Our Home : December Update
and lessons learned so far.
The wood floors were down, the walls were freshly painted, and we were only two weeks behind our move in schedule (three if we are being honest with ourselves). My husband, Evan and I just spent seven weeks doing some remodeling on the first home we bought together. While the home we bought was in great condition, there were a few changes we wanted to make to suit our lifestyle better, and of course it just started to snow ball.
We used our escrow period to do research, order samples, and create the never ending lists and schedules of all the work we wanted to get done. And no matter who you are or where you are it is true - Home Remodeling/Projects will take longer than you plan or cost more than you expect or both. Evan and I were aware of that and didn’t want to be naive about it when it came to our own plans. So we did our best with no previous homeowner experience to be mindful of these expectations. But no matter how much planning one can do, some things are just out of your control, plus the pandemic on top of it all. Looking back I am genuinely surprised with how much we still managed to get done.
I thought now would be a good time to reflect on some of our lessons learned besides the typical “it will take longer than you plan” and “it will cost more than you expect” and to share some photos of our home.
Before
Lesson One - Learning a new skill is rewarding
I always like to challenge myself with a new project. I am not a DIY-er; I just appreciate taking the time to learn or try something new. Because of my work as a commercial interior designer, there were some aspects of our remodel that I already knew such as cabinet layouts, material choices, and some basic building knowledge. But I am not a contractor and have never actually implemented my design choices myself. But this project was mine and Evan’s debut to learn some new skills. He handled the Plumbing and Electrical, and I learned way too much about Drywall. But after all the grunt work and curse words - it feels really good to look at the work we did ourselves.
Lesson Two - expect the unexpected
We learned very quickly that once you open up a wall, you will be surprised to find what is inside. Evan had many moments of disbelief by what he found behind the drywall has he worked on electrical. I was more surprised by the challenges we faced with the trades we hired. That is where we lost most of the control of our own project. But even at the end of a difficult or challenging day - I was amazed at how Evan and I were still managing to have a good time together and improve our communication skills as a couple over the process.
Lesson Three - There is no big reveal for us
If you follow different Designers on Social Media like me, then you probably admire whenever they share a completed project. Some posts with particularly bad before photos followed by the professional clean photography of a perfectly styled FINISHED project. This is where I got naïve. When we started our own project - I kept picturing those finished perfectly styled photos of our home. And I couldn’t wait to be able to start sharing them and adding to my portfolio. But as our move in day neared and our project was to be “complete”, I realized we were no where near that optimal finish line for those pretty photos. We still have a very long list of items to be complete that we decided weren’t necessary to finish to be able to move in.
As we started unpacking in our new home, I began rearranging things in different rooms to look styled, and I would think great this corner is done, but then the next day some boxes would get shuffled to that corner. That is when I realized that our home will never have a big reveal. It will always be adapting as we live in it and finish remaining projects and start new ones.
Our running list includes : All Kitchen Cabinets Fronts, Tiling the Half Bath and designing the Vanity, building our dining room storage, replacing removed doors, putting up Art, and removing the remaining clutter. And that is just downstairs. So I wanted to share the more realistic update of our home with you and to hopefully encourage you to keep pushing on those never ending projects and to step back, reflect, and admire the work you have done so far!
Current
Concept Materials
Above is my concept materials board I used to help us make decisions in regards to finishes in our space. While some will never actually be used in our space it helped me capture the look I want of texture, and moodiness, and character that I hope to achieve as we continually work on our home.
I appreciate you and your interest in our home process. I know that each person’s experience with home remodeling is different and I am grateful to have had the opportunity on this first round. As Evan and I live in our home, I hope to share more about how we continue to make it our own in the future.
xo - Lauren