To date, we have remodeled three of the four homes we have lived in over the past 30 years. Did we always know what we were doing? Absolutely not. Does it save us money in the long run doing it ourself. 100% yet. Today I thought it would be fun to answer some of the common questions we get asked about our home remodel projects.

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• HOW DO YOU PAY FOR YOUR REMODEL PROJECTS? We pay for all home projects in cash. We never use credit cards. N.E.V.E.R. This is the main reason it takes so long for us to fix up our homes from start to finish. We were in our last house for 18 years and still never got to the kitchen remodel. We’ve been there, done that. One year after we were married we had a newborn that I stayed home with and lived on my husband’s paycheck of $9.46 per hour. How we made it, I will never know. Through the years we used credit cards to make ends meet scraping by each week while watching the credit line creep up. Let me tell you first hand, the stress is not worth it! For many years we worked our rears off paying off those credit cards, driving older cars with no car payments and working to build multiple streams of income. Being debt free (other than a house payment) is the way to be and I’ll never go back to relying on credit cards again. It’s not easy but if we can do it, anyone can do it.

• HOW DO YOU KNOW HOW TO DO ALL THE REMODEL PROJECTS? Trial. Error. Google. YouTube. Determination. These days you can learn how to do pretty much anything for free on the internet. Start small, learn from mistakes, and just keep trying. We jumped in head first before we were married tearing into our first house. We had no idea what we were doing but somehow it worked out. We tore off wallpaper while cockroaches fell to the floor and learned how to hang sheetrock, my arms dying while holding it up on the ceiling and my then-fiancé hurriedly adding way too many screws. Yes, there were bigger gaps than there should have been but a little extra tape and mud hid the mistakes for the most part. We tore out carpet where the previous tenants rebuilt an engine on the living room floor. As pure luck would have it, the original hardwoods were underneath with only a minor grease spot that could be hidden by a coffee table. The roof leaked on the back room add-on where we kept the washer and dryer. We tried and tried again to patch the leak and got used to putting out buckets when rain was expected but eventually we figured it out and the roof repair worked. As Nike says, “just do it”. All turns out just fine in the end and the imperfections add character.

• HOW DO YOU HAVE TIME FOR ALL THE HOME PROJECTS? Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. It’s how you choose to spend that time that makes the difference. I, by nature, am a doer and a list maker. I’ve never been one to take naps. Even if I try, I simply can’t. I remember when I was younger with the whole family at the lake. The adults would nap after lunch for what seemed like hours. It was the absolute worst! I’m also not much of a TV watcher. If I have it on, it’s usually in the background while I’m doing something else. I always have a plan of what I would like to accomplish for the day and the list is usually longer than I can ever complete. It’s like a daily challenge to me. I know not everyone is wired the same. My husband isn’t as extreme as I am. He would take a daily nap if he had the opportunity, especially since his stroke. We both work full-time jobs and also each own our own business. But we enjoy projects and improving our home so when we aren’t working, more often than not, that’s what you’ll find us doing on the weekends.

• HOW CAN YOU STAND LIVING IN THE CONSTRUCTION MESS? It’s not fun! For the last six weeks our clothes have been located upstairs in the spare bedroom on rolling clothes racks while we tear out the small master closet and turn the adjoining bedroom into a master closet/laundry space. Recently the back patio has taken priority so not much work has been done on the space. It may be many more weeks of going upstairs to find our clothes each morning but it will be so worth it in the end to have an entire wall dedicated for shoes in the big new master closet. As for the constant construction dust, about a year ago we made the decision to hire a house cleaner twice a month which takes the burden off me. The extra time I gain by not having to clean is more time I can work on home projects. It’s one of the best things I’ve done for myself and my sanity.

• WHY NOT JUST BUY NEW? We have always been able to get more of a house by remodeling than we could if we bought new. Before we bought our current home, we were going to build. We had custom plans drawn for a 2,500 square foot craftsman on an acre of land. Turns out it was going to cost double what we ended up paying for our current 4,000 square foot house on 5 acres. In hindsight, it was the best waste of $5,000 for custom home plans and, who knows, we may end up building that craftsman as a second home on a lake lot in the future.

• DO YOU HIRE OUT ANY WORK? Yes, if it makes sense and saves time for us to pay a professional, we hire out the work. For example, there was no way we had the know-how or the equipment to pour the concrete floor for our barn. That part was hired out and then we built the rest of the barn ourselves.

• HOW TO YOU HAVE THE PATIENCE TO LIVE WITH THE OLD UNTIL YOU CAN GET THE NEW? Patience is not my strong suit! If it were up to me, it wouldn’t have taken over a year of living with mud pit in the backyard until we could get the back patio finished. However, sometimes things don’t go as planned, contractors don’t show up, supplies are out of stock, prices go up too high. That’s life and you just have to learn to deal with it. Is it fun living with an oven that has missing buttons? No, but the oven works fine even if you don’t always remember which button does what. Is my kitchen pretty, bright and up to date? Nope. It’s definitely not ideal for taking pretty blog photos. But there is nothing wrong with the kitchen I have now. Meals cooked taste just the same and the dark green faux granite counter overlays actually look really nice in fall/Christmas kitchen photos.

• WHAT TIPS DO YOU HAVE FOR SOMEONE WANTING TO GET INTO REMODELING?
  • Don’t be afraid to try. Start with something simple. Paint a room, learn how to fill nail holes, practice cutting in until you can do with without taping. Paint works wonders transforming a room and is relatively inexpensive.
  • Help pay for projects by trading out work when possible. If you know how to lay tile but don’t know anything about plumbing, trade out work with a plumber that needs new bathroom tile.
  • Live in a space before remodeling. It’s not as fun but it’s better than remodeling and then realizing the space doesn’t work as you intended in the long run.
  • Don’t over-renovate for your area so you can’t recoup all your money when you sell.
  • Make temporary inexpensive fixes now until you can afford the full remodel. I painted, yes painted, my daughter’s bathroom floor. The transformation was incredible and three years later it’s still holding up beautifully. Do what you can to love where you live.

• ANY UPDATING TIPS FOR THOSE THAT RENT?
  • If your landlord will allow you to paint, make the spaces your own with wall colors you love.
  • Hang anything possible with 3M removable tabs. Less holes you have to fill when you move out.
  • Add style with removable peel and stick wallpaper. Just make sure it’s removable.
  • Add molding to walls or ceilings using removable velcro tabs.
  • Switch out light fixtures for ones you love. Put the old in storage. When it’s time to move out, replace the old fixtures and take the updated ones with you.
  • Add open shelving for decor/plants. When you move, simply take them down and fill the holes.
  • Disguise ugly flooring by layering area rugs.
  • Soothe your remodeling itch by refinishing furniture pieces to fill your space.
  • See if your landlord will allow you to remodel in exchange for rent.

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I hope the FAQs answers were helpful. If you have any more questions, drop a comment on this post and I’ll add to the answers. We’re only just beginning on our home remodel projects. Stick around and see what else we have up our sleeves.