Not all home renovations that don't go as planned are disasters or end up as budget busters. Some can really be a gift wrapped in drywall and concrete dust.

Whenever we start on any home improvement we can only make plans for what lies ahead, we can't see through walls or floors. If our plans call for new supply lines to a sink then we can only hope that what is behind the wall will be water lines we can attach to. Newer homes don't have this concern but older homes that we buy as fixer-uppers definitely do.

Any house twenty years old or older can pose all kinds of surprises when we attempt some sort of home improvement. I see it all the time — often enough to be on the lookout for it at almost every turn. When the house is very old, say 50 years or more, then expect to be dealing with a lot more right from the start.

Things like the basic functions of the house. Wiring, plumbing and drains can be in need of repair even before we tangle with any type of renovation. You will have trouble installing a laundry tub if the plumbing pipes are brittle and break when you try to cut into them. The same can be true with the drains of an older home.

Some of the more costly issues can come up when we have a close look at the electrical in a house over 50. As we all know, the way things were done years ago may not last the test of time. Time can be a home's biggest enemy. Things just wear out, water pipes get clogged, doors get squeaky and walls settle with cracks.

When houses settle over time it's just the normal action of the earth. We know this now and that's why the current building codes require such stronger foundations than they did 50 years ago. Even then, every house moves a little and this can create problems. If the sewer drains in a house are too close to rocks or the concrete foundation then when the house settles it can damage them.

A couple of weeks ago we were trying to install a new bath tub and with that connect it to the drain pipe under the concrete floor. The short version of the story is that when we exposed the main sewer drain we found that it was cracked. Cracked because it was to close to the concrete floor and the fill used was too coarse. Filling in around plastic drain pipes should be done with fine sand.

So what we had was a small tub install turn into a major plumbing repair. We had to expose enough of the concrete floor to make the repairs to the pipe, then fill in our six foot long hole with sand and concrete. After all this we were back to the beginning. Needless to say we had shot the budget for the tub install to pieces and we were left with plan "B."

This plan meant that we had to finish this bath tub and shower on a shoe string if it was going to be a usable bath at all. So off to the building supply we go. Looking for a cheap bath tub, tiles and any items on sale that we can find use for. As luck would have it we had great success finding discontinued tiles with grout to match.

We also found a damaged bath tub we could repair and a shower faucet that was on clearance. All the items worked out famously and it all came together better than expected. We were able to finish the whole bath with tiles that matched and faucets that looked like they came from an interior decorator's catalogue.

In the end, with all the good luck we had finding discounted materials, we were not far off the original plan for the budget anyway. Another bit of proof that with a little flexibility and creativity you can end up with a new bathroom totally by mistake.