The cost of home renovations adds up quickly and before you know it, you’ve spent a good chunk of change. When you have a budget in mind, then you’re off to a great start with remodeling your home.
Let’s look at some ways to prevent home renovations from hurting your bank balance too badly.
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Don’t Replace: Re-surface & Re-cover
Look for ways to improve a space without needing to strip everything out and start over. In the kitchen, instead of putting in a whole new kitchen set, you can remove the stained backsplash for something new and colorful, and make other careful changes. Why not sand down the kitchen cabinets and refinish or repaint them? Use a cleaner to buff up the grout between kitchen tiles and de-grease the tiles so they shine up to reflect light back into the kitchen area.
Don’t Tackle Too Much Together
While you’re minding the pennies, you will need to be more careful with your budget. When you combine that necessity with a desire for the luxurious finishes and expensive improvements, then you must consider where your priorities are. It is certainly possible to build up the money to pay for renovations for one room and to complete it to a high specification. After the room is completed, save up to fund the cost of the next room that’ll be renovated while you plan what changes you wish to make to a third room.
What Will Have the Most Impact?
With any home renovation, it’s best to consider what will have the most impact in your living areas. If the walls in the family room have seen better days and leave the space feeling cold and poorly insulated, then getting an expert in for some drywall installation and then resurfacing the wall afterward is going to improve the warmth in the space.
When a previous drywall installation has seen better days, then replacing it sets that living area up for many years to come. Poorly constructed walls create structural issues and add to the heating bills when heat is lost through the walls too. If you’re worrying about the costs associated with this, you can simply use an online calculator to work out the average cost of drywall installation.
Focus on Natural Light
Are you able to change the windows where they’re an older design that lets in too little light? When doing so, it lights up the rooms making them more attractive and airy. With the improved natural illumination, it’s possible to see the space differently and make more economical choices about what to change and what to leave there. Perhaps the armchairs aren’t so bad, but the carpet has to go, or the cabinets just need to be cleaned and refinished. After all, renovations should complement what’s already in the home rather than be completed for their own sake.
The cost of home renovations all depends on how you tackle them, how much you do at once, and what really needs changing. Often, in wanting to put our personal stamp on a property, we insist on making numerous renovations that aren’t really necessary. Get a handle on what is needed and projects that are wants not real needs, and mostly put money towards the necessary changes over the purely cosmetic ones.