How to Avoid a Stressful Remodel
Unclear design requirements, unrealistic budget expectations, and undefined schedules are a recipe for a high-stress remodel.
Way back when Veronica and I were first married, we bought a small bungalow with bright eyed dreams of fixing it up and turning it into our home. We knew nothing about the process of remodeling and even less about marriage. We ripped half the house down to the studs before we made our first mortgage payment. Boy, oh boy, did things get stressful in a hurry! A year later the renovations were finally completed and our marriage was still intact, but we learned a lot about stress and unmet expectations.
Fast forward to today and Veronica and I are still designing, building, and remodeling homes but we have figured out a few things that make our process much less stressful than that first experience.
Here are five steps that we take at Smith House Company to ensure that our remodels are as stress free as possible.
“The secret to a less-stress remodel is in a clearly documented and communicated plan.”
The Five Steps to a Less-Stress Remodel:
Finalize the Design, Budget and Schedule BEFORE the physical work begins.
Slow is Smooth and Smooth is Fast. It is so tempting to start demolition as soon as you decide to remodel, but you need to have a complete design, schedule and budget before you do any physical work to your home or kitchen. Otherwise you are setting yourself up for a very stressful journey as the scope grows, the timeline drags on, and the budget balloons out of control.
Don’t rush the design process.
Dreaming about what a space could be is one of my favorite parts of the remodeling process. It’s fun to play with different ideas - big ideas, impractical ideas, bad ideas - get them all out and prototype them quickly. Sometimes your first idea is the best, sometimes it’s not. But, either way, this process will help elevate and validate your ideas into a more comprehensive design; meaning less regret, rework and change orders in the future.
Build a budget based on hard quotes - not guesses.
The design-bid process is a cycle. Once you understand the scope of work required for your rough design, go ahead and get ballpark figures from your trades. This early budgeting process helps set expectations and allows for changes in scope or finishes before you waste too much time getting all of the details together only to find out your plan is outside of your budget.
If the preliminary bids look good, finalize your design and go back to your trades for hard bids on the exact scope of work and specifications. This builds a budget based off of reality instead of guesses.
Believe me, this one thing will avoid so much stress. The remodel’s cost is the result of the scope, the finish level, and the specifications. It is better to know exactly what the budget is before the work begins. If it is more than you want to spend, you have wasted only a little time, energy and money. Running out of money mid-process is a nightmare for everyone involved.
Build a realistic schedule.
Start to build your final schedule when you get the hard bids back from your trades and material suppliers. Use this information to create a Gantt Chart that takes into account material lead time, the trades estimated time to completion, and project workflow. Work with your trades to understand their timeline and what other trades might be able to work in the house at the same time. Don’t assume anything and make sure that the final schedule is understood and agreed upon by each of your trades. Buy-in from all parties at the planning process is critical to a successful remodel.
Work the Plan.
Now that you have a clear, accurate and documented Design, Budget, and Schedule it is time to start the physical work! Order materials in plenty of time before they are needed. Keep the communication channels open with your trades, making sure everyone understands and agrees upon their start and completion dates. I have found that talking with each trade weekly for about three weeks before they are expected to start, and then every other day the week before they start is a good way to avoid no shows or pushed start dates.
The secret to a less-stress remodel is in a clearly documented and communicated plan.
If you follow the simple steps of creating a clear design document, building a realistic budget, scheduling the work in conjunction with the trades, and then executing the remodel to these documented plans, then you will be well on your way to a successful home improvement project while minimizing your stress.
Building can be super stressful, but it doesn’t have to be. We would love to help.
Till next time,
JS
