Planning a Remodel?

Are you considering a remodel in your home? Most people at some point in their life decide to continue planting roots in their homes and bringing it up to date. Now if this is you, keep on reading because I would love to give you some background about the early stages of remodeling. If this isn't you, read if you would like to gain some

knowledge for future or something to refer to a friend!

When we consider remodeling we need to start with thinking about what is a healthy budget that you can afford. Not just a random number that you think the remodel should cost but actually sit down, look at your finances. A remodel can be pricey depending on the scope of work you are looking to complete. After doing some of my own research when I was looking to remodel my home I found that a standard kitchen remodel would cost you about 10-15% of the current value of your home. Not just what you paid for it back in the 1960's but today's market value. While a standard bathroom remodel could land around 2-5% of your homes current market value. This is a landing more towards a bare minimum remodel for these figures. Meaning, you would probably update cabinets and countertops but not move any plumbing or remove any walls in a kitchen. For a bathroom, this would fit more into a standards guest bathroom remodel. Many elements go into the price of a remodel such as project management, material costs, labor, and design work. I could go into so much more of this topic but that will be for another post!

As much as I love HGTV for ideas. The timelines on the shows are not realistic in many cases. If I could plan out your kitchen remodel from demo day to completion I would say give me about 4-5 weeks overall. A standard guest bathroom remodel would take us about 5-6 weeks depending on if you would like glass doors for your shower/tub. These timelines are based on standard remodels. I think one common misconception when it comes to a time frame and project management is making sure someone is on the job site everyday. There may not be the need for this as we may be waiting on another trade such as counters to be installed before I can continue on with something else. As much as we would like to keep projects moving in a timely manner there are some instances that we just cannot afford to have a crew there to get one small item done when they can come back at another time and complete everything at once. There is some lag time in a remodel and it happens to everyone. One thing I would request as a home owner if I was hiring a company to remodel is a schedule. Something that estimates the timing my project would take from demo day to completion. During the time of the remodel you will be inconvenienced whether it is a kitchen and you will not have access to all of your appliances or if it is a bathroom you may need to share another bathroom until the remodeled one is complete. Nonetheless, when the project is complete you will be amazed and feel like you can eventually do this all over again because that is what people do! Its like having a baby, painful at first but worth it at the end!

Many homeowners considering hiring an all inclusive company for the convenience of not having to schedule/manage their own remodeling projects. Mostly everyone nowadays has a job whether it’s a stay at home parent taking care of the kids or a investment banker pulling many hours during the week. With the stress we have in our everyday lives, do we really want to also hire many subcontractors and schedule them for your remodel? If it was me as a homeowner, I would say HECK NO! But this is for you to decide. When you hire an all inclusive remodeling company (such as Palm Haven Design & Build :) ) you are allowing yourself to trust the process and take a step back. This company would schedule their subcontractors or maybe employees and come up with some sort of time frame on getting the scope of work completed. Also, many of these subcontractors may have already done other projects with the company and gave themselves a reputation. There is no need for you to interview a bunch of people this way. Yes you could possibly save some money since you aren't paying for the project management and that became your responsibility but it may not be saving you thousands of dollars. At the end of the day, working with one  person is far easier than working with multiple to get the complete project across.

There is so much more we can get into with planning a remodel but that could turn into a book with me. Please keep in mind that budget should be your first step, decide on whether you want to run the project or have someone else do it for you, and think about what you will do throughout the duration of your project. Keep checking in on our website for more blog post to come. We would love to teach you as much as we can about design trends and ideas. If you have any questions at all feel free to reach out or comment below!