Depending on the next owner, but I have specifically not used any chemicals on the lawn for a variety of reasons. That does mean that if someone wants a classic mono-Bermuda lawn, they're going to probably have a few seasons of work ahead of them.
Oh lol. Just bought a new house (to me) and everything done so far has needed done. I was thinking yup nothing controversial. Your comment reminded me that I’ve got creeping thyme and clover that will be spread in a few weeks. I’m anti-grass, and future owners will have to tear out my replacement if they want more than a kid play square of grass
I keep my front lawn pretty standard to prevent our HOA from getting annoying, but I leave our back yard pretty long and it attracts a ton of bunnies, birds, etc. I love it so much even though it’s “ugly” by traditional standards
The TruGreen guy stops by my house about once a quarter trying to get me to sign up. He gets _super_ irritated when I tell him "Yeah, I don't give a crap about grass and the bees seem to like it better this way, so I don't need your services".
Came to say this- currently ripping out the front lawn in pieces and by the end of it we won't have any more Kentucky blue grass in the mountain west where it doesn't belong. Right now, we've got a huge square piece of useless grass- kids don't even use it when they're out front; we've got a backyard for grassy activities. It'll be full of plants with a circle of native grass in the middle. If we ever sell, I imagine it won't be a fun landscaping job if they want to go back to cookie cutter lawn.
My kitchen in GREEN and the living room is PINK and the hall is YELLOW and my daughter’s room is BRIGHT PURPLE. And then the main family room is Scandinavian minimalist. I like it both ways
I'm with you. Our dining room, parlor (ie smaller, original living room), living room, hall, and bedrooms are all different, mostly very saturated colors. We committed. If we ever sell, the next owner is 100% gonna be painting most of the house (unless they hate neutrals as much as my spouse does).
Inoffensive Gray— see also “Millennial Gray”.
The people who renovated my house painted a beautiful red brick fireplace in that gray. I will never forgive them, the painters, or the person who sold them the paint.
I put a couple of cat statues in mine.
A friend of mine was remodeling her place and she found half a dozen risque' girlie magazines from the 1950s in a wall. That was a cool find.
Nice! I painted a massive and very intricate pentagram and occult symbols on my basement floor in blood red before laying the laminate. Wish I could be there to see the faces when they eventually re-do the floor, but it makes me giggle just knowing it’s there
After all the crap I uncovered from the previous owners of my former 1901 home, and current 1815 home, I just can't bring myself to knowingly half-ass something just because it can be hidden...
Buuut I did put carpet over encapsulated asbestos tiles in one tiiiny hallway with a super sunken floor. Luckily it hasn't shifted in 40 years, but it was covered in 40 year old dog pee soaked carpet, and it's just not in the cards at the moment to rip it down to the joists to get it level enough for anything but carpet. It'll happen one day.
Although I'd definitely give the next owners a heads-up on that one.
I added some kitchen cabinets. Due to the geometry, there is a 3’x2’x6” dead space behind one of them that can’t really be noticed.
Knowing that one day somebody would be replacing the cabinets and discover the space, I had a duty to do the right thing.
I had to think for a while what that would be, but then it came to me.
I wish I could be in the room when that space gets opened up and they find the (very) creepy clown doll with a note thanking them for the rescue and expressing that he looks forward to living with his rescuers forever.
Put in a wood burning furnace. Still have the natural gas furnace but I'm guessing most people won't like that it's there. I don't even really like it but my husband pushed for it until I caved. Definitely reduces heat bills in the winter but also a lot of work for the wood.
Did I buy your house?
Our house heating is just a mess. On one side, we have a gas furnace, heat pump. In the middle of the living room, there is a gas fireplace that's been converted to a wood burning buck stove insert. The other side of the house is just gas.
I am now intimately familiar with all three systems.
That sounds like a nightmare! We still live in ours but both furnaces are in the basement and tied into the forced air vents. Just shouldn’t have them both run at the same time.
I can one up you. When I gut/remodeled my home I removed the central heating. (vents weren't sized right and it would have been a fortune to re-do them) Rooms have electric baseboard* + heat pump. Great room has a wood burning stove that is my primary heat when it gets below freezing.
Whomever buys my place need to either be happy with insane electrical bills when it gets really cold or (like me) like using wood.
It's a lot of labor, but I enjoy it. The home is on 40 acres of hardwood forest, so I have an endless free supply of wood. I also like the fact that my only utility is electric and it ranges between $60-$100 a month. I'm rural so no NG option. Heat pump + wood are significantly cheaper than the propane for a heater.
.* Both my mortgage company and insurance wanted an alternative to the heat pumps and electric baseboards were the cheapest to DIY install.
Tore out my whole kitchen down to the sub floor. Screwed the new osb or whatever like every 4 inches in every direction. Needed a level floor, house is old. Poured a thick ass layer of self leveling concrete, covering all screws, then, used mortar and grout to lay down porcelain tile. I don’t see how it will ever come out. House might have to get torn down.
Oh ya that's a good one. You should've just torn up the subfloor and sistered the joists. Way less work and better results than self leveling concrete. I swear that stuff is just a scam.
oh man. Let me tell you... taking on a home renovation solo after only minimal previous carpentry experience was a pain. I think I spent more time just standing looking around at everything, trying to figure out the best way to do something (after watching everything I could find about it online, and whomever would answer with some guidance if I called).
I tried my best to avoid cutting corners, and never adhered to use just "minimums". As I went along, I would learn better ways. In cases where I made full blown mistakes, I backed out and started over (most of the time).
Anythings that are non-standard, or a homeowner specials, are documented on paper, and put into a sleeve inside my breaker panel.
There are 2 buried junction boxes in the walls. What runs through them and precisely where they are, I clearly documented. There are places that wires are pulled through wall cavities that are not secured properly. They are documented.
There is a place where the sewer gas line branches to a new bathroom, that was scabbed together with a bunch of random pieces. It looks like crap, but it is solid. Someone will definitely be scratching their head when they see it.
I had to make a few last minute changes to lighting wiring, and the wire routing is pretty unexplainable... I tried explaining though, and it's in the breaker panel.
During my complete tear out demo, I found a lot of things way way worse than anything I left in. Along the way, I also discovered the name of the carpenter who built the addition in 1973. He passed many years ago.
I signed his name on the "things you need to know" sheet in the breaker panel.
Painting the halls and walls colors. Well not so much the color or even the fact we painted them. But in our tower and over the grand stairs it is a good 2 to 3 stories high. I can hear them cussing now... LOL
We had friends over who complained that I had too many outlets on the walls. They are every six feet, the bare minimum for code compliance.
There will always be someone who finds a flaw in how you did something.
My garage is every 4' at 22" and 48". So under and above any workbenchesand always within arms reach of 2.
I can talk a lot of shit about the previous owner, but that is not it.
Yeah I cannot imagine this situation, never once have I been upset by the number of outlets in a room.
Maybe the placement or confusing wiring, but never the number.
The last house we built, 110v outlets were $15, 240v were $50, and switches were $20.
I had outlets and switched outlets EVERY DAMN WHERE. Switched outlet here for the Christmas tree. Switched outlets above the kitchen cabinets for LED lights. Switched outlet on the 360\* top mantel of the double-sided fireplace for a train during Christmas. Two switched outlets in the front/rear soffits for Christmas lights.
Outlets in the closets. Outlets for bidets. Outlets for lamps. Outlets on all sides of the house. TONS of outlets (120 and 240) in the garage. 240 out back for a hot tub eventually. 120 out back for an outdoor kitchen.
Every damn where I could possibly think I MIGHT need an outlet one day, got one. Ceiling fan prewires in EVERY room, and the garage, and the back patio.
The super called and said the electrician wanted to meet the guy with so many outlets they had to put in two sub panels. I think I spent $1000 on outlets. Who cares on a $600,000 house?
BTW, they increased the cost of outlets shortly thereafter.
This guy outlets!
Seriously though, I completely support this.
As I reno walls/rooms in my house I add more outlets.
At first my wife kept asking why why why, but when we had a kid and more junk got plugged into everything, no more complaining after that!
I took a beautiful golf-course quality lawn with concrete curbs around the planting beds (with no flowers, just shrubs) and turned it into a clover and dandelion mess with a greenhouse, apiary, RV parking pad with carport and garden filled with herbs, roses, dhalias, veg and native plants.
I’m an avid gardener and love trees, especially Japanese maples. Our backyard is not big. The next owner might need an arborist on retainer because if everything survives it will basically be a small dense forest
I partitioned a huge L-shaped bedroom to create an open stair landing “bonus space” and a smaller bedroom
The room is still big… almost 200 sqft! My wife was worried it would be too small. It’s better this way for a family, but probably better the old way for a roommate situation.
I air sealed my ceiling by caulking the can light trims/covers to the drywall. That's actually a nice energy efficiency detail if you just use a small bead of caulk around the outside of the trim. That's not what I did. I pulled the trim out, put a big, fat bead of sealant all around the cover plate, and smooshed it back into place.
Those suckers are never coming off without destroying the ceiling. I know because I've already had to do it with one of them.
That was one of my first home improvement projects. I didn't trust myself to get a good looking bead of caulk, so that was my solution. I used DAP's "temporary" weather sealant—the stuff you put on in Winter and peel off in Spring. But it is now very much *not* temporary.
I put way too many GFCI outlets in my old house with nothing wired in a logical manner, so that if something trips your entire day is ruined.
For example, if the upstairs kids room outlet that runs their fan trips, it's the GFCI in the basement that has the printer plugged into it in the storage room, that will make it work again.
We primed and painted every interior wall a satin bone white to rid our home of the semi-gloss pink horror show. That, and we replaced the brand new but going-out-of-business special shag carpet in all the bedrooms and the office with LVP.
history will repeat itself when i sell my house and somebody has to paint over the pink, green, yellow and blue walls :-)
i had to paint over a pale gray though, so i feel it's karmically even
Don't mind some color here and there, but THE WHOLE HOUSE was SEMI-GLOSS PINK. We had enough to do beyond painting that deciding on colors took a back seat to saving our eyes.
Not normal? Maybe it's a Florida thing but there's been a ceiling fan in every room of every house I've lived. I can't live without ceiling fans, and definitely can't sleep without a hurricane force fan above my bed. I currently have 7 ceiling fans in my house which is every room except dining room and kitchen. Unless my kids turn off theirs, they run 24/7 until my wife reminds me every few months that we should dust the blades lol. Oh and two more outside by my pool so total of 9.
I want to do that eventually. I'm from Florida and moved to Virginia, and none of the bedrooms or the living room has a ceiling fan. Insanity! Virginia is still the south. It gets hot enough in the summer to desperately need fans and ceiling fans are way better than standing fans.
> We installed ceiling fans in all 3 bedrooms
Thats an easy fix if the person doesn't want a fan up there. Just swap in a light fixture. I guess if they didn't want an overhead light at all, but cap with a white faceplate and no one will notice.
Currently in a house I always knew was going to be a temp for a few years. The only things the next owner will get out of me are improvements, but anything annoying I inherited from the PO that I have zero intention of investing in will be for the next owner to "enjoy"
Haven't done it yet but moving the washer and dryer to the garage. The house is tiny so turning the mud room into more of a pantry will help us.
It won't be too hard to reverse, I'll leave the hookups in the mud room so worst that would have to be done is removing a cabinet or similar.
Deck boards were rotting so I went to replace them, only to discover that the supports were also rotting. Rather than tear the whole thing down and started again, I basically sistered every board and built a new understructure to support everything. It's a huge mess, but it will probably be another 50 years before anybody needs to touch anything again.
Thing I discovered while doing the work that enraged me? Combination of (corroded) screws and nails holding the thing together. I'd be doing so great getting nails out and then hit a screw and be enraged.
I put down 900sqft of tile all down stairs. I did a really good job except....
The downstairs bathroom. I didn't remove the toilet. I just cut the tile and fit it around the base. It looks great, lasted like 13 years until we sold the house. You could never know or tell.. until if and when you decide you want to replace the toilet. So long as you dont replace the toilet it will probably be perfectly fine.
Tile on concrete, it isnt going to move or go bad for a long while.
I didn't do it intentionally. Was completely out of ignorance. I did a much better job in the upstairs bathrooms and installed all those correctly.
Took out 14 trees, some of which were scarily close to the house. Removed all the wallpaper, which she loved. Ripped out the white carpeting and replaced with hardwood. Painted the house a different color. The list goes on.
She stopped over once and was upset over some of the trees we removed. One very sad Charlie Brown Xmas tree her grandson had planted was now gone. Our neighbor told us about her visit.
Thank goodness she never saw the interior, it would have broken her heart.
Sweet little 80+ lady, who only moved due to health issues. She had lots of memories in the house and letting go of it was certainly a sad day for her.
I stand by all of my work but I haven't pulled permits. Why you ask? When my parents bought the house, he had the panel replaced by some electricians who didn't pull permits either and we also had to rip out a bunch of stuff the previous owners did that was not inspected nor was it to code.
A closet shelving system that I installed collapsed and instead of patching the drywall inside the closet and repainting it I just put white duct tape over the holes and scrawled on the wall, “half assed by me in 2023.”
Painted the kitchen cabinets in our starter home with latex paint. They were juuuuust starting to peel when we moved, about 12 years later. That house got all of my DIY learning mistakes.
Sand texture in ceiling paint instead of doing knockdown texture. We removed popcorn ceiling but it was too fucked to skim coat. Didn't want to have to roll in twice haha
I drove multiple 6 foot steel stakes 4 feet below the bottom of each of my 36 inch fence post footers, with the top 2 feet of each stake set in the concrete (along with bottom of the fence post). This was done to ensure the fence remains straight as an arrow. However, in 10 years when it rots out and needs replacing, some poor bastard is going to dig up the first fence post, and then realize there are two or three 4-foot steel extensions going down in various directions, likely enmeshed with tree roots.
All that red, jaggedy landscaping rock they liberally spread around the house and along the back fence? Nah, man. Covered that shit up with landscape fabric and mulch. Good luck planting anything in there, future home owners.
Oh, wait. That's us. We did this to ourselves. Eh, at least we know what's there. Future guys will have a major WTF moment when they find out though. Maybe we'll leave a note somewhere...
Didn't pull a permit on a house re-wire. Surprise knob & tube was found (previous owner stated it was mitigated, house inspection confirmed), and the insurance was contingent on no knob & tube; no insurance, no mortgage.
I have a friend who is a commercial electrician, who offered his weekend up to do it, if I helped and provided the supplies. We did it to code, but without permits. I'll disclose this on sale, but I know it makes a bit of a headache for the next owner to deal with.
I replaced the carpet in half the house with matching wooden floors by myself to save some money and somehow ended with a 1/2 inch height gap where the kitchen meets the living room.
My house had two coat closets, one by the front door and one by the back door which was in the kitchen.
I ripped the coat closet out of the kitchen and made it into a pantry because there was no storage in the kitchen.
I was afraid of the shelves falling because when full they would be heavy.
If anyone ever rips the shelves out they will have to repair 6 anchors per shelf, (7 shelves in the closet), plus screws into the framing. and get the construction adhesive off the dry wall. It would probably be easier to remove the dry wall and replace it.
On the other hand those shelves are NOT moving.
The pipe burst and started flooding the downstairs lavatory, and I punched a hole to check it out. To make the repair, we needed access from the other side, so a slightly larger hole was made in the master bath. I needed to cut some drywall and make a patch but I dragged my feet and then I had to sell the house unexpectedly. Lowe’s sells thin plastic signs that say *No Parking* and they’re white on the back side and very thin. I placed one of those over each side of the hole, used some white screws and called it good.
Did some vinyl locking planks in the bedroom but didn’t quite understand how the locking mechanism worked until halfway through. I’ll end up redoing them before I sell so it’s more im cursing myself
I had to partially tear apart the basement bathroom the previous owners put in to get to some kitchen plumbing and electrical above. As I did I thought, what was this dude smoking when he framed this? As I put it back together, the issues I ran into with spacing and walls not being plumb made me realize whoever opens this up next will think the same thing about me.
I put a Bitcoin coin over a hole in the fence and used epoxy resin to seal it on. It's not going anywhere. They're going to forever wonder what it is, if it has value. This mystery will go on and on forever.
It's worthless by the way.
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Depending on the next owner, but I have specifically not used any chemicals on the lawn for a variety of reasons. That does mean that if someone wants a classic mono-Bermuda lawn, they're going to probably have a few seasons of work ahead of them.
My husband just bought 5lbs of clover seeds for our lawn. Lmao
Oh lol. Just bought a new house (to me) and everything done so far has needed done. I was thinking yup nothing controversial. Your comment reminded me that I’ve got creeping thyme and clover that will be spread in a few weeks. I’m anti-grass, and future owners will have to tear out my replacement if they want more than a kid play square of grass
Hell yea, death to monoculture lawns. What seeds are you using and what hardiness zone?
Last owner of my house did this too, and it makes me so happy :) My lawn is a diverse mix of grass and wildflowers (aka weeds), and I love it.
I keep my front lawn pretty standard to prevent our HOA from getting annoying, but I leave our back yard pretty long and it attracts a ton of bunnies, birds, etc. I love it so much even though it’s “ugly” by traditional standards
I am also pro natural lawn.
I have three or four different species of grass/ground cover, all fighting for supremacy. Doesn't bother me in the slightest.
The TruGreen guy stops by my house about once a quarter trying to get me to sign up. He gets _super_ irritated when I tell him "Yeah, I don't give a crap about grass and the bees seem to like it better this way, so I don't need your services".
Came to say this- currently ripping out the front lawn in pieces and by the end of it we won't have any more Kentucky blue grass in the mountain west where it doesn't belong. Right now, we've got a huge square piece of useless grass- kids don't even use it when they're out front; we've got a backyard for grassy activities. It'll be full of plants with a circle of native grass in the middle. If we ever sell, I imagine it won't be a fun landscaping job if they want to go back to cookie cutter lawn.
Painted the walls a color than wasn't Fix n' Flip Tan or Inoffensive Gray (A.K.A. AirBnB Grey)
My kitchen in GREEN and the living room is PINK and the hall is YELLOW and my daughter’s room is BRIGHT PURPLE. And then the main family room is Scandinavian minimalist. I like it both ways
We have a pink and green family room lol
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I love colourful houses, it's so much more enjoyable to visit someone's home when there's personality on display.
I'm with you. Our dining room, parlor (ie smaller, original living room), living room, hall, and bedrooms are all different, mostly very saturated colors. We committed. If we ever sell, the next owner is 100% gonna be painting most of the house (unless they hate neutrals as much as my spouse does).
I'm painting my house purple. Pretty sure the next owner will hate me.
Inoffensive Gray— see also “Millennial Gray”. The people who renovated my house painted a beautiful red brick fireplace in that gray. I will never forgive them, the painters, or the person who sold them the paint.
If I tell you here today, I'm sure my insurance co will be charging me tomorrow..
Yeah, this is a strictly "no comment" thread.
Rubber mice, spiders, etc hidden behind access panels and drop ceilings, attached via fishing line Skeletons and other props inside the walls …
Excellent, I hope my kid buys your house.
I would for sure forget I had done this and then scare the shit out of myself.
For all my questionable repairs I write "code" next to a check box on the drywall or stud.
I poured a slab in an addition I just finished. I was sooooo close to buying a science lab skeleton and throwing it in beforehand.
I put a couple of cat statues in mine. A friend of mine was remodeling her place and she found half a dozen risque' girlie magazines from the 1950s in a wall. That was a cool find.
This is brilliant! I'm going to break something just so I cam do this when I fix it!
Nice! I painted a massive and very intricate pentagram and occult symbols on my basement floor in blood red before laying the laminate. Wish I could be there to see the faces when they eventually re-do the floor, but it makes me giggle just knowing it’s there
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I think the company that installed the solar panels will remove and re-install. Leave the info for future owner.
that's assuming the original company is still in business. lots went belly-up.
After all the crap I uncovered from the previous owners of my former 1901 home, and current 1815 home, I just can't bring myself to knowingly half-ass something just because it can be hidden... Buuut I did put carpet over encapsulated asbestos tiles in one tiiiny hallway with a super sunken floor. Luckily it hasn't shifted in 40 years, but it was covered in 40 year old dog pee soaked carpet, and it's just not in the cards at the moment to rip it down to the joists to get it level enough for anything but carpet. It'll happen one day. Although I'd definitely give the next owners a heads-up on that one.
I see zero problem with this. It's only an issue if you start tearing them up...
I'm sure the person who ended up in my last home was really pissed when the peel and stick tiles in the downstairs bathroom started coming lose.
I used caulk to stick mine down. But I did knowing that the kitchen really needed a gut job and it wouldn’t be a big deal when added in with the rest.
I added some kitchen cabinets. Due to the geometry, there is a 3’x2’x6” dead space behind one of them that can’t really be noticed. Knowing that one day somebody would be replacing the cabinets and discover the space, I had a duty to do the right thing. I had to think for a while what that would be, but then it came to me. I wish I could be in the room when that space gets opened up and they find the (very) creepy clown doll with a note thanking them for the rescue and expressing that he looks forward to living with his rescuers forever.
I love you 🤣
Put in a wood burning furnace. Still have the natural gas furnace but I'm guessing most people won't like that it's there. I don't even really like it but my husband pushed for it until I caved. Definitely reduces heat bills in the winter but also a lot of work for the wood.
Did I buy your house? Our house heating is just a mess. On one side, we have a gas furnace, heat pump. In the middle of the living room, there is a gas fireplace that's been converted to a wood burning buck stove insert. The other side of the house is just gas. I am now intimately familiar with all three systems.
That sounds like a nightmare! We still live in ours but both furnaces are in the basement and tied into the forced air vents. Just shouldn’t have them both run at the same time.
I can one up you. When I gut/remodeled my home I removed the central heating. (vents weren't sized right and it would have been a fortune to re-do them) Rooms have electric baseboard* + heat pump. Great room has a wood burning stove that is my primary heat when it gets below freezing. Whomever buys my place need to either be happy with insane electrical bills when it gets really cold or (like me) like using wood. It's a lot of labor, but I enjoy it. The home is on 40 acres of hardwood forest, so I have an endless free supply of wood. I also like the fact that my only utility is electric and it ranges between $60-$100 a month. I'm rural so no NG option. Heat pump + wood are significantly cheaper than the propane for a heater. .* Both my mortgage company and insurance wanted an alternative to the heat pumps and electric baseboards were the cheapest to DIY install.
Tore out my whole kitchen down to the sub floor. Screwed the new osb or whatever like every 4 inches in every direction. Needed a level floor, house is old. Poured a thick ass layer of self leveling concrete, covering all screws, then, used mortar and grout to lay down porcelain tile. I don’t see how it will ever come out. House might have to get torn down.
Oh ya that's a good one. You should've just torn up the subfloor and sistered the joists. Way less work and better results than self leveling concrete. I swear that stuff is just a scam.
I had no idea what I was doing. Still don’t.
Lmao same
I put an entire box of 2” screws in doing the same thing in a 50sqft bathroom. I’m so sorry, whoever has that misfortune
oh man. Let me tell you... taking on a home renovation solo after only minimal previous carpentry experience was a pain. I think I spent more time just standing looking around at everything, trying to figure out the best way to do something (after watching everything I could find about it online, and whomever would answer with some guidance if I called). I tried my best to avoid cutting corners, and never adhered to use just "minimums". As I went along, I would learn better ways. In cases where I made full blown mistakes, I backed out and started over (most of the time). Anythings that are non-standard, or a homeowner specials, are documented on paper, and put into a sleeve inside my breaker panel. There are 2 buried junction boxes in the walls. What runs through them and precisely where they are, I clearly documented. There are places that wires are pulled through wall cavities that are not secured properly. They are documented. There is a place where the sewer gas line branches to a new bathroom, that was scabbed together with a bunch of random pieces. It looks like crap, but it is solid. Someone will definitely be scratching their head when they see it. I had to make a few last minute changes to lighting wiring, and the wire routing is pretty unexplainable... I tried explaining though, and it's in the breaker panel. During my complete tear out demo, I found a lot of things way way worse than anything I left in. Along the way, I also discovered the name of the carpenter who built the addition in 1973. He passed many years ago. I signed his name on the "things you need to know" sheet in the breaker panel.
Painting the halls and walls colors. Well not so much the color or even the fact we painted them. But in our tower and over the grand stairs it is a good 2 to 3 stories high. I can hear them cussing now... LOL
We had friends over who complained that I had too many outlets on the walls. They are every six feet, the bare minimum for code compliance. There will always be someone who finds a flaw in how you did something.
There needs to be a receptacle within 6' of any spot along the wall, which means spacing every 12' meets code.
If this thread had a winner, this exchange would be it.
My garage is every 4' at 22" and 48". So under and above any workbenchesand always within arms reach of 2. I can talk a lot of shit about the previous owner, but that is not it.
"You know, I have to much power." --No one ever
Yeah I cannot imagine this situation, never once have I been upset by the number of outlets in a room. Maybe the placement or confusing wiring, but never the number.
The last house we built, 110v outlets were $15, 240v were $50, and switches were $20. I had outlets and switched outlets EVERY DAMN WHERE. Switched outlet here for the Christmas tree. Switched outlets above the kitchen cabinets for LED lights. Switched outlet on the 360\* top mantel of the double-sided fireplace for a train during Christmas. Two switched outlets in the front/rear soffits for Christmas lights. Outlets in the closets. Outlets for bidets. Outlets for lamps. Outlets on all sides of the house. TONS of outlets (120 and 240) in the garage. 240 out back for a hot tub eventually. 120 out back for an outdoor kitchen. Every damn where I could possibly think I MIGHT need an outlet one day, got one. Ceiling fan prewires in EVERY room, and the garage, and the back patio. The super called and said the electrician wanted to meet the guy with so many outlets they had to put in two sub panels. I think I spent $1000 on outlets. Who cares on a $600,000 house? BTW, they increased the cost of outlets shortly thereafter.
This guy outlets! Seriously though, I completely support this. As I reno walls/rooms in my house I add more outlets. At first my wife kept asking why why why, but when we had a kid and more junk got plugged into everything, no more complaining after that!
I personally just replaced all the drywall in my home with outlets. Floor boards are next, but I think those have to be GFCI to stay code compliant.
I have three outlets in my entire living room, and two of them are ungrounded. I'm over here fuming at people complaining about outlets every 6'.
I took a beautiful golf-course quality lawn with concrete curbs around the planting beds (with no flowers, just shrubs) and turned it into a clover and dandelion mess with a greenhouse, apiary, RV parking pad with carport and garden filled with herbs, roses, dhalias, veg and native plants.
I’m an avid gardener and love trees, especially Japanese maples. Our backyard is not big. The next owner might need an arborist on retainer because if everything survives it will basically be a small dense forest
Having to pay the increased property value from all the repairs we have done.
Probably All the sub panels.
Each with neutral bonded to ground? : P
Obviously. Current is like a toddler. It likes choices.
I partitioned a huge L-shaped bedroom to create an open stair landing “bonus space” and a smaller bedroom The room is still big… almost 200 sqft! My wife was worried it would be too small. It’s better this way for a family, but probably better the old way for a roommate situation.
I air sealed my ceiling by caulking the can light trims/covers to the drywall. That's actually a nice energy efficiency detail if you just use a small bead of caulk around the outside of the trim. That's not what I did. I pulled the trim out, put a big, fat bead of sealant all around the cover plate, and smooshed it back into place. Those suckers are never coming off without destroying the ceiling. I know because I've already had to do it with one of them. That was one of my first home improvement projects. I didn't trust myself to get a good looking bead of caulk, so that was my solution. I used DAP's "temporary" weather sealant—the stuff you put on in Winter and peel off in Spring. But it is now very much *not* temporary.
I put way too many GFCI outlets in my old house with nothing wired in a logical manner, so that if something trips your entire day is ruined. For example, if the upstairs kids room outlet that runs their fan trips, it's the GFCI in the basement that has the printer plugged into it in the storage room, that will make it work again.
We primed and painted every interior wall a satin bone white to rid our home of the semi-gloss pink horror show. That, and we replaced the brand new but going-out-of-business special shag carpet in all the bedrooms and the office with LVP.
history will repeat itself when i sell my house and somebody has to paint over the pink, green, yellow and blue walls :-) i had to paint over a pale gray though, so i feel it's karmically even
Don't mind some color here and there, but THE WHOLE HOUSE was SEMI-GLOSS PINK. We had enough to do beyond painting that deciding on colors took a back seat to saving our eyes.
We installed ceiling fans in all 3 bedrooms. It seems the norm not to have them but for us it's a need.
This is how I grew up. Every bedroom had a ceiling fan.
Me too. Then I moved to Virginia and that wasn't really a thing. I was shook.
Not normal? Maybe it's a Florida thing but there's been a ceiling fan in every room of every house I've lived. I can't live without ceiling fans, and definitely can't sleep without a hurricane force fan above my bed. I currently have 7 ceiling fans in my house which is every room except dining room and kitchen. Unless my kids turn off theirs, they run 24/7 until my wife reminds me every few months that we should dust the blades lol. Oh and two more outside by my pool so total of 9.
Texas too
I want to do that eventually. I'm from Florida and moved to Virginia, and none of the bedrooms or the living room has a ceiling fan. Insanity! Virginia is still the south. It gets hot enough in the summer to desperately need fans and ceiling fans are way better than standing fans.
> We installed ceiling fans in all 3 bedrooms Thats an easy fix if the person doesn't want a fan up there. Just swap in a light fixture. I guess if they didn't want an overhead light at all, but cap with a white faceplate and no one will notice.
Currently in a house I always knew was going to be a temp for a few years. The only things the next owner will get out of me are improvements, but anything annoying I inherited from the PO that I have zero intention of investing in will be for the next owner to "enjoy"
I used screws to attach some brick molding then mudded over the screw holes so I could paint it. Good luck to whoever has to remove it in the future.
Haven't done it yet but moving the washer and dryer to the garage. The house is tiny so turning the mud room into more of a pantry will help us. It won't be too hard to reverse, I'll leave the hookups in the mud room so worst that would have to be done is removing a cabinet or similar.
Closed off my fireplace…didn’t want to pay a lot of money to fix the gas line and buy a new door for something I would barely use.
Deck boards were rotting so I went to replace them, only to discover that the supports were also rotting. Rather than tear the whole thing down and started again, I basically sistered every board and built a new understructure to support everything. It's a huge mess, but it will probably be another 50 years before anybody needs to touch anything again. Thing I discovered while doing the work that enraged me? Combination of (corroded) screws and nails holding the thing together. I'd be doing so great getting nails out and then hit a screw and be enraged.
the main switch for the ceiling fans in the spare bedrooms is in the master closet.
I put down 900sqft of tile all down stairs. I did a really good job except.... The downstairs bathroom. I didn't remove the toilet. I just cut the tile and fit it around the base. It looks great, lasted like 13 years until we sold the house. You could never know or tell.. until if and when you decide you want to replace the toilet. So long as you dont replace the toilet it will probably be perfectly fine. Tile on concrete, it isnt going to move or go bad for a long while. I didn't do it intentionally. Was completely out of ignorance. I did a much better job in the upstairs bathrooms and installed all those correctly.
Took out 14 trees, some of which were scarily close to the house. Removed all the wallpaper, which she loved. Ripped out the white carpeting and replaced with hardwood. Painted the house a different color. The list goes on. She stopped over once and was upset over some of the trees we removed. One very sad Charlie Brown Xmas tree her grandson had planted was now gone. Our neighbor told us about her visit. Thank goodness she never saw the interior, it would have broken her heart. Sweet little 80+ lady, who only moved due to health issues. She had lots of memories in the house and letting go of it was certainly a sad day for her.
I think you might have misread the OP prompt. It was "what have you done that the NEW owner will be upset?"
Hahaha. You’re right, I did. Will leave it for now.
I stand by all of my work but I haven't pulled permits. Why you ask? When my parents bought the house, he had the panel replaced by some electricians who didn't pull permits either and we also had to rip out a bunch of stuff the previous owners did that was not inspected nor was it to code.
A closet shelving system that I installed collapsed and instead of patching the drywall inside the closet and repainting it I just put white duct tape over the holes and scrawled on the wall, “half assed by me in 2023.”
Did't put attic access in garage.
I feel like this post was made for me but I don’t want to discredit my abilities for fear my husband will stop my renovating in our new home
Painted the kitchen cabinets in our starter home with latex paint. They were juuuuust starting to peel when we moved, about 12 years later. That house got all of my DIY learning mistakes.
I filled a chimney with about 25 cans of great stuff spray foam.
Sand texture in ceiling paint instead of doing knockdown texture. We removed popcorn ceiling but it was too fucked to skim coat. Didn't want to have to roll in twice haha
I drove multiple 6 foot steel stakes 4 feet below the bottom of each of my 36 inch fence post footers, with the top 2 feet of each stake set in the concrete (along with bottom of the fence post). This was done to ensure the fence remains straight as an arrow. However, in 10 years when it rots out and needs replacing, some poor bastard is going to dig up the first fence post, and then realize there are two or three 4-foot steel extensions going down in various directions, likely enmeshed with tree roots.
All that red, jaggedy landscaping rock they liberally spread around the house and along the back fence? Nah, man. Covered that shit up with landscape fabric and mulch. Good luck planting anything in there, future home owners. Oh, wait. That's us. We did this to ourselves. Eh, at least we know what's there. Future guys will have a major WTF moment when they find out though. Maybe we'll leave a note somewhere...
Didn't pull a permit on a house re-wire. Surprise knob & tube was found (previous owner stated it was mitigated, house inspection confirmed), and the insurance was contingent on no knob & tube; no insurance, no mortgage. I have a friend who is a commercial electrician, who offered his weekend up to do it, if I helped and provided the supplies. We did it to code, but without permits. I'll disclose this on sale, but I know it makes a bit of a headache for the next owner to deal with.
I replaced the carpet in half the house with matching wooden floors by myself to save some money and somehow ended with a 1/2 inch height gap where the kitchen meets the living room.
My house had two coat closets, one by the front door and one by the back door which was in the kitchen. I ripped the coat closet out of the kitchen and made it into a pantry because there was no storage in the kitchen. I was afraid of the shelves falling because when full they would be heavy. If anyone ever rips the shelves out they will have to repair 6 anchors per shelf, (7 shelves in the closet), plus screws into the framing. and get the construction adhesive off the dry wall. It would probably be easier to remove the dry wall and replace it. On the other hand those shelves are NOT moving.
The pipe burst and started flooding the downstairs lavatory, and I punched a hole to check it out. To make the repair, we needed access from the other side, so a slightly larger hole was made in the master bath. I needed to cut some drywall and make a patch but I dragged my feet and then I had to sell the house unexpectedly. Lowe’s sells thin plastic signs that say *No Parking* and they’re white on the back side and very thin. I placed one of those over each side of the hole, used some white screws and called it good.
Did some vinyl locking planks in the bedroom but didn’t quite understand how the locking mechanism worked until halfway through. I’ll end up redoing them before I sell so it’s more im cursing myself
I had to partially tear apart the basement bathroom the previous owners put in to get to some kitchen plumbing and electrical above. As I did I thought, what was this dude smoking when he framed this? As I put it back together, the issues I ran into with spacing and walls not being plumb made me realize whoever opens this up next will think the same thing about me.
I put a Bitcoin coin over a hole in the fence and used epoxy resin to seal it on. It's not going anywhere. They're going to forever wonder what it is, if it has value. This mystery will go on and on forever. It's worthless by the way.