Last April I started working on one of the very most thrilling projects of my career to date: the renovation and extension of my own home. Placing myself in my clients’ shoes was an eye-opening experience. Although I’ve been designing and renovating homes for over 15 years, being the ‘client’ offered me a completely fresh perspective. I learnt some valuable insights that have transformed what I tell anyone looking for expert architectural advice
Get Impartial Advice The whole project started with me wanting to extend my tiny utility room so I could fit in a larger fridge. My kids were eating me out of home and house, and it was impossible to fit everything in our mixed fridge-freezer.
After a quick look at the space, the shook his head and said: ‘why don’t you extend the house?’ The man was right. We'd reached a stage where we were able to do with more space and a bigger fridge wasn’t very likely going to improve things in the long term.
Small projects are okay but not if they're only a stop-gap solution. I often meet people who wish to add a room or convert part of their home, however the underlying issue with the home is a lot more significant.
Investing in an attic conversion when the design of the rest of the house is not working is not the best way to spend your money. We’ll all favour going for the quick fix so getting some impartial advice is vital to make sure you make the right decision. I’m usually the one who dishes out the advice, but when it came to my very own home, even I needed another opinion.
Wait Until You Have the Money to Do Everything You Want.Hold it Until You Have Enough Money to Do Everything You Want. When we first bought our house we could have done work straight away but our circumstances were very different (a three-year-old son and another on the way) and our budget was much too small to attain everything that we wanted to do, so we waited. It was the best decision we could have made.
Earlier in my career, I used to try to help clients phase the whole renovation job so their budget can be spread out but now, where possible, I suggest my clients to wait. This can indicate I talk myself out of a job but if they can move in and make the house liveable until they have enough money to do everything at once, then this is with no doubt the best decision. Not only will they get better value for money and only build process once but they will also have the added benefit of time, which might mean that their plans change leading to a much better job in the future.
Build Up Contingency Into Your Timescale Build some breathing space into the timescale. The build process can be an unpredictable one and even the most organised amongst us will come up against issues that push deadline out.
Our build process took 7.5 months, which is pretty good. We'd hoped to done in 7, however, some of the changes took longer than planned and so we pushed our move date out to accommodate this.
Waiting the extra couple of weeks while for the builder to be completed entirely was so important. Had we moved in a couple of weeks earlier, everyone could have been trying to finish around us and what would have had taken two weeks would have dragged out to four, or even six weeks.
It’s never a good idea to move in before the work is completely finished Giving the contractor a deadline to work to is essential but make sure this realistic and, if things cause the project to overrun you should make allowances and adjust your plans accordingly.
Really do your homework The build can be an unstoppable process and the feeling that once you start there is no turning back can be quite unsettling. So I recommend you be as organised as you can, while the builder will need provide a program which can guide you when critical decisions need to be made.
My advice, however, is to have all your decisions made before the work is to have all of your decisions made before the work starts on site. This is something I always recommend to my clients. However, my experience of going through the process myself has confirmed it’s probably the best single piece of advice I could give anyone who is planning a home improvement project.
After the build begins you’ll feel under great pressure, there will be distractions and emotions to cope with, and that means you won’t be at your very best as it pertains to making decisions. Getting the decisions made before anyone asked you to make them will significantly lessen the strain and make the whole process a lot more bearable. You might even lovemit.
Keep Your Eyes on the Prize A home redesign is a complicated process. There are so many moving parts and people involved that there are destined to be hiccups during the whole project. Try to anticipate where issues might come up and be flexible. Things will go wrong, but try to keep an open mind and concentrate on the solution. Be as organised as you can be and stick to your decisions.
Home renovations and extensions are emotionally exhausting, so my final piece of advice is to stay focused on the end result because I can promise you it will be worth it.
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