Our Three Biggest Mistakes From Our First Home Renovation Project

My wife and I recently decided to do some renovations in our kitchen. While this wasn't designed to be anything major (mostly just removing fake plastic brick from the wall, getting rid of the carpeting on the floor and making the kitchen a little more user friendly), it was the first renovation project we had ever attempted together.

When we started, we knew we would end up learning some lessons. And, as expected, we ended up making some mistakes. Most were minor. However, there were three major ones that will stick with us the next time we start a new home renovation project (likely the dining room since we already purchased everything for it).

The first was underestimating how long the work would take.

 When my wife and I first started renovating our kitchen, we figured it would take us, at most, two weekends. Instead, mostly because removing the carpeting and fake brick was harder than expected, especially when working around our kids; it took us over a month. As a result of this, the next time we start a project, we are going to plan on it taking longer.

Our second mistake was not putting safety first. 

Fortunately, my wife and I did not receive any serious injuries. However, in hindsight, we would have been better off with safety goggles, dust masks and probably some steel-toed shoes (she dropped a crowbar on her toes). I actually had some work gloves but chose not to wear them and, as a result, had a couple nice cuts on my hands. Next time around, we are going to be a bit more careful and take all the precautions we didn't take the first time around.

Our last mistake was not planning for the mess. 

We didn't rent a dumpster but, after starting our kitchen, we learned that would have been a good idea. There was quite a bit of debris that didn't fit in our garbage bin and, while the city will do a bulk pick up, it only does it twice a year. As a result of this, we have a nice-sized pile of carpeting, fake brick and dry wall stacked behind our house and it will be there for the next couple of months.

Overall, our kitchen remodel turned out OK. We have the kitchen almost looking the way we pictured it and, by doing the renovation ourselves, we were able to save quite a bit of money. However, because of the three major mistakes we made, we now know we need to plan future home renovations a bit more carefully.