The Three Big Design Regrets I Have After Our Home Renovation

In 2018, my husband, Ryne, and I bought our first house together in Nashville. We bought it with the intention that we would renovate it and make it our own. I worked on the design for it almost instantly after buying it, which in a nutshell was probably mistake #1. But I truly thought that living in the house for at least a year would be enough time to discern our priorities going into a full gut renovation. I was eager to get started though because our house did have a lot of dangerous faults to it. For instance, the HVAC system had to be entirely replaced a month into moving in, which was a nice little extra $6000 we threw at the house. Then, only to have it break down 2 more times that summer and come to find when we did renovate that the guy, in short, scammed us by saying he was a licensed HVAC specialist when he indeed was not. More on that later. Along with the house was this blog that I wanted to begin right away, and wanted the content to provide.

We started renovation on Memorial Day 2019 and I asked my friend who was/is a general contractor to help manage this project. I also worked with him as part of his crew so I trusted him and also knew my way around…some DIY things. In reality, I was still very green to many tasks but wasn’t afraid to roll up my sleeves and learn a thing or two. Meanwhile, Ryne and I decided it would be best to live in the small part of the house we weren’t renovating which was two bedrooms and a bath: one bedroom was dedicated to our storage/kitchen area (which consisted of a microwave and a mini fridge), and the other dedicated to our sleeping space.

I just want to give full context as to the scenario because after living in this makeshift space for four months, we were eager to return to our normal living conditions. This eagerness is where our regret list begins.

1. The rush to the finish line left a few projects unfinished

Our goal was to be done with the renovation by Thanksgiving…and we were almost there but still hadn’t passed our final inspection by then. Cue moving all our furniture in for our visiting relatives, and then back out to pass our last inspection. We decided we would tackle a few remaining projects on our own, in our own time, just to get back to our comfortable living situation. This included our bedroom closet, the backsplash in the kitchen, the screens for our patio (which I did end up DIY-ing in the summer of 2020), and our shower floor (which I unknowingly installed incorrectly, and we’ve just been “dealing with” ever since). I think it’s okay to tackle home projects in whatever budget or timeline fits you. However, these projects have definitely been put on the back burner and would have been nice to wrap up while we were in “renovation mode.”

The solution: Setting realistic expectations on timelines and the realities of a renovation from the get-go would have helped tremendously. I think even reading blog posts like this one will help get a better idea of what to expect. I’ll also say that in my four years of working in construction, it is rare to find a contractor or sub-contractor that finishes in the timeline they’ve communicated. If you do find someone that completes the job to your complete satisfaction in the time they have communicated to you, without increasing their original bid, and without doing a rushed crappy job, they are a unicorn. Hold onto them forever! (And then give me their number too.)

2. The layout doesn’t quite fit our lifestyle

What I mean by this stems back to what I mentioned before about not living in the house long enough. If I were to renovate this house tomorrow, I know NOW that we are in desperate need of more storage in the kitchen. The square footage for our kitchen/laundry room is large enough to have more than enough storage, but yet, we are bursting at the seams from the lack of cabinet space. You may say, maybe you need less “stuff” and downsize that way. PLEASE trust me when I say, we are getting scrappy over here. I don’t think there’s anything wrong in wanting to live the way you want to live either. We do have a lot of “gadgets” in the kitchen, but we use them regularly and they add efficiency to our day-to-day. I also went back and forth in my design with adding a mudroom and decided against it. Big mistake! If mom had a mudroom with a drop zone for mail and keys, a place for shoes and winter coats, and a utility drawer for all the odds and end things we need every other day, before walking into our actual living space—oh man, sounds dreamy.

The solution: In all honesty, this is a tough one to figure out. Ultimately, my compromise on my designs has led to compromises in organization and space. Like any homeowner, we make it work with what we have, bide our time, and save our money until we can afford a more sensible and permanent solution.

3. I didn’t have my design style pin-pointed down entirely

As a designer, I continue to become more educated in my field as well as with my preferences. What I chose for my house—my finishes, paint colors, the details of things—I love, truly. It’s a beautiful home sincerely. It’s just not quite there. As a creative, sometimes I get an idea in my head of something I want to make, and naturally, I try to make said thing. However, it doesn’t always come out right the first time. Sometimes I need a few times to get it just right. And then it’s perfect. Our home was no exception to this rhythm of creating.

The solution: We just need some tweaks. This is what I do, after all, so I think it’s fair that this one is negotiable out of all my regrets. There’s a financial aspect that I can’t help but consider. But that’s what we do, right? We learn from our mistakes and move forward to the next project. And trust me when I say that I have a few projects in mind for our sweet, sweet home.