REmodeling....REthink it!!

our remodeling adventure was fun in the beginning, but has since been very frustrating and brought out the worst in us! we wanted to do it ourselves, #1 to save $ and #2 for the sake of saying we did it ourselves! don't get me wrong, i love to learn new things and i'd like to be a little 'renovation savvy' if you will, so when i really need to reference what i've learned, i will be able to w/out any problems. you never know when you'll need to fix something at the drop of a hat. WAY later on down the line, anyway! it is really nice to work hard and see the benefits, which is what we were experiencing in the beginning. now, we've seen the worst of things. it took us 3 full days (and by full i mean 16hr days), trying to put our french doors in! the "free" doors that we scored, actually cost us $200, miscellaneous parts we didn't think of. if you threw in labor, we'd be in the $1000's range! after that was squared away, we moved onto the kitchen sink/faucet. what you would think was pretty easy, right? WRONG!! we keep forgetting that our house is 22yrs old. every time we turn around, something is breaking and we have to replace it w/a newer part or something that should come off easily, even after using every tool in the book, is practically welded on because it's been in the same place for so long. no bueno! so after a long week of dealing w/a stinkin' sink, our kitchen is finally finished (minus the paint, of course)! oh yah, bought the sink from craigslist for $50 and ended up costing over $100 to put in!

so when they say "how strong is your marriage?", when you ask "how hard can it be to remodel a few things here and there"...that's what they mean!! it's been a struggle for mike and i because dealing w/everyday stress is hard enough, let alone throw in a bunch of dust, tools, drywall and paint chips EVERYWHERE, "let's do it this way, no, let's do it that way", you get the picture!!

nonetheless, we're movin' on to the bathrooms. hopefully they'll go a lot smoother...ha! keep in mind, we're still pulling for a september deadline...keep you posted.