Prepare for Unexpected Remodel Mishaps!
Prepare for unexpected remodel mishaps!
TOP SEVEN DIDN’T SEE IT COMING UNPREDICTABLES DURING MY REMODEL…and a few more notables because there are always more. 😬
It was time to begin construction on all of the remodeling plans we diligently created for the update to our home.
All of the planets were aligned. You have all your products on site, your project person shows up, whether it be plumbing, lighting, tile, or electrical, and the remodel begins. Smooth sailing, blue skies, a light wind, and a rainbow on the horizon.
Not So Fast Kemosabe…
Without warning, the gray skies appear, and the dark clouds begin to form, a roll of thunder and a flash of lightning shock your system, and you think everything is about to unravel. Welcome to the remodel process.
I had several of those moments during my remodel, and after the initial panic, we buckled down and found a solution. You panic because you fear the delay will cost a massive amount of time and money. A very important recommendation…be there during the remodel! I assume this is understood and does not need to be mentioned, but I also understand it is not necessarily always possible.
You wait so long to get it lined up, yet along the way, something went wrong. You had no idea because you are not the expert, so how are you supposed to know what questions to ask, what i’s to dot, and what t’s to cross. And, some of the unexpected hiccups are supposed to be handled by the expertise of the professional who does the job, which is why you hired them. However, stuff can go wrong. Something you completely forgot, the wrong stroke of a key, or the right questions were not asked. Some are honest mistakes or errors, some are incompetence, and some are simply unfortunate bad luck. Regardless, be aware that you will encounter a few blunders.
I am sharing my ‘uh-oh’ moments so you have an idea of what can go haywire along the way and plan the unplannable accordingly.
Here are a few of my headaches to give you a glimpse into some unexpected hazards.
It is Easy to Forget Things
1. I completely forgot about all of the under-cabinet lighting. The good news was that I realized this prior to the cabinet installation. The bad news was that the cabinetry above the microwave was on a different wall, and it had already been covered in sheetrock.
I almost said, Don’t worry, I can live without it, and my electrician said No Way! We removed the sheetrock to accommodate electrical wiring for the under-cabinet light by the microwave.
Timing is Everything
2. We scheduled the electrician to install the ceiling fan in the Great Room. The Great Room is two stories high, and we rented a ladder from Home Depot for the day to reach the ceiling to install the new fan mount.
The electrician installed the mount for the fan, but when he went to attach the downrod, it was the wrong size! The downrod was too thick for the port. Naturally, my contact for this product was out of town. Let the scramble begin! I had to find a downrod with the right length, width, and finish to fit our Monte Carlo ceiling fan within the hour!
Be At the Ready to Improvise
3. The grout for the master bathroom floor gave us a scare. Sanded versus unsanded? Who knew?!?!? We had the wrong grout selected when our tile installer arrived for the day.
I sent my husband to buy the correct grout at the original location where we bought the tile and grout. He made sure to send a picture of the grout to confirm, but it was still the wrong grout. After going to multiple stores, he finally found the correct grout and headed home. Luckily, our tile installer had started with the shower walls before the bathroom floor.
Don’t Settle
4. The Laundry Room is not big. I love the tile my husband chose for the laundry room. After the tile was installed, I went to check it out, and the two most prominent tiles did not look clean. It looked like they had smudges. When I tried to clean the smudges, I realized they were permanent marks. I did make them re-tile two pieces. They would have driven me CRAZY!
Trust Your Gut
5. Our brilliant cabinet maker saves the day! The plumbing needed to be moved to accommodate the new island configuration.
NOT ONE BUT TWO different plumbers wanted to move the plumbing by going through the ceiling in the basement. Our cabinet maker said No way. He proceeded to bring in his drill and drill through the hardwood floors in the kitchen to install the plumbing. There was no need to come up through the drywalled ceiling in the basement. What a mess that would have been!
Have a Sense of Humor
6. Imagine the scene from Christmas Vacation when Chevy Chase went through the attic ceiling. Luckily for him, he landed on the bunk bed in the room below. My husband went through the ceiling above the handrail and into the two-story Great Room. While he did not fall all the way through, phew, it made an enormous mess in the drywall. It was a very difficult location to patch.
Stuff Breaks
7. My husband, who can do almost anything, especially with YouTube, made a slight error while installing our Master Bedroom ceiling fan. We have vaulted ceilings in the Master Bedroom, so it is a balancing act to install fixtures in the ceiling. He accidentally shorted out the fan during installation. Uh oh.
The reason this was a problem was that I had ordered the ceiling fan over a year prior to installing it. It is a thing. Luckily, he did not damage the fan, and we were able to order a replacement part, not a new fan.
Potential Disasters
First, Mr. YouTuber husband, loves to demo. He channels his Chip Gaines and thinks he is him, sans the extra support of a crew. While removing a large sheet mirror in our downstairs guest bathroom, disaster almost struck. Mr. I can do it all myself, nearly dropped the mirror.
If you think the mirror glass shattering was the dilemma, let me tell you that it is not even close to the problem it would have caused. He almost dropped the mirror on the brand-new plumbing that was recently installed. The vanity had not been installed yet, so the plumbing was exposed. Luckily, he caught the mirror.
Honest Mistakes Happen
Second, the day our Master Bathroom vanities were installed to accommodate two sinks, we had a debacle. The supplier only brought one sink. He did not know there were two sinks to be installed. Our quartz countertops and the crew were scheduled, here, and ready, but we only had one sink.
The astute sink supplier made the trip back to headquarters to get the second sink. We did not have to reschedule the countertop installation, which would have taken I don’t know how long.
Math Works
Third, one of my favorite updates in all of my bathrooms is the sheet mirrors. It always made me nuts to see the bare wall above the sheet mirrors. When the mirror installers told me they could cut holes in the mirrors to accommodate the light fixtures, I said Game on!
I wanted to extend the mirrors all the way to the ceiling. One quick tidbit I learned was about the backsplash of the bathroom countertop. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH ROOM FROM THE BACKSPLASH TO LEAN THE MIRROR FROM THE TOP OF THE BACKSPLASH TO THE CEILING. In other words, don’t install the faucets until the mirror is in.
Engineering is a Thing
Fourth, when designing our Master Bathroom, it became an engineering marvel. Long story short, we needed to move the shower wall. Again, my husband used YouTube to build the shower wall. Had we not moved the shower wall, the shower door would have been too small, and we would not have been able to get through it. Bawahahahaha! Not funny.
Fifth, but not final. Ummmm. Before ordering your toilets for the bathrooms, make sure they will fit. In our house, there are doors in our bathrooms. Doors to get into the bathroom and doors to the showers. If your toilet is too long, the doors will not open entirely and will hit the toilet. Enough said.
Below are links to additional articles about mistakes during our remodel. I don’t want to belabor the point or scare anyone about what can go wrong. I simply want to let everyone know that when you remodel a home, something will go wrong. Hopefully, not too many things will go wrong, but if you temper your expectations, you will be more prepared for the inevitable.
My Favorite Brand ~Brizo~ for Plumbing Hardware
The moral of the story is that mishaps will happen during a remodel. Everything can be fixed. Make sure you fix what will make you crazy. If the fix is beyond budget, learn to live with it. If you look at the mistake every day and cringe, spend the money to fix it.
Be kind to your subcontractors; we are all human!
It Pays to be Kind
For Example, after our Laundry Room Cabinetry was installed, I noticed a spot on our brand-new dryer. I spent a week trying to remove the spot. It was permanent. I could not live with it. I contacted our closet installers, who remodeled the room, and they realized what had happened. There was mastic on the back of their drop cloth from a prior job, and it bled onto the dryer.
The vendor acknowledged the error and compensated us for our new dryer.
Good Luck with your Remodel. As I write this Post, those unexpected mishaps are a distant memory, just sayin’.