How to Completely Renovate Your Home

Complete home remodel

Renovating your house inside and out can be quite an expensive and challenging endeavor. A complete home remodel requires careful planning and research on your part. There are many reasons to remodel a home, including increasing its value, accommodating a growing family or simply to change the aesthetic. Before you begin, organize your hopes and goals, and then get ready to hand them over to the professionals. Unless you have home-building experience, you should assemble a trusted team to carry out your home renovation.

Things You'll Need

• Pencil, paper and calculator
• Home design magazines
• Material samples
• Services of architect
• Building permits

Instructions

1. Evaluate your family's needs. If your home is too small, you may need to add on additional space to accommodate a new bedroom, bathroom or laundry room, for example. You might find that it's possible to meet your family's needs by simply rearranging the layout within your home's current footprint. Removing interior walls can open up an otherwise overly divided floor plan. Make a list of the main goals you want to accomplish by renovating your home.

2. Establish a budget. Determine how much money you have to spend on your home renovation. Dipping into savings or obtaining a home loan are both options, but make sure you don't overspend. By setting a definite budget from the outset, you are more likely to stick to it throughout the renovation process.

3. Design a consistent look for the interior and exterior of your home. Decide whether your renovation should look modern or more traditional. Gather images of homes that you like so you can better understand your personal tastes. Visit home improvement stores and obtain samples of paints and finishes that you might potentially want to use for your home renovation.

4. Hire professionals. Consider hiring an architect or interior designer to guide you in planning your complete home renovation. Choose a design professional based on his portfolio of previous projects. Schedule a meeting to discuss your hopes for your renovation, and the architect or designer will then present you with various ideas, including space layouts and material options within your budget.

5. Obtain building permits. No major remodeling or construction project can legally proceed without first obtaining permission from your local building department. If you are working with an architect or contractor, she can handle the filings.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep a file of photographs for ideas and inspiration that you've clipped from home design magazines or printed from websites.

• Be aware that your family may need to move out during construction, depending on the time line and extent of your renovation.

References

• AIA: Find an Architect