Casual Luxury Interiors
What to expect during your home remodel
As you prepare for a home remodel, having a realistic plan ahead of time is going to save loads of headaches and stress. So often, a high-performing executive couple will dream of a remodel for their home. It’s supposed to be fun, but it ends up being a nightmare.
Based on our experience remodeling dozens of homes, here are the key things you need to be aware of ahead of time.
How to properly allocate your budget
The first thing to determine is your absolute highest budget. Let’s say you plan to allocate $400,000 to a whole-home remodel, which is the minimum we recommend for remodeling and designing the entire home. Your budget should still prioritize the spaces that matter to you most.
Do you dream of spending more time in the kitchen? Allocate more of your budget there. Do you want to tear down walls and open up the home to the outdoors? Allocate more of your funds to there. You will absolutely have to give-and-taken with the budget, so being strategic about where your budget goes, and where it will not go, will make all the difference.
Prioritize the favorite spots in your home
The next step is to line-item your budget to each area of the home.
The kitchen almost always has the highest price tag, so start there. On average, a high-end Kitchen is going to start at $125,000. An easy way to determine where you may end up is to get a rough estimate for appliances. Those are the most accessible items to obtain pricing for and on average should consist of 20 percent of your overall budget.
You can also reverse-engineer the pricing by determining your budget for appliances. For instance, let’s say you plan to spend $35,00 on appliance packages from Sub Zero Wolf - which would be 20 percent of your kitchen budget. Then your overall kitchen cost should be expected to cost closer to $175,000.
For painting, flooring, millwork, and the architectural details that make a remodel amazing, budgeting is calculated in linear feet or square feet. Contractor prices are going to vary and depend on your project location. We specialize in remodeling and interior design for home-owners in southern Orange County, so the cost of construction, materials and labor is usually a little higher than the rest of California.
Room calculations usually only scratch the surface of items that need to be covered in a remodel. But square-footage or linear-footage calculations can be used as the jumping-off point when gathering quotes and hiring your team for your renovation.
Getting proper cost estimates
If you are working with a professional designer and a builder, they will be working behind the scenes to estimate these costs based on the initial design concepts.
Estimated labor costs will be difficult without a design in place. Some homeowners will contact the building contractor first, but this will cause the aesthetic design to be limited and driven by the builder. If you’re concerned about aesthetic design and quality, you will get better results by hiring an interior designer first, then handing over the design documents to a contractor afterwards where the designer continues to work alongside them.
Prepare for the Unexpected
As you continue on with your planning, gathering information, and getting a better understanding of what is required, there are almost always setbacks that will cause higher costs in design and remodeling. So your budget needs to have flexibility to account for those setbacks. There are two major things that are generally missed in creating a budget for renovation projects: A contingency budget & a vacation budget.
Create a Contingency Budget
The first is a contingency budget. This should be at least 10 percent of your budget at a minimum to account for the unforeseen events that always occur during construction. For instance, if your budget is $500,000, you should instead aim for a a budget of $450,000, and set aside the additional $50,000 for the likely event that it will be needed to tackle complex remodeling problems during the length of the project.
Plan for a Nice Vacation during Construction
The second major event is the cost to vacate the property. If you’re performing a major remodel, you should prepare to be moved out your residence for a period of time during the renovation process. The demolition is very messy and unbearable, so no homeowners wants to be present for it.
After your kitchen has been removed, you will not be able to prepare food for a minimum of 4 weeks. Furthermore, when the paint crew arrives, the fumes will not be bearable for several days. Therefore, you should allocate some of your budget towards the cost of staying at another residence, taking a nice vacation, and removing your personal belongings from the residence.
How the entire design process works
There are three major phases during the design & remodeling process.
The first phase is the Concept & Research phase. This is where we plan out initial ideas and use inspiration photos from Pinterest, Houzz or our La Casa Azul portfolio to get ideas. But we also want to match these ideas to your budget. Having a line-item budget ahead of time can match your ideas to budget in a realistic way, and adjust expectations early in the process.
The second phase is the Design Development phase. This is where we get very specific on all the details, including floor plans, elevations plans, select appliances and furniture, and get a detailed list of everything that will go into the remodeling and purchasing phase.
The third phase is the Bidding & Construction phase. This is where we get a close estimate of all the construction labor, materials, appliances, furniture and finishes altogether for a contractor to review. Once the budget is inline with realistic expectations, the contractor will move forward to build out your home and finish up the final details. We’ll arrange shipment and installation of items when you’re out of the home.
Schedule An Initial Call
The first step is to schedule a complimentary 15-minute phone consultation at www.lacasaazuldesigns.com/schedule