">HomeOwnerNut

My pal Fred is a retired Air Force pilot and after buying property in scenic Port Townsend, WA, he asked me to help pour his driveway. I had never done work with forms before, but it was simple and straightforward, and it went swimmingly. It was a hot day and we were drenched with sweat by the time the concrete mixer arrived.

Fred positioned the chute directly over the forms and the driver cranked up the RPMs as the wet concrete began sliding down. I was leaning against the chute when an attractive woman passed along the street on her beach cruiser. I watched her head toward the bay as I leaned against the chute, pushing it out, aiming the torrent of freshly mixed concrete right on Fred’s lawn, building a statue of my incompetence three feet high before someone noticed what I had done.

Oddly enough, mis-pouring concrete did not make the lists of the most-common home improvement errors that I found on the Web.  Let’s look at ones that turned up the most:.

Mistake 1.  Start without making a practical budget.

Even if you don’t use the services of a contractor, it won’t hurt to show your plans to one to see if your time-and-materials costs are realistic. Planning 10-20 percent for overruns is a prudent way to work.

Mistake 2.  Over-personalizing.

Home Equity Interest.com brought this to light for me.  We have all seen the one home that looks like it’s an affront to the neighborhood. That may mean you have to downsize your plans for adding gargoyles or vampire bats to your trim work to complement the Transylvania black paint. Say goodbye to your house value.

Mistake 3. Not finishing what you start.

I had a neighbor that left the tarp over his unfinished small bath addition for 9 months. You could hear the tarp rattling in the wind and, eventually, someone went in and stole the sink and fixtures from under his nose.

Mistake 4. Ignoring your existing design or style.

Buzzle warns against putting a modern, stainless steel bath into a Victorian house. It’s a bad idea to pit your new, brilliant idea against the lasting historical value of your home.

Mistake 5. Creating near-felonious code violations.

Are you qualified to complete the job yourself? Do you know the codes and caveats for your neighborhood? Finally, are you capable of reconciling any code issues created by your handiwork? Hmmm. Take a deep breath and step away from the router.