Sometimes we start out doing one simple home improvement project. However, the simple project leads to having to do more projects to fix the damage of the first one. When it comes to plumbing and electrical projects it is sometime best to leave it to the professionals. Here is a story to prove my point.

A couple lived in a doublewide mobile home. It had a tiny shower that a person could barely turn around in and a garden tub that was never used. They decided to replace the tub and shower with a new corner shower. To install the new shower they had to cut off the water lines to the tub and connect new ones for the shower.

The water had been shut off during the remodeling. The husband got to work and several hours later he came out and told his wife he was done. He had a golf game to get to so he told his wife it was all done and she could turn the water back on whenever she wanted to.

The wife went outside and turned the water back on and proceeded to work in her garden for a little while. It was about an hour before she went back inside. When she open the door she saw water running down the hallway. The bedroom carpet was already soaked and the water was heading to the other rooms.

She quickly turned off the water and went back in to see how bad the damage was. Her husband had forgotten to cap off the lines that went to the garden tub. When he returned she was busy wiping and mopping up water. The project ended up costing them a whole lot more than expected. They ended up having to replace the carpet and the tile in the bathroom area. Needless to say, the husband was in the dog house for a long time and banned from further home improvements.

Home improvements are a good way to save money and give you a since of pride. On the other hand, if you are not experienced or organized your do it yourself project could become a disaster. Before starting any type of project you should make sure you have the proper tools and keep safety in mind at all times. Even people who are experienced at doing home repairs sometimes forget the obvious.

A man was going to install a roof vent on his two story home. He had got everything ready and had put up his extended twenty four foot ladder. He hauled up everything necessary to get the job done, including extension cords, tools and power saw. He proceeded to start cutting the hole for the roof vent. As he started sawing, the wind came up and he heard a sound that made a feeling of dread come over him. The sound he had heard was the extension ladder sliding along the gutter and banging to the ground 20 feet below him.

He stood there pondering his situation. Nobody else was home at that moment and his cell phone was lying on the kitchen table. There was nothing close to drop or climb down on so he decided to finish what he had started and luckily someone will come by. He finished the project and was standing on the roof top deciding what his next step might be.

Fortunately at this moment, his next door neighbor came home and uprighted the ladder for him to climb down on. Thankfully, he was not injured, but was very embarrassed. He did say that he learned some valuable lessons from the experience. He learned to always remember to secure a ladder when working on a roof and to remember to take you phone with you when you do a project.

Many people take on what seems to be a simple project and end up finding out they were mistaken. Sometimes a project seems to be going great but the end results turn out wrong. There are two common things that make a home improvement become a mishap. These things included not planning ahead and not thoroughly reading the instructions. Here is an example to prove my point.

A man had bought a new chrome shower and tub faucet combination kit to replace an old one. Taking off the old one and replacing it with the new one went smoothly. This was because there was a access panel in a bathroom closet behind the shower. He made sure everything was connected properly and was ready to give it a test run.

When he did the test run only a very small amount of water came out of the shower head. It didn’t matter how high he turned up the faucets only a trickle of water came out of the shower. The tub spout had good pressure. He then decided it was a faulty showerhead and took it back to the home improvement store for a replacement.

He returned home with the second one and proceeded to install it. When he did a test run again he got the same results. Frustrated he remove the shower and tub faucets for the third time. When he took it out this time, he realized that there was a small piece of plastic lodged into the shower head.

He removed the plug and reinstalled everything. It worked perfectly with pressure to spare. Now he could have saved a lot of wasted time and money if he would have just read the instructions in the first place. So just remember this little story when you take on this type of project.

Major home improvement projects are better left to the professionals. If you do decide to take on a major project yourself make sure you have it planned out carefully. You have to know what is involved in getting the task done correctly and without causing more work for yourself. The story below illustrates my point.

A couple had just moved into their first home, which was a newly constructed house. The husband was eager to begin doing a variety of home improvement projects. His father was a carpenter and he had helped his dad some over the years; so he felt confident in taking on any type of project. One of the biggest problems was that he sometimes would quickly start a project without thinking it completely through.

The man decided that he was going to dig trenches so he could bury drain tiles so the rain would flow away from the home. He thought this was the perfect time to do this since the lawn had not been put in yet. His neighbor had a rented trench digger and told the man he could borrow it but it had to be returned that same day.

So the man quickly started doing his trenches with the machine. He had finished the first fifty foot trench and was about half way through the second one. He was looking back at his handy work and noticed something black dangling in the trench. He went over to investigate and found out it was a cable.

He went inside, and sure enough his house phone was dead. He then went outside and decided to take a closer look at the first trench. Sure enough, he had cut the phone cable in that one too. He finished up his trenches and returned the machine to his neighbor. His next step was to call the phone company to come out and repair his mistake. So just remember before rushing into a project be sure to think it through first.

Sometimes the smallest things can have the biggest repercussions. Sometimes when a person thinks they are doing something good it can backfire on them. The story below is a good illustration.

A husband had pulled out the built in range in his kitchen. When he did, he noticed that there was a loose piece of paneling on the wall behind the range. He thought since he had the range pulled out he would go ahead and screw the panel back in place. He didn’t have any finishing nails so he used long wood screws. He figured no one would see it anyway once the range was back in place.

He was tapping the wall to find a stud to use to fasten the panel back in place. The entire wall sounded pretty solid so he proceeded to put in several screws to hold it into place. He then put the range back and didn’t think about it again.

I wasn’t until around Thanksgiving time when his wife was getting things ready for the family gathering. On the other side of the kitchen wall is the dining room. The wife has a china cabinet that she moves to another place for gatherings to make more room.

She tried moving the cabinet but it would not budge. On closer inspection she saw the screws sticking through the back of the cabinet. She proceeded to confront her husband. Unintentionally, when he was fixing the loose panel he had screwed right through the china cabinet.

Fortunately, no one was hurt by this little mishap. However, it did end up costing the husband more than he bargained for. He ended up having to buy his wife a new china cabinet to pacify her. He also had to hear this story told over and over again at each family function. This just goes to show that before attempting to screw something into the wall, you should take a glance at what might be on the other side.

The simplest home improvement project can turn into a major disaster. Some jobs and repairs are better left to the professionals. On the other hand, major home renovations should definitely be left to the professionals. The story below illustrates my point.

A man was turning his attic into a spare bedroom. In his garage he had some double paned glass panels that he had got from somewhere. He decided it would be really nice to put one of these windows in the new room.

He proceeded to cut a very large hole in the front of his house to put the window in it. The staircase leading to the attic was a winding one. The man managed to get the window pane stuck in the staircase so it would not budge. He ended up breaking the glass to get it out of his house.

His next brilliant plan was to pull it up the side of the house over a front porch and then up to the second story where the huge hole was waiting for the window. This idea was not the best and he ended up breaking two more glass window panels.

He had acquired cuts and scratches from having to pick up so much glass. He still had one window panel left in his garage. He was ready to give it one more try and his wife put her foot down. She said that was enough damage to last her a lifetime.

She immediately called in a professional and had them come out and see what could be done. The home improvement project ended up costing much more than anyone could imagine. Not only did they have to have someone put in the window. They also found out in the process that the rest of the room was not up to code. This little home improvement project turned into a big expensive disaster.

Most people nowadays are leaning towards doing home improvement projects on their own without using an experienced professional. Projects that involve painting seem to be the favorite projects to do on your own. Painting sounds simple enough and most people assume that anyone can paint a room. However, this is not always the case and tackling a paint job on your own could actually cost you a lot more in the long run.

A woman was using a paint spray machine to paint the inside of her apartment before she moved her furniture into it. She was going along and pulling the hose with her and going from room to room. As she went around the corner of the bedroom the hose got stuck and she yanked hard on it and it came loose.

She continued on her painting quest and about twenty minutes later she was done with the spraying. She returned to the other room to start cleaning up. As she walked into the space she saw what her hose had got stuck on. It was a five gallon bucket of paint that she had yanked over when the hose became stuck.

The bucket of paint didn’t have the lid on it so when it fell it proceeded to spill all over the living room carpet. She tried cleaning up the mess but it just made it worse and she ended up having a bigger mess then when she started. She finally gave up and went and found a professional who could clean up the mess. The whole ordeal ended up costing her a lot more than the rental of the paint sprayer and the bucket of paint she bought.

She learned her lesson and from now on she will hire someone who knows what they are doing to paint her rooms.

Home Improvement shows can give you some helpful hints and creative ideas to do around your home. On the other hand, they make complicated home improvements that should actually be left to the professionals look simple and easy. Below is a story to illustrate my point.

A man with no roofing experience or any real home improvement skills had seen a show on TV that showed how to make a man hole in your roof. The project seemed simple enough and that way he would have easy access to his flat roof.

He proceeded to cut out the roofing paper to expose the sheeting. Then he marked out the measurements for the roof opening to go between the roof joists. He was then going to cut and remove the wood so he would have an opening and then he was going to seal it with a top.

At this point he is feeling pretty confident. He then proceeds to cut out the square opening with a circular saw. He then tried to pry up the plywood sheeting. He wasn’t having any success because the cut was made to tight along the joist.

His next brilliant idea was to jump on it to loosen it up. The next thing he remembers is waking up in the first floor hallway surrounded by broken drywall. He was shaken up and a little bruised up but was not seriously hurt. However, a few minutes later he wished he had been unconscious when his wife opened the door and seen the mess his “simple” home improvement project had caused.

It is a miracle that the man in the above story was not seriously injured. This home improvement project started out simple enough but ended up costing a lot of money to have a professional repair the damage. He has learned a valuable lesson and he has also sworn off do it yourself TV shows.

Sometimes what gets a do it yourselfer in trouble is not thinking ahead and planning out their projects. Most people are so excited about seeing the finished project that they hurry and are not as careful as they should be.

A couple had bought a home that had original flooring and had it restored. They had sanded the floor down and applied three coats of poly finish. After that was completed they decided since the room was already empty they would go ahead and paint the room.

The couple proceeded to paint the walls and the ceiling. They were so excited about getting the room done and decorated that they had not covered up the hardwood floors properly. When they had the room painted they looked around to admire their work and realized they had not been too neat.

The newly finished hardwood floors had paint on it in several places. The husband assured his wife that there were cleaners that would take the paint right up. He proceeded to go to their local home improvement store and came home with several different products. The couple then started cleaning off the paint and every place they removed paint it would dull the finish on the floors.

They kept on cleaning up the paint spills until they had them all up. They hadn’t realized just how many paint spots there had been until they looked at the floor once the paint was removed. It looked like their floor had the measles or was a spotted leopard coat.

The couple decided it was time to call in a professional to find out what could be done. The professional floor finisher came in and repaired their work, but it was not a cheap process. This story is to illustrate that planning ahead and taking your time is very important. If they had used common sense they would have painted first and then did the floors. Hopefully, they learned a valuable, but costly lesson.

There are many things that can go wrong when you are attempting to do a home improvement project on your own. There are minor things and then there are major things, which could lead to more problems than you ever imagined. Even the simplest project like putting up shelves can lead to more than you bargained for. Below you will find a couple of stories on how NOT to put up shelving.

A man was going to put up shelving on the wall in his home office. He started to put up the brackets and was using his power drill with a screwdriver attachment to screw in the screws. All of a sudden he hit something that seemed pretty solid. He assumed it was a stud and put more pressure on the drill.

The drill dug in and bored through the solid object. Well, it didn’t take the man very long to figure out what had been in his way. His first clue was when the wall started to become wet from the hole he had just drilled through the water pipe.

A man was putting up shelving for his wife in her craft room. She planned on storing heavy things on the shelves so he wanted to make sure that he found the studs. His wife was standing in the doorway with her stud finder for him to use.

He said he would do it the old fashion way and proceeded to tap the wall with a hammer. He was getting frustrated because he wasn’t finding the stud. He started tapping the wall a little harder. He must have not realized how hard he was tapping. Because, all of a sudden his hammer slammed on the wall and he ended up making a pretty good size hole in the drywall.

Hopefully, the next time you are putting up shelving you will remember these stories and not make the same mistakes they did.