How to Get Started
Okay, so you have this house. Maybe you just bought it, maybe you’ve been living there for years, but in any case, you walk around your house and think “this could be better.”
So what do you do next?
Most people take a long time, we’re talking years, scouting ideas, comparison shopping, googling “what does a bathroom renovation cost”, and spending endless hours scrolling Pinterest or Instagram wishing this wasn’t so hard.
If you’ve come to terms with your reality: you want to improve your home, you don’t know where to start, and you think you need some help, then you’re in the right place.
Here are 5 steps to get started.
Step 1: Determine what you want
What you want for your home is pretty easy to figure out on broad terms, but the details can be overwhelming. So, one bite at a time, my friends. Start with the broad terms (“bathroom reno”, not “teal Moroccan tile in a star and cross pattern”). If you overwhelm yourself right at the start, you will continue this cycle of wishing you liked your home more, but not doing anything about it.
If you’re like me, and you’re afraid you’ll forget about something you loved that’s at the detail level instead of top tier concepts, use a tool like Pinterest, or screenshots saved to a folder in your camera roll, to save the idea until you’re ready for those details.
Write it all down (yes, a real, visible, legible-by-others list). This is important because a lot of times, the wish list is vague until you actually put pen to paper (or make a digital list) and see the wish list with your eyeballs and brain (#teamwork).
Don’t stop with just the most pressing items. Go nuts, and write down everything you want out of your home. At this stage, costs don’t matter. We’re in dream land still and we’re doing ALL THE THINGS. Budget, be damned!
Once you’ve fully documented your wish list, you might legitimately realize that you won’t find happiness at the end of Renovation Rainbow and you’re better off looking for a new place. Upending a property to customize it when you could possibly find a place that already has those features is worth a pause before plunging ahead. Of course this balance is heavily influenced by finances and housing markets and a lot of things too personal for my advice-giving skills, but do at least work through that flow chart in your mind so you aren’t wondering later if you did the right thing. If your list is so long that you’re better off moving, it’s better to realize that now, before you’ve dumped many thousands of dollars into projects.
Step 2: Determine who you need (generally)
Once you’ve made your wish list, take a moment to consider what items you can do yourself, and which items are outside of your skills set. Then, look back over that list and think about if you will realistically want to spend your time doing the things you are capable of doing.
The reality is that a lot of us CAN do quite a bit, but whether we WILL is an entirely different question. Try to be real with yourself here. You’re not helping yourself if you get overly optimistic at this step. I mean, I guess if you’re planning to live forever, maybe it’s fine, but most of us don’t have endless time to wait for that deck to be built before we can host BBQs. …and most of us really like BBQs and want them to be a thing sooner rather than later.
So you have your wish list and you know what things you are going to do yourself, and by default, you know what things you aren’t going to do yourself. Now you need to consider who is going to do the things you aren’t going to do.
If you’re a DIY-enthusiast, you might just need to reach out to friends or family to assist. If you’re not such a DIYer, you might need a contractor, or at least a handyman, or a trades specialist. And if you don’t want to be the one making all the finishing and style choices, you’ll want to hire a design professional. (Do you want your house to keep looking the way you’ve made it look up to now? Yes? Bravo! You get it, girl! No? Maybe get some pro direction then.)
Many contractors have designers on staff to help clients choose materials, but be aware that they may not be very creative or invested in what you want. These designers are typically offered as a free add-on service and they’re biased to keep installation costs low by using run-of-the-mill products that are stocked locally, easily replaceable, maybe even purchased in bulk by the contractor and used across dozens of projects. They’re going to insist on basic applications because it reduces the risk of mistakes and it’s faster to install. The more streamlined the design is, the more profitable the job is for the contractor, and the faster they’re on to the next one. There’s no shame in that business objective, and we aren’t here to make life harder or less profitable for contractors, but there is a point where we need to advocate for our own interests too.
Now, if you aren’t trying to customize your home, maybe the contractor’s designer is good enough. Builder-grade design can be just right for some projects. Unless my intention is to flip a house for immediate resale, I don’t want to invest the kind of money and time (and stress) required for a renovation just to end up with a basic b*tch bathroom. You’re in there every day, usually several times a day. It can be better than basic. So keep that in mind when you’re deciding whose design advice to take.
Step 3: Determine your budget and timeline (generally)
If you’re going to need more than friends or a handyman to help you, this is probably a good moment to check in with reality and start working out a rough budget and timeline. Smaller projects can usually be improvised as you go, but that’s not a good way to head into a large project. You’ll need to know what you’re comfortable spending and when you want to ideally start and finish your project. If you’re reaching out to contractors and designers, that will be some of the first things they need to know.
Now, to be fair, you may not know what is realistic for the budget and timeline. I think there’s a highly-regarded, scientific, data-heavy study out there that says 100% of people underestimate costs and timelines for big projects. (I made that up. There might not actually be a study for that.) But the overwhelming evidence is: before a project starts, no one knows what it is going to cost or how long it will take. No one. Not even the pros. If they say they do, they’re lying or seriously padding the estimate to cover themselves. There are just too many variables to predict before you start. The only thing you can guarantee is that it will cost more and take longer than you expected.
So don’t worry about accuracy yet, at this point we’re really just looking to pin down whether this is a project you want to get done in the next 2 months, or the next 2 years. Is this a long-term saving for many years sort of deal, or do you have a stash of gold already set aside for it? If you spend $100,000 on it, are you feeling good about that? Or, are you feeling like maybe it’s only worth about $10,000 to you?
If you’re having trouble figuring out your comfort zone with time and money, start high and work backwards to find it. What would be an unreasonably long wait to have this done? What would be an unreasonably high cost for it? Now take it back by notches until you’ve found your threshold.
At this point, you have your wish list, your list of responsibilities divided into “me” and “people who aren’t me” buckets, with a bit of generalized role assignments, and you’ve thought of your budget and timeline comfort zones (you don’t need specifics yet still- I promise.).
Now let’s figure out who the “people who aren’t me” should be.
Step 4: Pick your team
For optimum results, you need to have a team around you that is making a positive impact on the project. Ideally, you trust them to make good decisions that align with your goals, and to turn out high-quality work. In the world of hiring strangers, though, it can be tricky to figure out who, exactly, will be your people, so here are some considerations to help you choose your crew.
Contributions
The primary reason you’re bringing someone else into this project party is for their contributions. If you didn’t need them to bring value to your project, you would just invite them to the open house at the end. So, ideally, you’re going to find people whose skills and knowledge fill in the gaps where you can’t carry the load yourself.
Whether you find your fairy godmother by googling or asking friends for referrals, you’ll soon be evaluating options, and the first thing to ask yourself is whether the person/business does what you need. Seems obvious, but in real life, we sometimes find ourselves hiring painters to install wallpaper because we didn’t realize we could hire wallpaper hangers, or because we really liked the painter and wanted to give them the job.
If you’re looking for a kitchen & bath contractor, don’t approach the guy who specializes in building ADUs. I’m sure they have overlapping knowledge, but you’ll trust and respect the contributions of a kitchen & bath contractor for your kitchen & bath project more than the contributions of the ADU specialist. That trust and respect is pivotal when the moment comes that you’re doubting their suggestions.
So, to the best of your ability, look for pros who do what you need, and whose portfolio and reviews line up with your expectations for the results and customer experience you want. Research and probe before hiring them so that once you’ve chosen a project partner, you’ll be confident letting them lead their portion of the project.
Value
We often associate “value” with “cheap”, but value is really just the relationship between cost and quality. Did you pay for what you got? Yes? Then it was a fair value.
You can choose to have your brother-in-law help you build a deck in exchange for beer and pizza, but don’t get grouchy when the resulting deck looks “rustic” and doesn’t last 20 years. Likewise, you can choose to hire skilled trades to build your deck out of cedar and pour concrete footings for stability, but don’t get grouchy when the bill comes.
What quality level you determine is best for you is a personal decision, but be realistic about getting what you pay for. Don’t expect filet mignon for a Cheetos price. If you find filet mignon for a Cheetos price, be skeptical. And if you need filet mignon, don’t buy Cheetos. Only buy Cheetos if Cheetos is what you want (unless you’re starving and you just need food, then get the Cheetos even if you don’t want them because you just need something).
I fell down a little rabbit hole there… sorry about that.
The point is: you will cause yourself and the people you hire a lot of frustration if you pay for entry-level work and products, but expect expert-level work and products. It’s not fair. Be fair. Be realistic. Don’t think you’re entitled to more than you paid for.
If you need to cut costs, consider how you can do your project in phases. If the good contractor is over budget, don’t pick the dude who says he can do it all for $2K. That guy is not going to deliver what you actually want for your house and he’s going to cause trouble. Hold out for the good contractor, but wait to save more money, or just do part of the project for now, and come back around in a couple years for the other parts. It is more efficient to do everything at once, but real life says we aren’t always working with ideal circumstances, and that’s okay. Phases are better than shoddy workmanship.
Licensed Trades Only, Please!
I’m not saying this to be snooty. There are several good reasons to only hire licensed trades who work on safety-sensitive or high-value systems (like electrical, plumbing, and HVAC): quality of the work, risk of problems, accountability, reimbursement, and liability. If the work is not safety-sensitive or high-value, do as you please, but don’t risk your life or property value to save money on a project.
The quality of work is the weakest link in my argument, so let’s just get this out of the way first. We all know people who learned a trade informally and they’re awesome at it. We also know that a lot of skilled tradespeople are working without documents, and their lack of documents doesn’t mean their workmanship isn’t up to par. This exists. What I can say, though, is that the odds are in your favor that if someone has gone to the effort of registering for licensure and proven their competency in order to acquire a license, they, theoretically, will perform their trade with decent quality and in compliance with safety standards. It’s not a guarantee, but the odds are in your favor.
Now, onto the real reasons we only hire licensed pros: risks of problems, accountability, and reimbursement. Because problems happen and the resolution matters.
You don’t want to bring on some rando who doesn’t know what they’re doing and creates mold issues because they did some Mickey Mouse plumbing that’s leaking behind the wall. That is a pain.
Without a license, there’s no one to hold them accountable to fix the problem, and no one to cover the costs of hiring a new plumber.
Contractors’ Boards hold licensed tradespeople accountable when they mess up, and they can mandate compensation or reimbursement if you have to have shoddy work redone. But that support only exists if the pro was licensed; otherwise, it’s buyer beware. (I personally went through this system and got $22K back after a licensed contractor with exceptional reviews and a clean BBB record ran amok on my job. If he wasn’t licensed, there’s no way I would’ve seen that money back.)
You should also know that if something happens to your home as a result of work done by an unlicensed contractor, your homeowners insurance will not cover the damage. And if you live in a shared building, and your condo catches fire because your electrician was your friend’s uncle Joe (unlicensed) and he tied off a connection without insulating it in a junction box because “you don’t really need to do that- this works fine!”, then you are liable for damages to your neighbors’ homes too. …and without insurance coverage.
So, my advice is to avoid bad situations and possible bankruptcy, and CYA with licensed trades only.
Personality
This one depends on how much you’ll be working with this person. I don’t need to get along with the guy changing my water heater for an afternoon. It’d be great if I did, but it’s not really important. I do, however, need to get along with the designer I’ll be working with for the better part of a year, while we explore solutions to my lifestyle needs.
If you’re meeting pros that will be significant figures in your project, do not overlook personality conflicts. If you got bad vibes at the first meeting, keep your search up. No matter how great someone’s work is, you will hate the project and have far more stress if you hire someone you don’t like to be around. Even great chemistry is tested under stress, so follow your gut and pass on anyone who isn’t comfortable to be around.
Step 5: Settle the details
I know we left the budget and timeline hanging, and we never narrowed down the wish list to a practical to-do list. It’s time now.
For small projects, you may need to do a little research to estimate a budget and timeline for them. Don’t get into the weeds, just give yourself a healthy buffer and continue down the wish list. For bigger projects, you’ll give yourself a very rough estimate or a max that you’re comfortable with, and then circle back with better numbers after getting quotes from the pros.
Here’s an example list so you can see the kind of details we’re aiming for:
Improve front yard landscaping– Heather and I will do this– Budget is $1500 — will aim to get it done in April and May
Get new furniture for Jack’s bedroom– Kalani will help shop, store will deliver– Budget is $3500– wait until Sept/Oct to start, be done by mid-Nov and donate old furniture before the holidays
Change carpet in the playroom to LVP — hire Expert Flooring– not sure what budget- google says to plan $6/sf minimum- my friend says it only take a few days– do this project next year
Repaint garage door– I’ll do it myself– budget is $300, will do this after the landscaping project, before 4th of July party
Kitchen renovation– GI Construction- budget is max $75K, have $55K in savings– will do this in 2025, or sooner if I my year-end bonus covers the difference
Home office addition– GI Construction- no idea what the cost is- not urgent- maybe a 2027 project once Liv graduates, if she gets scholarships for college
New living room furniture and décor– House of a Different Color– budget is max $20K- will wait until next spring to start so it’s ready for by the holidays for hosting parties
Pool– Never mind. It’d be cool, but not worth the cost. We’ll keep using Suvarna’s.
Having this sketch of a plan should help you prioritize your wish list and think more pragmatically about what you want to tackle and when.
When you’re organizing your estimates, give yourself plenty of room for error, proportionate to the scale of the project. A weekend of painting could take longer than you expected, but probably won’t be as disruptive as a kitchen reno going 2 months longer than planned. But no matter what the size of the project, don’t start something if you need it to be done in a tight timeframe, or on a tight budget. Real life says deadlines are for rookies, and there are always unexpected costs.
Now that you have a plan, go ahead and start looking for the next level of ideas on the upcoming projects. For the landscape project, what plants do you want in the front? Are you going to replace your mailbox or paint the one you have? Do you want to update the porch lights? What about one of those boulders with the house number engraved in it? Do you need to update your irrigation system?
Breaking your wish list down like this lets you find clarity in what you really want to do, and brings about a natural initiation for each of the things you want to accomplish. You’ll be able to see the big picture clearly and drill down to focus on each project when it’s appropriate. If you organize your wish list, you will find you are excited for the changes, instead of overwhelmed, and that’s a great place to start.
