The original post: /r/diy by /u/Ill-Cod-558 on 2024-10-13 21:15:04.

For anyone thinking of taking on a large renovation project you should know just how bad it can get. I’m sure that many people have had it worse than me, but I hope my story will save someone who doesn’t quite know what they are getting into.

A little bit of backstory before I get into all of the bad luck and setbacks that I have had. I am a bartender and my wife is a florist. We have a young daughter and rent in a good neighborhood right next to the school she is going to be attending. We wanted to stay in the neighborhood because of the safety and community but almost all of the houses are well out of our price range. We told our realtor that a project house we could afford was ok if we could be in the neighborhood we wanted. We found a home that we liked and closed June 2023 knowing it was going to take a lot of work on an almost 100 year old house. From my experience you just don’t realize how much work until you actually go through it.

We got bids from electricians and plumbers before close to see if it was possible financially. The estimates were a larger chunk of the budget than we would have liked but we agreed it was possible. After speaking with both the electrician and plumber they both agreed that if I did all the demo they could do the job for far cheaper than the original quotes. Fast forward 3 weeks and 3 20 yard dumpsters later. Half of the walls are out, and the kitchen and bath are completely gutted. We expected to find problems but it was so much worse than expected. Almost none of the studs were 16” on center. The plumbing in the bathroom was going through the floor joists making them very unstable. And numerous other carpentry problems that resulted in thousands of dollars of work to pass inspection. This part actually went pretty smooth other than the cost was unexpected. Time to call the plumber.

The plumber comes back and quotes significantly higher than the original quote after many many hours of demo and unexpected costs. I searched and called for weeks trying to find someone new to do the job for a more reasonable price but permitted work put me at their will. Almost 2 months later and work finally starts. They get the job done after 2 weeks or so but only put in 3-4 hour days which made the project longer than it should have been. Not the greatest but I had plenty of jobs to diy so it wasn’t the end of the world. Also the plumber talked the inspector out of changing the water service immediately so I was very briefly happy dodging that bullet. Electrician working on replacing all the wiring in the house at this point as well.

It’s been close to 6 months and electric and plumbing rough in’s are done. Spray foam all the stud beys and holes myself. Pass framing. Insulate every open wall and ceiling and pass insulation inspection. On to drywall which the contractor informs me will cost about 7000 a week x however many weeks. Budget is already in jeopardy and need to save money to pay for the rest of the plumbing and electrical work. Time to learn drywall. 50 sheets of drywall installed on studs that were not flat with zero 90 degree angles is an absolute nightmare. Taping and muddying the aftermath is even worse.

Been about 8 months at this point. Working on other jobs. Floors, trim work, doors, painting. A thief notices it’s been vacant for a good amount of time and decides to break in and steal 90% of my tools. MAKE SURE YOU WRITE DOWN SERIAL NUMBERS, REGISTER TOOLS, KEEP RECEIPTS. If you don’t you will never get them back. My dumbass left my check book at the job site and he wrote himself a check and emptied my account. Got the money back after lots of phone calls but 3k worth of tools gone forever. Along with 90% of the light fixtures.

Continue working and now I can’t get contractors to come finish the work. They are probably frustrated that the job has gone on so long too.

On top of all of this literally bleeding money on rent and mortgage in a holding pattern. Not to mention the credit card debt from the materials.

October 2024 still in progress

Maybe one day soon I will crawl my way out of hell. Beware if your new to this kind of undertaking. Hopefully the “short” version of my story will help someone make a more prepared decision