My husband decided in order to get ready for our new baby (I could go into labor in ten minutes or ten days at this point – I'm 39 weeks) he wanted to remodel both of our out-of-date bathrooms.
You know, to make life easier for me and the baby. Uh huh….yeah…of course I can't tell him he's nesting because that wouldn't be manly. But hey, if keeping the whole nesting thing to myself gets me a new sink and toilet – I can keep my mouth shut.
Since we are fans of Dave Ramsey, this means no expensive contractors and credit card payments. We do things ourselves. Visiting Home Depot, Menards, and using the debit card – making sure to shop sales and get the best value for the dollars spent.
Thankfully, the bathrooms in our suburban ranch house are small, so I figured this would be easy-peasy.
Was I wrong!
- Don't ask when any individual part of the remodel will be finished. – Instead, ask if there is anything you can do to help with an individual part. You will either get the response, "No." – meaning it's going to be a while – or "No, I'm almost done." – meaning it's almost done! (He may say yes – if he does you're stuck helping for a bit.)
- Check in with loving offers of drinks and snacks. – I don't mean alcoholic drinks, you don't want him operating an electric drill or nail gun or table saw after a few shots of tequila or anything dangerous. Soda and chips is the way to go – or whatever your spouse likes to eat or snack on. Keeping him from getting hungry will reduce the chance that he gets crabby. Crabby spouses make more mistakes!
- Be Patient. – It's going to take longer than he thinks it will, and being a pest isn't going to make it go any faster. Keep reminding yourself that remodeling only happens once every few (hopefully ten) years, and this is a small sacrifice to make for doing it yourself.
Using these tips, I hope you are able to avoid some of the pitfalls I had while my husband was redoing our bathroom. I started using these steps about halfway through the bathroom remodel and it went much faster and more smoothly as a result.
Now to get the front bathroom done. My fingers are crossed…
photo courtesy of the author
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