A home renovation will always be an exciting time for home owners. It’s their chance to make their homes look or feel the way they’ve always wanted it to be. They get to make their houses bigger, better, and much more aesthetically pleasing than before. However, a home renovation can also bring on a lot of stress as there can be a lot of things that could go wrong. Going over-budget is one common home renovation situation. Failing to finish on schedule is another. When it’s finished and it doesn’t look or feel the way you wanted everything to be is one more thing to be upset about.
In some cases, home renovations gone wrong have put enormous strain on relationships. Some don’t even survive the home renovation project. That, however, is very much avoidable. Surviving home renovations is highly doable. Here are some tips to do just that.
Do careful planning and research
Before you get any home renovation project underway, make sure that you have done careful planning and research about it. Don’t get it done instantly just because you saw and liked a picture of a kitchen or a bathroom in a magazine. Find out more about that type of kitchen or bathroom, the kind of materials that were used for it, and most importantly, seek a reputable builder or renovator that will help you get the kind of results that you expect. It would also be great if you go to home improvement stores and compare prices of materials. Also, be sure you already have a final design in mind. Whatever you do, always be prepared before starting a home renovation project.
Expect the unexpected
A home renovation is basically a construction project, and it’s but natural for a construction project to hit certain snags. For example, when you’re expanding your kitchen, you have to bring down an exterior wall. Everything goes smoothly, until you realise that it’s hard to find new bricks that will match the ones on the existing walls. Or, there could be issues with the plumbing that you didn’t foresee, and you’d be forced to make adjustments to your budget and your timetable.
Give the project more time to finish
Once the project hits certain snags, delays are inevitable. Some home owners freak out when a home renovation gets delayed. Don’t be one of them. You should always be ready to devote more time to the project than you expected. However, if you really don’t want delays to take place, then you should increase the time you think it will take for a kitchen renovation project to be completed and ready for use. We recommend giving yourself an extra month. After all, cleaning the area and setting everything up can take weeks.
Learn to make compromises
Failure to compromise on elements of the renovation—from the design to the amount of money you are willing to spend—gives rise to conflict, and this kind of conflict can take a toll on relationships. Some couples even end up separating or getting a divorce mid-renovation. That’s why for couples who are thinking about getting a home renovation done, we recommend that you try to start with smaller projects and see if you can compromise. When you move on to home renovations, it would be ideal to divide responsibilities so each one has a say in the creative process.