3 Lessons Learned From Remodeling

This Post I am sharing one last time some photos of our house remodeling projects. My husband and I purchased our first home 9 years ago. Since then, we have gone room by room, project by project, transforming it into a beautiful well designed home. I always took pictures so we could remember and share with you. It is so amazing to look back and see how far we have come. The lessons we have learned, also, have truly enriched our lives.

Lesson 1. You can totally do it!

This belief in itself will enrich your life in so many ways. In our house remodel many times Todd and I felt overwhelmed or the desired outcome just seemed so impossible.

Here is an example: Our Kitchen. I was able to find some photos, never shared, of our Kitchen “Before”. As you can see it basically needed everything.

Drywall? No problem. Electrical updates? Got it. We had experience, BUT, The thing that really intimidated us was cabinet and counter-tops. We had no experience installing them, but we wanted to try. Turns out all you need is this:

After you choose your cabinets, and do the measuring and planning of your space you literally just need the simple hand tools above to level the cabinets and screw them to the wall. 

Place the shims under the cabinet to make sure it is level, screw it to the wall. That’s it after all your cabinets are attached to the wall place trim around the base to hide the shims and gaps. Then you can measure the tops so you know how much counter-top to buy.

Look at our kitchen now! These photos are from the same angle as the Before photos. We went from the “Before” photos above to this:

It really was so simple. I don’t know why we were so scared.

Lesson 2. Just Fix it

Sometimes things go wrong, and not according to plan. But it’s OK. Just Fix it! It is easy to get frustrated and angry. WE feel like we wasted time and money, but no. It was money and time well spent learning. Pick yourself up and keep going. You will get better and better at avoiding mistakes. 

Lesson 3. Be Patient

There are many reasons why you will need to be patient. Money gets tight. Things happen. You have to take care of your family. Most of the time that we were working on our house we had our infant children to take care of. So our projects went slowly. We would dedicate whole weekends to a project but still needed more time. We had to take lots of breaks to change diapers, get juice, etc. Not wanting to get a sitter all the time we would include our kids in the work. Just be patient. It will get done I promise and it will be amazing!

Look at our cute little helpers!

Aww, I love seeing those pictures! <3 <3

It was fun sharing with you. We say good-bye to remodeling for now, and are so thankful for being able to learn these lessons and FINISH the job.