Remodeling a few rooms of your home is a viable alternative to packing up your stuff and buying a new home. However, it isn’t always cheaper to remodel; bad organization or simple planning mistakes will usually lead to financial and emotional loss. Proper research and planning are your two best defenses to side-step the common pitfalls of a home remodel. Make sure to use them!
The kitchen, the garage, and the bathroom are great rooms to start your home remodeling. But prior to beginning your project, you should ask yourself a number of questions. The most important question (which you need to answer honestly!) pertains to money: how much can you really invest into your home? It is very important that you are financially realistic when considering a house remodel. Unless you exercise great care when accepting bids from local contractors, your remodel project will most likely cost you 20% to 30% more than you expected. While your home has limitless possibilities for remodeling, this article will only discuss the following rooms: the garage, the kitchen, and the bathroom.
Just about everyone views their bathroom as a sanctuary. Where else can a person lock himself out from the world and soak up the suds in a bubble bath or enjoy a hot shower? When you are actually planning your bathroom remodel, you should take into consideration how your time is spent in the bathroom: staring into the mirror or soaking in the bathtub. How would you answer that question? Your answer reveals where you should focus your design ideas. Did you know you can install such things as towel warming racks and even heating flooring? And it is always sound advice to invest a little extra money into higher quality bathroom fixtures. Investing more money into the bells and whistles
Investing more cash into the bells and whistles can easily transform a normal bathroom into a mini at-home spa.
It is a fact that well over 50% of home owners do not park their vehicle in the garage. Instead of ample parking space, their garage has turned into a giant storage unit. Have you allowed your car’s parking spot to become a storage unit? If so, you should remodel your garage. A professional garage remodel can increase your storage space, expand the “usable” square footage of your house, or it could even allow you to park your car inside of it. Garage floor tiles are great for adding a finished look to your garage. When shopping for garage floor tiles be sure you know how to install them or at least be sure they come with instructions.
In addition to gaining some extra storage, a garage can be transformed into an elaborate work room, a home gym, a laundry room, a garage can be remodeled into an elaborate work room, a workout room, a laundry room, or maybe even an extra living space (like another bedroom or a child’s play room). If having extra living space is a possibility for your new remodel, you will definitely need to factor in the extra construction costs for electrical, cooling, and heating. And if you need to add a bathroom or some form of hot/cold water supply, you will also have to include plumbing costs which can be costly.
Remodeling one’s kitchen is typically the most expensive (and complex) house construction project you can perform. It is a big undertaking; do not take it lightly! It is always recommended that you hire a qualified contracting company than to perform your own kitchen remodel. If you get bids from several different contractors (which you should), your breakdown of work needs to be very detailed about the different construction materials that need to be used (it is much easier to compare detailed proposals). Also, if you don’t specify the construction materials, there is a strong chance your contractor will choose inferior (or more expensive) materials than what your original design called for.
Designing a layout of your kitchen is the most important stage of the construction of your new kitchen. Every design detail of the new layout needs to meet with your approval prior to beginning construction. You and your family need to consider the down time; how long do you think you can handle being without a kitchen? The more changes you make, the longer you can expect to live without a working kitchen.
Outside of hiring a contractor for your home remodeling project, it is also a good idea to hire a consultant to oversee the quality and progress of work you receive from your contractor. Most of us cannot tell the difference between high-quality wiring and bulk, discount wiring, but a contracting consultant can. He or she can prevent your contractor and subcontractors from taking shortcuts.
Your happiness (and your family’s) is closely associated with your home. Be extremely organized in your planning and preparation for your project and your remodel experience will most likely be a pleasant one.
