Home improvement is vital for comfort in your living space. Your home is the one place you can let loose and relax. However, you might be looking into how to increase the value of your home in order to sell it. It is possible that you have found your dream home and can barely wait to buy it.
Whatever the scenario, home renovation is waving madly at you and you cannot ignore it. There will be floors to rip out and new ones to put in, cabinets and walls and painting and so much more that you have to consider. What do you need to consider?
- A contractor or DIY?
- Costs
- Renovation ideas
You must have a picture in mind of what you would like the end product to look like. It is also important to figure out if the remodeling is something you can undertake or you need to hire a contractor. If you need to hire someone, how much will that cost you?
Where to look for ideas
What if you have no idea what you want your home to look like after all the work is done? Where can you get ideas? Apart from visiting that friend who has the dreamy townhouse up the road, you can get lots of ideas from the internet.
Many sites like Pinterest and Instagram have contractors online that constantly post ideas that you can borrow. Google is another good source. Aside from the internet, there are housing and real estate magazines that you can buy and get countless design ideas.
Finding a contractor
Not everyone has the skills required or the time to undertake a major remodelling project. Once you make the decision to hire a contractor, there are questions you need to ask:
Response time
How fast do they respond? If they cannot call within your set time, they may not have the time to do your work. Tardiness is not an admirable quality in any undertaking.
Attitude
How do the two of you get along? Do they listen to your ideas? If you get someone who thinks they know better than you what you need because they have the experience, you may be want to give them a miss.
The size of the company
You might be dealing with a one-man show that may be unavailable some days because there are other small projects that may come up. You need to know whether there is a replacement available if they are unavailable one day for whatever reasons.
Licensing
Your contractor must be licensed to practice and to do plumbing and electrical work.
Costs
How much is the whole project going to cost you? There should be a payment structure available that also includes protection terms for the involved parties. If a project does not cost at least $500, you can probably do it yourself with a little guidance.
How long will the project take?
This is important and an achievable goal needs to be set here. You will also need to know how soon errors, if any, can be rectified.
As soon as you decide that you want to do some remodelling, you should set the wheels of motion going so that you do not lose momentum and decide that everything is fine as it is; after all, nothing has fallen off…yet.
