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.  

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.

Can you honestly say you can’t do a single carpentry/plumbing/painting project at home?  Ah I’ve heard too many excuses in the past, and quite frankly, when push comes to shove we all WILL EASILY grab a hammer to nail that loose ply board down.  Now that’s an easy project to start with, right?  See any small “doable” projects that your house is screaming at you to take care of… brave it… and as Jordan and Nike says… “Just do it!”.

Unfortunately, not all home projects are easy projects.  There are times we’d need help from professionals. You need a professional contractor and if you can afford to hire one, I’d say, start from referrals.  Tap your friends, your friend’s friends, the neighbors and lastly the classified ads.  In this day and age, you can search for one by using CraigsList. Just make sure you check out his portfolio and actually call past clients.

But say you can’t afford a professional contractor, will that leave you with a leaky roof all through the rainy season?  Not at all.  You can be your own contractor… but be very very careful at everything.  Contractors are a rare breed, Renovations101.com says that if you’d start to be your own contractor:

It helps to be control-oriented, be self-motivated, be able to give plenty of attention to detail, have plenty of time available, not get stressed out too easily, be organized, be able to see the big picture, be good at scheduling, have low expectations of other contractors, and be a good negotiator.

Well, we’ll discuss more about this topic in the coming posts… I’m just warming up!