Friday, December 1, 2023
“I want to add on to my house.”
It’s probably something you’ve been saying to yourself for a while now, but you’re not sure where to start. Where do you even begin?
It’s not surprising that we get asked this question quite a bit, so we thought it was time we shared all our insights and best practices for starting your home renovation journey.
And it all starts with knowing the answer to two questions:
- What is the intended use for the space?
- Do you know what you want it to look like?
If you don’t already know those answers, it’s always best to do a little research to make sure you know exactly what you want.
Once you know those answers, your next step is to speak to one of three people – an architect, a designer, and/or a contractor. Whoever you talk to, if they are a competent professional, chances are one of their first questions will be one of the two we listed above. At HTH, we always like to ask our potential clients to “paint us a picture” using these questions so we can understand how (or if) we can help.
Ultimately, we need to understand the picture in your head to give you the best possible answers to the questions you may have for us (like cost and timeline, but that’s another blog post for another time).
Once we understand your vision, it’s time for more questions:
- How big?
- Where will it be located on the house?
- What is your budget? What are you willing to spend?
- When would you like the work completed? Is there a special event before which it needs to be completed? Any other concerns related to when the project starts or ends?
- Anything else the contractor should know (pets, kids, work schedule, etc.)?
Then, determination will need to be made as to whether the project is feasible or not. In some cases, the possibility of certain aspects of a renovation come down to things that must be taken into consideration before we can begin, such as:
- Do the setbacks on the property allow the space for the new addition?
- Will the county/city approve it?
- If on Septic, will the septic be up to code, or will it need to be redone?
- What are the obstacles or challenges to making it happen? Can they be overcome?=
Once we have all those questions, we then can start to paint the picture for you on what your renovation will look like and how it can be done. And while we know we just listed quite a few questions, by getting these answered, we can make sure we provide you with the best possible service and can truly turn the house you like into the home you love.
Onto the next one…….
