My boyfriend just recently purchased a house a few months ago and we are in the process of doing our own renovation. I watch HGTV and thought I had an insight on what goes on during a renovation, you have demo day and then after a month or so its all put back together, right? Wrong. So much stuff happens during your own home renovation.
The first thing that comes to mind when doing a home renovation is the amount of dust. I can't stress enough on how much dust is in the air everyday all day long. I feel like I breathe in more dust particles than oxygen itself. Whether I have a mask or no mask its a lose/lose. I either get claustrophic in the mask or I cough uncontrollably without one. I never thought that tearing down plaster walls and ceilings would cause for so much dust, yet here I am eating dust, snorting dust and just overall breathing it in 24/7.
When you watch HGTV, they don't show you the long process of every step by step procedure. Home renovation is just a bunch of steps that turn into many long processes and those long processes are back to back. The amount of work that it takes to tear down paneling is enough to make me skip the gym for a week. So many muscles to hammer in a beam that supports the entire house, or simply cleaning up day after day and wondering how it got this bad when you cleaned it the day before. So many little steps that have to get done in order for you to finish. I understand that we have to do things right in order to move onto the next step, but when will I see the light at the end of the tunnel?
A home renovation is a ton of work and don't think its cheap, because it will drain your money in a blink of the eye. One day, we have thousands to spend and the next day we are wondering how we only have a dollar fifty. All the necessary steps that go into the house requires you to have ten different things. Got to have: wood, insulation, nails, screws, wiring, outlet boxes and the list goes on.
But some plus sides to a home renovation is the help you get when you go through one. We have friends and family that help us tremendously from time to time and its great to have extra hands and not have to pay for labor.
Another plus is picking out al the cosmetics for the house. This is my favorite part, the part where I can explore different door knobs, paint colors, themes, appliances, decoration, basically all the fun stuff. I am in my glory when searching for the right accessories to put into the house.
Also it is exciting. You are building a house from the ground up. You are making your own personal touches in the bones of the house. This is your house, you get to make it however you want. You get to share the memories with people who are close to you, creating experiences that you will have forever and you get to experiment with power tools and try new modern styles, and incorporate yourself into your house.
Doing your own home renovation is a big accomplishment. Knowing that you are doing this on your own as adults and it's a big step to take and you can sit back and realize, "Wow, I am adulating." It's a pretty big deal and it is starting the next chapter of our lives.
No matter how difficult the process is now, I can't wait for the day when it's finished and we can look back and know that all the dust, all the money that was put into it to make it our own, and all the help that we received is all worth it.
