Oh, believe me, I've been there and doing that now. I don't exactly have a missing roof, but will have to do work on the main support beam which has slipped down and is now poking through my ceiling. That work will come after the current projects are finished. Part of my problem is like you I want it to look great, especially after we spend so much money doing it.

My best advice, which will be hard, is to have faith in yourself and the choices made during the process. Oddly enough, it is usually our first choices on things that end up being the best one. And, I think that's because going into the projects, we know what we want, but then when we start 2nd, 3rd, and double guessing ourselves, we become doubtful. We start seeing more choices all of a sudden, and it seems to get harder. I have gone through so many "I think I changed my mind," that my poor husband is about to lose HIS mind. I don't know if that helps you, but good luck.

Thanks Hardin, you are right and my husband is about to lose his mind too. I go to these little meetings for electrical, plumbing, etc. - they look at me for confirmation of what is going here and there and all these
specific things and I just have a hard time giving them exactly what they need because of one reason or another. I was so amazed at the fixture prices when I received the quote from a bath/shower store. I am now going to plan B because I do not feel like spending 15 K on fixtures. I just about died when I read that e-mail quote. I guess I am lucky that we are renting a tiny apt. until the construction is finished. Otherwise I think we would both shoot each other. Good luck to you

And good luck to you. Keep the faith and trust yourself. I bet you are doing just fine. It is sometimes the details that will kill you, but when its finished, it will be a job done beautifully.

Kellydath, when you say "roof removed" I hope you mean ceiling becaue a roof is something that has to be replaced, like, right now. Unless your in the desert or something.

Anyway, on you indecisiveness, I more that understand. In a nutshell, I think it's primarily because of the financial scope of the work and the long-term nature of the changes. The bare truth is there are a lot more decisions that go into a remodel than you probably anticipated when you started.

All I can suggest is try to get plenty of "think time" (and hopefully not while you're trying to sleep) for sorting out all of the options you have and the probable effect on your life when they're done. Making decisions while contractors are breathing down your neck is probably not the best way, although some of this is inevitable, of course ("we can't do it that way, how about this or this, which one will it be")

And keep in mind the most important decisions are those that are hardest to change later, e.g. where a wall goes versus the correct shade of "morning mist" to paint it.

Keep you head up and mind clear and just keep on ridin'!

You sound exactly like me... I am four months into our renovations and I think and re-think everything. Our roof has already been replaced, a second story added, new staircase, 4 bathrooms, new kitchen... I had about 20 light fixtures to buy and I have returned about 10 of them because I changed my mind. I changed the kitchen about 5 times, if not more. I still look at the finished product and think, does that look good?? Could it look better?? Should I have picked different siding?? Is that light fixture to small?? Is it too contempory?? etc, etc, etc.

I went through a ton of books, which really helped, and decided on one style for the house... Clean white trim, dark hardwoods, white shaker style kitchen, marble & white subway tile in bathrooms. I think it helps me to have a general plan so that the house flows.

It is really hard to make so many decisions in a very short time but I think it is completely normal to second guess yourself. It sometimes helps to get a second opinion (my mom helps me and doesn't feel bad telling me when something looks terrible).

Good luck with your renovation!

Robin

I'm still second-guessing and I have been in my project for six years now. I have been methodically remodeling rooms in a 2000sq.ft. house. Some tips I have: be sure things like tile, sheetrock texture, windows, and counter surfaces are timeless so they won't go out of style in a few years. These items are difficult to replace and may make it tough to sell your house some day. Paint color choices can easily be fixed as can most lighting fixtures. Don't worry if you don't get them right the first time. I worried and muddled over some wall paint I wanted to use to freshen up the walls the previous homeowner had painted. I finally picked out a nice eggshell color and began applying it. It turned out to be exactly the same color as the existing walls. I have chosen to install new can lighting in some areas but I'm just using temporary lighting for other fixtures until other work is done. I hope to find sales on more expensive lighting and by then I'll also be able to select the style that best fits the finished room.

Having a style to stick to helps. Making all your fixture decisions up front is a good idea too, but it's too late for that now. (We didn't do it either.)

I hate our kitchen floor and it's still there after 5 years. Someday I'll change it but in the scheme of things, the kitchen floor isn't making me happy or unhappy. Most of the time I don't even notice it. I work with a contractor friend sometimes and I see people agonize over things I know they'll never give a second thought to once the project is done. Happiness comes from elsewhere. At least I try to live by that - course, it doesn't always go that way.

Makes me think of the US government having to make decisions. Or CEO's. They just make them and if they turn out wrong, they try again.

Try to enjoy it. Deep breaths are good.

Second guessing is second nature when you're spending a lot of money. The whole remodeling process is very stressful! Forgive yourself for finding it unpleasant at times.

We were forced into a major remodel by a fire. While we knew we'd need to update when we bought our 1956 ranch five years ago, we were nowhere near ready to do it. In our last house we thought about the kitchen remodel for SEVEN YEARS before we finally got to work. Once it was done, we were very happy, and during the work it didn't seem so bad. I think that's because we'd thought so very hard about every detail.

In our current situation, I anticipate a lot of buyer's remorse. Remodeling an entire house is just too much to do all at once, at least for us. My take-home lesson from my experience is that I will never be able to build a dream home with my husband, unless I plan on using that to break up our marriage.

Here is just a brief glimpse into our daily life. Our house is currently gutted down to framing. The new roof is about 2/3 done. The new ceilings are about half framed. We have one interior room that is going to get an 11' ceiling (!!). The framer did it wrong and put it at 10'. He showed it my husband and said "what do you think?"

Instead of saying, no, that's not right, my husband told him "hmmm, looks pretty high! I'll talk to my wife and see what she says."

He reported this to me last night at 5. I was baffled as to how he could not just tell the framer to do it right. Changing the ceiling height dominoes into a bunch of other decisions, none of which my husband thought of.

sigh. So I went over to the house and looked at the new framing. 10' is high, but 11' is what we planned and what we wanted. So I thanked the framer for bringing it up and asked him to redo it. Which he gladly agreed to. ARGH!

Every day we go through something like this. It is not fun. I'm looking forward to June when I can break out the vodka in my new house and toast the end of this part of my life! It's great advice above to accept that some of your decisions won't be right, but you can always go back and change it.