Home Renovation Tips for New Homeowners
When remodeling your home it’s easy to jump right into the exciting parts and start picking your paint or appliances, but when renovating your home it’s important to plan out the home renovation.
Planning will make sure your renovation will go smoother than not having a plan and it will also save you money. In this article, we will share with you our top tips for renovating a new home.
Write down your goals
When renovating your home you will want to have a plan and stick by it. Your plan will outline what you want to achieve so that halfway through the project you don’t start changing your goals or you don’t start wasting your budget.
Stick to the budget
When renovating it’s easy to get excited and start spending money where you don’t need to or you end up spending more than you wanted to spend because you didn’t set a budget in the first place. Setting a budget will help you with your finances and will make sure your home renovation goes smoothly. This is why it’s essential to be mindful in getting the right professional home renovators for your renovation.
When creating a budget you should also consider a contingency fund as there will always be something that doesn’t go right no matter how well you plan. Having this emergency fund will cover these costs and will keep the project running.
Research
When renovating your home it’s important to research everything. Research the cost of labour, supplies and even how much it would cost to put your items into storage.
By researching everything you can then put a realistic budget together for the home improvement project you have planned. This research will allow you to look at items that need to be improved as well as items that could be improved. This allows you to tackle the most needed jobs first.
Pack up your items
When renovating your homes your personal belongings can get covered in dust or damaged when the contractors come in. To get around this problem you can either put items in storage like previously mentioned or if you have the room you can put them into a garage or a spare room.
When moving your items, be sure to wrap them up in bubble wrap as they can get damaged during transport. Bubble wrap is cheap and can be bought from most hardware stores.
Consider time frames
Renovating a house can be time-consuming and if you are renovating a room such as a bathroom or a kitchen then you will need to take into consideration that these rooms are essential to your home and other preparations will have to be made.
If you won’t have access to your kitchen or bathroom for a few days you will want to either stay in a hotel for a while or see if you have any family or friends that you can stay with. In our experience a hotel is best as if the project runs over you won’t be outstaying your welcome.
Work with a designer
Most companies will provide a designer to design your home renovation but if they don’t try and get one. A good designer will be able to design a room that’s functional and practical.
Doing your own home improvements without a design could lead to an unpractical room that doesn’t function as well as it should. This often leads to a redesign of a room and as a result, the homeowner needs to spend more money than if they hired a designer in the first place.
Get work approved
After hiring a designer you will need to speak to your local planning office and submit your plans before getting them approved. When approved, you will then be able to start renovating.
Without this planning permission, your build will be considered illegal and could be taken down by your local council.
Other steps to consider
When you have all of the above you should then look for contractors who do good work and have good reviews. Check their previous work and get quotes from a few companies that you like. Doing all of the above will protect you from getting ripped off and will make your home renovation process go as smooth as possible.
