Completing Home Renovations With A Visual Impairment

Like many Americans after all the extra time stuck in my home and at the height of the pandemic, I became really eager to do home renovations.

Easy DIY home renovations

Between all the cool social media “Do It Yourself” (DIY) projects and my inner faux Pinterest mom, I truly thought home renovations were as simple as the three-minute videos, with the cool background music, I saw on Instagram. That is the furthest thing from the truth—especially when it comes to DIYing with a visual impairment.

Not as simple as they look

I became frustrated and overwhelmed for several reasons during the process. First, it is easily overwhelming and therefore, requires a great deal of focus, concentration, and patience. 

In the beginning, I just wanted to put up decorations and change the paint. However, I soon realized that there were home repairs that needed to be addressed prior to me getting the rooms painted and hanging the cool artwork with the affirmative messages on it.

Making some changes

One huge repair was the roof—more specifically all three roof areas of my home. (Side bar, I had no idea that my home even had more than one roof until getting quotes). This meant that I had to dramatically slow down and pace myself, because roof repairs are costly.

Once the roofs were repaired, I began the process of renovating both my home office and my son’s bedroom. This is when the faux DIYer in me was at its climax. I was watching all kinds of videos about how to remove the panel on my walls myself in an effort to save money on the demolition work. It looked so easy on the YouTube videos and I had nothing but time... or so I thought.

Having the correct tools

What I didn’t realize was how important having the correct tools were. I had to go to the hardware store and ask for assistance on not only where to find certain tools, but exactly which tools I needed and how to correctly use them.

I am so grateful that I have a supportive village of people around me who get behind all of my big ideas. My cousin, Chevonne, went to the hardware store and purchased the materials we needed to remove the panel off the wall. I had been to a few stores prior, and could not find it.

Pro Tip #1: Don’t ever be afraid to ask for help. It feels uncomfortable at first but will save you lots of time in the end.

Getting help

Once the demo was done, I finally contacted contractors to remodel the room. It was insane to hear the variations in price quotes I received from each contractor.

Pro Tip #2: Always get more than one quote for a job.

I eventually hired a family friend to complete the job. The project took longer than expected because the labor occurred in a domino effect. You have to wait for one part to dry before completing the next; sometimes it would take several hours to dry, so he would have to come back the next morning.

Be ready for unforeseen challenges

Eventually, the room was completed and we got to the hanging part. I was so excited for this and admittedly thought it would be the simplest task, but boy was I wrong. I learned that there are many different types of command strips and nails that can only be used on certain items/materials and they all have different weight restrictions.

Once I had this sorted out, I tried to go to Walmart to pick up the items because I wanted the items the same day. However, between my local Walmart being unorganized and understocked, compounded with my visual impairment, I found it easier to just wait a few days and purchase online.

Adapting

I was now at the point where I had the supplies and, most importantly, the vision. However, I forgot one major part of home renovations: measuring the room and furniture. This lesson was learned the hard way after my son and I picked out this cool loft bed set to go with his space-themed room.

I forgot to factor in my son’s height in relation to the ceiling fan. As a result, I had to get the celling fan removed and replaced with a simple light fixture. As you can imagine taking down a celling fan is not for a beginner DIYer like me, which leads me to:

Pro Tip #3: Get creative with your search for resources and supports. For me this looked like utilizing a company I learned about called Handy. Turns out it is a resource where all you have to do is put in your need, and they will find someone in your area to address it. It turned out to be a great resource and I used it to get my son’s loft bed assembled and ceiling fan removed.

Not for the faint at heart

Moral of the story: DIYing is not for the faint at heart! It requires a great deal of time, patience, and determination, but is worth all the hard work in the end... at least that’s the way that "eye" see it.