Home Renovation Ideas and Vendor Connections in Columbus

Last year my partner and I purchased a rental property. We set out to complete as many of the renovations as possible ourselves and boy are we glad we did! As usual, we budgeted our money and time, knowing that best laid plans will likely be broken - and they were.

We started by checking out the property - eyeballing the work we wanted to achieve. For this one, it was going to be a full gut job. In this duplex we were going to tear out the entire kitchen to reframe the space and most of the bathroom would be redone (duplex means two times!) Flooring, plumbing, tiling, painting, and landscaping all became a part of our lives for the summer of 2023.

I found a love of drywalling and the intricacy of working around tight spaces. My partner got into a groove with tiling the backsplash of the kitchens. And my in-laws played a major part in making sure we stayed on our deadline by pitching in on weekends whenever they could.

There are a few major takeaways from our experience that we'd consider with our next property and that you can think about if you're on the market for an investment property too:

1. Don't fear the work. My partner is great about jumping into something new. He gets a sense for how something should work and he can just replicate it or fix it. I, on the other hand, take a lot of time and research before a project and then remain meticulous and patient throughout (which is why drywall and painting were so satisfying for me). Whether you're more like him or like me, the lesson was that we were able to save on renovation costs and keep our budget on track by doing things ourselves. Because it's a duplex we also had the bonus of learning how to do something once and then getting to do it quicker a second time.

2. Ask for help. Now that I've stated no.1, I can say that without my in-laws and Facetime calls with my dad to assist on electrical and mechanical problems, we'd still be renovating that house. Sometimes 8 hands is better than 2 and it's ok to ask for help when you need it. Respect people if they turn you down, as it's your project, not theirs, and they may have other commitments. Having helping hands is also a great way to flex your delegating skills, or learn them. In order to have help you have to have tasks and those tasks will need to be explained or taught to someone new. My background as a teacher is where I draw experience from in this one.

3. Take a break. Might sound counterintuitive, but stepping away from a project for an hour or sometimes a weekend can provide much-needed perspective. Last summer we had a long weekend away for a cousin's wedding - not only did we have the ceremony, but we got to go white water rafting! You HAVE to be present and in the moment when you're doing something as serious as level 5 paddling through white caps. Allowing the brain to reset and distract was opposite what we thought would keep us on track, but we returned to the house energized and even more ready to tackle our laundry list of to-dos.

Hopefully these three help! Plenty of other lessons learned from our projects; I.e. wear sleeves and gloves when working in a new backyard or you'll get poison ivy under your fingernails and it'll stay with you for 6 weeks! I'll be back to share more insights and tips in the future. - Joe