As a Vancouver Realtor® the privilege of conducting business with a number of first time buyers is exciting. Through referral, some seek my experience, both as a Realtor® as well as someone who has survived the completion of two home renovations.

For the most part they are wonderful people who’s dreams and aspirations of completing their own home renovantions can turn into nightmares of personal disaster and financial ruin.

Virgins Don’t Listen

Photo Credit: Getty Images

They have visions. They imagine that they have the necessary skill sets to change a basic Vancouver home into a Vancouver castle by simply willing it to do so. Their understanding of wood frame construction,electrical and the mechanical elements of a home is often less than their ability to win the Lotto. At times they are seem deaf to ideas suggesting thoughts of reality and the high probability of failure. After all, how difficult can it be? It’s just sticks and nails?

Not the Entire Home

In discussion before and after first timers purchase a home, they are cautioned to think long and hard about their dreams what they would like to accomplish. They must plan each stage of getting the job done insuring that they lay the groundwork for those stages in each step of the total renovation.

They must budget for the increased expenses over and above their mortgage and determine how they will pay for those renovations beforehand being cautious to set aside funds for contingencies such as the inevitable surprises that accompany renovations.

Courtesy HGTV/small>

Finally, when ready, they must follow their plan and renovate one room at a time. Like good Scouts they must be prepared to adjust their plan for structural and mechanical surprises that crop up and ensure that they don’t forget to build in the ability to move to the next step. Above all, they must be realistic and not get suckered into believing that they are Holmes on Homes and will be able to finish the job in a 30 minute episode – by yourself it can take years.

Putting it Back Together is the Hard Part

Reality gets in the way of dreams as they hammer away thinking they are invincible to all the factors that collide to end as nothing more than a house torn apart.

Each of us know that it is easy to take things apart but, when you have little or no experience in putting it back together you have a large and expensive problem. When the project is a Vancouver home in which you are living while conducting a renovation, that problem becomes monumental when the stress of living in the mess becomes more than just a ‘simple reno’. It’s the calls I get that frantically ask ‘what do I do now, how do I deal with this’ or ‘do you know someone who can help and show me what to do’?

The truly sad call is the one from the partner asking if there is a way to ‘stop this’. That call is the sign of a much bigger home that is being torn down. That reno is beyond my scope as a Vancouver Realtor® and is one that rarely gets put back together.

A great number of homes in Kitsilano have masonry chimneys and fireplaces. These high functioning features of your home are ones that operate under extremes. Having your chimney/fireplace cleaned and inspected for problems by a qualified masonry expert every 1 to 2 years (how often do you use your fireplace), is a wise precaution.

Extreme Forces

Elements that affect the life of your chimney.

• Expansion and contraction due to freeze/thaw cycles
• Expansion of soluble salts – efflorescence
• Thermal expansion and contraction
• Expansion of rusting metal contiguous to the masonry units
• Painted masonry – moisture trapped in the masonry may not be able to escape
• Masonry “sealed” with an inappropriate sealer
• Effects of acid rain
• Failure to properly repair mortar joints (repointing) soon after initial mortar failure
• Using an incorrectly formulated repair mortar for repointing
• Failure to repoint
• Incompatible materials with differing physical characteristics contiguous to each other
• Imperfections in the masonry units (bricks)from the fabrication or manufacturing process
• Masonry units installed incorrectly – poor workmanship
• Poor detailing, design and specifications
• Wind erosion
• Biological growth – plant life
• Rising damp – the vertical migration of water through masonry by way of capillary action
• Splash back – water falling from the roof line, impacting the ground and splashing against the masonry
• Impact from vehicles etc. – YES this does happen.
• Settling
• Birds and mammals

List courtesy of Abstract Masonry Inc.

Got a Vancouver Real Estate question? I’ll do my best to answer it.