On the “Good Bones” spinoff, “Good Bones: Risky Business,” Mina Starsiak Hawk is working to convert an old Indianapolis mansion into a bed-and-breakfast and events center. And even though she’s a pro who’s successfully flipped houses for years, her latest labor of love already appears to be on the brink of disaster.

In the episode “Sanders Is Off the Rails,” she admits, “I feel really lucky to be working on this dream project, but it’s been a rough road. This project has just been one thing after another. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. It’s just been a headache, and we can’t really seem to catch a break.”

Yet she also concedes she’s in too deep now to back out.

“I just have to move forward,” she says. “Basically spending money that I don’t really have, and figuring it out later whether that’s going to involve dipping into our savings, Jack’s college fund, selling a kidney, I don’t know.”

As she does battle with horribly disrespectful site managers, an uncommunicative general contractor, and insufficient funds, Starsiak Hawk learns (and delivers to the rest of us) some hard-won lessons on all that can go wrong when tackling renovations big and small. Watch and learn.

Starsiak Hawk’s first realization—and regret—is that, given she was renovating this space for events, she wishes she’d consulted an events planner sooner.

“To renovate this house and then turn it into this cool event venue and make it financially sensible to keep it, is really my endgame,” she explains. “But I have very little concrete knowledge about organizing, planning, running any kind of event space venue.”

She eventually brings in Bridget, a local special events planner who tells her that the space is not big enough for most weddings and that there needs to be a lot of storage space for dishes, glassware, tables, chairs, and decor.

“She told us all the things that would make the space most appealing to guests, and that’s a little overwhelming,” says Starsiak Hawk dejectedly. Little of what the events planner suggested was in the original budget or plan.

Whether you’re repurposing a room for a home gym, short-term rental, or some other purpose, it’s always best to consult an expert in the corresponding field. Getting advice from a physical trainer or property management company could save you a world of pain.

“I got an idea of what it’s going to be like to redo the entire event space every weekend,” says Starsiak Hawk. “And after talking to Bridget about all the things we need to buy and store to run the events, I realized I just want to provide the event space.”

So off she goes to an events rental company to see what it can provide. Lo and behold, it’ll create, deliver, set up, break down, and take away just about anything you can imagine: props, tables, chairs, sofas, dishes, plates, linens, glassware, flowers, balloons, etc.

Watch: The Stars of HGTV’s ‘Flip to a Million’ Reveal How To Flip a House for a Thousand Bucks

“It’s an amazing long-term solution,” says Starsiak Hawk.

It’s a smart reminder that there are services that provide advertising, booking, fee collection, linens, and cleaning for short-term rentals of all sizes. Outsourcing makes life so much easier, and you can absorb the cost in the rental fees you charge.

Claim your home to stay up-to-date of your home‘s value and equity.

Rather than painting, replacing, or refinishing the sturdy, stately brick on the exterior of the carriage house, Starsiak Hawk says, “We’re sandblasting the brick to get it cleaned up.”

Sandblasting the lovely brick on an older house is much less expensive than any of the other options, and it also retains the period charm of the building.

We’ve all heard of the virtues of luxury vinyl planking (LVP) as an inexpensive, low-maintenance flooring solution. And that goes great in your space if it has the modern farmhouse or traditional style.

But if your style is modern or industrial, like the carriage house in this project, a layer of cement covered by epoxy is the way to go.

“We went ahead and poured our epoxy floors downstairs,” says Starskiak Hawk. It’s inexpensive and easy to clean—she could literally hose it down if she wanted to. This surface can also withstand heavy traffic, even dancing.

If you’re converting your garage into living space, consider installing industrial glass garage doors with black metal framing. Push them up, and they provide a seamless indoor-outdoor transition in warm weather; in cold weather, they still allow light to flow in.

“For the event space downstairs, it used to be dark and dank. But now with the garage doors in, the event space has been turned into an inviting room fit for any special occasion,” says Starsiak Hawk. She notes that they can work in private residences as well.

So with the downstairs events space finally coming close to being done, Starsiak Hawk feels like she’s making a little progress. Still, none of the guest rooms have been completed, and the main house is only framed and vented.

She is by no means out of the woods yet.

Lisa Johnson Mandell is an award-winning writer who covers lifestyle, entertainment, real estate, design, and travel. Find her on ReallyRather.com