Four tips when you are about to renovate

1)     What’s Your Style?

Now is the fun part! Once you have decided the functional parts of your home, you get to flaunt your creative flair by creating a space that is uniquely yours. You want to get this right, especially if you are going to be living in the home for some time and are looking to enjoy where you live. Your ‘style’ is a very personal thing, and we get it, you want the space you call home to be uniquely yours.

There are so many places to start and of course most people head straight to the Internet for inspiration! Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Houzz have literally thousands of accounts you can follow that showcase thousands of home renovation projects in hundreds of different styles, so it is very easy to spend hours digging around to find something you like. There is also plenty of publications you can look through as well.

One quick way to find what you like is a Google search, for example ‘Hamptons style home’. Then, if you click the ‘images’ tab you will get hundreds of photos of Hamptons style homes, and when you click on one of these images, it will give you the website it came from and you can click through to there to see more. Often these are social media sites so you can then follow that page.

Again as we have mentioned above, display homes are a great option to scout around as you can ‘look and feel’ the actual style of a home and find out if it works for you, and looks great in real life. Sometimes an idea may look great on a computer screen or a magazine, but really just isn’t practical and won’t work for you.

One thing we would like to mention here is when choosing your style, just be wary of trends that come and go, that might be super trendy this year, but after a couple of years you will wish you never styled your home that way. This is especially true when you make structural decision around a particular trend or design. (Think 1970’s bars in homes!) It’s ok to accessorise to complement a certain style and lean you home towards a particular theme when constructing, but just think forward to the future how easy it would be for someone to then re-decorate or stylize to what they may want.

What we would recommend when renovating is renovate for the long-term style-wise. Create a space that is fairly ‘neutral’ and timeless, but can be styled as such with paint colours, furniture and accessories so that if it comes time to sell, you can turn it back into a clean palate that gives the next person the opportunity to express their creativity when they move in. Homes that are neutral in feel usually sell quicker as often a distinct ‘theme’ can often turn buyers off as they don’t like the look of it, and just can’t visualise as the home being theirs, or having the time to change it.

2)     Does Your Renovation take into Account Your Future Lifestyle Requirements?

This is a very important point to consider. Do your renovation plans now take into consideration what your future requirements for your home maybe? It is not always easy to look into the crystal ball and see what will be happening in your life in a few years, but when planning a renovation, it does help to stop and look at what possible scenarios may occur.

For example, will you have family members moving back home in a few years? Are you considering adding a deck or a pool at some stage? Is it a possibility that you may move to working from home and need a home office? Do you think you may want to add a granny flat in the future?

If you carefully consider all the different scenarios and are sure that you have everything taken care of in regards to your future lifestyle requirements, then you’re all set. If you do need to consider changes, now is the perfect time to do so while you are still in the planning stage. Its no good (well very expensive and time-consuming trying to change halfway through the build.

3)     Have big plans, but not a big enough budget?

If during the process of looking forward, you realise that there may be significant changes, but you can’t afford to do everything right now? One option you have which can be achieved with careful planning is to renovate in stages. What this means is you and your builder make sure that everything you do now, takes into account what you want to do later, so that major structural elements don’t have to be changed again.

4)     Don’t Overcapitalise

It is important to keep a level head when it comes to a major renovation. Do your research on the local property market, try and find a few examples of homes that are aligned with your current home and what they are selling for.

Next, try and find a home nearby that has been renovated and has similarities to what you are planning in your project. This will give you a good idea of how much a renovation will add to the value of your home once completed.

Even if you are not planning on selling, the house needs to be in line with the on-trend houses in the local area. If it is to high end or not high enough in the quality, you run the risk of losing money when you eventually put it on the market.

Equally as important is to get a bearing on what improvements will add the most value to your property. In some instances, it is important to not overcapitalise on your project. If you know a real estate agent, it may be a good idea to have a chat with them and see what they think will add value and what may not?