Nino’s Home Improvement Dream is Turning into a Nightmare

My wife and I had a few home improvement projects that we wanted to take of this year and decided to use some of our tax refund to get some of them done. This list included things like repairing our gutters, fixing some ceiling tiles, and replacing the toilet in the master bath.

We frequently watch home improvement shows on HGTV and we even have a game we play every time someone says 'shiplap'! One thing I noticed though is that during almost every one of these home improvement shows, something ...goes ... wrong! I've seen couple's home improvement budget get blown out of the water just because the previous owners decided to cut corners.

When we first bought our house, we could tell that the previous owners had rushed to try and fix it up as much as possible. They were as eager to make the sale as we were to buy. It wasn't until I had to have to rear heating and A/C unit repaired did I begin to realize how many shortcuts had been taken on this property.

When the guy came to fix the gutters, he showed me spots where the gutters either had no drain spouts, or weren't properly attached to house. This was causing damage to both the lower parts of the roof (especially over my laundry room) and even to the foundation which I also have to get resealed now.

We decided to replace the toilet in the master bathroom because it was one of those high-efficiency, low-flow toilets that didn't properly flush all of the 'material' in the bowl. We'd have to 'assist' it by pouring water into the bowl while it flushed. Once the new toilet, that is supposed to have twice the flushing power as the old was installed, we gave it the test flush and there wasn't really much difference. Apparently my pipes have some kind of blockage that will require them being 'snaked-out'! That DEFINITELY wasn't in the budget.

Once we finally gets this toilet thing figured out, the next thing on the list is sealing my foundation back up, fixing the shower in the guest bathroom, and new cabinets and sink for the kitchen. WISH ME LUCK!