Let’s get real honest here. No one likes to talk about when they make mistakes — when they were wrong, when they could’ve done things better. It would be much easier to crawl into a hole and pretend nothing ever happened.

But the fact of the matter is, I put all of my mistakes out on the internet for the world to see. So here I am, showing you everything — being upfront and honest about what I did wrong, what I should’ve done differently, and what I’ve learned from it all. You can either get some entertainment out of my public therapy session… or hopefully learn something for your own renovation projects.

When we bought this flip house last September, our goal was to finish in 6 to 12 months. I thought we could do it in six (classic me), but we gave ourselves 12 months just in case things went wrong — because something always goes wrong. I didn’t expect butterflies and sunshine. I knew we’d hit bumps and go over budget. But even still, I guess I didn’t plan for this.

Here we are at month 13… and I’m struggling to finish. We’re close, but not close at the same time.

Mistake 1: Underestimating Demo

I still can’t wrap my head around how long it took me to demo this house. Like — how did that much time pass while I was just doing demo?

The most time I had in a week to work on the house was about 15 hours (on a good week). That doesn’t include school breaks, sick days, or weeks when life got in the way. And like usual, I overestimated what I could get done in the time I had.

All said and done, it took me three to four months to finish demo. If I’d hired a demo crew, they probably would’ve finished in a few days, maybe a week. Sure, I saved on labor — but I paid three and a half months of mortgage payments and utilities in that time. Those costs added up fast.

Would I have believed before that demo could take me that long? Absolutely not. But I’m learning (slowly) that my optimism for timelines borders on delusional. This one hurt, but it was a lesson I had to learn for myself.

Mistake 2: Taking On My Own House at the Same Time

I fully intended to focus only on the flip house. But then I had this brilliant idea to reuse our old kitchen countertops in the flip — since we’d been wanting to replace them anyway. It felt resourceful! Sustainable! But it also snowballed so fast.

Because once you do countertops, you also need to do backsplash… which means a new vent hood… and new crown molding… and new island cabinets. Suddenly, our kitchen was torn apart, and we had a nonfunctional kitchen right before the holidays with five people living here.

So while my intentions were good, my timing was terrible. And that detour set me way back on the flip. I tried to be resourceful, but I ended up overwhelmed and stretched too thin. That “do it all” mindset is a hard one to break, but I’m learning it comes with a cost.

Mistake 3: The Waterline Nightmare

Once I finally got back into the flip house, I sent Steve and his dad over to cut into the concrete for a kitchen island waterline. That’s when things went sideways — fast.

They hit a waterline in the middle of the slab (which ended up being for the refrigerator — why it was running right through the middle, I’ll never know). It flooded the kitchen. And when Steve looked closer, he realized the inside of the pipe didn’t look right.

A few Google searches later, we learned it was Kitec plumbing — a brand that was part of a massive class action lawsuit years ago for waterline failures. The claim window had closed five years ago.

We had a plumber come fix the leak and quote us to re-pipe the entire house with PEX lines. The repair alone was going to cost $1500, and re-piping? Our entire renovation budget.

Was it the right decision? Maybe not. We probably could’ve fixed the one issue and crossed our fingers. But I wanted to do what felt right and safe long-term. And that decision broke the budget — and honestly, my spirit a little too.

The Aftermath: Losing My Spark (and Finding It Again)

By this point, I felt drained. Completely depleted. I express myself creatively — through building, designing, creating — but it all started to feel like it had been taken away from me. Like I’d lost the plot to my own story.

It’s taken time to find my way back — to find joy again in projects, in creating, in me. Being a woman and a mom, it’s hard to hold both identities at once. It takes intentional effort to reconnect to yourself after pouring into everyone else.

But slowly, I feel that spark coming back. And if you’re feeling lost too — if you’ve been buried under the weight of perfectionism or mom guilt — this is me giving you permission to let it go. You’re worth the effort. You’re worth feeling like you again.

This can’t be a blog just about everything that’s gone wrong — because we’re not done yet. But I needed to share this first. To get real about the messy middle before we finish the story.

Thanks for being here through it all — the wins, the losses, the dust, the chaos, and the rediscovery.

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