Planning ahead is vital in ensuring that the process of achieving your dream home goes smoothly. This way, you can avoid very real hassles and focus more on feeding your inner desire to enhance, improve and beautify your dwelling place.

Home renovation (for example, refreshing and upgrading your interiors, building new stairs, having a pool installed, and overhauling landscaping) involves a great amount of work by teams of people with experience in getting the job done right.

To make sure that everything is kept right on track towards the creation of your beautiful new space, be sure to take care of the following tasks:

#1. Visualize your dream home

Even before you choose the professionals to hire for your home renovation, you should start visualizing ideas. If you are expanding or adding a room, think about details like how the space will be altered and how it could affect foot traffic patterns and the way you use the area.

Every renovation detail (replacing the window system, adding extra light fixtures, building new bedrooms, expanding the outdoor area) will have an impact on how you relate to the house, so it is important to consider every aspect of the changes that you plan to introduce.

#2. Set your budget

Having a budget requires you to set expectations within yourself. This is where you start being realistic and crunching the numbers to get an idea of how much the project will cost you.

Hiring an interior fit-out company will help you realize the cost of your investment; the experienced team can talk to your about what they can do for your home while staying within the limits of what you can afford.

Get quotes from different contractors to figure out how much you will be spending. Once you find one that suits your budget, determine how you plan to finance the project. Your home renovation won’t go far if you are unable to fund it through to completion.

#3. Get permissions and certifications

Before your hired contractors begin renovating, make sure that all permissions and certifications have been secured so that the project can commence. Otherwise, you could end up facing various interruptions and committing serious violations that could put the renovation work on hold.

Most states require building permits to ensure compliance. Make sure to factor in the expense of permits in your plan to avoid going over your budget.

Common home projects that require permits will include the following:

• Interior renovations in the bathroom, kitchen, etc.
• Changing exterior design
• New buildings such as a garage, barn or guest house
• Extensions such as patios, decks or room add-ons
• Home maintenance such as home automation, plumbing and electrical

#4. Lay down ground rules

The bigger the renovation project is, the greater chances there are for frustrations to arise. You may experience supply shortages, equipment breakdowns, and even work delays.

Set some ground rules for your workers and family by doing the following:

• Inform the workers where they can park trucks and store equipment overnight.
• If there is concrete involved, let the workers know where to dump the leftovers.
• Put your family members in charge of making arrangements for pets while the renovation is ongoing. Consider taking your family cat or dog to a relative’s house for the time being.

#5. Secure your ROI

You should see to it that the home renovation project increases your property’s value. This way, if you decide to sell your home, it will still be competitive in the marketplace.

Here’s how you can calculate your ROI:

• Consider the present value of your home and add the estimated cost of your project. Make sure that you include the interest rates if you are getting home improvement loans.
• Compare the total amount you got to the value of other houses on the market with similar improvements.
• Make sure that the total will not exceed 15-20 percent of the net value of your home.

ROI is not the only metric you can use to measure the value of your home renovation. You also have to weigh your ROI against your personal value and how your project can improve your life.

#6. Add protection

Some contractors will sub-contract laborers, which means they may not be covered under the contractor’s policy. You should verify the insurance of all the parties involved in the renovation. This way, you can consider extending the limits of your liability insurance for safety purposes.

Another way you can protect yourself from errors is to increase the coverage amount of your homeowner’s insurance. Given that your home value will increase with the new improvements, there will be more at stake. Do not wait until all projects are complete before increasing your insurance to avoid paying for damages.

Keeping up with a renovation project is no easy feat. That is why it is important that before you make changes in your home, you are able to take the time to sufficiently reflect on it.

Understand your purpose for pushing through with renovation in the first place before you make the plan to get it done. Consider the things listed above to avoid spending lavishly on your home renovation project, and save tons of money in the process.

AUTHOR BIO

Rachel Hennessey manages the Pools and Landscaping Division of Hennessey LLC. She also works on Tender and Pre-Qualification and brings in new business to the company’s Construction, Interiors and Civils Division.