Comments on: Putting My Returned Tax Dollars To Good Use

By: Miss Priss

Miss Priss — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:33:52 +0000

My dad and I tried to install a ceiling fan in the dining room. When we took off the old fixture, charred insulation fell on our heads. We spent three entire days rewiring the whole house.

Home Depot fan: $ 20
Rewiring the house: $3800
A Daddy/Daughter bonding experience: Priceless

It did teach me how to fish wires in about eight seconds flat, though.

By: Fran

Fran — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:44:23 +0000

Gotta agree with Anthony in #5. In my family there’s a saying “There is NO 4 hour home improvement job I can’t turn into at least 40 hours of hard labor.”

By: Jane

Jane — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:11:25 +0000

Stacy — I’ll skip my home improvement horrors to say that as a mom to two dachshunds, I completely understand the utter shock of stepping in weenie wee, although I’m usually in socks when I do it. Yuck. Pee socks.

By: kate

kate — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:54:40 +0000

Never go with the highest bidder, either! My husband and I got five bids to re-roof our 1920′s bungalow. We went with the highest bidder because the other four seemed obscenely low…y’know, like “too good to be true”? Well, the roof leaked the first time it rained…and it rained buckets for a week, so the contractor couldn’t fix it properly. So then he came out to fix it. And it leaked again. So then he came out to fix it – again. And it leaked – again. Anyway, long story short, he came out four times to fix it.

Meanwhile, my kitchen, which was about the only room in the house that I considered “done”, was trashed. The plaster cracked, the original built-in cabinetry swelled, cracking more of the plaster AND the tile around it, the ceiling and walls took on a nasty brown-and-black hue…the list goes on.

Fortunately, our insurance is covering the repairs. The new contractor came out and said almost everything was salvagable…except the tile backsplash. No big deal, I wasn’t in love with it anyway. So I decided to replace it. And hell, as long as I’m replacing the backsplash, let’s replace the formica countertops with granite! And, jeez, since we’re ripping out the walls and ceiling, might as well redo the electrical, too!

Oh, and in the midst of all this, my husband deployed to Afghanistan, leaving me with what’s left of the kitchen, a contractor to deal with, and a fussy toddler who’s upset that he can’t play in the cabinets.

Anyway, the work is JUST ABOUT done. The counters are *supposed* to go in today, the electrical’s done, the backsplash goes in tomorrow…

BTW, a word to the wise: if you have small children and a major room renovation – especially a kitchen or bathroom – try to pawn them off on the grandparents until the work is done. The work hasn’t been limited to the kitchen, so I can’t even imagine what it would be like if my parents hadn’t taken my son away from the power tools, dust, open basement doors, etc.

Good luck with your bathroom! :)

By: Miss Cellania

Miss Cellania — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:57:51 +0000

My fixer-upper was also built in 1923 -at least the original five rooms. I’ve been here 15 years and have worked on it constantly. I’ve spent more on remodeling than I did on the original property, and I did a big part of the work myself. My advice? Never go with the lowest bidder. We had two new rooms built several years ago, and we are STILL repairing what’s wrong with them.

By: Sarakenobi

Sarakenobi — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:20:58 +0000

this is so my house. we start one thing and it overtakes EVERYTHING. we put in new ceilings in March and we’ve yet to paint them because we’ve decided to refinish the floors. I still haven’t painted my kitchen because I just DON’T WANT TO. but i did just refinish the bathroom (minus the ceiling, it still needs sanding and painting) we painted, tiled teh floors and put in a new toilet and sink. you couldn’t pay me enough to figure out hwo to remove the tub though…. good luck!

By: micx

micx — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:11:24 +0000

Note to Ann –
That is the worst horror story I’ve ever heard!! Yikes! Glad to hear it’s over.

By: micx

micx — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:08:29 +0000

We bought our first home in 2003. To build up our ‘sweat equitity’, we decided to finish the basement with 3/4 bath and an additional bedroom. We began in summer of 2004 with a purging garage sale and framing out the basement began. We were fortunate in that a friend of the family (also a contractor) was willing to work on weekends. However, after 10 months, he had had enough and left us to complete the job. Oh boy! We ended up hiring jobs piecemeal to other contractors to get the job done – After a year and half, our bath was done (with a his/her shower!). Another year passed before we finally got the mudding and taping of the drywall done (we were doing that ourselves and that was the biggest mistake!). Then, I got pregnant – and funny, my husband no longer had motivational issues to finish the job – it was done in just a couple of months. (BTW – we did fill/sand and paint the nail holes in our trim)

Some things we learned was to 1)consider the pain-in-the-arse factor. Some jobs are worth the money to hire professionals; and 2) even after 3 1/2 years, the project _will_ get done if you stick with it. We now joke that we should have gotten pregnant sooner and maybe the basement would have been done even earlier.

By: Ed Hands

Ed Hands — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:59:14 +0000

One thing I’ve learned in the last ten years of home-ownership (after beating myself in the head on ten separate occasions with “I can do this myself hammer”):

Don’t drive yourself crazy, call a (reliable and referenced) professional. It’s worth the piece of mind.

It’s cost me about $40,000 to find out I know little to nothing about plumbing, carpentry, landscaping, heating systems, and electrical work.

I now have a guideline: If I need to buy a new tool to do the job, I need to be calling a professional.

By: Allie

Allie — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:45:19 +0000

Here’s a tip: NEVER, I mean NEVER try to refinish your hardwood floors yourself. I think we spent 14 hours a day for 6 days refinishing about 800 sq. ft. It was the worst home improvement experience of my life and I think we only saved about $400.