How to Plan a Remodel Around a Budget – Budgeting for a Remodel in Washington D.C. and Maryland
When considering a remodel to your home, it’s very easy to shop the internet and design stores for ideas, but after getting excited about what you want to do to your home, then comes the sometimes-daunting question……… will all of that fit in your budget? Figuring out your allowable funds from the start allows you to comfortably determine how detailed or sizable your remodel can be, and it’s a great idea to do this before you begin shopping.
When you come to Winthorpe seeking to remodel your home, one of the first things we’ll discuss is your budget. It’s important to get comfortable discussing numbers in the beginning. A lot of factors play into what a budget can accommodate. That comfort allows for honesty in planning, and meeting expectations with positive outcomes. Once we’ve outlined the budget, we’ll get an overview of what you want done to your home. From that, we’re able to determine the scope of work required for your project and how much of that your budget will cover.
We like to educate our clients about the true costs behind each aspect of construction on a home. You have likely shopped around for appliances, countertops, and tile and calculated how much they’ll cost. That’s great! It’s our job to help you consider the not-so-obvious costs, too. There is labor, installation materials, and hidden necessities that may occur, like moving plumbing from one wall to another to execute that new kitchen layout you have your heart set on. Your particular remodel request may fit into your budget, or it may not. Sometimes the desired project has to be scaled back to meet the financial plan. Other times, compromises can be made in the finishes and details so both the scale and the budget still meet in the middle. No matter what, we always endeavor to work with you to marry your vision with your finances. There are a couple of ways we can work together to achieve this.
Staying Within the Budget – The Art of the Compromise
If your wish is to remodel your master bathroom, to give it a spa-like ambiance, but your budget doesn’t allow for the grand plan you had in mind, we can suggest a variety of options to help keep within budget but still achieve the overall feel you seek. To scale down expenses, we might recommend adjusting some material choices. For instance, a quartz countertop can look just as pristine and elegant as a slab of granite at a lesser cost. Instead of tiling an entire wall, consider a minimal but artfully-installed tile backsplash, and then painting the rest of the wall to match. Rather than going to the expense of adding square feet to the room by pushing out a wall, installing a skylight and some well-placed lights can “enlarge” a space visually at more wallet-friendly costs.
Remodeling in Stages – The Longterm Plan
Another way to balance scope and budget is to divide the remodel into several discreet steps that will take place over time. If, for example, you’d like to expand and update your kitchen, we could break that master remodel plan into two or three stages, executed over several years. In the first stage, we might update the cosmetic features, so the kitchen immediately feels fresh and new. The second stage might be loosely planned for a year or two later, when we’d come back and extend the kitchen wall and add a breakfast nook. Knowing that we’ll be adding those features in the second stage, all the work done in the first stage would be executed with that further work in mind. Everything from plumbing, heating, cooling, and load-bearing can be prepped early on, hidden from view, and then seamlessly tapped into at each subsequent stage. In fact, it’s possible to use this step-by-step method over several years to remodel an entire home as a budget allows.
Don’t let a budget intimidate you. Whether by finding flexible solutions to fit your budget or by working in stages on a long-term plan, Winthorpe is here to find creative approaches so that you can afford the project that you want.
