subject: Fixing Your Garage? Don't Do It Till You Read This! [print this page] Making the best with what you haveMaking the best with what you have. That is the buzz phrase these days and although it seems that the financial crisis is over, people are still apprehensive with spending capriciously. These days, the housing market is still in recovery and people opt to fix their existing houses. One of the first things people do when renovating is too actually utilize their existing space. The garage is often the first thing people see as an option to add an extra room, whether this be a study room or a spare room. If you are thinking about doing this, here are some things to consider:
- Figure out a budget for this. If you plan to utilize the garage, you would first need to crunch numbers and see if it is feasible for your budget. Consider insulated garage doors. If you have a two car garage, chances are when you bought the house, the garage was not insulated. In converting the garage, you would have to make arrangements to have them insulated, perhaps doing it yourself or having it sub-contracted. If you are not handy with tools, then do have it sub-contracted. Get quotes from several contractors and then, look at the scope of work. Some quotes may be low but may have limited work scope. See if you can purchase the material yourself and that if they can quote you for labor charges. Savings can be made from purchasing the right amount of materials for the project.
- Get rid of the clutter in the garage. There are several companies those self organizers in the form of boxes that are space savers. What you can do is to box these items, and then use a Polaroid to take a snapshot of the content. You can place this Polaroid by the side of the box for reference. You can also have a garage sale and earn extra money from the proceeds. Some garage sales can actually pay up to 30% of the cost of having your garage done.
- Figure out the time when you want to have the work done. Most work should be done during the spring or even the summer. If you are doing the work, then this can be done based on your time frame. If this is subcontracted, then the work should be done within a month or less. Depending on the work, making this extra room should not be too expensive if the work details just adding double sided walls and some electrical wiring. It may cost more should you want to put a bathroom there.
