Plan and Prioritize Your Home Remodel

If you are planning on a larger remodeling project like a whole home remodel or multiple baths, you may want to create a plan that allows you to manage your budget and keep construction frustrations to a minimum. For instance, if you are doing more than one bathroom you will want to stagger the construction so you can keep one fully functional and available to be used while the other is being remodeled.

These two DIY fails are reasons to consider if you are planning to remodel your home yourself.

First is represented by the expression, “Eyes are bigger than one’s stomach.” Often people who are not professionals in planning or building set their sights on accomplishing things far beyond their needs and/or capabilities. They dream of large changes and start by demoing entire spaces without thinking through the build process, or more importantly, the living arrangements during the build process.

The fix to this fail is by simply taking small bites, schedule them, prioritize them in order of importance and build requirements. For instance, if you are remodeling a bathroom, after demoing has taken place, plumbing and structural comes first in the build process. Then you move on to tiling, flooring, lighting and completion. To do flooring or tiling prior to replumbing the new bath could mean you will have to redo the tile or flooring over again. Costly investments in both time and money.

Second is represented by the expression, “Mission creep.” This one is simple. A year ago, my wife and I had a small bathroom project in the basement we planned on doing. When we started the project, we were going to simply replace sheet rock in the bath, backer board in the walk-in shower and install the new shower surround. While doing the sheet rock we decided to replace the old paneling in our basement with sheet rock too.

Our basement consisted of bath, kitchenette and family room. After we replaced all the sheet rock in the family room, we decided to tile the kitchenette too.

If only we had made a plan ahead of demoing the bathroom and basement, we could have saved time, money and revisits to projects half way done or half done. It’s always easy to see our mistakes after we have made them, but I believe that had I taken the time to think through the remodel, it would have cost less in time and money.

That’s how I decided to leave the upstairs bathroom, living room and kitchen to the professionals. I looked around for accomplished remodeling companies and found a few that I reached out to for bids. In the end I chose to work with the pros at The Remodeling Pro.

They helped me create a plan one that took into account my vision, budget and timeframe. They helped to prioritize projects, phased in smaller bite-sized jobs over a 4-week period and finally helped us reach our goal of a brand-new home.

I am still proud of the DIY work I did, and I think I saved money by adding my own sweet equity. However, to have my remodeling project done professionally did not cost that much more and I know the craftsmanship is far better.

If you are looking to do several projects on your home consider planning and prioritizing those projects. Also reach out to The Remodeling Pro and get a quote, you may find that the prize is right or that they may have the skill necessary to take your remodel to the next level.