Functional Guide For Adjusting Your Homes Garage and Kitchen: an Anxiety Free Home Makeover
February 23, 2009 by · 8 Comments
Remodeling a few rooms of your home is a viable alternative to packing up your stuff and buying a new home. However, it isn’t always cheaper to remodel; planning mistakes or bad organization can certainly lead to emotional and financial losses. In-depth research and proper organization are your two best weapons to side-step the common pitfalls of a home remodel. Make sure to use them!
Your bathroom, your garage, and your kitchen are great rooms to start your home remodeling. But prior to beginning your project, you should ask yourself a number of questions. The most important question (which you need to answer honestly!) pertains to money: how much can you invest into your remodel? It is critical that you are realistic with your financial position when considering a remodel. Unless you exercise great care when accepting bids from local contractors, your total construction cost will most likely run 20% to 30% higher than estimated. While your home has limitless possibilities for remodeling, this article will only talk about three important rooms: the bathroom, the kitchen, and the garage.
Just about everyone views their bathroom as a sanctuary. Where else can people lock themselves out from the world and enjoy a warm shower or a hot bubble bath? When you are organizing your bathroom remodel, you should take into consideration how your time is spent in the bathroom: staring into the mirror or soaking in the bathtub. How would you answer that question? Your answer reveals where you should focus your design ideas. Do you know there are options such as towel warming racks and even heated flooring? And it is always sound advice to invest a little extra money into higher quality bathroom fixtures. Investing more money into the bells and whistles
Investing more cash into the bells and whistles can quite easily transform an everyday bath into a mini spa.
It is a well known fact that over 50% of home owners don’t park their vehicle in the garage. Instead of having ample parking space, they have turned their garage into a storage unit. Have you allowed your car’s parking spot to become a storage unit? If so, you should remodel your garage. A garage remodel can substantially increase your storage space, add more “usable” square footage to your home, or it could possibly allow you to park a car inside of it. With easy garage floor tiles you will be able to create the garage of your dreams. You can buy garage floor tiles from a variety of online stores or you can go to your local home improvement store. Easily compare prices on garage floor tiles by doing the right research online. This will ensure you get the best deal.
Outside of gaining some extra storage, a garage can be remodeled into an elaborate work room, a laundry room, a workout room, or possibly an extra living space (like a spare bedroom or a kid’s play room). If extra living space is a possibility for your garage remodel, you will have to factor in the extra construction costs for electrical, cooling, and heating. And if you must add a bathroom or some form of hot and cold water supply, you must remember to include plumbing costs into your estimate.
Remodeling a kitchen is usually the most costly (and complex) home remodel project you can perform. It is quite an undertaking; don’t take it lightly. It is always recommended that you hire a qualified contracting company than to perform your own kitchen remodel. If you request bids from several different contractors (which is a good idea), your breakdown of work needs to be very detailed about the different construction materials that need to be used (the more detailed the proposals, the easier they are to compare). Also, if you don’t specify the construction materials, there is a strong chance your contractor will choose inferior (or more expensive) materials than what your original design called for.
Designing a layout of your kitchen is the most important stage of the construction for your new kitchen. Every aspect of the layout needs to meet with your approval before you start construction. You (and anyone else who lives in your house) must consider the down time; how long can you tolerate cooking or buying your meals outside the home? The more you change the layout, the longer you can expect to live without a working kitchen.
Outside of hiring a licensed contractor for your remodeling project, it is also a good idea to hire a consultant to oversee the progress and quality of work you receive from your contractor. Most of us cannot tell the difference between high-quality electrical wiring and bulk, discount wiring, but a contracting consultant can. He or she can let you know if your contractor or subcontractors take shortcuts.
Your overall livelihood (and happiness) is closely associated with your home. Be extremely organized in your planning and preparation for your project and your home remodel will definitely be a pleasant one.
