Building or Remodeling Your Home

The process of building or remodeling a home is complex. From beginning to end, more than 20 different contractors contribute different skills and tools specific to their trade, from excavation to finish carpentry. Materials have to be selected and everything needs to be coordinated to arrive at just the right time.

That’s why you need an experienced builder/remodeler to lead the project leaving you time to focus on planning, picking out fixtures and materials plus quality reviews once the project starts.

Are You Ready to Build or Remodel?

Not everyone should try to build a house or tackle a major remodeling project that includes excavation, a foundation and roofing (typically called an addition). These projects require not only money but lots of time to participate in the construction process from beginning to end. In addition to your time, you need good communication skills to work with the team building your home. You  need to make decisions quickly and be flexible as building and remodeling are subject to the weather and other delays. As you consider your project, remember that a kitchen remodel can take 4 to 6 months from when you start planning up to a year for a  major remodel.

For projects that take more than a few days, it’s a good idea to get at least 3 estimates. Don’t be surprised when proposals vary as much as 50%. Just make sure you understand what’s behind the difference, i.e. for my 4 story addition we went with the lowest bid. Why? Steve recommended windows from Harvey Building Supplies to match our existing windows versus high end Marvin windows. He proposed reusing the existing outside stairs to the 3rd floor apartment versus building new ones. Steve’s square foot costs were 20% higher than new construction versus other bids that were almost double. When we visited other remodeling projects Steve had done, we knew Steve would deliver the quality we wanted and he did!

Research Your Remodeling or Building Project

Given the enormous investment you’re making in building or remodeling a home, you need to spend time researching and prioritizing your requirements to maximize the value of your home. One of the best tools for doing this is Remodeling Magazine’s annual survey of real estate professionals. They survey a cross section of the US to determine the resale value of various remodeling projects and key features like kitchens and bathrooms always make the list.

Projects get added/dropped each year, i.e. power generators were added in 2009 and home additions are now less popular than remodeling existing space like attics and basements. The projects that remain on top of the list are those related to energy efficiency (windows and siding) and ones that enhance quality of life like bathroom and kitchen remodels. Here are summaries of the Cost vs Value reports over the last few years.

At the beginning of the year, we provide a review of the latest remodeling survey. Here are the articles for several past years … 2009 Remodeling Trends, 2008′s Top Remodeling Projects, Top Remodeling Projects in 2007 and Remodeling: Top Projects in 2006.

Assembling Your Team

You’ve got 3 choices for getting your project done. You can do the work yourself but that requires skill, patience and lots of time. You can act as your own General Contractor (GC) and hire all the sub-contractors you need. The project will take longer than hiring someone experienced at the type of building or remodeling project you’re planning, who has a network of sub-contractors and material suppliers at their fingertips.

The key players on your building or remodeling team are your architect or home designer and general contractor. You should work with your “designer” to complete your design and use this documentation to request proposals from several GCs. Read Planning Your Remodeling Project for tips on what you want to address while negotiating with your contractor and once the project starts, you’ll find Working with Your Builder-Remodeler-Contractor helpful.

Tips for Remodeling or Building Your Home

You’ve picked your project, you’re working on your plan and you want to include as much detail as possible to avoid problems. That’s a great strategy and the more research you do, the fewer surprises you will run into. With the first house we built, I put together 4 pages of specifications about what I wanted, much of that culled from visiting lots of homes under construction and getting an idea of what was involved (there was no internet back in the ’80s). Here are some quick tips of things you’ll want to consider when planning your project.

• Walk through your design and visualize yourself standing at key places. I extended the “kitchen L” 1 foot to move the dishwasher next to the sink. Once the cabinets were installed, I realized everyone could see counters as they entered the house.
• Look at the big picture when selecting your products, i.e. when picking out your front door, with decorative trim and lighting surrounding the door, a simpler door design makes sense.
• When building, you need to marry your home’s design with your building lot. Natural sunlight is very important so if you find a great lot with lots of trees, you might want to change your window layout.
• Plan your lighting, both natural and artificial lighting, for each room’s activities.
• Consider how much traffic rooms, and especially entry ways will get and pick flooring that will hold up to the activity.
• Lay out your furniture to make sure it fits, i.e. when there’s a fireplace taking up one wall and sliding patios doors on another wall, it’s sometimes hard to place your sectional sofa.

Tips for Selecting and Buying Materials

Use our workbook Roadmap to Building or Remodeling Your Home, to keep track of all your research and purchases. This documentation will become invaluable over the years, helping you to maintain your home. These decisions aren’t trivial so allow enough time to research your options. When picking out your materials and products, consider the following.

• Research and decide which energy saving materials and/or techniques you want to use.
• Research green products and materials like bamboo flooring or cabinets.
• Weigh the look of products versus low maintenance. There are also hybrid products like wood windows inside with aluminum cladding outside to reduce maintenance … and vinyl siding textured to look like wood.
• Focus on the final look versus individual products, i.e. wood windows are less important when you visualize the window treatments planned that hide much of the window.
• Consider quantity in how you make your decisions. Rather than 20+ 6-panel, interior doors, you might dress up your main entry and living areas with crown molding, wainscotting, chair rails …  read Interior Trim Adds Spice to Any Room.
• Check appliances to see how loud they are when running as this can be the most important decision.
• Consider how long a product will last, i.e. inexpensive hot water heaters might cost less but need to be replaced more frequently. When you combine product and installation costs, the cheaper product might cost more.
• Less expensive products can take a lot more work (time = money) to install. When you combine the cost of a product with labor cost to install the product, you’ll often find the cheaper storm doors, ceiling fans, swing sets, etc aren’t really cheaper as you’re paying to complete the manufacturing process when assembling 100s of pieces.