Renovation Nightmare…

Thanks for the guest post by Jo Levy

I can’t believe how much work this house has become. Has anyone out there ever redone a house from top to bottom? I hate that it’s taking me so long as I wanted to host a big housewarming party this spring but it’s looking like I’m not going to be done until like fall, at the earliest. When I bought this house I thought it was going to be a fun project. I spent a long time looking intowww.electriccompaniesindallas.com for good energy rates and talking to painters about whether or not they could do faux texture on the walls…little did I know I was going to have termites all within the walls and basically rotted pipes from the basement to the attic. Yeesh. No one wants to spend their renovation budget on things like that because it’s not something anyone will ever SEE. The improvements I’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars on are the things that matter most to the construction of the home but they’re certainly not what’s going to sell the place. I’ve spent so much time in sawdust up to my ankles and wearing a fumigationmask I don’t know that I remember what I look like clean anymore. I think the advice I would give to any other renovator would be to buy your first reno home with nothing more than cosmetic improvements needed. There’s nothing good that can come from basically having to take the house down to the studs unless you’re a contractor yourself, which I am most definitely not. I never imagined this place would take so long and I would have to sink so much money into it – I think I’m going to have to live here for several years to get any of my money back out. I guess that’s the way the cookie crumbles, though, and that’s what happens when you take a risk like I did. You never win unless you play!