What to Do When A DIY Home Project Goes Wrong

Sometimes in the world of DIY Projects and Home Renovations, things go wrong.  Maybe you made a bad decision.  Maybe you didn’t do something right or something unexpectedly breaks or doesn’t work.  When projects go wrong, I know better than anyone that when a project goes wrong it can be really bad.  At the same time they can also be a great opportunity to learn and make things even better.  Today I’m sharing a project we did early on in our house that went horribly wrong to show you sometimes it happens.

 

When we bought our house in 2010 it was in terrible disrepair.  There were broken pipes, soggy floors, cracking walls and crumbling ceilings everywhere.  It was the ultimate fixer upper!  We worked for a few months before moving in because it wasn’t fit for living.  Once the basics like running water and electricity were good, one of the first major projects we did was our master bathroom.  We combined the only full bathroom on the second floor with a bedroom closet and laid out a good size master bathroom footprint.

We didn’t have a ton of money to be doing such large projects, but we needed a functioning bathroom.  We knew we wanted something more custom looking, but didn’t have the budget to afford what we really wanted.  Being the DIYers we are, we decided to look for an old dresser and make it into a more custom looking vanity.  We ended up scoring an entire bedroom set for $100 at a public sale with a beautiful old dresser.

I painted the dresser and B reworked the drawers to accommodate plumbing.  With the money we saved on the base, we custom ordered two cool vessel sinks for the top from Lowe’s.  Our original faucets were wall mounted and the overall look was pretty cool.

The first thing that went wrong with our bathroom was the wall mounted faucets.  This is such a cool look but we ordered them online and they were not a brand name we were familiar with.  The faucet parts leaked twice, marking the ceiling in the shop under the bathroom and making a huge, wet mess under the vanity.   After the second leak, we bought regular vessel sink faucets and mounted them to the counter and closed off the plumbing through the wall.

Adding the standard vessel sink faucets interfered with the tile backslash so we ended up having to remove the trim piece and a couple rows of the tile.  B removed the tile and patched the wall but it was never sanded or painted leaving this ugly patch of wall over the sinks.

In addition to the faucet issue, we decided in our early project to skip a counter top.  Because we didn’t have a ton of money, instead of buying an expensive piece of marble or granite, or take the time to form concrete, we decided to paint and seal the top that was on the dresser.  Sadly I can’t remember now what we used but this is where we went wrong.  Slowly over time, the sealer we used to coat the top and protect it from water has yellowed to a horrible, dingy, dirty looking color.

While the sealer has done it’s job, keeping the top sealed and protected,  it is extremely ugly and even though this is our master bathroom, I would be embarrassed for anyone to see it.  That’s why I’m showing you.  It’s time to come up with a solution, even if it is just a temporary one until we are ready to replace the counter altogether.

The point in sharing this with you is to show you that projects do sometimes go wrong.  Materials we pick don’t hold up, or the color we thought was perfect, ends up being completely wrong.  The key to to accept the failure, learn what you can from it and then move on.

Next week I’ll be sharing some of the updates I have been working on and I can’t wait for you to see it!