It’s safe to say, that we’re no strangers to DIY and home improvements.
Ever since we bought our first home (way back in 2010!) we’ve been well and truly bitten by the DIY bug.
We’ve tackled everything from building a DIY herringbone desk and building floating shelves right through to big projects like replacing our garage roof and sanding over 200 square metres of wooden floors.
Although we don’t like to be negative it’s important for us to keep things real. DIY is fun and rewarding but it’s not always easy and things don’t always go exactly to plan.
Over the last years, we’ve obviously had our fair share of ups and downs but in all years of DIYing, we’ve never had quite so many problems in just one room as in our guest bedroom.
If you follow us over on Instagram (you can give us a follow here! you will already have seen some of the issues we had.
We drilled into a heating pipe (over the window!) and flooded the room, nailed into a cable and ended up having no electricity, bought 20 litres of paint which (as it turned out) we don’t like and accidentally drilled straight through one of our walls into the room next door!
Needless to say, our motivation to finish the room is at a bit of a low but with just 6 days before our guests arrive, we’d better get a move on as the room still looks like this!
Even if they’re super annoying, setbacks are just a part of home improvement. Yes, we’ve had a bit of a run of bad luck but it’ll make the result all the more worth it (at least that’s what we’re telling ourselves at the moment!).
So, in the next few days we have to get our electrics prepared (and have them finished), plaster every hole and cable channel, finish attaching the panelling, caulk everything, finish stripping the doorframe and paint it, paint the walls, ceiling, skirting and radiator, oh, and then put the room back together again.
I know that this all sounds rather miserable but it’s really not all that bad.
The electrical cable can easily be repaired and we were lucky when we drilled through our heating pipe as the plumbers happened to be in the building and were able to turn off the water and repair it immediately.
Drilling straight through the wall and into the living room wasn’t exactly a highlight and the fact that I kept referring to Jan’s mishap as his glory hole didn’t go down too well either. It’s not as bad as it looks though and the hole should be easy to repair!
We wrote a guide on how to stay motivated when renovating a house (you can read it here) a while ago and for once, I took my own advice and gave it a read! Whilst it obviously doesn’t solve all of our current problems, it definitely made me feel better and for me, looking to the future and imagining how lovely the room will be when it’s finished is always the best boost!
Once we get all of the building work sorted we can finally start to put the room back together again and start thinking about the finishing touches.
We still have a long way to go but we’re planning on finally opening our Airbnb in August!
We’re really excited about hosting our first guests and want to make staying with us as special as possible!
But for now, we’d better get back to work and get everything repaired!
Have you ever had any DIY disasters? How do you stay motivated when improving your home? Have you ever stayed in an Airbnb? We’d love to hear about your experiences. We already have loads of ideas but any tips and advice are always welcome!
John says
Thank you for the article!
I agree that DIY is really fun and it gives so much pleasure but it’s not always as easy as it looks.
When we painted the bathroom we later on realized that the tiles would be a better choice.. the same thing with flooring.
That’s when I realized – whatever you do, just really think about everything, plan and when you really think you have everything you need, when you’re sure that you won’t need to change anything, only then start the project.
Christine says
Thanks for the feedback, John! We always say that the most important thing about any project is the planning part. It definitely helps avoid most issues and it’s the one reason I’d say that we’ve not had any big disasters even though we’ve been DIYing for over 8 years!
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