How to Prepare for a Renovation Project

1. Before and after

Sure enough, you will be glad to be able to compare the result of the remodeling process. Therefore, to have an opportunity to do so, we advise that you make photos or videos of the current state of your household that is to be remodeled in advance. This may seem a trifle idea; however, there is some practical sense to it, though. After the remodeling project is finished, you will see whether the result fits your prior expectations.

And if not, at least, you will be able to look at the previous picture and be glad that it still looks better than it used to. Just kidding, but wait..

Besides, there are cases when people simply need to submit the pictures of their households before renovation. So, you should think of doing it beforehand.

2.Every thing is in the right place

Your things are not going to be remodeled, though. You’ve got to take care of all the stuff you have, unless you want to get it all shattered, missed or misused. You definitely need to consider the safest means of storage for your clothes and all. What is also important is your very self: you can contemplate on leaving your house for a while until the remodeling process is all done.
Before you go, don’t forget to check on your fridge for some valuable leftovers. On the other hand, you could leave it for the renovation team to munch on. Go around the house to see if there are things that you might need but will be unable to take hold of before the end of the project. Take them with you to your new interim dwelling.

3. Maybe store things outside?

Remember! Your garage is not only for keeping your vehicle away from the rain and thieves. Besides all these great features, most garages have a no less great storage capacity, you wouldn’t believe. Another good place to have your stuff stored until the remodeling project is finished is your basement, your attic, your guesthouse, or your accessory dwelling unit legally built on your main house unit. Some items of your housewares may not be quite fitting the territory of your main housing unit; therefore, keeping such things in the outside facilities will be a way out for you.

Of course, you can have your storage unit organized and paid for, but when it is not the case, keep your precious things closer to your home.

4. Mark packages

But first, you should use your logic and calculate exactly what goes where. There are things that you need regularly, others may even not be of any advantage to you — don’t take these with you. Prepare the boxes or whatever and put all the stuff in there; thus, it will be safer during the renovation. Use different kinds of containers for different items. Like, have yourself a plastic bag for, say, your toothbrushes you will need daily and another kind for your kitchenware.

Those items you might not need may be stored somewhere deeper around the house or in its premises.

5. Meet the contractor

Needless to say that personal acquaintance with a person upon whose shoulder the whole future of the remodeling project stands is a total must. You will want to discuss all the things in-person in order to leave no blank places left in the vision of the process and its results, you two should definitely share and imagine equally. This will ensure the success of the entire project. You will have the opportunity to talk through all the crucial moments concerning your renovation process. Take it like a visit to the doctor, who is about to tell you how the treatment will proceed and what results it can bring.

Of course, you can even prepare a set of questions and ask them in machine-gun fashion. A good contractor will answer all of them to the fullest extent.

Speaking with your contractor, you will be able to find out the probable timing of the remodeling process, define the main focus and talk over the style and all. Don’t hesitate to ask them some not entirely pleasant questions, like about the garbage cleaning after all is done.

In other words, your meeting — or at least a phone conversation with your actual contractor, will dictate the way it will go down.

6. Ensure the cleanliness

For example, if your remodeling contractor team will work on some particular area, and they will need to get to this area by crossing other rooms, it might be really great to have something like cardboard or wooden planks laid around to use for walking. This may sound supercilious; however, this will make it easier to clean up all the mess after the project is completed.

If your contractor is going to have to walk through other rooms to get to work, tape down plastic or cardboard for them to walk on, so they don’t track any mud or dust throughout the day.

7. Inform your neighbors

No one would be glad to hear the news that for several days in a row, they would have to see, hear, smell, and contemplate on the process of your household’s renovation. And I don’t blame them: who would be happy to observe all the mess that might—and will— be brought about by the renovation process.
However, letting your neighbors find out about your future renovation project beforehand is a good idea for numerous reasons. First, they will then have the time to prepare themselves for the trashy season. Secondly, you can then be sure that there will be a chance that some of them will keep their eye on the process when you are not around, for one. Also, perhaps some of them, depending on your relationship, could give you room to wait till the end of the renovation project in their household or at least let you store some stuff in their garage if you don’t have one.

8. Safety matters

This is a vibrant question for most contractors, let alone the homeowners who hire them.
The latter type tends to fret about how their contractor team will get into the house. There can be several possible ways to do so.
You can make copies of your house’s key or buy a sort of lockbox to keep the key available for your contractor and the employees. Besides, you may have a security system. This will be really helpful in terms of security. Also, we would advise that you should have the rooms around your house that will not be under reconstruction closed. Not only will it provide extra layers of security — who knows what might happen — but it will also ensure that no dust, sawdust, or anything will have contact with these rooms.

9. Leave or remain — the choice is yours

Of course, remaining in your house while it is under reconstruction is a far cheaper option rather than having to book a hotel or annoy your relatives by living with them for days or weeks in a row. Nobody would want that. Besides the expenditure concerning what you will have to squander is precious time, for all the logistics in your life, as well as some or your conventional activities from the start of your renovation project will be changed greatly. To avoid both the losses mentioned above, you can stay within the territory of your household till it’s all over. By doing so, you will greatly cut down the costs of the entire remodeling project, with all its repercussions.

However, it could be at times hard to continue leading your regular way of life during a renovation process: the access to some vital areas, like your bathroom or kitchen, can be denied or blocked or dumped. In other words, if you have the money to stay away from all the mess and lay up in a hotel till it’s all done.

You could also be of no help to the team during the remodeling project. Or, to put it more truly, could interfere with the process and screw things up. Therefore, give yourself some you-time and chill until the remodeling is all over.

This can be the case if the level of trust between you and your contractor is as high as to let you feel safe even far away from your house.

10. Be ready mentally

Some people may take any kind of mess going around them with a cold head and unsheltered nerves. Some are quite the opposite: nobody would want to be as if on the ruins, having no direct access to the usually open rooms of the house, listening to all the noise coming from the building and demolition procedures, boring and sawing and bumping of hammers flying all around.
Sounds like a pretty stressful situation. The best way is to prepare yourself and calm down and think of how beautiful your house will look after all is cleaned up after the remodeling project finishes.

To keep yourself ensured, outline the plan for the remodeling — it really works. When you know what happens next, you can keep tabs on every stage of the process, ticking out the done operations and deriving pleasure of completion out of that.

11. Put the unwanted stuff away

When you feel ready, you can start it off. But before you let the remodeling team enter your household with all their instruments and all, you will have to get the area that is to be remodeled prepared to welcome the guests. To do so, you will need to move away all the clutter in the area, clean it up and do all that the contractor will ask you to do in order to make the working process for the team more bearable, and for you — more easy and calm.

In some cases, the team will gladly give you a helping hand in moving out some significantly weighing stuff, while you will be asked to take out all the minor things unwanted in the area of your future remodeling process.