Remodeling your house is a viable alternativeto simply packing up and purchasing an ideal home. However, the cost of remodeling is not necessarily cheaper; simple organization mistakes or a bad contractor can lead to disastrous financial and emotional results. Proper organization and in-depth research are your best weapons against avoiding the common pitfalls of a home remodel. Use them!
Your garage, your bathroom, your kitchen are three great places to consider for your home remodeling project. However, before you begin work, you must ask yourself many questions. The most important question isn’t too tough, but you must answer honestly: how much can you really afford to spend? When performing a remodel, you need to be financially realistic. Unless you are very careful when accepting bids from potential contractors, your home remodel will most likely run 20% to 30% more than expected. While you have limitless possibilities for your remodeling project, this article will only focus on three different rooms: the kitchen, the garage, and the bathroom.
There are countless possibilities for your home remodel, this article is going to focus on the remodeling of the most important rooms: your bathroom, kitchen and your garage. For most people, the bathroom is their own private sanctuary. Where else can you shut out the world and soak up a soothing bubble bath or stand under a hot shower? While you are planning your bathroom’s remodel, you must consider where you spend the majority of your time: gazing into the mirror or enjoying the bathtub. The answer to that question is where you should focus your design ideas. Do you know there are options such as heated flooring and even towel warming racks? And it is always advisable to indulge a little when it comes to choosing bathroom fixtures. By investing more cash on the extra bells and whistles can easily transform your everyday bathroom into an at-home spa.
It has been said that well over 50% of home owners do not park their vehicle in their garage. Instead of parking space, their garage has become a giant storage unit. Are you one of those individuals? If so, you might want to remodel your garage. A remodeled garage can actually increase your storage space, expand the “usable” square footage of your home, or even allow you to actually park your car inside of it.
In addition to gaining extra storage space, a garage can be transformed into a home gym, a laundry room, an elaborate work room, or possibly an extra living space (like a kid’s play room or a spare bedroom). If you are considering transforming your garage into extra living space, you will need to factor in the extra costs for heating/cooling, and electrical. Additionally, if you intend to add a bathroom or some form of water supply, you will also need to include plumbing costs which can be somewhat expensive.
A kitchen remodel is the most complicated (and usually the most costly) home remodel project you can begin. It is a big undertaking; don’t take it lightly. It is highly recommended that you hire a qualified contractor than to try and tackle your own kitchen remodel. If you accept bids from several contractors – which you should, your scope of work needs to be extremely specific regarding the materials that are to be used for your new kitchen (detailed proposals allow for a more accurate comparison). Also, if you aren’t specific about construction materials, there is a good chance you will get materials either too expensive or inferior than what you wanted in the first place.
Designing your kitchen is the first and most important phase of your kitchen’s remodel. Every aspect of your design should meet with your approval before you begin construction. You also need to consider the down time; how long can you live without a kitchen? The more expansive your remodel, the longer you will have to find a way to live without a working kitchen.
Buy kitchen window treatment sets to finish the look of your new kitchen remodel. A beautiful new set of window treatments can help finish any kitchen, large or small. Of course if you are handy with the sewing machine try creating your own kitchen curtains.
Outside of hiring an experienced, licensed contractor for your project, it is always recommended that you hire an independent consultant to oversee your contractor’s quality of work and overall job progress. Most people couldn’t tell the difference between galvanized steel piping and ductile iron piping, but an independent consultant certainly can. He or she can spot any shortcuts that your contractor or subcontractors may attempt to take.
Your family’s overall happiness and livelihood are closely associated with your house. Take care in your overall preparation for and planning for your project and your remodeling experience will most likely be a successful one.
