The 6 Biggest Lessons On How To Be Your Own Project Manager + Some VERY Real Life Mistakes And Successes

When one of our readers, Lisa (remember this DIY project?), reached out to us after remodeling her home on a budget, we knew this would be a story all our readers would want to hear. She managed to save thousands of dollars during a large gut remodel while also added an additional 500 square feet. Today, she’s sharing all the mistakes and money-saving tips and tricks she learned. Take it away, Lisa…

If you asked me ten years ago what my life would look like today, I would’ve never imagined I’d be a working mom/Interior Stylist/Instagrammer and sharing remodeling tips on EHD! I’ve been a long time fan for over a decade and have always found the articles extremely resourceful and I refer to them time and time again.

After remodeling our first home, I found a new passion and decided to share my experience with others and start my own interior design business. I’m hoping to inspire people to always see the potential in a space and create a home they love. Hopefully the tips I share with you today can help you plan for a reno, avoid any unnecessary mistakes, and give you the confidence to tackle your own remodel.

I would like to preface by saying it was an incredible experience being my own project manager and building our dream home. However, taking on this role and a large remodel is not for the faint of heart. You never realize there are hundreds of measurements to think about until you try to be your own project manager/designer. There were many sleepless nights when I wanted to drive to our house with a measuring tape and double-check for the fifth time if the sconce in the bathroom was the correct height from the floor. Was it too high? Too low? Was the distance from the mirror far enough? Was it too close? Will this look goofy??!! What am I doooooiiiing??!! The million questions and doubts that ran through my mind likely contributed to all the new grey hairs that have sprouted on my head over the past year.  

All that said, I wanted to share all the tools, tips, and tricks that helped me through this process. Even though it was the most stressful time of my life – building a home during a pandemic, with my spouse – while trying to be my own project manager – we managed to stay married and 1000% I’d do it all over again.

Helpful Apps And Software Programs

Let’s begin with the first stages of our remodel – the floor plan and 3D renderings. In the beginning, I hired someone on Fiverr app to make two 3D renderings for $550. While this is definitely cheaper than hiring an architect to do a rendering, I realized this wasn’t going to work for me since I was only given 1-2 revisions, before they began to charge for each change. I’m the type of person who likes to see multiple, multiple, different designs, and layouts. This helps me feel confident about my final decision once I feel like I’ve exhausted all my options. So going this route was definitely cost-prohibitive. 

Later, I discovered two different apps that helped me tremendously. I can honestly say I couldn’t have done my project without them. ArcSite is a free app I used for all my floor plans, cabinet layouts, and measurements. Planner 5d helped me save hundreds of dollars making my own 3D renderings. Once I taught myself how to use these programs, I was able to make an unlimited amount of designs for FREE! They’re pretty user-friendly too since I’m not the most tech-savvy and was able to navigate them.  

Another trick I like to use to visualize a space was to use painter’s tape and flooring paper. Since our kitchen and dining area are one open floor plan, we were having difficulty visualizing how wide to make each designated area.  Using the brown paper helped immensely with figuring out the scale of the space. I was finally able to decide on the width of the cabinets and measurements for the dining and kitchen. So when in doubt – tape it out!

Here are a few examples of mistakes and cost savings I made:

Always buy samples of materials before making your final purchase. For tile selections, do not make your decision based on the one or two samples they give you from the store. To really get a sense of the design/color, it’s imperative you look at a large amount of the material all laid out. This method not only works for tile, but also wood floors and paint. 

I wanted this really unique design in our entryway and I chose an Italian porcelain tile with a lot of variation. I ordered 4 pieces and thought I liked the design so I placed the final order for the entire room. Low and behold, when they began to lay the tile, I soon realized the variation looked like someone had smeared feces on top of the tile and I literally wanted to cry! Since this was imported from Italy, it was a custom order and non-returnable. I ended up wasting about $1,400.  

For our wood flooring, we ran into the same issue. I learned my lesson from the tile incident and ordered one box of flooring material. I wasn’t happy with the selection and was able to return it with a small restocking fee. Even though the sample boards for wood floors can be large, wood has so much variation that you’re only seeing a tiny sample of the entire lot. You can’t get the true visual effect unless you lay 6-8 full-length boards – which will definitely help you finalize your decision. When processing a return you may lose a bit of money in restocking fees, but that’s significantly less than paying restocking fees on thousands of dollars worth of material. 

Paint samples: When I painted swatches to choose the color for our interior walls, I used several 11”x17” pieces of paper. Even though this is significantly bigger than the tiny swatches you get from the store, I still had difficulty visualizing the color on the walls. I thought of the idea to paint a HUGE swatch on a piece of drywall. Since paint colors can reflect light differently from room to room, I moved the drywall around the house to help make my final decision. 

How To Save Money On Cabinets

The majority of our kitchen is white oak and I allowed my contractor to select all the wood for my cabinets. After he finished building everything and installed the boxes, we came to realize the wood ended up looking like tiger stripes EVERYWHERE! I discovered he mixed red oak and white oak which have two completely different grain patterns and color! I realized this after I took a sample of wood to a lumber yard since I couldn’t figure out why the grains looked so different from one another. This also made sense why none of the twenty different stains I bought looked the same on each piece of wood – that was a fun day I’ll never forget! 

As a result, my contractor repurposed ALL the wood for another project and I ended up picking every.single.piece of wood in my entire house during the height of the pandemic. The inventory was so low that I had to make six trips to the lumber yard over a two-week period. In the end, I spent about $5000 more dollars for a higher quality wood – all wood is not created equal! However, it was SO worth it! The kitchen is the heart of the home and it was worth the splurge! I LOVE how it turned out – aaaaaand it made for a fun story to tell.  

Since the majority of the cabinets in our home are white oak, I was able to save thousands of dollars on custom cabinetry by mixing wood species (intentionally this time). I used hardwood white oak on the rails/stiles of the door and white oak plywood for the panels. On the outside, the cabinets have this beautiful harmonious grain movement and look like oak cabinets through and through. However, on the inside, I used maple plywood which helped keep the cost lower. Custom cabinetry can be SO expensive but by applying these tips I was able to achieve a high end look for less and no one’s the wiser – except for everyone reading this article now.

Since we had so many built-ins throughout our home, I also mixed inset and overlay cabinets between the various rooms. I used inset cabinets for the kitchen and dining – which are the main areas of our home. But for less traffic areas, such as our walk-in pantry and laundry room, I used overlay cabinets and saved around $1800 since the labor involved with making inset cabinets is significantly more difficult than making overlay cabinets. 

Look For Dupes Or Knock-Offs

Always try to find a dupe for an expensive item. You never know when you’ll find an amazing deal! I found the dupe of a lifetime with my laundry room steel barn door. I was fixated on having a glass steel door until my dreams were crushed when I was quoted $2500 for one 36” door! I found this insanely gorgeous door at Home Depot for $349. It’s actually made of steel but for a fraction of the cost. I also wanted steel windows throughout our home, but this was WAY out of our budget. Who knew steel windows cost a fortune!! Instead, we saved $50,000 installing aluminum-clad windows with thicker grids – 7/8” wide – and I love them! We’ve even had people ask if we have steel windows because they look so similar.  

Hardware can get quite costly especially when you have a large kitchen. I fell in love with these knurled cabinet pulls from Restoration Hardware until I saw the price – $52 for one 6” pull – ONE! I found an almost identical dupe on build.com for $14!!! They have a heavy weight to them, look expensive, and are the prettiest honey lacquered brass color.

Be Clear With Your Contractor On Where You Want Outlets

ALWAYS review your electrical plan with your contractor. The majority of the time, contractors are not thinking about aesthetics and slap those suckers anywhere without consulting you. It’s all about the little details that really make a home look custom and well thought out. Place outlets and lights strategically and always discuss in great detail, exactly where they will be placed – everywhere! Here are some examples of mistakes and stellar placements I made:  

I have a bit of an obsession with concealing electric outlets and switches. This was the first time I ever made a lighting and electrical plan and I accidentally ended up installing a light switch behind a door because I neglected to factor the direction the door swung. It was an easy fix to open up the drywall again, but it ended up costing me $400. However, I learned a very important lesson: regardless of the mistakes you make – inevitably there will be some – everything is fixable! Sure you’ll have to pay for a change order, but make all the changes while you’re still in construction, as opposed to kicking yourself after you finish your entire remodel because the thing that bothered you before, still bothers you – but now you can’t change it!  

I designed a small appliance cabinet that houses all my small appliances. I installed electric outlets inside the cabinets and used my appliances in there so my countertops are clutter-free. On our porcelain waterfall island, I installed the outlets on the underside of the overhang as opposed to the side of the island which is the traditional placement. If I hadn’t discussed this with my contractor beforehand, I can only imagine him installing it into my stone and I would have to stare at it every day for the rest of my life. On the kitchen counters, I installed the outlets low and close to the countertop. I also turned them horizontally which allows the outlets to blend in better with the stone backsplash. Since my sink is in the island, I installed a garbage disposal switch under the sink cabinets. Traditionally a disposal button is installed on top of the countertop, but over time, the button can become a collection area for dirt and grime so I love the fact that it’s a simple switch inside my cabinet.    

Task lighting: Don’t forget about task lighting. I installed open shelves in my kitchen and initially thought about installing task lights under the shelves. However, when I had upper cabinets in the past, I never used the lighting underneath, so I assumed they weren’t necessary. After they installed the shelves and turned on the lights, I realized I should have installed the lighting. $800 later, we changed the shelves and hard wired the lights. I can happily say they add such a nice ambiance to the kitchen and I use them daily. 

Tips For Tile Installation: 

Do a walk-through of the space and convey your exact vision of how you want the space to look. I made extensive notes using “Keynote” of how I wanted the tile to be installed in the bathrooms and taped them to the wall. This was helpful for the installer to reference during the installation. It also helps with any type of miscommunication that could possibly occur. If something is installed incorrectly, you can always reference your paper to see who, why, and where the mistake occurred. This can definitely help save you money in the long run since a lot of mistakes occur due to miscommunication. This may seem a bit obsessive to be this detail-oriented, but if you don’t give exact instructions, they’ll tend to fill in the blanks themselves and things like electrical sockets and light fixtures, tiles can end up in the worst/random places. I’ve learned from past experiences that for some reason the ugliest tile always ends up at eye level! So when I have a complicated install, or I want the pattern to look a certain way, I’ll label the tiles and tell the installer exactly where I want each piece laid out so I could hand-select all the pieces I want or hide the ugly ones in inconspicuous areas. 

Choosing Grout Colors: 

Never pick a grout color when the mix is still wet. I made this mistake in my son’s bathroom when they applied the grout. I forgot to test the color first and by the time I realized I disliked it, they had already spread too much on the wall and it was too late to change it. This actually ended up being a happy accident because when I came back the next day, the color dried significantly lighter and I loved it! Now before any grout application, I have my installer make 1/8” wide and deep cuts on top of an extra piece of tile and he smears several different grout colors on top. This allows me to see all the colors side by side and I can take my time making a decision as opposed to deciding minutes before he covers the entire area and you’re stuck with your choice forever. 

During our home remodel, we also decided to remodel our backyard. We ended up hiring the cheapest contractor and quickly regretted our decision. He ended up doing a horrible job on our deck and he had to demo the concrete THREE times in several areas because the finish didn’t match in various areas. Note to self: be wary of hiring the cheapest contractor – especially if their bid is way under others. Always get at least three bids when you’re doing a remodel and compare costs. 

In the end, needless to say, I learned an endless amount of valuable lessons. Throughout the entire build process, I doubted myself so many times and literally thought I was building the goofiest house of all time! But, my best advice is: always trust your gut! Everything turned out beautifully and I’m so happy we went this route. Now I’m suffering from withdrawal and need another home to remodel!

Design and Photos by Lisa Kanegae