Organizing your home renovation is no easy task. Unless you’re a professional organizer, it’s easy to feel lost and overwhelmed as you shuffle between all of the different steps in the process. Don’t let that stop you, though.
If you’re renovating your home, whether it is a small home office or a major renovation, there are a ton of little things that will get put off because “there’s always something else to do.” But, keeping your home renovation project organized doesn’t have to be a nightmare. These tips will help keep you on track and keep you from losing your mind during home renovations.
Before You Begin
Measure twice, cut once. That’s the old carpenter’s saying, and it’s advice that’s good to follow for almost any renovation project. The more time you spend planning, the more smoothly the project is likely to run — and the less money and time you’re likely to waste in the process.
Therefore, ensure to go slowly by following the following steps.
1. Identify the Right Starting Point
Not everyone can afford to remodel their whole house at once. Often the best way to start is with the room you use the most or the one that’s stealing your happiness as soon as you walk into it.
Make the room you spend the most time in the most comfortable and functional. Is the layout of your kitchen making you crazy? Do you watch TV in a corner of the room instead of from the comfort of your couch or loveseat? Are you constantly tripping over your kid’s toys? You may need to upgrade the center of your home.
2. Identify The Look You Want to Achieve
Before commencing any home renovation, it’s important to first identify the look you want to achieve. You can get inspiration and ideas from showrooms, catalogs, and magazines. When you have decided on your preferences, check the references of the suppliers you plan to use. When you’re sure you have found the right company, only then start the work you have planned.
3. Develop a Budget
It’s important to develop a budget before starting any home renovation. This is because of the fact that it’s very easy to go over budget during a home renovation. Home renovations can get expensive very quickly especially if you have to hire professionals to complete your project.
However, don’t be discouraged if you can’t follow your budget. Following an approximate budget will make your project more manageable. If you have the funds to cover any unexpected expenses like a strong boy hire, then great! But if not, go out and get a high-interest credit card to cover the costs.
Planning for The Renovation
When doing a renovation, it is tempting to jump straight into picking out the new furnishings, paint, or flooring, but in order for any renovation to go smoothly, there are several things you need to think about before you even begin.
Pack Up
Remodeling your home can be an exciting process, but it can also be a time-consuming and sometimes even stressful one. The most important thing you can do is to make sure you are prepared for the process by doing some decluttering first before you even begin to start remodeling. That way, you will not have to worry about the amount of space you currently have and what you will put in it when your home is renovated. You will also be able to make sure that you have everything you need to finish the remodeling as soon as possible.
If you hire a company to help you pack and move things in your home, ensure to take photos of all the things you are moving out of the room. That way, if something gets lost or damaged during the move, you have proof to show the moving company that you didn’t lose it.
Plan For Outages
Because of the location of a lot of the house’s utilities and items, working in a small area in the home can cause problems with other parts of the plumbing system. This is especially true in the kitchen, but it can also be true in other areas.
For example, when you are doing a full kitchen remodel, you might want to consider whether you are going to reline the kitchen pipes before you remove the wall that separates the kitchen from the bathroom. In that case, you need to be sure that you have access to the pipes that are behind the wall (so that you can reline them) and that you have access to the water shut off valve so that you can turn off the water supply to the kitchen before you remove the
Create Sketches
Many people think that to do their own drawings for a house remodel, they need to be an engineer. This is not the case. You can get your drawings done by an engineer, but you can also do it yourself with the help of a drafting program like AutoCAD. It’s not as hard as you think and you don’t need any formal training to do it.
When making drawings for your home remodel, ensure to take note of the scale you are working at. It is generally recommended that you compose your drawings at a scale of 1 inch equals 1 foot. However, do not be afraid to experiment with other scales as well. For example, a scale of 1 inch equals 16 feet will allow you to see the big picture of your design. This can be very useful as you will be able to see how your design will impact the rest of the property or the neighborhood.
Obtain Permits
A building permit is a legal document that is required for any home improvement or construction project in most municipalities. As the name suggests, a building permit is used to inform local government officials that a project is taking place, when it is taking place and what is involved in the project.
A permit is necessary for any work that involves the installation of electrical, plumbing, and gas lines, as well as when altering the existing structure of the home. If you decide to do work without a permit, you are putting yourself and your family in jeopardy as you could be putting your home in a dangerous position.
Think Ahead
Before starting any home renovations, it’s important to think ahead. Consider any future changes to your home or lifestyle that might influence what you’re planning to do.
For example, are you planning to add another room or a deck? Or is there a chance you’ll be selling in the next few years? If so, do you want to invest in expensive materials that would make your home harder to sell? Depending on the nature of your renovations, you should also think about how you’ll install everything, how much it will cost, and whether you’ll be able to do it yourself.
Conclusion
When organizing your home renovation, it’s important to pay attention to the areas that you plan to use most often, such as the kitchen and laundry room. As you begin to plan, ask friends and family if they would be interested in helping. Ask them to bring over their ideas, suggestions, and resources, so you can create a shared vision for the space.