1. Create a budget– sounds simple right? It’s a lot harder than you think.. especially if this is your first renovation and if you are relying on others who see this as a money-making opportunity off a novice homeowner. The best way to start your budget is to have the contractor give you an itemized quote including all materials and labor. 

2. Do research– Find how much an average bathroom costs to renovate. You can Google this information or ask friends and family how much their renovation cost. Some other resources are: Angie’s List, Home Advisor, Houzz, and Yelp.

3. Get multiple quotes for your project from contractors and Trade Stores. Trades Stores are the material storefronts that range from kitchen cabinets (layout included), a tile store, faucets and fixtures and carpet stores. Shop til you drop is the name of the game! I often go to multiple tile stores and use their pricing against each other. Trust me, I am not cheating. I’m saving money and at the end of the day that’s the most important. I almost feel a rush of excitement when I’m negotiating with the tiles salesman. This is very important information if this is your first time: You need to know all tradesmen have wiggle room on the price they give you, you just gotta ask! Worst case scenario they say no and it’s not the end of the world but in my experience, they never say no because they want your business.

4. Stay on top of the job. Sometimes you must be aggressive! “Be aggressive B-E A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E! Aggressive!” You know the cheer. Just this last week, we are working on a flip property in Anaheim Hills and the drywall guys show up late, leave early and we need to get this project moving. It’s taken them 3 weeks to drywall a very small amount of the house. We have been constantly calling our contractor but I had to call him on a Sunday night and let him know, if we don’t tighten up this ship, we have to get someone else to come in. He freaked out and now we have new flooring, vanity counters and the countertop guy came to take measurements all in 4 days! Boom!

 5. Constantly review your spreadsheet throughout the project, make sure you are sticking to your budget and make sure each room like your kitchen, flooring, master bathroom are all on budget. If you tend to splurge in say your master bathroom, then make sure you come in under budget in another bathroom or cut out another expense somewhere else. Unless you are happy paying the change orders and going about the budget, keep reviewing and keep on top of your job! 

Renovating a home is not as easy as it looks on TV. Funny Side note: I spoke with a local realtor yesterday and he was telling me about a new house he is listing but wanted to see if we would be interested in it before going to market (it’s a famous athlete’s house). The couple bought the house years ago and wanted to completely renovate it. Fast forward… it broke up their marriage and now they just want to get rid of the house and split that asset without the project being finished. They never even lived in their “dream home”.  

Hopefully you found these 5 Hacks to be helpful and if you need help making some decisions or have questions about the information I shared, you can slide in my DM’s at: https://www.instagram.com/classyafinteriors/ of go to my website https://classyafinteriors.com/ and fill out the “Contact Us” Form at the bottom of my page. 

GOOD LUCK!!