First Steps When Renovating

Have you thought of renovating your home? It can be exciting and terrifying all at the same time. The hardest part is figuring out where to start. We've felt all of the emotions as we were preparing for our renovation and want to share the journey with you. Breaking it down into manageable steps is the key to success. 

The first thing that we needed to do is to decide what we wanted to do ourselves and who we were going to hire to accomplish the end results. Just like if we were going to take a trip, the first step in any project is to know what you want to have done and accomplish when you finished, You wouldn't get in your car and just start driving if you wanted to go to a very specific place, right? You would know where you were going to go and most likely how you were going to get there.

Start with the Vision

Spend some time viewing photos for inspiration. Before starting our renovation, Lisa created a Pinterest board so that she had her vision that was in her head in photos. This is helpful when showing contractors the goal when completed. 

Who Is Going To Do The Work

Are you going to do it as a DIY project or are you going to hire a professional? What is the right answer? It depends on what you are doing and your level of expertise.  We hired professionals to do electrical, countertops and backsplash, flooring, and painting the common areas with high ceilings. We wanted to do the official update with a shiplap wall. 

Who Should You Hire

Hiring the right professional to do the job is important and what we found worked best was to ask for recommendations. If we didn't have recommendations for an expert, we looked online and read reviews. Looking at Google or Thumbtack was very helpful.

Getting Estimates

You want to give the same scope of work or the same project details to everyone that might be looking to give a proposal. Why? It is important to have all estimates equal.  

Deciding Who To Trust

The next step is deciding who you are going to hire to implement the vision. Many people want to go with the cheapest. We want to pay attention to the budget. However, we went based on the instinct of who is going have the vision, the best, give us the best product, and make the experience the most positive. And that's why People hire Treu Group Real Estate for their real estate needs. We did the same thing for all of our clients.

Be Clear On The Expectations

The final step before the work begins is to be clear on the expectations. Don't leave anything out if it's important to you. For example, let's say you need it done by a certain timeline, it needs to be in the contract, and possibly a consequence if they don't meet that timeline. Make sure that everything that has been promised is actually in the written document. That document is important, so make sure to read it, understand it, and agree to it. 

This is not the most fun part of the process and yet it is so necessary to make sure you are able to get the results you desire. I cant wait to see the next step which is actually having my vision come true. 

Stay tuned for more tips on renovating and photos of the progress.