How to Plan a Home Renovation Project
Planning a home renovation is extremely exciting, especially if it’s you’ve been looking forward to it for quite some time. However, it’s good to know that a home extension, addition or a total revamp also requires a lot of work, time and intricacy. Hence, if you’re looking at rebuilding an old house that you bought from someone, or if you want a major makeover for your home, we’ve come up with a guide that can help you plan this project with ease. Hope this helps!
1. Visualize the Changes You Want to See in Your Home
Every impressive design starts in the mind, so we recommend that you explore your imagination, and visualize the specifics you’d like to come up with in this renovation project. Looking for pegs online and social media like Pinterest and Instagram may help. If you don’t want to use the same materials used in your place, think about the vibe and design you’d like to go for to determine which materials would be perfect to achieve them.
Do you prefer a Scandinavian, Parisian, or a modern-themed living room? Are you inclined to go for glass walls and a high ceiling to let more light in or for better ventilation? Do you need more space for your kitchen? Take note of each feature, detail and element you need to add or change in every area of your home, and try to find photos that can help you clearly determine what you really want. Don’t forget to save your pegs in your gadget or print them on paper, so you can also show them to your home renovation team later.
2. Make a Home Renovation Wish List
It’s also ideal to make a list of all the furniture, light fixtures, floorings, décor, and other pieces you must have to achieve the design and ambiance that you prefer. This can help your interior designer easily come up with a design, and mix and match colors that would complement your preferences. Creating a wish list can also make shopping and budgeting much easier for you as you go along.
3. Determine Your Budget
Just like any other life decision, money is a huge determining factor in a house renovation, considering the construction materials, furnishings and home décor you need buy, as well as the people you need to pay for coordination, design, labor, and more. To stay on top of your finances, you have to set your budget and list down the projected cost of everything you need to pay for. From there, you may adjust accordingly based on the maximum amount you’re willing to spend per aspect of the project.
4. Work With a Professional Home Builder
Hiring a professional home builder like Home Owner Life has multiple benefits. A home builder can help you finalize even the tiniest details of your project, find you the best team and contractor to work with, get the permits you need, kick start the process of renovating your home, and also keep the project going.
5. Create Your Team of Home Builders
Choosing the right people for your project is crucial to its success. Otherwise, you may experience delays on your projected completion date, or you may end up spending so much more than you expected because of miscalculations, quality errors, and miscommunication.
The good thing is, the home builder you’ve chosen can help you connect with the best local contractor for your project – the one that would fit your budget and preferences. If you’re planning to find people on your own, be sure to take into consideration their trustworthiness, timeliness, quality of previous projects, and commitment or availability for communication.
6. Set a Project Timeline
It’s also essential to be as detailed and as clear as possible with your project timeline. Lay down crucial dates for the home builder and the contractor, such as your first meeting, the start of the renovation process, the target completion date of the project, and more. This can help all parties involved to manage expectations, be on the same page, and work together to successfully finish the project on time.
7. Prepare to Move to a Temporary Home
If your project requires a home extension or a major reconstruction, you must also consider temporarily staying somewhere else while the renovation is ongoing. This is both for your safety and convenience, especially if you have children at home.
Some of the things you need to do as you prepare to transfer to a temporary shelter include packing and moving your things before the labor starts, and keeping your valuable possessions on a safe place or vault.
8. Anticipate Potential Problems
A home renovation project may go wrong or experience hurdles in many different ways. For instance, if you’re planning to restore an old home that was build hundreds of years ago, you may experience problems with procuring certain materials that were used for the property. Why? They may no longer be available at this time. You may also experience delays on your project timeline because of foundation problems, mold buildup, pests, or mistakes committed by someone in your team.
The best way to prepare for these potential problems is to identify and list each of them, and ask your contractor or some experts for potential solutions.
Final Thoughts
These are the major things you have to take note of when planning a home renovation. Whether it’s a home makeover or a restoration project, renovating is a life milestone, so we’d like to keep you company in planning ahead and building your dream to reality.
Here at Home Life, our goal is to help individuals and families improve their homes, regardless of how big or small the improvements need to be. We do that by screening home building teams to help ensure that they would complete your project as planned – on time and within budget.
Finally, if you’re planning to start a home renovation, home extension, or a construction project from scratch, please take this quiz so we would know how to help you. All the best!
Images:
Lars Modeling & Design
Moving.com
News Chant
Thomson Creek Window Company
Thrive Global
The HR Team
VCNY Home