Week 8 - Home Renovation Budget Reality: Delayed Cabinets, Rising Costs & DIY Progress

So, the moment you've all been waiting for... Drum roll, please!

My kitchen cabinets!

Which totally... didn't arrive this week. Womp, womp.

After spending the previous week racing to get everything ready for installation day, our kitchen cabinets were officially delayed.

Honestly, I couldn't even complain too much. This was during a time when seemingly everyone was renovating and COVID-related supply delays were everywhere. I knew people who had experienced some seriously frustrating setbacks, and this was really the first major delay we'd dealt with.

Proof that the bulkhead did eventually get finished

And as annoying as it was... It was actually kind of a blessing. Because the kitchen wasn't ready either.

The Kitchen Bulkhead That Would Never End

Remember the bulkhead? Of course you do. At this point, the bulkhead had basically become a main character in our renovation.

Dad spent several nights at the house working on it, but somehow the project just... Kept. Going.

It was the renovation equivalent of The Song That Never Ends.

We finally tackled the last of it on Sunday.

Gray stayed home with the girls while Mom, Dad and I headed to the house to finish what we could.

By the end of the day, the bulkhead was finally drywalled. FINALLY.

It still needed to be mudded, sanded and painted, and my contractor wasn't available until the following week.

So even if the cabinets were installed before that happened, we'd have to work around them. Not ideal. But at this point, "not ideal, but we'll make it work" was basically our renovation motto.

I Just Wanted ONE Finished Room

Sunday was also pretty much the only day I made it to the house that week.

Now that I'd finally completed the hand-painted flower wall in the girls' bedroom, I was determined to finish the rest of their room.

The mural when it was 90% complete. See the finished design here.

Not because it was the most urgent project. I just desperately wanted to be able to say: ONE room in this house is 100% finished.

Was that too much to ask? Apparently.

I cleaned everything up and took measurements so we could start cutting and installing the trim.

The closet, however, still needed... Something.

What exactly? Excellent question.

Every time Dad explained it to me, I got a little lost. The important part was that whatever needed to happen had to happen before the closet doors could be installed.

And the closet doors needed to go in before the trim. Therefore... Still not finished.

Apparently I'm Not Allowed to Use Power Tools

I was also beginning to suspect this closet issue was an elaborate scheme to keep me away from the saw. Dad was extremely adamant that I would not be using the power tools.

It looks like we should be able to finish it soon... hopefully.

Which I appreciated. Kind of. But I wasn't a little girl anymore. I was perfectly capable of operating a saw.

You know... As long as someone explained exactly how to use it first... and gave me several pieces of scrap wood to practise on.

Minor details.

I really wanted to be more physically involved in the renovation. At times it felt like my primary contributions were designing increasingly complicated projects for everyone else to build and then walking around asking when they'd be done.

I'd like the record to show that I also vacuumed. A lot.

I'd hired a painter, so apparently I'd also outsourced one of the few renovation tasks everyone actually trusted me to do. Maybe I hadn't thought that through.

Our Questionable DIY Ceiling Repair

One of the other projects that week was technically small... It just involved a very large piece of drywall.

One thing I'd been extremely grateful for when we bought this house was that most of the walls were already drywall. After dealing with ceiling drywall during our previous renovation, I knew exactly how much of a pain it could be.

We'd used a drywall lift before. This time, Dad and Gray decided it wasn't worth getting one for a single piece.

We needed to patch the section of ceiling where we'd removed the old kitchen wall.

So what followed was a very... Let's call it creative... DIY method of getting a giant sheet of drywall onto the ceiling without a lift.

Was it the method I'd recommend in a professional DIY tutorial? Probably not.

Did the drywall eventually end up on the ceiling? Yes.

We'll call it a win.

The Home Renovation Budget Reality Check

Then came the less entertaining realization of the week. We were going to be significantly over our home renovation budget.

Not a little. Enough that I was starting to get nervous.

I'd originally based the renovation budget on what I'd actually spent renovating Pearl Street. That seemed logical.

I'd already renovated a house, so I had real numbers to work from instead of pulling an estimate out of thin air.

What I hadn't adequately accounted for was how dramatically material prices had increased. Everything cost more.

And any wiggle room I'd built into the renovation budget disappeared quickly. Then there were the unexpected expenses.

Over budget or not, you can't tell me having an ensuite won't increase the value of the house... right?

The basement leak certainly hadn't been in the spreadsheet. Neither was tearing out and replacing insulation and drywall because of it.

And the ensuite? Well... That one was admittedly my fault.

Some Renovation Expenses Just Can't Be Cut

There are plenty of things you can remove from a renovation budget when costs start climbing.

Decor can wait.

You can choose less expensive finishes.

You can reuse materials.

You can buy secondhand.

You can postpone the deck you've decided you absolutely do not want to sand.

But eventually you reach projects that simply have to happen. I couldn't exactly say:

"Countertops are expensive, so I guess we just won't have any."

We couldn't leave insulation exposed.

We couldn't ignore a basement water problem.

Plumbing and electrical needed to be finished properly.

Suddenly, "going over budget" wasn't just because I'd chosen prettier finishes or added unnecessary projects.

Some of it was the reality of discovering what the house actually needed once we started opening things up. Was I accepting applications for free labour? Absolutely... Kidding. Mostly.

Renovating While Also Being a Parent

The other reason we didn't accomplish much at the house this week was much less dramatic: Life.

Most of my week disappeared into adulting and parenting. While we were living at Mom's, I constantly felt like I was playing catch-up.

I was trying to keep our current living space functional while simultaneously packing for a house we weren't ready to move into. Packing wasn't going particularly well.

I did manage to put away a bunch of baby items Raiyah had outgrown, so I'm counting that.

Then there was the great stroller situation because I somehow forgot to load our old one up after a park trip and someone stole it before I realized and went back for it the next morning. 💀

I needed a new one and ended up finding another stroller on Facebook Marketplace, which meant a trip to Oakville to get one that was actually affordable and still worked with our portable carseat.

Add in a trip to the zoo... because summer was almost over and I really wanted to take the girls.

And three failed days of potty training...

And somehow another week disappeared.

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Our trip to the zoo

It's easy to look at a renovation timeline and wonder: "Why didn't we get more done?"

Then you remember that you're renovating around jobs, kids, errands, appointments, meals, laundry and everything else that doesn't magically stop because you bought a fixer-upper.

Looking Back at Week Eight

This week didn't go remotely according to plan.

The kitchen cabinets didn't arrive.

The girls' room still wasn't finished.

The bulkhead took approximately seventeen years to complete.

And our home renovation budget was officially heading in the wrong direction.

Despite the delays and setbacks, I was incredibly excited about what would happen once those kitchen cabinets finally arrived.

Cabinet installation would unlock another major stage of the renovation. Once the cabinets were installed, we could have the countertops measured and ordered.

Once we had countertops, we'd be significantly closer to having a functional kitchen, and once the kitchen was functional... Moving into the house would suddenly feel much more realistic.

The main floor was getting closer and closer to completion, with the ensuite being one of the biggest projects still hanging over us.

After weeks of demolition, cleaning, structural surprises, flooring, electrical work and endless decisions... I could almost see the light at the end of the tunnel. Almost.

Follow Our DIY Home Renovation From the Beginning

Want to see how this renovation unfolded week by week? Catch up on the full story below—from getting the keys and tackling smoke damage to kitchen surprises, flooring, trim work, and finally seeing the house start to feel like home.

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Weeks 10-13 

Missed all the before photos? Check out the blog post Semi Excited to see our starting point.

Whether you're planning your own DIY home renovation or just love a good before-and-after story, there's plenty more renovation chaos, lessons learned, budget decisions, and progress to come.

Frequently Asked Questions About Home Renovation Budgets?

How much should you budget for unexpected renovation costs?

Unexpected expenses are common during renovations, particularly when you're working on an older home where problems may not be visible until demolition begins. Our house wasn't particularly old (30 years) but even newer houses that aren't maintained well can have surprisng issues.

Our original budget was based on a previous renovation, but material price increases, water damage and additional projects quickly used up the flexibility we'd built in. It's hard to put an exact figure on unexpected costs because it can very drastcally but I would say you should allocate an additional 15-20% of your total renovation budget to unexpected costs.

Why do home renovations go over budget?

Our home renovation budget increased for several reasons: rising material prices, unexpected repairs, changes to the original scope and additional projects like our ensuite. Even when we tried to save on finishes and DIY labour, some essential expenses simply couldn't be eliminated.

What should you cut when a renovation goes over budget?

We prioritized essential work like electrical, plumbing, insulation and repairing water problems. They aren't the things you want to spend money on, but they are the things that are harder to go back and do later without incurring additional expenses to remove and replace drywall etc. Cosmetic projects and upgrades were easier to postpone, simplify or replace with less expensive alternatives.

How do renovation delays affect the budget?

Delays can affect both your timeline and potentially your costs, particularly when multiple projects depend on one another. Our cabinet delay actually gave us extra time to finish preparing the kitchen, but other delays kept projects from reaching the stage where we could consider them complete.

How can you save money during a home renovation?

We saved money by doing some work ourselves, reusing existing materials, shopping at Habitat for Humanity, buying items through Facebook Marketplace and postponing non-essential projects. Those savings helped offset some of the unexpected expenses elsewhere in the renovation.