6 Tips to Make the Remodel Process Easier
Whether you’re simply painting the living room or expanding the entire master suite, remodeling can be a very stressful time. It’s important to put a plan into action if you want to keep your stress to a minimum and help the project run more smoothly. Check out these six quick tips to make the process more enjoyable.
1. Set a realistic budget.
Keep in mind that construction budgets tend to be blown out due to a long list of variables, so it’s always a good idea to leave yourself a little cushion. By setting a detailed budget, you have an itemized list of mini financial goals, and you can work to make sure labor and materials come in on or under budget. Protecting your finances and having a clear-cut understanding of cost up front is one of the surest ways to reduce stress.
2. Manage the project thoroughly.
Keep records of expenses, notes on conversations with hired professionals, lists of completed tasks and tasks that remain, detailed contact information for hired professionals, and so on. Create a timeline with desired completion dates for all phases of the project and set goals for how to best meet those dates. File bids, invoices, licenses, and all important documentation. If you stay on top of the details, you are less likely to get overwhelmed.
3. Have reasonable expectations.
Things will go wrong. Items will cost more than expected, the wrong material may come in, and deadlines for completion are often pushed out. As long as you’re prepared for these common construction occurrences, you can handle them with poise and keep your blood pressure from getting too high.
4. Know when to hire professionals.
Saving money by doing things yourself is admirable. But it’s important to know your limits. Tradespeople are professionals in their industry because they’ve studied the work, they have experience, and they have special tools and talents that you might not. When a project is beyond your abilities, investing in a professional is worth it in the long run. Otherwise, you run the risk of doing the job yourself, making a mistake, and having to hire a professional anyway to fix it.
5. Clean the worksite at the end of each day.
Whether you’re doing the work, or you’ve hired professionals, the worksite can occasionally be left messy after a long day of good work. While you may be exhausted and not at all interested in cleaning up, investing half an hour into sweeping, throwing trash away, picking up miscellaneous pieces, and wiping a few things down will not only keep your home from becoming too disheveled, but will also make for a more productive start to the following workday.
6. Take breaks.
Get out of the house for a few days, spend the weekend outside, or just schedule a day or two with no workers. The noise and mess can start to feel chaotic, so give yourself and your family a little time to breathe and reset before picking up again. HS
