Things I've learned from working on a fixer upper

1. Don't take little things for granted. 
Like baseboards. They're so important. Not to mention ridiculously expensive for hunks of wood, or foam. I never appreciated baseboards at all until we moved in, tore out all of the nasty ones, and still haven't gotten around to replacing them, because there has always been something a little higher on the priority list. But I miss them.

2. Don't buy foam molding.
It's garbage. Unless you expect to glue it in, never touch it, never have anything else touch it, and never take it out. Then you might consider it.

3. Things almost always cost more than you think they will.
There are always other things that pop up. You can't just buy flooring, and put it in. Don't forget that you'll need to pay for trips to the dump for the old flooring, sandpaper to smooth out the sub floor, cleaner because the sub floor is kind of gross, patches for the holes in the sub floor, more sandpaper, spacers, underlayment, and wait...you actually need that silly little tool meant for putting in this flooring? A hammer and block of wood won't work? Drat...
There is, occasionally, an exception, when you think it's going to cost a lot and it doesn't. For me, that's like Christmas coming early.

4. Something will probably run out before you're done.
I learned that I have almost - almost - unlimited amounts of energy for fixing-up projects. A lot of people told me how quickly I was going to get sick of fixing up my house. Nope, I'm not sick of it at all. I can spends hours upon days upon weeks of fixing up and just love it. Only problem is, I need unlimited money, too. So I doubt I'll ever find where my stopping point is, because my money always runs out before my energy.

5. Having the correct tools is very helpful.
That might seem obvious, but how many times have you tried to work on something and thought 'Oh, I can make this do...maybe if I just shove the screwdriver in there a certain way it'll work....' Okay, I don't know - maybe you've never thought that, and you always go to the store and buy exactly what you need, but I don't. I try to make things work with what I have, and a lot of times, that only ends up costing me more time and I have to buy the tool anyway! Sometimes I even have to spend more money than I originally would have, because I mess it up. Those are the really sad times.

6. One trip to to the store while working on a project is never enough.
I always end up going back several times for more of something, or to grab something I forgot. I'm SO lucky that Lowe's is about 3 blocks away from our house. With the way I plan things, I would never get anything done if I had a long drive. I bet my mom plans better than I do, because she lives 30 miles away.

7. Gray is a difficult paint color to choose.
I painted our bedroom three times before I finally settled on a gray I really liked.

8. Don't be scared.
My parents hammered into my head many times to pick a very, very light color for walls. Something that is just barely the color you want, because it always looks darker on the wall. Now there is certainly nothing wrong with light colors. Absolutely not. Many people will give you this advice.
As I picked colors for my house, I brought home lots of very light color samples. I soon found that I really preferred more intense colors. I don't like it to be just barely not white. I believe every single paint sample I brought home, I ended up going a shade or two darker. I wanted a BLUE living room, not a barely-not-white living room.

9.  Sometimes, you really just have to hire a professional.
No matter how handy you are (or think you are), sometimes it has to happen.