Things That Went Wrong During Our Build Process

I get this question all the time.

So often, in fact, that I finally decided to put it all into a blog post — because it's a lot to type in a DM okay? Haha I have a lot to say!

I totally understand where the question comes from though. When you’re building a home, you want to prepare for everything. You want to be ahead of every possible curveball. But the honest truth? Some things are going to happen no matter how prepared you are.

And that’s okay.

So here are a few things that “went wrong” during our build — and I say that loosely. Looking back, they weren’t disasters… just inconveniences we had to work through. Hopefully sharing them helps you feel more prepared (or at least less alone) during your own build.

Framing delays.

Right out of the gate, our framing contractor was a few weeks late. At the time, it felt stressful — but the silver lining was that we suddenly had extra time to finalize a lot of the little details. Ceiling fans, trim styles, odds and ends we probably would’ve rushed otherwise. My husband was on top of everything and handled it like a champ.

That said… when it came time to lock in tile and flooring choices, I did feel rushed 😩. There was a timeline to stick to, and while I’m 100% happy with every decision we made (thankfully), I wouldn’t recommend cutting it that close if you can avoid it. I have a whole blog post about decision fatigue and how to avoid it here: How to Make Home Decisions Without Losing Your Mind.

Speaking of Tile...

One of our non-negotiables was heated tile in our master bathroom. When it came time for installation, our flooring guy kept telling us we’d have to wait — and wait some more — and gently pushed the idea of just doing the tile without the heat so we could move things along.

We almost caved.

But we held our ground… and my toes are forever grateful.

It delayed things slightly, but it was 100% worth it. If there’s one thing I learned, it’s this: when you’ve clearly defined a true non-negotiable, don’t let timeline pressure talk you out of it. You’ll forget the delay — but you’ll feel the regret every single cold morning.

Painting… three times. 🙃

Yes, you read that correctly. The entire interior of our house had to be painted three separate times. I won’t name the painter, but I also wouldn’t recommend them.

They eventually fixed it — but only after multiple uncomfortable conversations with their "customer service" team. I put that in quotes because I had never been spoken to so poorly as a paying customer in my life. They finally sent out a “paint specialist” who confirmed what we already knew: it was done incorrectly. Different paints were used. Multiple times.

To paint the picture (literally), you could see where they cut in along the ceilings like a visible water mark about three inches down in every room. For what we paid, there was no way we could live with that forever in our dream home. Also pretty sloppy hand throughout the whole house. These are things to look for when you're walking through at the end of the job too!! Photos below of examples of what we found. Be sure to TAKE THE PHOTOS!! Document it all. Never know when you'll need it.

The wrong countertops.

This one hurt a little. We chose a beautiful, luxurious countertop with marbling... and what was installed? White countertops. Plain. Stark. White. All over the kitchen.

A designer’s worst nightmare 😅

Thankfully, they did replace them with the correct ones, but it was still a frustrating (and avoidable) mistake for everyone involved. Here is the countertop we picked out vs what was eventually installed. Isn't it dreamy? 😍

Cabinets before flooring… or not.

Ideally, cabinets go in before flooring. Well, our cabinet maker was so far behind that we had to do the opposite. Not ideal, but sometimes you adjust and move forward.

On top of that, we moved into our house without cabinet fronts — for months. Also not ideal. But we decided we’d rather be living in our home and dealing with unfinished details than waiting to move in over cabinet doors.

No regrets. Just no guests until those were installed. 🤣

Six weeks without shower doors.

For six weeks, we showered in our master bathroom without shower doors while waiting on our custom ones. Was it inconvenient? Yes. Would I do it again? Also yes.

My angel of a husband made this dream bathroom happen for me, and I’d wait six more weeks if I had to. They are absolutely perfect. And this is a company I will happily recommend and share 🤗 Mod Glass

If there’s one takeaway here, it’s this: things will go “wrong” during a build. It doesn’t mean you failed, planned poorly, or made bad decisions. It just means you’re building a house, and building anything worth having takes flexibility, patience, and a sense of humor.

If you’re in the middle of a build and something feels overwhelming right now, just know it will pass. And one day, it’ll probably make for a great blog post too. 💛