How to have a smooth home renovation on a budget?

Congratulations! You have gotten the keys to your new place! As you step into your new home thinking about the new life you will have there, you realise that you have no idea where to begin or what you need to do next. Well, you have landed at the right place as I am here to help you plan out what you should take note of for your home renovation.

To me, the process is as important as the outcome and this applies to home renovation as well. This also means that you should only spend within your means for your renovation because overspending will simply make you feel uneasy and not enjoy the process.

In this article, I will share with you 12 things you need to know and take note of for your home renovation so you will not miss out on anything and have a smooth and happy renovation process, on a budget.

1. Get your floor plan

Your floor plan is the first thing you should have before anything else. It is the main point of reference for everything you intend to build for your home. You should get your floor plan as soon as the house is confirmed to be yours, yes, even before you officially collect your keys, so you can start envisioning your lifestyle at home and also start engaging your interior designer or vendors.

2. Understand and envision your lifestyle at home

Ask yourself – Do you work or watch tv in your room? Do you intend to do work and watch TV at the same time in the living room? Or do you find this too distracting. Are you okay with people looking at you as you cook? Are you okay with constantly cleaning your home for the sake of pinterest worthy open shelves? 

By spending an hour or so asking yourself these questions, you will be more certain of what you really need in your home. For me, I am a person who is extremely lazy and wants to do as little cleaning as possible. This means that the amount of open shelves will need to be kept at a minimum. I should also minimise any form of heavy cleaning (curtains, rugs etc). 

I also cherish my privacy and like having my own me-time A LOT and hence, privacy was a main priority for the designing of all the zones in my home.

3. Set your home budget

Look at your existing finances and gauge how much you are willing to spend for your home. $10,000? $20,000? $30,000? You should note that in addition to your home renovation, you also need to buy things like loose furniture, kitchen appliances, TV, air conditioners, ceiling lights and so on. Therefore, all of these should be included in your home budget, in addition to your home renovation.

4. Plan out each of the zones based on your lifestyle at home

Even if you intend to get an interior designer, it is still good if you have a moment to sit down and think through what you want for your home. With just a pencil and a piece of plain paper, you can easily sketch out what you want for each zone in your home. Alternatively, you can easily use a presentation software such as Powerpoint, Google Slides or even Canva to plan out how you want to layout your home. I used this method for my home and this method has been really useful in helping me convey my ideas and preferences much better to my Interior Designer.

Here’s an example of how I used google slides to plan out the lighting and furniture for my home. You can see that I did not do anything fancy. I simply just pasted in images of lighting and ceiling fans that I liked. As for the furniture, all I did was to place in shapes that represented the furniture I intend to have in the various zones. This has been extremely useful in helping me convey to my interior designer what I wanted to have in my home.

Another method you can use to visualise your design better is by using the free online 3D software, Sketch Up, to build your home (digitally). If you do not intend to engage an interior designer and want to engage the various vendors directly, Sketch Up is an extremely useful tool that you can use. No worries if you do not have any 3D design background as Sketch up is really for beginners to use.

Here is an example of how I used sketch up to see my desired design in 3D form. As the main objective was to just see it in 3D format, I did not do any fancy lighting or rendering. It was really fun placing the various furniture into this 3D space and seeing how they all come together.

You can try Sketch Up for yourself here.

5. Hone down to a few design styles and furniture that you like

Once you have your rough planning of each zone ready, it is time to source for design inspiration and bring what you visualise in your mind to life. The best way to see your shortlisted design styles and furniture at a glance is to have a mood board or a collage. You do not need any special skills to create a mood board or collage. All you really need is either powerpoint or canva and some basic keyboard knowledge (like copying, pasting and cropping). Create an A4 size blank page on either Powerpoint or Canva and start pasting inspirations you found on platforms like Pinterest or Google there. 

I also enjoy pasting loose furniture that I intend to purchase into the deck. After a few weeks, I will look back to the deck again and will decide if I still like the furniture or if I do not want it anymore. This tactic of displaying everything visually and coming back after a few weeks to decide if I still like what I chose has definitely helped me purchase furniture that I truly love.

6. Take note of trouble zones that will be problematic and bad for your wallet in the long run

Some potentially problematic areas in your home include gaps where pests may hide in, zones that are prone to moldiness and rattan fabric that will trap dust. If you do not want to spend the time and money getting rid of potential issues after they happen, I advise you to spend a little bit of money during your renovation to prevent all these issues from happening. Some examples of how you can prevent all these foreseeable issues are:

  1. Use large tiles in your bathrooms so there is lesser chance that mold will form in the grouts in between the tiles
  2. Cover up any exposed holes where pests such as cockroaches or lizards may hide in
  3. Minimise your use of rattan fabric 
  4. Minimise the use of soft wood as such wood may attract pests like termites
  5. Get a dehumidifier to minimise the humidity in your bathrooms, to prevent mold

7. Decide if you want an Interior Designer or if you want to be in charge of the whole process

Personally, I engaged an Interior Designer for my home and I have zero regrets doing so. My interior designer helped me take so much load off my plate, such as  liaising with carpenters/electricians/government authorities and even the gas vendor. Designing and overseeing everything that goes on during your renovation is like managing a huge project and you will need to be extremely dedicated to it to ensure that everything goes well. If you are okay with spending all the time and effort overseeing all these details, you may go ahead and simply engage the carpenter/electrician/plumber/etc of your choice. If you feel like you would prefer to have a little extra help, an interior designer is the way to go. Personally I really enjoyed having an interior designer as I liked having a professional whom I could share ideas with and tap on to get constructive feedback.

8. Source for an ID or a Carpenter with all your researched information

Once you have done all your research and planning for points 1-7, it is time to source for your ID or Carpenter. If you decide to go with an interior designer, be sure to pick one that you feel comfortable with! This is because there will be plenty of back and forth between both of you, and hence, you won’t want someone that you are not able to vibe with. 

Be sure to also let your interior designer know of your budget. Before you decide on an interior designer, you can shortlist a few interior designers and get them to share a quotation with you. This way, you can do a comparison of the quotations and decide on the most cost effective one. All you need to do for your shortlisting process is to search for interior designers on google and a whole long list of interior designers in your area will appear. You can also ask your friends and family for recommendations. In fact, my interior designer was recommended to me by my cousin!

9. Review the design(s)

It will take a few rounds of changes to get the design you want. Hence, this is something you need to keep in mind especially if you are rushing to move into your new home. To expedite this process, it is good if you are clear about what you want at the start. As mentioned in ‘Point 1. Get your floor plan’, you can share a mood board, rough layout using powerpoint/google slides/canva or clippings of various inspirations so your interior designer can visualise better what you want. Being clear and decisive about what you want helps to minimise any unnecessary rounds of changes (each round of change usually may take a few weeks as the interior designer needs to also juggle other projects).

10. Discuss the timeline after design as been approved

Your renovation will consist of much more than carpentry. Your renovation will also likely include air-con installation, masonry, hacking, lighting, painting, and so on. Having a clear idea of the timeline will help you (and the interior designer) stay on top of things and minimise and unnecessary delays from occurring. Even if you are not in a hurry, it is still important for you to have a timeline as this helps you to see your whole process at a glance and keep track of everything.

11.  Confirm the quotation(s)

Once you are happy with your design and all the plans for your home renovation, it is time to approve the quotation(s). If you have an interior designer, you will have only one quotation to deal with for the bulk of the renovation. If you plan to deal with a different vendor for each category (Masonry, carpentry, curtains etc) you will likely have plenty of quotations to deal with. 

It is important that you do not pay for the full service at one go at the start as there is a risk that the vendor(s) will run away with your hard-earned money. The payment for all your quotations should also be spaced out. A standard practice on how payment should be made is 30-40% upon confirmation of quotation, 30-40% just before work commences and the remaining 20-30% when everything is completed by the vendor and inspected by you.

12. Have a Google or Excel sheet to note down all your expenses

You will be spending a lot of money for your home renovation and hence I highly advise you to have an excel or google sheet to track down all your expenses. Moving into a new home is an exciting journey and one can easily get caught up in the moment and just purchase whatever they want if there is no proper cost tracking. 

 Listing down all your expenses will help you gauge whether you have enough money for everything you want to do for your home renovation. The total cost will also likely alarm you and this will help you refrain from overspending.

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