Jennifer Sheahan: These are the biggest home renovation mistakes to avoid

Save unnecessary expense and stress by learning from those who went (and spent) before you

Spending money on a sump pump has saved Jennifer from costly rain flooding damage during Storm Eowyn. Picture: Moya Nolan

There are many of you reading who will only ever renovate a home once (if ever). First-timers, bright-eyed and eager, armed with plenty of enthusiasm but little experience. 

Undertaking a renovation is hugely exciting but if you’re not at least a little daunted then you’re deluded. Renovations are hard work, fraught with the potential to go very expensively wrong.