About six months after moving into this house, I noticed that scotch tape was holding up the heating/AC register to the wall in one of the bathrooms. No screws – just scotch tape. This isn’t a typo. The register was attached to the wall with scotch tape. Tape.
Now, this bathroom wall was tiled, and after further inspection, I saw that the tiles had cracked where someone had attempted to screw the register to the wall, and failed. And, rather than replace the tiles and figure out how to properly screw into the tiles without breaking them, this person clearly said “I give up – where do we keep the gift wrap supplies?”
What’s my point? I don’t know if I have one. All I know is that, 10 years into renovations, I keep thinking back to that moment when I realized how easy it is to half-ass something. And trust me, especially when you’re first getting the hang of things, it’s easy to want to take the easy road at 3 a.m. when your eyes begin to cross and you start to think the nail gun is talking about you behind your back. But I pray that years from now when the next owners are here they’re not scratching their heads and telling the internet about something we did.
