You know how on HGTV the couple gets to take the first swing at the wall they don’t like? They get to put on some safety goggles, and swing a big hammer at the walls or bust down some old cabinets. Maybe the husband will be sweet and let his wife take the first blow – or he’ll be so excited he’ll just go for it.  They’re so full of joy, it’s the first step toward the house of their dreams. They’ve spent years saving up for this, dreaming about it, and it’s finally here!

It’s what dreams are made of.

Well, it’s what MY dreams were made of. Unfortunately… as I’ve said many times (so many times) since we bought our house: HGTV is not real life. It’s #fakenews.

Our contractor didn’t let us anywhere near the demolition site. We had to be home in case something terrible happened, but we had to spend the day in a separated room. On the other side of the opaque plastic sheeting. Talk about torture! What was going on in there?

A lot, apparently. 

People keep asking Kyle and I if we could have done this ourselves to save money – because, HGTV tells them it could. The short answer is, yes but only a few hundred dollars (according to itemized contractor proposals). That said, everything was torn out from this wall and cleaned up in less than 10 hours. The next day he came back and did the other wall of cabinets. We were able to start on the actual progress of a renovation immediately, where had we done this part ourselves it would have taken a week and some used vacation days.  So thinking about it that way, no it would not have been cheaper to DIY.  

But, I still had wanted to.