You know precisely how you want your kitchen to look. You found the perfect living room furniture and want to add built-in bookcases, but those projects cost a pretty penny. While you’re planning, you realize the wait for your bathroom takes way too long, so you decide you need a half bath, too.
Set a Budget
Don’t despair! Set a budget for your home renovations and home improvement projects. Four-fifths or 80% of US homeowners who make a budget stick to it. Once they set their home repair or improvement project budget, most set aside the money to handle the renovations. A survey done in September revealed that 75% set aside the money.
How Much Will You Need?
Perhaps it is that we spent more time at home during 2020, but according to HomeAdvisor, the average American spent twice the amount in 2020 on home projects than they did in 2019. That put the average renovation investment at $13,000. You might not need that amount for your project. If you only want to add some shelves or knock out a wall to make one large room, you won’t need to spend as much.
Make a Full Project List and Get Estimates
Make a list of what you want to change about your home. Sit down at your computer and search each project for an average cost. Try not to let facts frighten you. For instance, annually, metal corrosion costs the US about $300 billion. An individual’s cost to have those corroded pipes replaced ranges from $1,500 to $15,000. It depends on the number of bathrooms you have. You’ll get hard estimates once you phone at least three contractors.
How to Pay For the Renovations
Some remodeling work costs little money. Simple items like knocking out a wall or adding a room divider only cost a few hundred dollars. That could result in a huge change in look for your home, but not set you back at all.
You might have a job though that costs $15,000. You can put off the work until you have the money saved or you can borrow the money. The best way to borrow is a home equity line of credit (HELOC). This option lets you borrow against the equity in your home. That means the money you already paid on your mortgage that amassed and the bank credited to your loan.
You can also get a home improvement loan or use your credit cards. However you decide to finance your loan, you’ll need to pay it back, so make sure you have the ability to do so.
Research Materials
While you might want to leave the materials research to your contractor, you should do some of it yourself. At the very least, learn which brands provide the best quality and how much they will cost. This prepares you for purchasing the materials. If you want new flooring, you’ll pour some time into research. A massive number of flooring choices exist currently, so you’ll have wood, vinyl, laminate, carpet, and much more from which to choose. And, in 2021, the global supply chain crisis and above-average inflation have led to higher materials costs across the board, so watch the prices as they can fluctuate regularly.
Plan Your Home Makeover
You might not want to let construction workers upend your entire home all at once. You could plan for them to conduct the work in stages. Take things one room at a time. Tackle the largest room first, so you get the majority of work out of the way quickly. This means you can use that large space for family and friends gatherings when you have the work done in the other areas.
When it comes to budgeting for a home renovation, the key is proper planning, research, and making sure that you’re not making any hasty decisions.
