Tag Archive for: home remodeling

Home Remodeling Guide: How to Choose a Remodeling Contractor that Is Right for You

Your home is an intensely personal space. If you’ve made the exciting decision to remodel your house, one of the most important decisions you will make is how to choose a remodeling contractor. You don’t want just anyone working on your home. In fact, you want a highly qualified, trustworthy and conscientious team of professionals who are committed to helping you remodel a living space that fits your functional needs and design style. Taking the time upfront to research and ask the right questions is not only time well spent, but will ensure you select the right remodeling contractor for you.

The Ultimate Checklist for Vetting Potential Remodeling Contractors

#1 Research and Assemble a List of Remodeling Contenders

Research remodeling contractors

A simple Google search is an excellent place to start assembling names of local home remodeling contractors in your area.  Use words that describe what you’re looking for and your location. For example, search for “home remodeling contractor Lafayette” or “kitchen and bath remodeling West Lafayette”.

Websites like Houzz or online communities like Nextdoor can also be helpful resources to search for local contractors.

A safe and reliable way to assemble remodeling contractors is to reach out to your friends, family, and co-workers for any recommendations they may have.  Do you have a neighbor who just had some remodeling done?  Ask them about their experience and if they would recommend them.  Your local hardware store may also have some good suggestions as well.

#2 Conduct a Thorough Website Review

Once you’ve assembled your preliminary list of home remodeling contractors, review each company’s website. This is an easy way to find critical information that will help shape your decision. You should be able to find answers to important questions like:

  • Are they bonded and insured?
  • Do they have a physical office location?
  • How long have they been in business?
  • Do they have staff, or only use subcontractors? What is the longevity of their staff?
  • What special certifications or qualifications does the company have in performing a similar remodeling project as yours?

Qualified home remodeling contractors should also feature a project portfolio or sampling of their work. Take some time to peruse past projects and see what speaks to you.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, then look at the finished project photos as an informative way to get a sense of the type of work they do.  Moreover, some remodeling firms only specialize in kitchens and baths, for example, and may not remodel other areas of the home, like basements or additions. This should help you rule out some contenders depending on the type of work you want to have done.

how to find remodeling contractorAnother important distinction is the type of remodeling contractor you want to work with. Are they a full-service design build firm or a general contractor?  What’s the difference? The quick answer is that a general contractor works independently from an architect. As a homeowner, you would be responsible for finding an architect first—someone who produces a set of architectural design plans for you. Then, you would hire a general contractor independently to build the remodel from the set of drawings provided by the architect.

On the other hand, a design build company takes care of all the remodeling and design under one roof to make the integration of your project easier.  From the very beginning, you work with a personal designer to produce a set of plans that fit your budget, design style, functional needs and time frame. In contrast, you work with one company who handles every detail for you.

Click here for more information on the design build difference or request a consultation form.

#3 Conduct a Phone Interview

how to choose a home remodeling contractor

Once you’ve narrowed down your list, it’s time to call on the companies directly to fine tune your decision even further. Ask pertinent questions like, “How many projects do you currently have on-going?”, “Do you take on remodeling projects of similar size?” and “Can you provide a list of references?”. This will help you decide with whom to set up an in-person meeting.

For a complete list of questions to ask of a remodeling contractor, read 8 Essential Questions You Should Ask Before Hiring a Remodeling Contractor.

Checking client references is another crucial step in your selection process. Reputable remodeling firms should be happy to provide you with a list of current and past clients. Taking the time to call a sampling of customers and asking questions like “What was your overall experience working with the remodeling firm?”, “What did they do well?”, “What did they do poorly?”, “Did they keep the job site neat and clean?”, “Did you have cost overages? If so, why?”, and “Was the project completed on time?” will give you tremendous insight on who you want to hire and work on your home. And, if you can visit a current or past job site, even better!

#4 Request an In-Person Consultation

In person meeting with remodeling contractor

An in-person consultation is a perfect opportunity to meet with the remodeling contractor to get a feel for the company, their process, and the people you will be working with. This face-to-face meeting is also where you’ll discuss the entire scope of work with the contractor.  Don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions!

Once you’ve discussed your renovation goals, an established professional remodeling company will offer to provide a detailed scope of work and price estimate for you to review.  If you work with a design build company, you will have the added benefit of exploring concept designs for your project as well (this may include a fee, as it requires a lot of work to put together).

#5 What Does Your Gut Tell You?

Finally, do you feel comfortable and see yourself communicating well with the remodeling firm that you’re considering?  Remember, these folks will be in and out of your home for weeks or months. You’ll be interacting with various carpenters, designers and office staff throughout the project and you want to feel that your home and family are in good hands.

Overwhelmed yet?  Don’t be!  Taking the time to do your homework and due diligence, before you approve your construction agreement, will help guarantee you end up with the ideal living space you dreamed of, with the least amount of headache as possible.

Ready to take the first step towards remodeling your home?

Give us a call today at 765-838-1644 or fill out our Request a Consultation form to schedule a complimentary in-home consultation. We are ready to help you get started and answer any questions you may have about your unique home remodeling project.

 

 

It’s in the Details: Small Remodeling Projects Can Make a Huge Difference

The old expression that it’s the “little things in life that count” may also be true when it comes to home remodeling. If you think your home looks dated or you dream of having a magazine-worthy kitchen each time you prepare a meal, consider the smaller details as you plan your next home remodel.

By breathing new life into some of your home’s spaces, you will gain a new perspective about what it is you love about your house. It might also turn out that the comfort and familiarity of your existing home are what’s truly important after all.

Update Your Windows and Doors

Updating your windows and doors can make a huge impact on your home. Not only can you potentially benefit from energy savings and a lighter, brighter interior, new windows and doors can enhance your home’s interior and exterior appearance, while also adding value to your property. How’s that for a double win?

Consider high traffic areas when rethinking the use of doors and windows in your space, like your kitchen and bathroom. How can a new window bring in more natural light and update the overall look and feel of your home? Today, there are numerous features and options to choose from that will enhance your living space.

And choices are growing with homeowners’ preferences. Modern trends include windows with black frames, modern bay windows, transoms, window walls, and so much more. Homeowners are choosing window and door frames that have narrower profiles, which enhance their views and visibility. They are also opting for color-coordinated door and window colors. Finally, with more and more importance placed on the outdoors, many homeowners are choosing between slide, folding, French, quad, single, and movable glass wall systems.

Whatever the style you choose, make sure to take into account how the replacement windows and doors will look from both the interior and exterior of your home.

Maximize Your Illumination

Nothing belies a home’s age more than a single ceiling light in a bedroom or long hallway, fluorescent tube lighting in a kitchen, or inadequate bathroom lighting. Today there is no reasonable excuse for living with shadows and dark corners. Updating a home’s entire electrical plan makes sense and will save dollars and cents in the long run. Pay attention to the three types of lighting that are part of a comprehensive plan for every room: ambient (general) lighting, focused task lighting, and accent lighting.

Consider retro and industrial design styles that are making their way into West Lafayette homes. Choose between soft gold lighting fixtures, vintage Edison-style bulbs, or ornamental lighting with cleaner lines. Update old-style plugs and switches with new versions that come in a variety of styles and colors.

A creative designer will introduce you to the staggering array of available options for long-lasting, energy-saving lighting. Ask about lighting that is voice or motion-activated or controlled by smart technology. And consider new high-tech devices and entertainment options.

Refresh Your Kitchen

Kitchen remodeling is typically high on a homeowner’s wish list. But a kitchen remodel doesn’t have to involve a total gut job. Here are some options:

  • Repaint, refinish, or resurface older wood cabinets: Change the kitchen’s entire look by changing the color of the cabinets or replacing cabinet doors with a different style.
  • Replace kitchen countertops: While granite is still a top choice, there are numerous other options. Modern solid-surface materials simulate stone, but they’re also available in bright colors and patterns for immediate impact.
  • Changing the backsplash is a relatively small update that makes a significant difference.
  • Add a specialty appliance: An under-counter fridge, a wine chiller, or a dishwasher drawer, perhaps. Or install a second sink in a counter section to facilitate cooking and clean up.
  • Add an island or extend an island counter to provide additional seating.
  • Add pendant lighting over an island or raised kitchen counter.

Add New Hardware

Many homeowners are unfamiliar with the impact new hardware can have on their home. It’s relatively quick and easy to replace dated cabinet handles and drawer pulls, or to update bathroom towel bars and toilet paper holders. Survey all the hardware in your home. Replace an old doorbell button with chimes and replace it with a newer wireless model. Personalize your chime while you are at it!

If your home has simple round brass doorknobs, know that they date your home more than any other single feature. Boost your home’s curb appeal with a freshly painted front door and entry hardware. Think about trading those standard brass knobs for newer black, brushed nickel, or oil-rubbed bronze finishes, or replace knobs with trendy new levers.

Consider Adding Moldings

Beautifully crafted crown molding is a feature of traditional design. Still, its use is not restricted to conventional styles, nor are architectural details confined to whole house remodel projects. Crown molding can emphasize the ceiling height, provide a distinctive accent at the ceiling line or be the “crowning glory” of kitchen cabinetry and built-in bookcases.

In addition to crown molding, there are a variety of other moldings to consider.  For example, a chair molding (or chair rail) installed horizontally around the perimeter of a room adds both visual interest and is practical (no more chair dings on the walls!).  Upgrading existing or adding window and door casing is also a fantastic way to freshen up a space, especially when painted in a dramatic color.  Spruce up a den or home office using different moldings to create wainscotting panels.  The possibilities are endless!

Redo Your Floors

Flooring is sometimes considered the “fifth wall” of a room. While the surface you walk on may not be the most exciting aspect of design, it represents one of the most critical choices for a home — in terms of style, function, beauty, durability, and price. What’s underfoot sets the tone, in many cases, for the total ambiance of your home.

Among available flooring options to consider when planning a home update are traditional wood planks, reclaimed or distressed wood, engineered wood, newly popular bamboo or cork, ceramic or porcelain tiles, laminate or luxury vinyl tiles, stained concrete, natural stone or carpet. Flooring doesn’t have to be the same throughout your home, but if you choose different floor finishes for other rooms, be sure to coordinate the colors, patterns, and materials.

Seek Guidance from Riverside Construction

Riverside Construction has expertise in all things remodeling. We specialize in home additions, basement remodels, and kitchen and bath updates. Our design-build team will help you achieve your design and renovation goals in ways that correspond to your vision, time frame, and budget. We have been serving clients in Lafayette and West Lafayette since 2008, and we have built a reputation for satisfaction. Browse our remodel portfolio as you crystallize ideas for your renovation project.

We understand that not every home needs a whole-house renovation. Our design staff will work with you to find creative solutions that fit your lifestyle and enhance your family’s enjoyment quotient. It’s what we love doing, and it’s what we do best. We concentrate on the details so that you can capture your dream home.

Contact us now to schedule a conversation. Or sign up for our monthly newsletter which is chock full of design trends and remodeling tips to fuel your creative spirit.

Compelling Reasons Why Now Is the Perfect Time to Plan Your Home Remodeling Project

Coronavirus, with subsequent social distancing and stay-at-home orders, caught us all by surprise. Now, although we are moving toward the easing of restrictions, there is an uncertainty that life will return to a pre-COVID-19 cadence immediately. There is, however, every reason to be hopeful about the future, and to move forward on a home remodel project, if that was something you were thinking about earlier in the year.

In fact, lessons learned during the mandated quarantine may have given you new ideas and even better reasons to get that renovation going. Recovery will take time, and our world may never be quite the same, but picking up the threads of your former lifestyle is now something to anticipate.

The construction industry is ready too!

Staying at home might have given you some new insights about home improvements. Can you envision a more comfortable home office? Maybe you would like a more efficient kitchen, one with more storage space and designed for two or more cooks. Or perhaps a basement activity room for the kids. A lot of options exist: A revamped master bath to use as a private retreat, an enclosed sunroom where you can enjoy a peaceful afternoon, or a quiet space that serves as a reading nook or music room. Maybe a combination home gym and yoga and meditation space. Riverside’s design team will help you bring your ideas to life, creating the kind of home that suits your family to a tee. We make it easy for you to turn your dreams into reality.

If the enforced togetherness of the past several weeks have you wishing for more space, or you dream of sprucing up the space you have, we’re ready to work with you to define your needs, make the right choices and bring new enjoyment to your life!

Here are 7 reasons NOW is the perfect time to plan your remodeling project:

1 – Financing Options Are Plentiful and Affordable

We understand that there are uncharted waters ahead. But with interest rates at historic lows, local banks and credit unions are also looking forward to building new business relationships. Explore home improvement loan opportunities, or talk to us at Riverside about our range of payment plans that allow you to design and complete your renovation.

2 – Contractors Are Still Working!

Although builders and the construction trades were affected by business slowdowns just as everyone else during the quarantine, some were able to keep working — outside — during a time of social distancing. Now we’re ramping up efforts to keep our crews busy. Our design-build team is looking forward to getting back in the field; we believe our 5-point promise speaks for itself. We promise:

  • Complete and ongoing communication, from the first contact through project completion;
  • A clean and safe job site, no matter how extensive the project;
  • Comprehensive planning, scheduling, and tracking during every phase of a project;
  • Completion within budget, with no ifs, and, or buts.
  • A two-year workmanship warranty, and guaranteed satisfaction.

3 – Safety Protocols Will Keep Your Family Safe

At Riverside, we take safety seriously. Not only do we provide our crews with the protective clothing and equipment necessary, but we also practice jobsite containment of dust and debris, noise, and toxic materials to every extent possible. Our goal is to cause as little disruption as possible to clients; we clean the site daily; we utilize effective barriers, and we always strive to contain the mess.

In addition, we focus on safety, and we take special precautions to prevent accidents and injury. Riverside Construction fully subscribes to the safety protocols issued by the CDC and local and state authorities. We put the well-being of our employees and the public above all other considerations. We will maintain safe distancing, wear face masks as necessary, and sanitize the tools and materials we bring to the site whenever possible, all in the effort to keep you and your family safe. We encourage you to discuss the protocols with us when we begin to plan your remodeling project.

4 – Get Together through Virtual or In-Person Consultations

During the Coronavirus quarantine, our team has become an expert at working remotely. The digital age offers us all the tools we need to work efficiently. The impressive ability to conduct “face-to-face” meetings virtually has transformed our business and it continues to offer new alternatives for creative collaboration.

We rely on computer drawings and 3-D perspectives that allow us to work together as a team, even though we may be physically separated. Those same tools and capabilities allow our clients to visualize the completed space, and we are able to adapt drawings and make changes instantly! We communicate via phone, text, or video conference as needed to ensure that all aspects of a project run as smoothly as possible.

It’s not just a two-way street. We have the same ability to interact with suppliers and subcontractors, and it all adds up to better efficiency, greater cost savings, and high- level all-around satisfaction.

5 – Help the Local Economy Survive and Thrive

It has been said many times by many people: During tough times, it’s wise to stick together and help one another. Today, in an economy that is trying to recover from the devastating effects of the pandemic, it’s important to encourage local businesses and to support our neighbors, friends, business associates, and local communities. One concrete way of doing just that is to do business with people you know.

Riverside has been a part of the local scene for more than a decade, and we are proud of our achievements as an award-winning design-building firm. We look forward to working with new clients in the coming months.

6 – Be Ahead of the Game When “Normal” Business Resumes

Timing is everything. You can get a jumpstart on your home remodel by contacting us now. If you follow the news, many analysts predict that pent-up demand will lead to longer lead times as “normal” business gears up once again. By getting in line for the renovations that you want, you’ll have priority. Contact us to schedule a virtual or in-person consultation, and let’s see how we can work together.

Don’t worry if your ideas are just beginning to gel; we’ll be happy to offer some guidance. In the meantime, sign up for a Riverside Home Remodeling Webinar.

7 – Dream Big: Craft a Unique Renovation

Great rooms are born from individual ideas: We look forward to helping you channel your ideas into a renovation plan that is creative, individualized, and cost-effective, no matter how large or small your budget. We encourage big dreams; work with our talented designers, and trust that our experienced team will make those dreams come true!

We encourage you to browse our portfolio for ideas, no matter if your dreams are for a unique powder room, or an expansive addition. We’ll be waiting to hear from you to schedule a virtual or in-person consultation.

Also, make sure to sign up to receive the Riverside newsletter — Designed for Home — to stay abreast of new ideas for the home.

Five Benefits to Downsizing Your Home and Simplifying Your Life

Photo Courtesy of Laurey W. Glenn

Are you considering downsizing your home? It’s not uncommon for homeowners to move into a smaller house after their children have grown and moved out, leaving them with too much-unused space. Or, the charms of living in a big home no longer seem to be worth all of the extra time, effort, and expense in the cleaning or upkeep.

Deciding to downsize has the potential to improve your quality of life considerably. It could also turn out to be a financially wise decision for you and your family. Here are just a few advantages that make downsizing a popular option:

Save Money

Owning a smaller home can provide several financial benefits: 1) It can potentially reduce your mortgage payment; 2) Lower your monthly utility bills, as you will need less energy to heat and cool a tinier space; 3) Lower your property insurance since the home will cost less to replace or fix than a much larger structure; and 4) Decrease property taxes, given the smaller footprint of your home.

Additionally, the savings that result from downsizing can be reserved to provide financial security and flexible lifestyle choices—such as travel options, vehicle or home upgrades, etc.

Clean Less & Minimize Upkeep

While some people enjoy cleaning, it’s safe to say most homeowners don’t want to spend their free time dusting, sweeping, mopping and vacuuming. And, the smaller the home, the less effort it takes to clean it. The less time you spend on the upkeep of cleaning your home, the more time you have with friends and family, and on activities that bring you joy and fulfillment. If you rely on a cleaning service, your cleaning bills should also reduce with less square footage to clean.

A smaller home requires less upkeep too. From mowing the lawn and cleaning out rain gutters to painting the interior and exterior and replacing light bulbs, you’ll spend much less time on basic maintenance. The result? You’ll spend more hours in the day pursuing the things in life that truly matter to you.

Take Advantage of Multi-Purpose Rooms

Chances are there is at least one room in your existing home that doesn’t get much use. Maybe a dining room, home office, or an unused bedroom? In a smaller house, there isn’t room for unused space. Instead of having a formal dining room separate from a breakfast nook, a downsized home might combine the functionality of both eating and entertaining in one space. A home office might serve as a comfortable guest room for overnight guests. A living room might double as a media room for playing games, watching TV or listening to music.

Lower Your Family’s Carbon Footprint

A smaller home means you are using less energy to run the heater and air conditioning. As a result, you will wind up lowering your family’s carbon footprint, which helps you do your part to conserve natural resources and protect the planet. Going green also saves money, of course. It takes less water to clean a smaller home as well as to keep the lawn and other vegetation healthy.

Simplify Your Life with Less Clutter

Another significant benefit of downsizing your home is that it helps you to simplify your life. Because space is limited, you have less space to decorate or fill it with material items. By bringing less into your home, you simply declutter your life. When it comes to purchasing items for your smaller home, they will be items that are absolutely necessary.

Questions about downsizing your current or future home? Connect with Riverside Construction by calling 765.838.1644 today.

Benefits of 3D Design in Home Remodeling

This is What Happens When You Use 3D Design for Home Remodeling  

Home remodeling can be exciting, and scary. Exciting because you anticipate an amazing outcome from what you currently have to the dream remodel you envision in your mind. But scary because—what if it doesn’t turn out the way you hope it will? What if you picked the wrong color or texture, or the measurements were off, and you have to go back and re-do things? Time is money and re-dos are expensive! There are a lot of “what if’s” in home remodeling. Fortunately, however, Riverside Construction can remove many of the scary elements with a skilled combination of remodeling experience and 3D design.

Whether you just want to renovate one room, like a kitchen, bathroom or bedroom, or you want to go the distance and remodel your entire home, 3D rendering techniques empower you with a stronger, more precise visualization of your space. It also helps us fine-tune measurements and catch potential problems before construction starts. It’s essentially a hyper realization of “measure twice, cut once” that makes the entire home remodeling process easier, smoother and more efficient, particularly in the following 4 ways:

Inspires and Clarifies Your Home Remodeling Vision

The pre-home remodeling time is an exciting one. Your head, Pinterest board and scrapbook may be bursting with ideas, paint swatches, magazine cut-outs, etc. But it can be hard to imagine how those ideas will work within your space and your plans can change from day to day. Sitting down with Riverside Construction to use our 3D design tools can help you see, clearly and accurately, how different colors, designs, materials, and shapes will play out—or not—before any cutting, sawing, hammering, installation or painting begins. 3D design and rendering injects clarity and precision into your brainstorming process so you eliminate ideas that won’t work as you finalize design options that will work beautifully.

Gives You Accuracy in Space Planning

One of the most important aspects of planning your home remodeling process is getting a clear, accurate model of what needs to be done. For years, home remodelers had to rely on 2D plans that had to use pages of layers upon layers with multiple models for each different view, even for just one room. This made mistakes in measuring far more common because it could be hard to keep track of every detail on every page. 3D design tools merge all those layers into one accurate, clear view that brings your home remodeling ideas to life together in one place and enables us at Riverside Construction to measure and plan with greater precision.

Eliminates Many Common Remodeling Mistakes

Taking the accuracy step even further, 3D design helps us, and our clients, to catch mistakes before they end up hindering the remodeling process, which, in the long run, can save you both time and money. Because 3D rendering shows us a clearer visualization of how the end design should look, it enables us to take extremely precise measurements so that we can assess each part of the construction process clearly, early in the process. This level of precision, in the beginning, makes the entire process much smoother and more efficient by reducing unexpected changes and mistakes—something that also helps you stay within budget and on schedule!

Improves Communication between Homeowner and Designer

3D design vastly improves communication between us, as a design-build contractor and you, as our client. We can all sit down together and visualize using 3D models, trying out different design ideas, discussing potential problems and coming up with even better ideas. We can incorporate your ideas instantly into the 3D model, enabling all of us to visualize how each change or idea holistically impacts the end result. As a team, we’re all on the same page about what needs to happen to bring your dream remodel to fruition.

While 3D renderings are an absolute must in today’s home remodeling process, they’re still no substitute for working with an experienced designer who can provide the perspective and depth of understanding to interpret and visualize what the renderings mean. Combining the high-tech wonders of 3D design and a skilled design-build team will help you breeze through the permitting process, fulfill the building codes and bring your design ideas to life efficiently, accurately and beautifully.

Discover the advantages of 3D design renderings for your next home remodeling project today. Contact Riverside Construction and our expert architectural and design team will show you how to get the most stunning results for your home.

 

Reputation Building Blocks

The third annual Qualified Remodeler/GuildQuality customer satisfaction report offers new insights on cornerstone tactics for happy clients and highlights 60 remodeling firms leading the way—Andy Haste and Riverside Construction was one of them.

The building blocks of any successful remodeling or home improvement business are many. There must be a firm handle on overhead, job costs, estimating, pricing and production, just t o name a few. Further down that list but of equal importance is customer satisfaction strategy and measurement.

Remodelers usually come into the industry with a clear sense of what it takes to make customers happy. New remodelers often come with years of experience in carpentry and project management. The thinking is that happy customers are the natural byproduct of quality workmanship, fair prices and a friendly demeanor. But as GuildQuality and thousands of remodelers around the country learn, there’s a lot more to it. Customer satisfaction is a discipline unto itself and is a foundational building block of any profitable and long-term survivor in remodeling. Twelve years ago, Qualified Remodeler offered the first of five annual surveys on customer satisfaction, running from 2005 to 2010. By surveying clients who had recently completed remodeling work, the research netted new insights into the client relationship traits that correlated most closely with high rates of those clients who expressed a willingness to refer their remodeler. The results of those early surveys showed that timeliness, job site cleanliness and communication were critically important to the remodeler-client relationship. They consistently ranked higher than fair prices and quality of workmanship—the very attributes most remodelers rely on for client happiness when they come to this industry.

Read or download entire article (Riverside featured at the bottom of page 49).

Don’t Remodel Your New Home Just Yet: 3 Unexpected Reasons to Wait

 

If you just moved into your new home, congratulations! If your first intention after the last box is unloaded from the moving truck is to get busy remodeling your new home before you unpack, hold on a moment. If this seems like a crazy thing for a remodeling company to say, hear us out please.

It’s probably just fine do some immediate remodeling touches like updating the paint or switching out the flooring. And naturally, you’ll want to remodel or update any damaged areas that need repair before the home is habitable. Accessibility or major functionality issues are also a good reason to remodel right out of the box.

But it’s the major structural changes that have more to do with taste that make us say, “Whoa there!” In our experience, this scenario is often fraught with frustration for homeowners. Ask yourself if the remodeling is a functional need or just a really intense want.

We strongly recommend living in your home for about a year before digging into your “want” remodeling list. Look at these 3 reasons we tell people to wait and you’ll end up saving time, hassle and money in the long run:

1. Let Your Financial Situation Settle

You’ve just purchased a home—that’s a big financial responsibility. Aside from the new mortgage, you likely paid for movers, professional cleaning, etc. Give yourself a year to let all of that settle out. Pay down some bills over the next several months. Go ahead and change the doorknobs and a few other light touches that make you feel happy, but don’t break the bank. That way, you’ll have a better idea of how much remodeling your budget can handle. Your wallet and credit score will thank you.

2. Give Yourself a Chance to Get to Know the House

You and your home have really just met. What you saw before the previous owners moved out probably wasn’t everything there is to know about your home. Maybe your first thought was, “Wow, we should remodel the kitchen.” But now that you’ve lived there for a while, you realize a more important project is remodeling the bathroom or the closets. You can only know these things by living with the house for awhile. Over this year, do the following:

  • Observe family traffic patterns through various areas of the house. Note inefficiencies and places where the flow doesn’t work.
  • How is your storage space working out for you? Any design elements that drive you nuts?
  • Throw a couple of dinner parties and see how well your guests are able to mingle and how efficient it is to get food from the kitchen to the dining room or patio.
  • Spend time on the patio and around the yard—is it fabulous or not?
  • Pay close attention to how well your home handles each season. Does it get too stuffy in the summer or drafty in the winter? Is the color scheme too dark or too glaring? Are there indoor leaks or outdoor drainage issues?
  • Once you’ve spent a year getting to know your new home, you’ll be able to make wiser remodeling decisions that will increase the value of your home, improve your quality of life, and save you the trouble of having to remodel a remodel that was too hastily done in the first place.

3. Give Yourself Time to Get Educated about Remodeling

This “honeymoon” time with your home is also a great year to learn all you can about different remodeling projects you’re interested in before actually plunking down the cash and letting the sawdust fly. Becoming an informed homeowner will help you save time and money when you reach the point where you’re ready to commit to a remodeling project or two.

Riverside Construction holds regular complementary home remodeling seminars that cover a wide range of remodeling projects you might be dreaming about. Our next one, which is always very popular, is our Kitchen and Bath seminar. We’ll be digging deep and answering all of your questions about remodeling kitchens and bathrooms, so save the date and register for the class:

Riverside Construction’s Kitchen and Bath Seminar
On Saturday, August 19th from 10:30 a.m. to noon
At the Holiday Inn City Center in Downtown Lafayette

Although the class is free, space is limited, so register as soon as possible. When you register, be sure to leave a question or comment in the bottom box about the remodeling project you’re considering so that we can come prepared with some ideas and answers for you.

If you can’t come to this seminar, we will hold more in the future; keep an eye on this page so you’ll know when we schedule the next one.

You can also request a personal consultation with one of our Riverside Construction remodeling experts that fits within your schedule.

And remember—don’t jump into a remodeling project too quickly with your new home. Follow our three tips and wait a year so you can get the most satisfaction and value from your remodeling project!