So you’re ready to start making serious improvements on your space. Where to begin? It’s a question homeowners have been asking for years, especially in terms of older properties. When it comes to home remodeling and home renovation, the answer often has to do with where a homeowner’s priorities lie. Are you someone who can live without two working bathrooms for awhile, but simply can’t live without a kitchen? Are you content to cook out of the microwave for a few months as long as you have your brand new bedroom out of the way? If you’re ready to start making way for serious construction work, you’ll have to be practical about what kind of inconvenience you can and can’t deal with in the long-term. However, if you’re truly neutral and have no preference, here are a few things to think about before you start planning to rip the floorboards up and start remodeling to your heart’s content.
Floors Can Wait
If you’re ready to do a major remodel, you might want to get your floors out of the way first, especially if you’ve got a lot of ground to cover. However, holding off on ripping all the floors out could save you a lot of stress in the long term. If you’re planning on living in your house while repairs are being done, you’ll want to save giant projects that take less time, such as flooring, until after you’ve gotten rid of projects that are bound to take a lot of time, such as all the plumbing work and rewiring that goes into major bathroom renovations and kitchen remodels. Your floors are also very delicate. If you’re working with hardwood floors, they’ll need enough time to cure. That means you’ll want to minimize the amount of time contractors spend going back and forth over the newly-renovated area. If they’re also going to be ripping out walls, you’ll want to make sure all that drywall and debris doesn’t clutter up you’re newly-done floors. Make sure floors come last in order to get the best, glossiest possible result.
Kitchens and Bathrooms Front and Center
Your kitchen and your bathrooms are the most high-traffic areas of the home. They’re central places that everyone needs to use, and they can’t be left out of commission for long periods of time. That’s why it’s wise to get them done first. No one wants to live in a house where they can’t cook for more than a few days or have to line up forever to use a single bathroom while the other one is being redone. If you’re working with limited funds, there are even better reasons to start your home rehaul with a kitchen or bathroom remodel. These rooms bring in the largest possible return on the money you spend remodeling, with the kitchen bringing back up to 70% of what you spend when the time comes to sell. Even if you’re not planning on selling your house anytime soon, you’ll be adding great resale value by simply updating old plumbing and changing out fixtures and cabinets in your kitchen over time.
Small Projects Last
Don’t sweat the small stuff, literally. When it comes to work you can do on your own time, such as putting a new coat of paint on your shutters or re-organizing your front-of-house section by planting a new garden and adding some new light fixtures, it can all wait. While some of these additions, such as repainting your entire home or sprucing up your entryway, can lead to a big boost in curb appeal, they’re also not extremely pressing or time-sensitive. If you’re doing a large home remodel, work on hiring contractors for large inside jobs before you start doing your own DIY projects.
Don’t Forget Windows
If you’re going through the trouble of remodeling your home from the inside out, you don’t want to forget the crucial difference a new set of energy-efficient windows can make. Appearances matter, and there’s certainly nothing like having a brand new kitchen or a beautiful, spacious bathroom to work with. However, when it comes to making practical changes to your home, swapping out old, single-pane windows for new ones can equal big bucks in savings, added curb appeal, and resale value. This is especially true if you’re getting your walls redone. There’s no point in strengthening your home’s foundation if you’re working with old, leaky windows that won’t even give you the best temperature control or protection from the outside elements.