Tips for Remodeling Your Home Successfully

Have you been thinking about giving your home a facelift? Maybe the décor in your kitchen is looking tired or outdated, and you fancy knocking through a wall to make an open-plan kitchen and dining space. Taking on a remodeling project can be a rewarding endeavor, but if you don’t plan everything very carefully, you could find yourself becoming overstressed, exhausted, and very often over budget rather quickly. You can avoid these problems by spending time over the planning stages to ensure you have a reasonable timetable and a realistic budget, including allowances for unforeseen expenses and delays in the building work.

How big a project should you take on?

It’s tempting to think that if you’re remodeling one part of the house, you might as well do all the areas you want to change in one go. That could be a viable option if you’re able to move off-site while the building work is ongoing. Otherwise, you’ll be living in what is essentially a construction site. It also makes sense if the work you’re having done affects multiple rooms. Otherwise, you’ll be paying for work to be done twice or have to live in an unfinished home. You’ll also have to have sufficient capital in your budget to cover the increased costs. Home improvement loans are an option if they’re affordable, but you don’t want to saddle yourself with a debt burden that’s hard to pay back, so be sure you can cover the repayments before borrowing any money.

How should the remodeling work be prioritized?

If you’re having all the work done in one hit, your builder or project manager will organize the schedule according to how it works best from a construction point of view. If you’re having a specific area remodeled but it’s the first of a series, or you can only afford to do one room at this stage, you should think about which improvements will make the biggest difference to your life. It could be that a loft conversion that makes room for a home office or a nursery takes priority if you work from home or have a new baby on the way. Or if your kitchen needs new appliances and better storage solutions, that could be the best place to start.

What will add the most value to your home?

Even if you’re not considering selling up at this point, it’s still nice to know that the money you’ve spent and the time you’ve invested in your remodeling project will add value to your home. If you are planning a move, it’s essential to make the house look as appealing and aspirational as you can for prospective buyers. Kitchens and bathrooms are the two rooms that generally contribute the greatest value in most homes if they are well-designed and spacious.

• Planning a kitchen makeover

You can either rip out the entire kitchen and start afresh, or salvage what is still useable, like the carcasses from the kitchen units, and fit them with new doors. The condition your kitchen is in will influence the path you choose, as will your budget. If you are planning to keep old units and refresh them with replacement doors, you can give the room an entirely new look by replacing the worktops. Granite and slate worktops look stunning and always make a home look classier, so look for a surface that will complement your design and give the room a wow factor. There are many different kinds of mineral countertops as well as alternative materials, so if you’re not sure which to choose, click for more information about work surfaces before making a decision.

• Planning a bathroom makeover

A new suite can make a world of difference to an outdated bathroom, and fashions in bathroom suite design seem to change even more quickly than they do for kitchens, so replacing your old purple or green suite with a new white version will do wonders for the look of the room and mark it out as being on trend. Tiles in bathrooms often get stained with black mold, which can be difficult to clean off and stains the grout between the tiles. You could re-grout them if they’re in good condition, or run over the discolored grout with a new sealant to restore the whiteness. Alternatively, you could replace the tiles, either with a new design or with an alternative material such as a wall panel.

• Planning an extension

Extensions that add floor space to your home will almost certainly also add value because total floor space is a key criterion when it comes to valuing houses. What you do with the extra space will also influence any future valuation, with open-plan living still finding favor among many homeowners. While you might be able to undertake a lot of the work yourself for a simple interior remodeling project, unless you have experience it can be a bit ambitious to take on demolition and reconstruction. Building trades are skilled occupations and not the kinds of roles you can step into without training and experience.

• Planning an attic conversion

This is often one of the pricier options, as a full attic conversion that involves raising the roof, re-bracing the support beams, and installing windows, electrical wiring, and plumbing, requires structural engineering knowledge and skilled craftsmanship to achieve a safe and high-quality result. Access to attic rooms needs to adhere to fire regulations in your area, and common sense should tell you that it’s inadvisable to sleep in a room that doesn’t have any emergency exits. Stairs often need to be fitted, which is another major job, and to make sure you’re abiding by all the relevant planning and safety laws, you should check the advice on federal and state websites to ensure compliance.

Any kind of remodeling project can encounter its ups and downs, but if you’ve factored in the likelihood of these problems occurring, they shouldn’t cause too much disruption, and any extra expenses won’t be such a shock. If you approach the planning stages realistically and methodically, you should end up with a beautiful, functional new living space that you can be proud of.