#67: What We Regret About The Previous Home Renos

When we look back at how we updated our previous homes, there are more than a few design decisions we regret – so we are breaking down five things that we’d go back and do differently if we had a time machine. And ding-dong, the deck is gone! Yup, we ripped that monster off the house, and the yard’s already feeling awesomely open – but checking this item off our to-do list has in fact simply brought in more to it (it is like the plot of ‘If You Give A Mouse A Cookie’). We also check Sherry’s Paint of the Year predicting skills, and John explains why he rejects tool brand monogamy.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and TuneIn Radio – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you are reading in a feed reader, you might have to click through to the post to see the player.

What is New

• You can hear more about WHY we hoped to remove our deck, all that info is at the beginning of Episode #51
• Above is the view from the kitchen now that it is gone (the deck railing blocked all of the grass that is now visible, which has Sherry leaping for joy)
• As we mentioned in the episode, we do not have a comparable “before” from that angle, but here is a shot Sherry took during demo from our other kitchen window. You can see how dominating the deck was from this vantage point – sort of like a big cage that was dropped in the middle of our yard.

• Here is how things were looking as soon as the deck was took out. We enjoy how much more original and open the back of the house looks without that big deck tacked on – but I have labeled some of our “problem areas” for ya:

• Here is a view from the other side, where you can see the massive stump (boo!) but also the original brick steps (yay!)

• Here is a flashback to 2012 before we moved in of the deck, with the tree that belonged to that stump. It was so large and so close to our house that the inspector and our tree guy encouraged us to remove it asap, which we did, leaving that stump under the deck.

• As we mentioned, we are glad to have checked a few things off our list, like moving the air conditioning unit, having our electrician wrangle all the loose wires, and getting the stump ground. So now it is looking more like this:

• Still a BIG work in progress (these photos truly remind me that I need to powerwash the brick – sheesh!), but we are encouraged by how open the yard is feeling compared to when we picked up the house.

What is Not 

• Here is where you can read all about Sherwin-Williams’ Paint of the Year 2018 (which is not too far off from what we simply painted our clawfoot tub)
• We have talked previously about other Paint of the Year announcements, like Behr’s 2018 color in Episode #61 and Benjamin Moore’s 2017 color in Episode #23.

Design Regrets

• It was in Episode #62 that we offhandedly mentioned our first regret, the P-shaped opening in our second home’s kitchen/dining (above).
• You can also see some of our other regrets in that photo (like the floor change and one of the two tall towering cabinets that were on both sides of the kitchen instead of grouped together on one wall).
• For the life of me I cannot find this photo in high-res, so this is the best one I could dig up to show why Sherry keeps calling it “p-shaped”

• The photo below – which features one of our go-to Christmas trees we ever did – also shows off some of these issues. Namely the floor changes (hardwoods in the foreground, cork at right in the kitchen, parquet at left in the hall – and again beyond the kitchen in the living room)

• But that shot does not show two other flooring changes that occurred on the back side of the house: there was wide-planked pine in the master bedroom and tile in the sunroom, both of which were off of the parquet living room.

• I show this next picture not because of the floors, but because it shows the back of the fireplace that we think would have been even more excellent if we had doubled-sided it so people could enjoy it from the kitchen or the living room side of the wall.

• We were so glad with where this side of the fireplace (in the kitchen) ended up after we made it over – simply imagine this being on the other side too!

• Below is a shot of the kitchen in our first house (back when journal photo standards were much lower, ha!). This photo is from the day we moved out, hence it being totally empty, but it gives you a good sense of how much it could’ve benefitted from a backsplash.

• And here is that post we mentioned about adding a backsplash to my aunt’s house (truly, a first-time tiler can do this)
• You can also learn more about our experiences with hardwood floors that are laid and then stained/sealed in place (this post is about that process in our current home and this one’s from our first home), as well as how we laid prefinished hardwood upstairs (both the nail down and the glue down type).
• You can also see more of our previous before & afters on our house tour pages: here is our first home, our second home, and our current home.

We are Digging

• Here is the $90 Ryobi ONE+ Cordless Hybrid Trimmer/Edger that I picked up for use at the beach house (and around our own home). I enjoy that the “hybrid” part means it can plug in if the battery dies.
• And if you wanna give The Good Place a try, you can binge Season 1 on Netflix and catch Season 2 airing right now on NBC (do not skip Season 1 though! Season 2 will not make any sense!)

If you are looking for something we have dug in a past episode, but do not remember which show notes to click into, here is a master list of everything we have been digging from all of our past episodes.

And lastly, a big thank you to Universal Furniture for sponsoring this episode. You can enter to win $10,000 in new dining room furniture at UniversalFurniture.com/YHL now through October 16th.

Thanks for listening, folks!

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