Looking back on our ongoing home renovation adventures, it's hard to believe where we've been, where we are now, and where we're planning to go. No, I'm not talking about a literal movement of location, more of a maturation process that we have both gone through during this eye opening, challenging, difficult, but ultimately rewarding process.

Wendy on day one, 15 minutes after settlement on the house.

Did I say "rewarding?" Absolutely, but the fresh faced kid versions of us who bought this house in 2003 with barely two pennies to rub together after their first mortgage payment simply didn't have a clue of what lay ahead. Honestly, how could they have, they'd never lived through what we have lived through. They didn't get it, their friends didn't get it, and their family didn't get it.

Move in day, 2003, with my parents and our friends Mary and Michael

Today, many of our friends get it, some of our family gets it, and only a handful of strangers can understand why we put ourselves through this grind.

Now more than eight years later, we're older, more experienced, and on our best days...(maybe marginally) wiser. However, to many outsiders looking in, be it friends, family, or strangers, the people who've not lived through a DIY renovation don't typically have empathy for or understand what we've chosen to take on. But then again, we don't really expect them to.

Wendy and I have a lot of friends, family, and acquaintances who are intrigued at what we've taken on. And many strangers who are befuddled by ongoing renovations. These people tend to ask a lot of questions when we get together, and each one is sometimes asked with a hint of judgement. Here are some of our favorite and most often asked questions that we feel is usually served small side of judgement.

Q: Are You Done Yet?

This is pretty much question #1 for anyone who knows or learns we have been working on this house since 2003. It is such a loaded question, but has such an easy answer.