If planning a home renovation on any scale is the easy part and paying for it is the hard part, then doing it must be the complicated part.

If you have only your motivation at your side and little else in the experience department then you are heading for a joy ride. Just like on television there are plenty of ups and downs. Some will be bigger than others; some will just frustrate you while others will test your plan and cause you to wonder from it.

Renovation plans are written in pencil for this vary reason. The real guide that you will live by will be the money. Can you afford to take this new path or do you want to spend the money to alter the original plan? Because we rarely have a clear picture of everything like what's in the walls or under the floor, we can only guess how these surprises will change or alter our plan.

Things like windows and doors. To change the size to a bigger window or door then we have to look at the framing of the wall and be sure we have the proper header above the new window. This of course means making a big hole in the wall. If your plan includes re-working the siding outside as well as the wall inside then go ahead.

The same can be true for interior doors. If the wall is holding up the house then you need to look closely at any plans to knock it down or cut a big hole in it. This is where I get to the point, planning for one thing and the plan evolving into two or more parts. It happens on a smaller scale too. Bathrooms and kitchen are the worst.

Small upgrades to individual rooms can quickly evolve into more than the start up plan you counted on. If you see a new bathroom sink on sale and pick it up on the way home from work then your plan is pretty straight forward; you plan on replacing the bathroom sink. You get it home and all still looks fine.

When you start to remove the old sink by disassembling the plumbing you may find that you will need to make some repairs or replace a few parts that discovered were leaking. This is almost always the case with any new sink install. It's a good idea to install fresh drain and supply lines anyway; the cost is very small for your piece of mind.

Okay, the old sink is out, let's put the new one in. If the hole in the counter is the same as the old one then everything is fine. I can't remember a time when this ever happened. Well, once when we special ordered a sink to match the old one so it would fit. This was not a sink that was on sale either. As we all know the words special order mean special price too.

If the new sink won't fit into the old hole then this simple sink swap with a budget of under $100 now stinks of a new counter and perhaps even some backsplash not to mention the paint touch up. Now we have a new bathroom on the way like it or not. This is how true do-it-yourselfers get their merit badges. Carry on like a new bathroom counter was your plan all along.

We just installed a new kitchen counter top that turned out great. After the homeowner inspected it was determined that it need a new back splash and after that we would look at the paint around the cabinets. Well all that did get done and everyone well be pleased to know that it all matches just fine. However; the last comment as I was walking away was, “Do you think the floor looks okay?”