Research Before You Remodel

Before you spend the first dollar on remodeling your home

, you need to research all aspects of the project to make sure you will receive good value for your dollar. If you watch home shows and follow design trends, you can do a lot of dreaming about what you home might be like with some remodeling, but you need to consider many options before committing to a remodel.

If you live in an older home, you will certainly want to update your kitchen and bath. If your family needs more space, you might consider finishing your basement or adding an addition as an alternative to moving. In either case, you can spend top dollar adding exclusive features or take a more moderate approach. For example, you could tear kitchen down to the studs and add new custom bamboo cabinets, new windows, granite countertops, travertine flooring, and specialty items like a wine fridge, pot-filler faucets, and industrial grade appliances. Or, you could slash the price in half by refacing your cabinets, adding new laminate countertops, and skipping some of the fancier upgrades.

It depends on what you value, how much money you want to spend, and how much you will use the upgrade.While seeing the many choices available to you is as easy to as clicking your mouse, you can window shop the possible upgrades, consider whether they are worth it to you, and select a realistic option when it is time to buy. If glass tile, cork flooring, or some other option appeals to you, go look at it in the store and decide if it is a "must have" or a "nice, but" type of item. Do all your fantasizing and evaluating before you start the project, as changing your plans midstream can add to the cost.

Before you firmly decide on a scope and scale of your remodel, make sure to take a look at your neighborhood. What do the other homes in the neighborhood look like? What features are standard? What are homes selling for? You do not to want your remodeled house to be worth twice that of your neighbors, nor have features that are hard to sell, such as a swimming pool, a fancy office that can't be converted back to a bedroom, or a decadent master bedroom. You can easily access real estate listings on line to give your remodeling plan a reality check based on the neighborhood.

Once you have decided what you want and how much you can reasonably pay for it, your next step to research the contactor. Aside from knowing the price, when they can start, and how long the job will take, you also need to know how long the contractor has been in business, whether he has insurance, what experience he has in your type of work, and whether he has been bankrupt. Calling references is always a good idea, but especially if you want a large remodel, you should see some of his past work. If possible, look at recently done work and work done a few years ago, so you can see how the work holds up and get a feeling for how the contactor handle complaints and problems. When you are talking to referrals, make sure to ask about the contractor's reliability.

Good research and planning can turn your home into what you want.

by: Joaquin Erazo, Jr.

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