One of the best parts of owning your own home is you can change whatever you want! With home renovations and fixer-uppers on the rise, you can modify whatever home you buy to fit your personality and lifestyle. Pretty much everyone has gotten addicted to one of the many home renovation TV shows, or read about home renovations in blogs and magazines.
However, home renovations aren't for the faint of heart. It's time-consuming and costs a lot of money. Plus, there are always potential road bumps on the way to a completed project. To help you make sure your home renovation process goes smoothly, make sure you don't make any of these common home renovation mistakes!
1. Forgetting About Permits
This is a big one. It's a mistake you might not even realize you made until you go to sell your house.
Forgetting about permits needed for specific types of home renovations can keep your house from selling until you get the proper permits and inspections.
Before Starting Renovations:
Before you start any home renovations, go to your city or county permitting office and ask them what permits you'll need.
Small projects, like painting your walls a new color or replacing old cabinets, usually don't need a permit. However, any large-scale updates likely need a local permit.
Some home renovations that typically require a permit include:
New windows
Replacing a water heater
Fences (in some areas)
Building a garage
Adding on to your house
2. Creating an Unrealistic Budget
Watching perfect couples on TV make some home renovations might convince you that you can also accomplish the same project with that budget.
However, it's important to understand that budgets can go over and timelines can take longer than expected. If your budget is too tight, you could be facing some hard decisions down the road or risk delaying the project until you can afford everything.
From upgrading to different materials, hiring additional labor, or covering any incidentals that pop up, your budget needs a little extra room to breathe.
How to Properly Budget for Home Renovations:
Whether you want to update your bathroom or modernize your kitchen, the first step is to calculate the cost of everything you'll need.
Once you have an estimate of the supplies needed, you can start getting bids from contractors. This will give you an idea of the total cost of the project so you can make sure you have enough money to cover what you need and any extra issues that might come up.
If you don't have the money saved to cover the full cost of materials, labor, and then some, it might be best to wait until you have all the funds. It's better to wait a bit longer and save up money than to buy the cheapest materials available, which brings us to our next home renovation mistake…
3. Buying the Cheapest Materials
While seeing the price difference between what you want and the cheapest materials you could buy is tempting, it might not actually save you money in the long run.
Ever heard the saying, "you get what you pay for"? That's especially true when it comes to home renovations. For example, if you purchase high-quality flooring, it probably won't need to be replaced for decades depending on the material and wear and tear. If you bought the cheapest option, it might only last 5-10 years until you have to replace it again. You'll end up paying more to have the job redone multiple times instead of just purchasing a higher-quality material in the first place.
How to Purchase the Best Materials:
Discuss options for materials with your contractor so you can fully understand the difference between the price, quality, and longevity of different materials.
They can help you decide what's best for you and your home depending on budget, the work being done, and the durability of whatever you're purchasing.
4. Skipping Prep Work
Breaking this concept down to the simplest of terms: before you paint a room, it's important to tape off corners, ceilings, and baseboards before getting started so you don't have to correct it later. Sure, all this tape takes up extra time, but wouldn't you rather see crisp, clean lines?
The same goes for any home renovation – you don't ever want to skip prep work!
Important prep work includes:
Covering furniture with drop cloths
Putting up plastic sheeting to keep construction dust and debris contained in the room being worked on
If your kitchen is being remodeled, make sure you have somewhere to prep food
Even if it seems cumbersome to handle all of the prep work, you'll be happy you did once renovations start. Without prepping everything properly, you could be creating more clean-up work for yourself in the future.
5. Not Taking Accurate Measurements
We've all heard the saying "Measure twice, cut once". But, honestly, there's no harm in measuring ten times just to make sure everything is 100% accurate.
Inaccurate measurements can cause huge issues once renovations are underway. You need to make sure you've ordered enough flooring, that cabinets allow proper clearance for appliances, or that your shelving units won't be too tall.
This is one of, if not the most, important steps when it comes to any home renovation project.
6. Failing to Anticipate a Mess
Home renovations can be messy. If you've never been through a major home renovation project before, brace yourself and make sure you're fully prepared.
Removing and installing things creates a lot of dust. To keep everything as clean as possible, you'll need to seal off whatever room is being worked on so the dust doesn't get all over everything else in your house.
Your house will probably need a deep clean after any renovations regardless, but anticipating a mess allows you to keep everything as clean as possible.
You'll also need to make preparations in the event you're unable to use your kitchen or bathroom while it's being worked on.
If you can avoid these mistakes, your renovation will undoubtedly make your house shine. Good luck!
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