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Things to know before you reno: Part 2

October 4, 2011

Construction1
Honey, does it seem drafty in here to you?


This is the second part of a list on what you need to know before you renovate. If you haven’t read part Part 1, check it out here. And now, here’s the rest.
6. Have a friend who won’t get sick of talking to you about your reno.
You need to have a person to run ideas by. Ideally this person will share your design style or at least understand and respect your designs. They need to be honest, because sometimes you really need someone to tell you that something is REALLY ugly, and you can’t have someone mincing words. This person should not be your spouse (whose opinion also counts but in a different way). It should also, under no circumstances, be your mother.
7. Spend your money on the stuff you can’t see.
I know this is one of those things you hear all the time, but it’s true. And that’s simply because as much as you’d hate to, you can always go back and change out an ugly light fixture in a few years when your budget had recovered a little, but you can’t rip back into your walls and put in more insulation. We had to fix some structural issues on the side of the house we weren’t planning on touching, but we did it at the same time because we couldn’t fathom coming back in 10 years and ripping our house up again. We also took the opportunity to thoroughly insulate everything with a layer of spray foam insulation and then the regular rolled insulation. It’s not a fun thing to spend money on but it’s worth it.
8. Get what you want.
I guess this more a matter of what kind of person you are, but it works for me. I’m one of those people who would rather save up for a longer time and get what I really want rather than spend less but get something I don’t like as much. For most people a renovation is a big deal and it was for us. I don’t intend to do many (any, actually) more of these, so this was my one chance to get some of these things right. So that’s why we spent a lot of time figuring out our priorities and deciding which things were really important to us and which things we could live without. For us, the bathroom was a priority, so we sort of went hog wild in there. We did manage costs by getting an inexpensive field tile and then spending more on the accent tile rather than using accent tile everywhere, but, in general, we pretty much got what we really wanted in the bathroom. That meant we had to cut costs elsewhere and one of those places was the bedroom floors. We wanted a gorgeous nailed-in hardwood floor but the cost plus installation was more than we were comfortable with. So we went with floors we could install ourselves to save money. We still love them, although I would have liked other floors better, but it’s not a decision I regret. I’m certain if we had cheaped out on some of things we chose for the bathroom, I would regret it every morning.
9. Be a team.
If you are undergoing a renovation with a partner or spouse, remember to stay on the same side. There’s no doubt it can be horrible and frustrating at times and you will both be at your breaking point because all you want to do is get dressed in the morning, have a cup of coffee and watch a little TV, but you can’t find your clothes because you’re living out of laundry baskets in the basement, the coffeemaker is covered in a quarter-inch layer of dust and you can’t even find the television. These are the times when you can’t lash out at each other. You have to share the frustration. One person gets to be frustrated and crabby at a time. The other one has to normal and sane, and remind the other that it will be over soon and it will be so worth it. You can switch spots later.
10. Consider being your own general contractor.
OK, I know that sounds really scary, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend it for a new build, but honestly I think it’s very doable for a lot of people. We chose a lot of our own subcontractors for various reasons, either because we wanted to give a specific company our business, or we had a friend who could do it better, etc. And every time we went with our own guy, they became our responsibility. Also, one of us was at the house almost every day, even if it was just stopping in for lunch. And if we didn’t, invariably something was done incorrectly, or we were getting a call asking how we wanted something to look. And even with the subcontractors that were hired by our general contractor, we were often expected to communicate directly with them to ease the process. With the exception of the complicated structural issues in the beginning, I think we could have handled the general contracting just fine.
11. The construction guys will see your underwear.
Yep. At some point, no matter how much you try to keep your unmentionables out of public view, random construction guys will see your undies. What’s worse is that if the renovation drags on long enough, you won’t care anymore. And what’s even worse is that if it drags on even longer, you won’t even care when they see your dirty undies in the laundry pile in the basement (which sometimes looks a lot like the clean clothes pile since they are all being kept within a foot of each other). Hey I didn’t tell you it would be pretty.

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by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
6 Comments

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previous post: Things to know before you reno: Part 1
next post: Birthday memories

Comments

  1. threeacres says: October 5, 2011 at 2:42 am

    LOL #11 happened last week. Only the underwear was mixed in the ginormous mess of our one bedroom. I had done 8 loads of laundry the day before and we were trying to find our winter clothes in the boxes of mess so needless to say the bedroom was a horror scene when the electrician decided he needed to look at an outlet.

    Reply
  2. Ms. Wis./Each Little World says: October 5, 2011 at 3:00 am

    Our main relationship rule is "one jerk at a time." So if you realize your spouse is being the jerk you just have to put up with it cause they will eventually realize it and apologize. Works fairly well.

    And yes, I love our bathroom and that we spent money on the stuff I deal with every day: a toilet that flushes and faucets that are easy and don't require a lot of extra cleaning of nooks and crannies.

    Good advice all of it — and I like the way you numbered everything.

    Reply
  3. Sixty-Fifth Avenue says: October 10, 2011 at 9:13 pm

    i enjoyed your renovation series. the workers are building the roof of my/your portico as i type…fingers crossed…i have butterflies in my belly.

    Reply
  4. EverydayAmy says: March 27, 2013 at 9:48 pm

    I could not have found your blog at a better time! We are literally 3 days into our first big renovation as a somewhat newlywed couple. We gutted our bathroom to the studs, and we have already had a hiccup or two with the whole process. These little tips are comforting! 🙂

    Reply
  5. EverydayAmy says: March 27, 2013 at 9:50 pm

    I could not have found you blog at a better time! (thanks YHL!) We are literally 3 days into our first big renovation as a somewhat newlywed couple. We gutted our tiny bathroom to the studs and have already had a few hiccups with the rebuilding process. These tips are wonderful! 🙂

    Reply
  6. Emily Amy says: March 28, 2013 at 3:08 am

    I just found your blog through YHL and a big thank you for the great reno "tips." We just bought a new home and will be moving in approximately 60 days. However we are already planning some major renovations (adding a second floor and a front porch), so your tips will come in handy. Especially about the budget! Great job, you should feel very proud.

    Reply

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The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

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Erin Schanen 🌿 The Impatient Gardener
I fell in love with gardening through container de I fell in love with gardening through container design and it’s probably still my favorite type of gardening. My trip to Philadelphia area gardens was full of so many excellent ideas. For several years I’ve been enamored with clustered pots, but in my opinion they work best when they are able to stand alone in a space. And you probably know me well enough by now to know that as far as I’m concerned, the bigger the pot, the better. Feast your eyes on these beauties and use your zooming fingers to really get into those nooks and crannies. 

Don’t forget to save your favorites because you know you’re going to be looking for them come next spring. 😀

Photos 1 & 2: Amazing container cluster at @longwoodgardens  that works particularly well because of the restraint used in the design. Also how many different ways is the universe going to tell me I need to grow agave before I actually listen?

Photo 3: This was probably favorite display I saw the whole time and of course it’s from the masters at @chanticleergarden This is a master class in texture. It’s also probably not attainable for the average home gardener because it relies heavily on tropicals that need proper overwintering in order to reach a good size. But there’s no reason why I (or you) couldn’t use this as inspiration to create a similar feel with other plants. 

Photo 4: Strappy foliage, bright orange and colorful pots create such a good doorway collection at @chanticleergarden 

Photo 5, 6 & 7: Similar colors were used at a patio doorway at Steve and Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm home garden. A pot is perfectly framed by an arbor off a side patio. The front entrance has a pink theme (and an amazing feature pot that I couldn’t show here because all my shots are vertical). 

Photo 8: Back to @chanticleergarden where I could have studied this container planting for an hour just to soak up all the detail. 

Photo 9: And while I love a pot with a lot going on, never underestimate the power of a simply planted, gorgeous pot, like this one at @abunting64 garden Belvidere. 

#gbfling2023
I think every garden probably needs a little bit o I think every garden probably needs a little bit of water, even if it’s just a bird bath. All of the fabulous gardens I saw recently in the Philadelphia area incorporated water into them. Here are just a few examples of how lovely these water features were. 

@paxsonhillfarm @northviewgarden @brandywinecottage @longwoodgardens #gbfling2023
Gardens must have places to relax and enjoy the vi Gardens must have places to relax and enjoy the view even though we all know that most of us rarely take the opportunity to use them. The seating I saw in gardens in the Philadelphia area reflected their gardens and all were special. 

Make sure to share your favorite!

Photo 1:  I adored these perfectly lichen-covered chairs at @brandywinecottage

Photo 2: Great lichen game on this bench at Wayne Guymon’s mind-blowing garden WynEden. 

Photo 3: Perhaps my favorite seating moment of the whole trip was this chair in @jennyrosecarey @northviewgarden . Not only was it perfectly lichen covered (are you sensing a theme here?) but a volunteer cleome was growing right up through the middle of it. Unfortunately this photo of it isn’t grata because by this point in the trip my phone (I didn’t want to use my DSLR in the middle of the tropical storm so I switched to my phone) was getting very grumpy about the rain. 

Photo 4: I’d be happy to hang out on these chairs in @abunting64 ‘s gorgeous garden Belvidere. I loved this space. 

Photo 5: Color was the name of the game on this patio at Steve and Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm. 

Photo 6: The most original table and benches I saw were at @abunting64 garden. This was a portion of the garden that was actually on the neighbors’ property adjacent to Andrew’s. It had been a vegetable garden but is getting a bit too shady so it will soon have a new life. 

Photo 7: We visited Barbara Tiffany’s Mill Fleurs in a deluge, which is a shame, and dotted throughout the property are examples of her husband Tiff’s amazing furniture. This was, called the Centipede was upholstered and quite different from the others. All were amazing works of art. 

Photos 8 and 9: The @scott_arboretum at @swarthmorecollege had some excellent seating, from brand new @deebenarc chairs to more lichen-covered charmers.

#gbfling2023
*** I can already see that some people do not unde *** I can already see that some people do not understand humor so let me just say this: 1. I was fully aware of the escaped convict situation (I’m an avid follower of the news, which is common for us journalists). 2. It’s ok to laugh about the fact that I’ve missed the Longwood meadow twice through weird circumstances while being a rational adult and realizing that I’m not making light of the situation that led to the meadow being mown. ***

I missed seeing @longwoodgardens beautiful meadow the first time I visited so I was excited to see it the second time. Not so fast! Turns out it had to be mown down during the search for an escaped convict who was hiding out there (at least that’s what I was told was the reason for the mowing). He’ll never see goldenrod the same way again! 😀

That whole situation was really unfortunate for @longwoodgardens (not to mention everyone who lives in the area), which had to be closed for about a week while the hunt was on!
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