Hi guys. Welcome back to my channel. In today's video, I'm going to be sharing with you the
worst home improvements that we've made to our house, or things that we slightly regret.
And if we could go back in time, we would change. We've been in this house for nearly
10 years and we have completely renovated it. And it's fair to say. We have learned
a lot along the way. There's loads of things that we've definitely got right. There's a
few things we've got wrong. So two weeks ago, I made a video about the best home improvements
that we've done on this house. If you haven't seen that video, I will link it in the description
and you can check it out. But in the comments on that video so many of you guys requested
that I make a video about the worst things that we've done.
So here it is, and let's get into it. So my biggest home improvement regrets on this house
is not moving our porch, or repositioning it. As soon as you walk in the front door,
you are like straight into the living room and it's a really big room. But now that we
have extended the back of our house, we tend to never use it. So at the moment, it's like
a random office-cum-adult-sitting room, but what we should have done is repositioned the
porch, over here. We should have put the front door and the porch here, and then we would
have had a hallway that you would have walked into the hallway. And then the stairs would
be in the perfect position. They wouldn't like randomly be through the room. And then
this could be an actual snug, or adult sitting room. So, that is my biggest regret. I think
we could have actually had a usable hallway. You could have walked in the front door, you
could've hung up your coat, had a nice little hallway going up the stairs and had another
living room. So I massively regret that. And while we're talking about the porch and
other huge regrets and waste of money, is when we first bought this house, we bought
a really beautiful, solid wood door. It looked great. And then Matt painted it the color
that we wanted, but throughout the seasons in the UK, it would swell in the winter and
then it would shrink in the summer. So in the winter, we couldn't even open the door.
I remember I would have to put the baby car seat down to then like karate kick the door
in so that we could get in. Then we'd have to get a carpenter out to shave it, to make
it smaller. But then in the summer there would be a gap. It was just a nightmare. So now
we have a composite door which did cost more money, but it has been the best investment
and probably the best thing we've done for our marriage.
Another big regret is not installing a hot tap in our kitchen when we had it done. You
can basically get a little tap, which has instant boiling water. But when we were doing
the work, it just felt like such a luxury and an extra expense, but now having done
some research, it actually works out more economical. And every time I make pasta or
vegetables or tea or coffee, now, I think we should have done it. But at the time it
just felt like such a lot of money, but we're definitely planning on getting one in our
new house. So I would actually love to know in the comments, if you have one and if you're
really pleased with it. We have these huge bi-folding doors in our
living area. And that's one of the best things that we did. But if we could go back in time
and do it again, we would change the doors slightly. When the kids want to get outside
to open the doors, you have to unlock it and then pull this up and then push these two
big doors out. And you can actually get bi-folds where just this door here would open out.
And it would have been so much easier for the kids, because we always have to help them
with it. And it's just a bit of a struggle for them to do it. And they're in and out
of the garden so often, I wish that we had had this as just one door that opened out.
This next one's a bit controversial because in the video that I made about the best home
improvements that we made, I said that choosing composite decking, it was one of the best
things that we did and it is, but we wish that we had less of it now. When we designed
the garden, we had very small babies and we wanted them to be able to walk out onto the
same level as the house. And it has been brilliant for that. And we also thought we might have
a table in this area, but we actually have the table on the other side. And now that
our boys are older and they're obsessed with football, we wish that we had less deck and
more garden. So if we could go back in time, we would redesign the deck.
I'm not sure about this angle, but I really wanted to talk about the built-in speakers
that we did to this room. When we extended our home, we spent some money having some
built-in speakers and an amp so that we would have surround sound when we're watching TV.
But now TVs are so good. They come with amazing soundbars and you can also buy really good
speakers. And now that we're moving house, we can't take this with us. And it was actually
a bit unnecessary. The next one, isn't a huge regret, but it
is something to bear in mind. When we redid some of the rooms in our house, we thought
we were being really forward thinking by having USB chargers installed in the rooms. And they've
been great. They charge most things fine. But now that we have the latest iPhone, Eleven's
the power is actually not strong enough to charge our phones. So it's just slightly annoying
because obviously as technology is improving, it's actually getting too good for like the
USB charger thingies. So yeah, just something to think about.
Another big regret is not having underfloor heating installed in our en suite bathroom.
This was one of the first rooms that we redid about eight or nine years ago. And it just
felt like such a big expense to do under floor heating that every morning when you walk into
this room it is freezing because it's above our garage. So it is really, really cold.
And I wish that we had done under floor heating. Something I wouldn't waste your money on is
day and night blinds. Although I love the way that they look and it gives you a little
bit of privacy. They don't really go day to night when you close them, it's still pretty
light. So after having them installed, we then also needed to pay, to have blackout
blinds installed, to make the rooms really dark enough for young children. So if you're
looking for that darkness in a bedroom for kids, definitely don't get these.
Something else that we really regret is having a tap like this that comes out so far. I have
three boys bath in here, and twice they have hurt their backs on this tap, especially because
there's three of them and they really do fill it up. If you stand up near the tap, it will
scratch them on the back. And I just so wish that we got one that was either flat, bath
tub, or just didn't come out so much. And the last regret that I wanted to share
with you is having white grouting on our bathroom floor. So we have these really cute white
tiles and we decided to go with white grouting as well. But I can never get it as clean as
I want to. And I wish we had gone with gray grouting. I have tried gadgets. You've probably
seen me cleaning it in my cleaning videos. We've tried bleach, we've tried baking soda.
We've tried so many things and although they do get them cleaner, it's not like as white
as I really want it to be. So if we could go back in time, I would get gray.
Right so that was it for this video. Those are all the regrets that I wanted to share
with you. I really hope this has given you some food for thought, especially if you're
currently renovating. And I would also love to know in the comments, any regrets that
you guys have, because as you know, we're about to move house and it is a bit of a project
as well. So I would really be interested to hear. But yeah, thank you so much for watching
and I'll see you in my next one. Bye guys.