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Our Plans for Each Space: Budget-Friendly Style
When renovating a house, it's easy to go over budget. With a tight timeline, we had to pay for our new home and current apartment and all the necessary renovations all at once. Needless to say, this was expensive. To stay on track and avoid draining our bank accounts, we had to be diligent with budgeting.
To ensure that we tackle the most important issues first, we began by creating a list of items requiring immediate attention and worked our way down to the finishing details and wants.
Our list started off with what our home inspection came back with: furnace, roof above bathroom and hot water tank. Those were our top priority, especially since it was winter and we needed those issues to be resolved before any more damage was caused. Moving down the list sat flooring for the entire house, windows (replacing 95% of them), new kitchen cabinets and appliances, and our entire main bathroom. Really cannot move into a home without a useable bathroom. Leaving at the end: paint, trim, fireplace work, interior doors, and finishing / decor details (hardware, curtains, rugs, furniture and the like.)
More demo and rebuilding it all back pictures :)
My Top Tips to Stay in Budget When Renovating a House:
Have a Plan + STICK TO IT. To keep costs down during home renovation, make a list of must-haves and wants, and have a realistic estimate of the budget for each stage. Stick to the plan as much as possible and identify what can be cut from the list.
Know when to DIY and when to HIRE a Professional. Do you research and know your skill level. I do not mess around with things like plumbing, roofing or electrical. Thankfully had in-laws and my dad who have renovated enough to do some of this work but we did hire out our electrical panel and roofing.
Prepare for hidden costs. We knew with buying this old house there was going to be things that popped up and I was so glad when we had some money set aside to assist us instead of having the additional stress to fix another unforeseen issue.
Shop second-hand, yard sales and facebook marketplace. This was one of the ways we scored amazing deals and saved thousands. Someone’s unwanted item could be a perfect fit for you. I found our couch, bathroom vanity, rugs, chairs, tables and even a leather reclining chair on Facebook Marketplace. It is 1,000% worth the hunt and who doesn’t love finding a good deal?
Wait for a sale! We waited about a month to buy our kitchen cabinets and snag them on sale. They only ever went 10% off but every penny counts and those extra savings add up.
Consider Alternatives: We really wanted to do a natural stone in our kitchen but we did not for two reasons. One, the house value / neighborhood did not support that decision and two, the cost versus a laminate or solid surface was insane. We got a great looking laminate at Menards for a fraction of real stone and we love the durability even after all these years it looks brand new. Our other plan was to restore our house to its original character and add real hardwood floors back into our house. At the current market real hardwood floors were running at $8+ sq/ft. We found an incredible deal for engineered hardwood floor and not only do they look like real hardwood floors they are just as durable. Our floors ended up coming from Build Direct and were on sale for less than $2 sq/ft!! TALK ABOUT SAVINGS!!
By following these tips, we were able to stretch our budget further, allowing us to complete more of the house before moving in.
Here is our final floor plan designed with affordability, layout and future family in mind. 😉
Discussing the Final Layout and Design Decisions:
We are still opening up the living room to the kitchen. I will not be getting my island in the kitchen but I will now have an 8' peninsula with storage on both sides and seating for 5 people. This layout came to be because we really did not want to lose the natural light in the kitchen and also the cost to remove and close off the window just did not make sense. The old bathroom will still be split into two spaces but you will enter from the back hallway. No one really wants the guest bathroom door right off the kitchen so this is a way to still have that added half bath and a little privacy too. For now we will not be adding a deck or doing anything to the backyard but if we wanted to down the road the current window could become a door to a set of stairs or a deck. We kept the connecting door between the bedrooms for future kids. I thought it was a fun element to have especially since we wanted to have two kids. Our main bathroom plan stayed the same adding a double sink a tub/shower combo and a toilet. Our main bedroom also had nothing changed except for we are making the existing windows larger since we have to replace them. All in all I think this plans is perfect and I cannot wait to see it fully come to life.
UP NEXT!!! How we budgeted for each space and what the cost for each came to be so far!
Thank you so much for reading, liking and sharing my blog. Your support is unmatched - Aly:)
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