It can feel like a daunting task deciding where to begin when you’re starting to renovate a house. But then, with any job, the hardest parts are always the start and the end. Because once you’ve dug your feet in and settled into something of a groove, you should find the rest almost takes care of itself.
We’re here to sort through those ‘million and one different things that need doing’ and settle on the basics – the foundations. Once you’ve got those well underway, you should have a much clearer picture of where you want to end up and what you really want your home to look and feel like.
Make a list
Perhaps a painfully obvious one to start with but you’d be amazed how many homeowners simply take a home renovation job-by-job without ever following a definitive template. If you’ve just moved into your house then chances are you had a survey carried out and this can be incredibly helpful when putting together your list.
Take it room-by-room
When putting together your list, make sure you arrange it by room as there’s nothing more disruptive than trying to do little bits and bobs in every room at once. Say, for example, the bathroom is the room in need of the most work – Put the bathroom at the top of your list and create subheadings for each task that needs to be done within it. Start with something simple and obvious like changing the bath panels and move on to more thorough and complex jobs like tiling or changing the flooring.
Arrange your list
Group all of your jobs into categories. How you want to arrange those categories is up to you. It could be anything from the urgency of the job to jobs that require professional help and those that can be done DIY style. Generally speaking, it’s always the ‘big’ jobs that need to be done first. For example, if the home needs to be rewired then this should always be the first job on the list as it involved ripping up floorboards and potentially tearing into walls!
Discuss your designs
Whether you’re working with an architect or planning the home renovations yourselves, the next stage should be to create a mood board and a more general plan regarding what you want. Don’t be afraid to ask friends and family for their advice and opinions either. They might have an angle you haven’t considered
Get quotes
Finally, before you ‘tuck-in’, so to speak, it’s time to get down to brass tax and figure out how much your renovation is actually going to cost. Get as many quotes as you can for all the jobs you need doing and you should have a nice round overall figure to work with. Best of luck!
