10 Home Renovation Mistakes That Homeowners Should Avoid

There’s nothing more exciting than new beginnings.

When you buy a house, and you want to renovate it, that’s the ultimate new beginning. Therefore, with your home’s entire future is in your hands, what are you going to do with it? 🙂

Unfortunately, many homeowners stumble when trying to answer that question. There’s a lot that goes into renovations that many people don’t consider. It’s easy to slip into a pitfall when you’re inexperienced and in a rush to get your dream home built.

If you want to avoid popular home renovation mistakes, keep reading!

1. Moving Too Fast

One of the most common home renovation mistakes that new homeowners make is moving too fast. As soon as they get the keys to their new house, they’re ready to start tearing walls down.

But it’s a good idea to actually live in your house for a while if you can before making any changes to it. This lets you get a feel for the way you use it to decide what changes to make that will improve its function.

Don’t change things until you know exactly how you can make them better work for you!

2. Not Budgeting Enough

Everyone knows that it’s expensive to renovate your home. But how much you should budget for can be sort of a mystery to many homeowners.

Always give yourself a little extra room in your budget. Every renovation comes with its hiccups, and nothing goes smoothing 100% of the time.

You need to budget yourself enough time to get the work done. Sometimes things happen that make a project fall behind schedule, and the last thing you want is to come up short-handed on time and money.

3. No Plan B

As we mentioned, no home renovation project comes without its issues. Things come up, no matter how well you’ve planned. And because nothing will be perfect all the time, you need to be prepared for the worst to happen.

Always have some plan B in place when you’re doing a home renovation. If it rains, work inside. If it’s humid and your paint won’t dry, work around it.

As long as you’ve always got something else to work on, your project will never come to a standstill, and you will always be working towards finishing.

4. Not Hiring a Professional

In the age of the Do It Yourself YouTube tutorial, everyone feels like they can become an expert in anything. And while it’s true that you can learn how to do most things with enough practice, the one area that you don’t want to DIY unless you’ve got the experience is your home renovation.

Small things like a paint job are fine to do on your own. It’s harmless and won’t change the stability of your home. But when you’re into the territory of knocking down walls or pulling up the carpet, you’ll want to leave it to the experts.

5. Not Hiring the Right Professional

That said, you don’t want to hire anyone off the street. Even if your cousin-in-law swears he’s a talented roofer unless he’s got the business and the happy customers to prove it, you don’t want to hire him for your roofing job.

Hire quality professionals, even if they’re a little more expensive. It’ll be worth it in the long run.

6. Not Asking Enough Questions

When you’re outsourcing the work on your house to other people, you must understand the scope of who they are, what they do for you, and how they’re protected in case anything goes wrong on the job site. Make sure you ask those questions while you’re looking for a contractor.

You also want to make sure that you ask any questions you have about the plan of your house. Don’t be afraid to speak up and make sure you are heard because this is your home after all!

7. Changing the Plan Halfway Through

The last thing you want to do is change the plan halfway through your home renovation. That’s why you need to live in your house for a while before you jump into renovating it. This way, you’ll know what you want before you start.

When you change the plan in the middle of a renovation, you’re wasting everyone’s time and your own money!

8. Biting Off More than You Can Chew

When new homeowners step foot in their house, they often want to get the whole job done as quickly as possible. But no matter how tempting it is to get everything done at once, don’t bite off more than you can chew.

This is especially true if you are living in your home while the renovations are taking place. Only work in one room at a time. That way, you still have a ton of other space to go to when you’re stressed out!

9. Not Knowing Where to Save

While it’s true that you get what you pay for, there are still ways to be frugal without skimping on quality. Your contractor should have a good idea of where you can get high-quality resources for less, depending on your budget.

Don’t go crazy and spend top dollar on every aspect of your renovation!

10. Forgetting The Interior

Many people get so wrapped up in the expense of hiring someone to do the contracting work they often forget about how to design the interior. Unless you are design-minded, you will want to ask a professional about how to style and decorate your room!

Nothing is worse than finishing a renovation only to find that you are struggling to decorate the room. After all, the finishing touches are what make a home feel like home!

Avoid These Home Renovation Mistakes

These are just a few of the many home renovation mistakes you can make as a first-time homeowner. Make sure that you don’t fall prey to these. Do your research, find a reliable contractor, and take it all one day at a time!

If you want to read more about how to update your home to be the best it can be, check back for more posts!