You’ve bought a home cheaply to renovate it from the ground up. You have lots of ideas of how you want to look, and you’re sure it will also add value to your new investment. However, you’ve never renovated a fixer-upper before. How hard can it be? As you can appreciate, people’s ideas of renovation can differ. For example, some folks do most or all of the work themselves, while others just pay contractors to do the work for them. Before you begin your renovation, take a look at the things people don’t tell you about.
By Team Savant
Image: Nolan Issac
1. You'll Spend Lots of Time Online Procrastinating
Before you start any renovation work, you will undoubtedly need to gain some ideas and inspiration to consider for your project. The easiest way to do that is by looking online, browsing through many websites and looking through Pinterest for help.
The trouble is, many people spend lots of time at the idea-seeking stage before they actually do anything. Bear in mind that might happen to you.
2. Don't Renovate the Whole House at Once
Some homeowners of fixer-upper project houses make the mistake of trying to renovate every room in their homes simultaneously. It might not seem like a bad idea, but it’s a terrible one if you intend on living in your home at the same time the work gets carried out.
Instead, it makes sense to renovate one room at a time. If you don’t have the space to store a room’s contents elsewhere in your house, temporarily store them in a storage unit. It’s easy to find affordable pricing on storage units so that you won’t be spending a fortune.
3. You Will Always Go Over Your Budget
The next point to consider is that while you carefully budget the work for each part of your house, you’ll always go over that budget. Why? The answer is simple: you’ll always have unexpected repairs or changes to make.
What’s more, you may forget to account for certain costs like contractor’s fees or inspections costs related to your local authority.
4. You Will Always Go Over Your Deadline
Giving yourself what you deem a realistic deadline for all the work to get completed is one thing. However, don’t assume you will meet it with ease. Delays with contractors, material supply problems and unexpected issues with daily life can slow things down.
Sometimes, you may experience delays that are out of your control, such as needing to wait for a building inspection if you’re making major alterations.
5. You'll Have to Become a Project Manager
Last but not least, if you have zero experience in project management, you will soon get a crash course on that when you start renovating your home! You will need to organise things like materials, contractors like plumbers and electricians, and building waste removal.
You will likely need to make dozens of decisions that can make you feel quite stressed out and anxious. However, all the “pain” of taking on such a project will be worth it when you end up with a house you love!