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

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.