Home Remodel Estimator - Itemized costing guide for your home remodeling needs

A question that arises from new home owners of relatively small house units.  Will curtains be OK instead of doors.  Ah, it’s a question indeed and the answer to it lies on the owners activities and furnishings for such small spaces.

If you have too small space to work with then YES, doors may be too restrictive for indoor movements and so curtains will make sense.  Small space but less furnishings, ummm, then no, you may put doors in provided that you comfortably open and close the door without bumping on them.

The key really is for you to evaluate your comfortable living situation + the furnishings around you that play together with indoors.

So anyway, if you really want curtains for doorways let me offer you a few simple steps to get you started from ehow.com : 

Step 1:  Measure your doorway and purchase material. The width of the material should be 8 to 10 inches wider than you need for your doorway curtains. The length of the material needs to be at least 3-10 inches from the floor.

Step 2:  Cut your material in half from top to bottom to make 2 panel curtains. Sew in all 4 sides about 1/2 inch. Fold over the top 1/4 inch and iron. Then fold down 1 1/2 inches and sew along the bottom making a sleeve for the curtain rod. Then turn up the bottom 1/2 inch and hem.

Step 3:  Do the same as above only with 1 panel to make a 1 panel curtain. Make it a little wider and push it together on the rod. Use a rod at the top and the bottom to keep it in place. Use the small round rods with fancy ends and a thin material. Another trick is to sew 1 inch down from the top all the way across the width and instead of a hem, turn over 2 inches at the bottom and sew at 1 inch and again at 2 inches, creating the sleeve for the rod. You will have a little top and bottom piece and won’t notice the rods as much.

(photo by Veronica Toney)

If you have kids at home it is very important to create for them a little space where they can comfortably stay and study, read or be artistically motivated.  These are kids’ study stations.  It doesn’t need to be big areas, remember they’re children so a little space to wiggle around will be sufficient.  Look at the picture above and you’d see a general view of how a kids station looks like.

Kids need these areas so that they can be trained at structural behavior.  If they do homework everywhere at home chances are they’d do everything else everywhere.  Eat in the bedroom or living room, games in the kitchen or other things in wrong areas.

Supply for them enough drawers to keep their materials in, a small table to fit their daily school chores like homework and small projects.  A nicely decorated corkboard or pin-up board.  A few shelves and viola, a warm hug and kiss will surely come your way! 

Now’s probably a good time to think about what is needed to done during the winter season.  I mean, we’re all bound to spend 3/4 of the day indoors anyway (too cold outside for any other things).  I remember asking a neighbor yesterday “so what are you guys doing for winter”.  His reponse, “oh well, you know when it’s winter, we’d just be indoors most of the time after work playing with the kids or doing some things online.”

Winter is a great time to do small improvements at home!

Maybe you need something done in the kitchen, where you’ve procrastinated all year round.  Time to tighten some loose knots and bolts maybe?  Or re-arrange the grocery cabinet for instance?  Whatever it is, be sure to jot it down your schedules of things to do for the winter season.

All home renovation/remodeling projects start with your plan.  Well guided by a professional or two, you must clearly identify what you want done on your home.  Without a clear plan, your remodeling project will result in a way you do not wish.  Some or unfortunately, none of your expectations will be met.  And you’d end up living in your home… with lots of regret.

So make sure you have a CLEAR PLAN.

Next is for you to obtain contract bids.  Show your potential contractors your plan, let them review it, ask you questions AND THEN let them develop their project bid.  These contractors at the end of the day should hand you a piece of paper (a bid) telling you how much it costs to execute your plan.

Be very careful at choosing your contractors.  You wouldn’t want to collect more than three.  Three would suffice.  Discuss the winning bid with your family, involve them in the selection if need be.  At the end of the day, your family must settle to a single contractor.  

Most of us think that if you purchase a three-piece sofa, a center table, 2 corner tables, a huge painting and accents… hey you’ve got yourself a living room.  It’s true that those are the basic ingredients to a standard living room.  What makes a living room A living room is if the room serves its intended purpose.

Again, you have to plan out the major activities you would do IN the living room.  This is a specific case where design will follow function.  

Sitting, talking, entertaining, listening to music, reading, writing, and watching television are normal accepted activities in most living rooms, and therefore the best kind of light is essential.

What do you do often?  What is your preferred central function?  Is it reading?  If it is then a three-piece sofa isn’t enough, you’d need a good reading chair, the proper lighting, maybe a small bookshelf.  

Do you entertain guests often?  Ah, then you may want to think about the floors… the easiest to clean after a party perhaps?

What is your budget for the living room renovation?  The typical/average budget for a moderately sized and planned living room falls under US$10,000.  How about yours?  It sometimes fall into what you can afford.  But at any rate, that doesn’t mean your hopes up.  Just plan what you want to realistically have and save up for it.

If you’re planning to re-design your kitchen you may want to start by planning out a list of what you most likely will be satisfied to have.  There are 3 functions that kitchens should basically perform really well.

1. A kitchen should provide you adequate STORAGE of food and kitchen tools/instruments - cabinets, drawers, an area for a refrigerator, a freezer, dish washer… all these usual “kitchen residents”.
2. A kitchen should provide you with adequate WORKING SPACE for food preparation - when you’re making food for the family you need area to move around.
3. A kitchen should provide you with an area to pile-up and do Clean-Up work

You flip a magazine page and see a great looking living room design, or a comfy bedroom, the tile accents, the color hues, the tree just outside the kitchen window… and you say “ahhh… now that’s exactly what I want in my home”.  And you head-off to your trusty interior designer with that magazine page ripped and demand (errr, request) you want it all to look like that.

Truth to tell, your designer will give you a witty grin and motion to sit you down to say… “we can try that, but honey, it may be next to impossible because no two remodeling projects are alike”.  Your designer is ABSOLUTELY RIGHT.  Let me tell you why

1.  Material sourcing - Materials used to make that magazine picture may not be available in your area.  The materials they used may not exist at all too!  Imagine behind the lens all those warm lights and bulbs that help create the “perfect color tone”.  And I won’t even mention that some (if not most) of those magazine pictures were photoshoped too.

2. Setting and landscape - Magazine pictures are well draped with the right landscape and setting.  What do I mean?  Well, the interior design may perfectly match the size of the lot, the house, the view by the window, the tree by the corner or other accents that make the design stand our a little more.  Now you can’t have “that exact tree” or “that exact view” now would you?  

3. Budget - You may not have the same budget to purchase those beautiful accents (the carpet, the vase, that painting, the mouldings… etc.)

4. The homeowners - Do you live the same life as those who’s actually living in that perfect magazine picture?  What fits your lifestyle?  Your taste? Your being?  Designs are made to fit those who will use them.

Ok, now take a deep breathe and wipe those teary eyes.  You can still have the perfect living room of course.  You just need to work with the pros… listen to them… they can guide you on how you can make your remodeling project a dream come true.

Before you laugh, consider that the bathroom is the sole room in your house that you SHOULD be spending at least an hour a day to do your business.  A lot of the entire day depends on how that hour was used… cherished.  You can say that a home is not a home without “the throne room”.

If you are building your home from ground up, wow, you’re a lucky lucky person.  You can design your bathroom the way you want it to be.  If you’re renting or just purchased a house, you’ve got the task of remodeling it to suit your taste and needs.

However you look at it, it’s still exciting isn’t it?

Let me give you a few “tips” for now to excite you further:

1. Make a budget plan - according to experts the average bathroom remodeling project costs $15,800.  I know it’s an investment, but did you know that a well designed bathroom increases the home value by $12,400.  Source: November 2007, Remodeling Magazine, Cost versus Value Report.
2. Know the frequent users - well, it is YOU and your family…. so you’ve got to do some research about YOU.  Now that’s not to hard eh?
3. Talk to professionals - really!  Don’t be like “the boyfriend who just won’t ask for road directions”.  A bathroom is a permanent room in the house.  And because it’s practically used everyday, some pros dedicate an entire life to perfectly install yours.

I remember the time when I first braved to fix the faucet.  Scary… well, at least for me.  Imagine a bathroom project, I’d be knocking my knees together in horror.  Fortunately, in this day and age, information and professionals are readily available.  So relax, save up and enjoy your bathroom project.

Finished with the rough-in stage?  Have you gotten all the wires measured and stapled in?  Ready for the plyboards to cover it up, a fresh coat of paint afterwards perhaps?   Ah, then you are in the “trim-out” stage. This can be the longest time into your remodeling season as you are now looking and figuring out how things will make their visual appeal.

You’ve got the function team done with making your home work for you, now you need to retain a few while bringing in a fresh team to look at design.  I wouldn’t scrimp on getting the best people that your money can afford.  Remember you will dwell in that house everyday so you NEEEEED to hire a professional to take care of important stuff like color harmony, placements/boundaries, a feng sui expert perhaps?  Whatever works for you.

I’ve seen too many home remodeling projects take the longest time here.  Some families get caught moving in too soon because of trim-out issues.  It both has its pros and cons, but I think once you move in it leaves little chance to focus.  Because by that time you’re already running the house with what you’ve got.

If you can wait before moving in, that would work best.  This is an important stage, so hold-off until you can.

The rough-in stage refers to that time in your home-remodeling season where most are either “bare-out” or as the name implies “rough”.  This is the stage where you’d see more of the function rather than the form.  The picture above shows a laundry room rough in.  Not so pretty, isn’t it?  But you could generally get the sense where the washer and dryer are planned/placed, where the sink would be, where the electrical outlets will be, the switches… and some other “stuff”.

The rough-in stage is very important to monitor.  As a homeowner you have should play an active role in where the switches should be.  You need to tell your contractor your family’s requirements.  These will all play a major role in placements of furniture, appliances, hallway width, the height of the ceiling… practically every function you envision your house to provide.