7 Things to Consider Before Starting Home Renovations
With no idea what to expect, many homeowners are jumping into the renovation process. A home improvement process can be full of disappointments without planning and, unlike building a new house, you don’t begin from a clean canvas.
Unforeseen costs and complications will arise that make the process difficult. In this article, we prepared a list of things that you need to take care of before starting your home renovation plans.
Buy a key lockbox
Try investing in a key lock box if you’re renovating your house before you finally move into it and if you live far away. You’ll need to employ a contractor if there are big jobs on the checklist that you can’t handle yourself.
Know that contractors arrive early, so whether you want to travel rush-hour traffic in the morning to enable staff inside, intend to connect a lockbox or add smart door hardware that allows visitors with a code to enter.
It will spare you endless hours of work, litres of petrol and stressful wake-up call early in the morning.
Spend time in the space you want to renovate
As simple as it might seem, before you spend time in the room you’re renovating, it’s necessary to hold off on individual decisions such as paint colours, carpet, and light fixtures.
For example, the options can be daunting if you choose to replace dated carpets. Dense fibres or loose ones? Striated, or without a pattern? What precise shade of grey?
The answers rely on the other factors of the refurbishment, such as picking paint colours. On walls, colour palettes picked before the renovation begins need to be used which could change while you spend time in the home.
Freshly painted walls and fresh carpet will show that, as you expected, individual light fixtures don’t illuminate the room.
You can spare yourself some back-to-the-drawing-board moments if you spend a bit of extra time upfront, contemplating how it fits together, in the place you’re remodelling.
Be realistic about the time you wish to spend
It will take the renovation longer than expected, so be prepared with changes, to prevent dissatisfaction.
You may assume, for instance, that it would be easy to substitute a whirlpool tub and antique double vanity in a bathroom. It may take a few hours to detach the old fixtures, but it can take several weeks to find the new tub and vanity you want.
It could be two more weeks before they’re shipped. Anticipation within a week of using your new bath will turn into a six-week waiting time.
Be honest about the schedule for construction and pick the latest upgrades before replacing the old materials.
Prepare for the unexpected
In the walls, beneath the boards, and everywhere, all homes contain secrets. Refurbishment can bring those to light.
Like when your builder tells you that because of a moved centre joist, your floors are uneven while testing for your highly awaited new hardwood floors.
Now before the new stuff can go in, you need to work with the home inspector who overlooked it to have the floor joist fixed.
This is an example of how homeowners should expect the unexpected to allow for unanticipated mishaps along the way by planning additional. Time in your renovation schedule and put extra money in your renovation budget.
Consult multiple contractors
It helps to have several vendors interviewed and bids compared. Suppose you choose to uninstall your water heater from an upstairs closet and add a new one in the basement.
The first plumber you ask says he’s planning on costing $6,000 and redirecting hot water pipes. Breaking into the ceiling of your living room tray to do so.
It was so much the effort said the second plumber. Plumber three plans to complete the job in a day and charge $3,285 with no rerouting of the water line necessary.
You run the risk of costing too much and not getting what you want without interviewing several vendors. Before making a final call, it helps to do your homework and speak to many experts.
Renovate the kitchen first
In what order should they renovate a house, homeowners always want to know. Starting with the kitchen is ideal since these remodels add tremendous value to your home.
Realtors say that homeowners will recover 59 per cent of the cost of a full kitchen renovation if they sell their home, according to the 2019 Remodelling Effects Survey of the National Association of the Remodelling Industry.
Plus, replacing the worn-out room would help you better use the place when you’re home if you have an outdated kitchen.
You’ll want to do your kitchen remodelling first, technically speaking, so that work would produce the most dust and dirt that you won’t want to drop on fresh paint or finish jobs.
Isolating the demolition mess by inserting plastic over doorways or pass-throughs is often a smart idea.
Because a significant kitchen remodels usually takes several months to finish, in the dining room, living room, or another similar space in your home, you’ll want to set up a temporary replacement kitchen.
Be specific about the design you want to use
Before you consult with an interior designer, you may want to narrow down your style expectations. Get ideas from reading magazines for home decorating, blogs for interior decorating, and fashion displays.
Getting a handle on a design you want will help you avoid being talked into a designer’s ideas, which might be different from your idea of the renovation. Also, suggest the designer be strictly on your budget.
Don’t encourage them to buy costly appliances and then charge you for them. If you try to stick within a particular time limit, your expenditures will remain minimal, too.
With no idea what to expect, many homeowners are jumping into the renovation process. A home improvement process can be full of disappointments without planning and, unlike building a new house, you don’t begin from a clean canvas.
Unforeseen costs and complications will arise that make the process difficult. In this article, we prepared a list of things that you need to take care of before starting your home renovation plans.
Buy a key lockbox
Try investing in a key lock box if you’re renovating your house before you finally move into it and if you live far away. You’ll need to employ a contractor if there are big jobs on the checklist that you can’t handle yourself.
Know that contractors arrive early, so whether you want to travel rush-hour traffic in the morning to enable staff inside, intend to connect a lockbox or add smart door hardware that allows visitors with a code to enter.
It will spare you endless hours of work, litres of petrol and stressful wake-up call early in the morning.
Spend time in the space you want to renovate
As simple as it might seem, before you spend time in the room you’re renovating, it’s necessary to hold off on individual decisions such as paint colours, carpet, and light fixtures.
For example, the options can be daunting if you choose to replace dated carpets. Dense fibres or loose ones? Striated, or without a pattern? What precise shade of grey?
The answers rely on the other factors of the refurbishment, such as picking paint colours. On walls, colour palettes picked before the renovation begins need to be used which could change while you spend time in the home.
Freshly painted walls and fresh carpet will show that, as you expected, individual light fixtures don’t illuminate the room.
You can spare yourself some back-to-the-drawing-board moments if you spend a bit of extra time upfront, contemplating how it fits together, in the place you’re remodelling.
Be realistic about the time you wish to spend
It will take the renovation longer than expected, so be prepared with changes, to prevent dissatisfaction.
You may assume, for instance, that it would be easy to substitute a whirlpool tub and antique double vanity in a bathroom. It may take a few hours to detach the old fixtures, but it can take several weeks to find the new tub and vanity you want.
It could be two more weeks before they’re shipped. Anticipation within a week of using your new bath will turn into a six-week waiting time.
Be honest about the schedule for construction and pick the latest upgrades before replacing the old materials.
Prepare for the unexpected
In the walls, beneath the boards, and everywhere, all homes contain secrets. Refurbishment can bring those to light.
Like when your builder tells you that because of a moved centre joist, your floors are uneven while testing for your highly awaited new hardwood floors.
Now before the new stuff can go in, you need to work with the home inspector who overlooked it to have the floor joist fixed.
This is an example of how homeowners should expect the unexpected to allow for unanticipated mishaps along the way by planning additional. Time in your renovation schedule and put extra money in your renovation budget.
Consult multiple contractors
It helps to have several vendors interviewed and bids compared. Suppose you choose to uninstall your water heater from an upstairs closet and add a new one in the basement.
The first plumber you ask says he’s planning on costing $6,000 and redirecting hot water pipes. Breaking into the ceiling of your living room tray to do so.
It was so much the effort said the second plumber. Plumber three plans to complete the job in a day and charge $3,285 with no rerouting of the water line necessary.
You run the risk of costing too much and not getting what you want without interviewing several vendors. Before making a final call, it helps to do your homework and speak to many experts.
Renovate the kitchen first
In what order should they renovate a house, homeowners always want to know. Starting with the kitchen is ideal since these remodels add tremendous value to your home.
Realtors say that homeowners will recover 59 per cent of the cost of a full kitchen renovation if they sell their home, according to the 2019 Remodelling Effects Survey of the National Association of the Remodelling Industry.
Plus, replacing the worn-out room would help you better use the place when you’re home if you have an outdated kitchen.
You’ll want to do your kitchen remodelling first, technically speaking, so that work would produce the most dust and dirt that you won’t want to drop on fresh paint or finish jobs.
Isolating the demolition mess by inserting plastic over doorways or pass-throughs is often a smart idea.
Because a significant kitchen remodels usually takes several months to finish, in the dining room, living room, or another similar space in your home, you’ll want to set up a temporary replacement kitchen.
Be specific about the design you want to use
Before you consult with an interior designer, you may want to narrow down your style expectations. Get ideas from reading magazines for home decorating, blogs for interior decorating, and fashion displays.
Getting a handle on a design you want will help you avoid being talked into a designer’s ideas, which might be different from your idea of the renovation. Also, suggest the designer be strictly on your budget.
Don’t encourage them to buy costly appliances and then charge you for them. If you try to stick within a particular time limit, your expenditures will remain minimal, too.
