
You just have to sand that baby down and start over again! If you sand through the paint/primer you’ll get down to the spackle/drywall again and you can putty/sand/putty/sand as many times as you need until it’s smooth- and only then should you prime and paint once and for all! Good luck!
xo
s
Jen S. says
We had this same issue on the ceilings in our living room and our house was built in the early 90’s — we ended up having to retape the drywall and then spackle, sand, spackle, etc. I wish we would have known that from the start! Ha!
Tracie@MiddleClassMod says
Here’s something I really respect about you guys, and something that if you don’t do, it’s probably not going to end well. Respect the house you’re in.
Mid-century ranchers are never going to look like McMansions. McMansions are never going to look like an Eichler. Eichlers aren’t Victorians.
Not that you can’t pull in different stylistic elements (a piece of ornate Victorian furniture usually looks great in a modern space), but don’t try to turn your house into something it’s not. It’s never going to look right. Bring in elements, freshen the space, but stay true to the spirit of your home and your renovation will probably turn out better in the long run.
Katie V says
Yes! There is someone in my neighborhood who needs to sit & chat with you. Almost every single house in my city(and most in north Texas) is a brick ranch. Down the street, someone must have lost a bet and painted their red-brick ranch powder blue & added a Victorian style tower to the side…. I die a little every time I drive by it.
Chris says
Great advice. After just having the wall between the kitchen and dining room torn down, I’m having a hard time trying to decide how to make everything come together so for the time being I’m just living with it and not rushing into anything until I know what I want and what will work best. Maybe it will be done by next Christmas!
Allyn says
Don’t plant a huge vegetable garden if you’re never grown more than a few herbs before.
Out. Of. Control.
YoungHouseLove says
Hah!
xo
s
Christine says
I totally agree with the stump tip!! Though for us it was dark brown shag carpet in our living room. For 15 months it was the bane of my existance and I filled my Pinterest board with ideas to decorate (layering rugs, using light accent colors, etc) but it was just not working. So we pulled the trigger on hardwood floors which led to a new couch, rug and credenza. I could not be happier that we waited for what we wanted! P.S. Love your blog and eagerly awaiting Santa to leave your book under my tree this year!!
Liz S. says
Ahhh! The bugs! In our old apartment there was one day a year where flies would appear…no explanation. I’d roll up the window shades and wait for them to land, then get them with the swatter…it turned into a small competition with myself, haha
Megan @ Rappsody in Rooms says
Wow, you just put into words what I never knew I was thinking until now. I have tried so many times to try and make something ugly, or at least not in love with, pretty. All it does is take a lot of time and energy, and sometimes money to do something you will never really love. I definitely like these types of posts!
Sarah @ RixenItUp says
We renovated the first of two bathrooms a couple of years ago. We were in a rush to finish it since company was coming, so we bought the pre-finished trim – as in, it had that fake wood laminate covering it. Bad idea. It started peeling on a couple of edges, and we’re now in the process of using the leftover trim from our 2nd bathroom renovation to redo the trim…again. More work and more money in the long run, so trying to save time and money back then has not been worth it!
Kelley says
Great tips! It’s a relief to know that even the seasoned veterans like you have made a few mistakes over the years. Makes me feel not so bad about learning things the hard way myself :-)
Nicole says
I second living in your house for awhile before changing anything. Even something like paint color, which is easy to fix, usually works out better when you’ve had a chance to live in space, note the lighting at different times of the day, etc.
Marie Kovarik says
I learned #4 the hard way last April after purchasing my first home. I also learned (the hard way) that you should wear a mask when you sand that stuff. I had a nose full of dust. I dont’ want to think about what got into my lungs.
Amanda says
Don’t think that a house which is over 160 years old will only need a little work. haha …. :|
Lynn @ Our Useful Hands says
I have realized that a large living room can be a configuration nightmare. Case in point, this is the 2nd time in 2 weeks that we have changed it around. Today I moved it again and voila! It feels like it is finally coming along to something we can live with for at least…2 more weeks. :)
My best, Lynn
norah says
We’ve been in our house for 7.5 years. It was an estate sale and there was literally nothing in the kitchen except a sink, no cabinets, no appliances. We cobbled together a weird kitchen. A year ago, with a 1 year old, we finally got off our a$$es and redid our kitchen. It is WONDERFUL and wasn’t that difficult or super expensive. I was miserable for so long for nothing…so what I learned was to JUST DO IT. (PS now we are looking at new houses and I’m sad, because the kitchen is awesome.)
Angelica says
Ahhhhh…..I needed this….I needed someone to tell me….why hire someone to carve your hideous stump in the middle of your yard to look like a buffalo when you could [and should] just take it out hahaha
We’re from Oklahoma. There’s buffalos everywhere.
Don’t Judge… :)
YoungHouseLove says
Hahahh!
xo
s
Debbie says
Mine comes with a bit of a funny story – Just because creative use of a tool would make a job easier doesn’t mean it should be used.
My husband was given the job to clean the leaves off the roof and out of gutters one fall and decided a leaf blower would make it much easier and faster. Which it did – he was finished in a half hour! BUT. I had to clean the nasty leaf-dirt-gutter crud off of the sides of the house, our porches and our cars that were parked in front of the house, which took a few more hours. He didn’t think about that when he pitched the idea!
I make him do it the slow way now haha!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yeah, I’ve definitely found myself cleaning some gutter dirt off of the patio a time or two…
-John
Heather says
Although the flip side of this: If it’s going to take the same amount of time either way, at least most of the cleanup had him on the ground instead of the higher-risk job of spending more time on the roof, and hey the cars and house got cleaned too!
Ben @ The House of Lists says
Knowing when to bail on an idea is key to sanity. Often times I get stuck spending good time / money after bad once I’m into a project even when I know it’s not going to come out well. Cutting your losses can stink, but in the end it’s better than spending more time and money and still being unhappy with the result.
Rachel says
I read the line of “If you are eating or afraid of bugs…” as though it were suggesting that I might be eating bugs at that moment. Oh yuck.
Very sage advice. The spackle and sand lesson has yet to be learned by me and my husband. We despise that chore and try to shortcut it all the time.
Marisa says
Me too! I had to reread it like 4 times because I kept thinking “How many people would be eating bugs while reading this?”
EngineerMom says
The not-rushing-into-things feature has been a pleasant side effect to my combination of procrastination and small children. :-)
We moved in August and our master bedroom has no furniture in it – just a queen mattress and boxspring. I almost went out to IKEA to buy some endtables, but with no car, it’s 2 hours on the bus. Not so easy with two kids. Some friends came over for Thanksgiving, and it turned out they had a pair of small tables that were the perfect height and style for our bedroom that they were planning to get rid of – free nightside tables! If I’d been more on top of things, we would have spent who knows how much to get tables that didn’t work nearly as well as these two did. Yay (occasional) procrastination! ;-)
Kara says
I learned the hard way to just stick with my plan or drop it to re-evaluate measurements. Story: these were my wardrobes that I needed to buy for my closet-less place. I had a plan all ready-set-go to buy this tension-pole set from IKEA (Stolmen), which was an 8-hour drive away from home. But when I got there, there was a snag in the plan which threw me off course, and I was NOT ABOUT TO GO BACK HOME empty-handed. So…. fast forward to $500 and some back-breaking hauling time later, I regret the decision. I should have just plowed ahead with my original plan. I still kick myself for it, and it’s been about a year.
Kara says
I forgot to add in that I made the snap decision in the store (well, if you can call 2 hours of planning out a new wardrobe system a “snap” decision). I brought home the Pax system. These were 140-lb boxes that we had to maneuver up 3 flights of narrow stairs. I still feel guilty for having help.
Brynn says
Thanks for the list and sharing your mistakes with us so we might avoid them! Looking forward to the rest of the tips people will drop in with in the comments too!
Christa M says
I miss the blue stools….they were so much fun! Though I’m sure in person you are just loving the new ones!
Micha says
Everything takes longer than on HGTV :o)
Nicole @ Liberty Belles says
don’t hang up all your christmas lights with tape.
seriously…just don’t :)
Christina @ Homemade Ocean says
It’s so funny that you just did this post because I was jotting down blog ideas the other day….guess what I wrote?
Things I wish I would have known. Great minds :)
Sabrina says
We learned the hard way to check your ceiling height before you buy! After we bought our house and were moving in we found that our ceilings are barely 7 ft heigh. Half of our furniture didn’t fit. We also learned to look at the windows. We didn’t realize until the summer came that we couldn’t put an air conditioner into our awning windows. Duh! Last but not least, we learned not to use the inspector that the realtor provides because they may just be trying to make a buck and not really inspecting. Proof in our now gutted basement from a leak in the wall, that had been going on for years. Our lack of insulation, and black mold. And the reviews that we found for him after the fact! Ugh! First time homeowners over here! lol
Sabrina says
Oh and maggots aren’t to bad, Sherry. My cat left a mouse without a butt on my bed! Ugh!
YoungHouseLove says
LOL at “mouse without a butt.” It’s totally a gross visual, but hilarious at the same time. Growing up our cat once left some mouse “halves” on the floor to surprise us when we came home. My sister and I each discovered one by stepping on them. I was lucky enough to have socks on. My sister? Not so much.
-John
Wrenaria says
When I was a kid, my cat brought me a LIVE mouse in my bedroom. She kept trying to catch and kill it that night, but wasn’t strong enough to actually snap it’s neck in her mouth. It was horrifying.
Eventually my mom caught it in a shoe box and released it outside and I was relieve that she saved it. What she didn’t tell me until years later is that our dog (a malamute) snatched it up once it was about halfway through the yard and ate it herself. Poor mouse.
Sorry, kind of a terrible story, but I couldn’t help but share.
Sabrina says
I almost laid on top of it! I was like eww a hair ball, then I looked closer! Right on my new duvet too! This of course was when my husband left for an over night business trip and I was alone. He usually deals with the gross stuff lol I looked at the cat and was like “Who just eats the butt? Honestly!”
Heather says
I am totally, completely, unapologetically guilty of #4.
The people who lived here before us were fond of splatter painting. Splatter painting is not onlu ugly but hides imperfections really, really well. After 2-3 spackling-sanding experiences in our entry way, I finally gave up & primed the room before painting. Once the walls were the same color, those imperfections were so much easier to see.
http://www.bakecreatelove.com/2011/10/diy-painting-striped-walls.html
Ethne @ Wom-Mom says
I learned after that after I made my girls’ tooth fairies from scratch that their were heads were a little small for their bodies and they looked a little like hussies, but that just made it funnier, and so I gave them to my girls for their 5th birthday anyway. Will I use this made-up pattern again, nope.
Maria @ Inspiration Affirmation says
I think the tip about not decorating around something that you hate is great. In the end, you will spend more money trying to cover up said ugly thing than you would removing it! Thanks so much for these tips!