DYI – Never Again!

Describe the most ambitious DIY project you’ve ever taken on.

I watched all the TV DIY shows. I felt I had a good handle on this renovation process. I went to the store and bought everything I needed to update my kitchen walls, front foyer floor, guest bathroom floor, my bedroom and bathroom floors. My husband was on a missions trip to Russia. He was going to be gone for 10 days. I convinced myself that was plenty of time to get all of this done. However, real life isn’t as quick as TV life. Big surprise – right! The first thing I did was the front foyer floor. It was the peel and stick flooring. There was a bit of cutting the tiles, but nothing to outrageous. It took about an hour. It was a small space, but it gave me great confidence. Next, I tackled the kitchen walls that had wallpaper. It had tiny little ducks that wore weird hats. The TV show made this process seem like childs play – wrong, wrong, wrong! It was exasperating to say the least! After a day, most of the night and half of the next day – my walls were gleaming white. Next was the guest bathroom floor, this went smoother. I was already an expert at this and it looked good! Oh, I forgot to tell you I still had 3 of my 4 boys at home who expected to be feed and laundry done – so we have to add that into the mix. For the final task, my bedroom floors. The bedroom had this awful blue carpet that I had to rip up first. I did this all by myself in the wee hours of the morning. That’s all a different story in itself. The came the vinyl wood flooring. I thought I understood. I watch an episode again to refresh my memory. It really didn’t help. I was tired. Days were running out. I was getting stressed. I just slapped it down the wrong way and convinced myself it was all good. Last was my little shower room. It should have been a breeze. Should is the key word here. I decided since it was my bathroom to do real tile. You know with grout and all. Oh my goodness, that was such a bad idea, but my husband was due home the next morning. I worked through the night to get it done. It got finished, but looked like a nine year old put it down. I didn’t care. I was finished and wanted to forget the whole ordeal. To this very day – that was 21 years ago – I will never attempt a renovation again. That’s for TV shows and professionals.