A kitchen renovation is a great way to update your home and increase its resale value. However, not all renovations go as planned and they can lead to costly mistakes with unforeseen consequences.
If you’re planning a kitchen renovation, make sure you’ve ticked off these 5 must-do tasks that will help you perfect your design and bring the project in on time and on budget.
1. Set a clear budget
Whether you’re willing to spend a lot on your kitchen renovations or you need to keep costs down, it’s important to establish exactly how much you’re willing to spend from the beginning.
This will ensure you don’t accidentally get carried away with grandiose ideas that simply aren’t feasible once you start working through the design process. It will also help you avoid the mistake of overcapitalizing on the value and investing far more than what you’d be able to recoup if you decided to sell the property.
2. Visit some kitchen showrooms
Kitchen renovations can be expensive, so it’s important to get an idea of your design direction and how it stacks up against your budget early in the piece.
Visiting a few places like these kitchen showrooms Melbourne will help you get a sense of the different features and materials that are available, and approximately how much they cost. It’s a great way to find out about all the latest and greatest trends and innovations and see what colors and materials work well together while keeping your ideas restrained to what’s realistically possible within your budget constraints.
3. Create a wish-list
Once you have an idea of what you want your new kitchen to include, create a wish-list. This list will be used to help you better communicate your needs and wants with the contractor during negotiations, so try to make each item as clear and detailed as possible.
If needed, you can also divide your wish-list into ‘must-haves’ and ‘nice-to-haves’. This will be helpful if you happen to find yourself in a situation where your new kitchen can’t accommodate everything you’d like it to, and you need to decide what things you are and aren’t willing to compromise on.
4. Research the labor costs
Before starting any renovation project, one of the most important things you can do is conduct proper research on labor costs.
Plenty of homeowners grossly underestimate the labor costs associated with a kitchen renovation, so it’s important to speak to a few different contractors to get an understanding of the actual cost. If you can, try and obtain fixed quotes as this will significantly reduce the chances of encountering any labor cost blowouts.
5. Establish a timeline for the project
One of the most common reasons for kitchen renovations going over budget or taking longer than expected is a lack of organization and planning.
By creating a detailed timeline with milestones, you can ensure that everyone involved in the project knows what’s happening when and avoid any potential issues or delays. It’s something every experienced project manager would do, so it only makes sense that you should too!
