4 Things to Consider Before Remodeling Your Home

1. Functionality

functionality. A beautiful remodel space means nothing if you don't have the functionality. When you think about a remodel, you have to think about your lifestyle. How you live? What’s the flow of your home? Is it easy to get around? Does the layout make sense? Do you have kids? Do you need extra storage? Do you need a mud room? Do you need a spare room? A home office? Are there easy opportunities to change the layout at all? Can we gain a bigger space in the bathroom if we take a closet from the bedroom next to it? So, you have to figure out how functional your house is now. These are all things to consider when you're remodeling a home and probably in most people's opinion, the most important, me personally, I would sacrifice a little bit of aesthetics for better functionality and Feng shui in the house.

2. Materials

Putting the right materials together makes all the difference in the world. Sometimes you don't need the most expensive if the materials go well together. I'm talking about how the hardwood floor looks against the paint, looks against the kitchen cabinets, looks against the back splash, etc. When choosing your materials, it's best to start with the ones you absolutely love. Like if you're a hardwood floor person like me, I'm picking the hardwood floors first and basing everything off the hardware floors, because that's what I look at as soon as I enter a home. If you are a kitchen countertop person, you probably want to start by picking a countertop for your kitchen, then the cabinets, backsplash, floors and so on. So, think of the materials that you need. Start with the first thing, and then build upon that.

3. Wants & Needs

Do you want a bigger closet? Do you want a bigger bathroom? Do you want more space anywhere? Do you want a better looking kitchen or room? What made you want to remodel in the first place? Why now? You have to figure out what you want out of the remodel. Otherwise, dollars get wasted on some of the things that fall through the cracks. Some of the wants and needs may be layout changes like bigger closets, converting a closet into another space, in-law units, garage conversions, gyms, home offices, things like that.

And lastly...

4. Budget

Remodels cost money, materials cost money, labors cost money. So, we have to figure what the budget is and where the money's coming from. Are we using our own liquidity? Are we using some equity from the house in the form of a re-finance or equity line of credit? Did we just run into a big lump of money? Wherever the money's coming from, you should put a good chunk away to finish your wants and needs.

We already figured out what our wants and needs are. Our materials that we like and the functionality of it. Now, from that we can kind of gauge what kind of budget and how much this is going to cost. This is a great time to get estimates and start letting your vision come to fruition with the budget that you're thinking of. General contractors can be a great source for this. You want to at least two -three quotes, but above all you want a contractor that knows what they're doing, that has the experience to actually deliver what you want to do. You don't want a local handyman adding 700 square feet to your back of the house.

So, you want to make sure that you have the right general contractor, that is ALWAYS senior to price, you know the old saying, you want it cheap, you get it cheap. 

If you are at the stage where you already know what you want, and now you need a quote, reach out below. We would love to quote you, walk you through the process, brainstorm different ideas, and actually turn your vision to reality.