If you’ve renovated a house before (or even an office), you’ll know how much planning, budget estimations, time with contractors, suppliers, and patience is required. A bathroom renovation for example, can take 2, 3, even 10 times longer than you imagined, and washing your hair in the kitchen sink isn’t as fun as it sounds!
So with years of experience, helping our delighted clients (some here) renovate their homes with the latest in Australian building materials, we’ve put together these Do’s and Don’ts for renovating in 2018.
Let’s get into it:
1. Do: Use the best building materials.
Always plan around your return on investment! It’s not only the use of the latest materials, like Koolwall cladding that provides remarkable insulation to help reduce heating and cooling bills, but also the resale value of your home.
Consider investing properly not only with your home’s exterior and interior wall cladding but also your windows, roof, appliance, fixtures, flooring, air-conditioning and finishes on your bench tops. All of these things will create a highly desirable home if you ever decide to pack-up and move.
2. Do: Invest in good appliances.
Consider investing in only the highest quality appliances. Over the life of your home, your appliances will be used thousands, perhaps millions of times, and quality seriously matters here.
Perhaps you know someone who has a 20-year-old washing machine that’s still going strong? That’s because they invested properly at the start, and likely save thousands of dollars over the years. Do your research and look at the best fridges, stoves, washing machines and even toasters, and you won’t have to think about it again for some decades.
3. Do: Use neutral finishes.
Think about choose stunning neutral colours for your renovations that can match any kind of furnishings and appliance. In 2018, we recommend lovely warm beiges, soft whites and greys. With these colours, you can instantly rule out design and decor challenges and are not locked into a particular style or character. Check our or Ezycoat options and colours.
Also with these neutral colours, you can go for a modern, classic or rustic Australian look and feel, which is perfect if you are the kind of person who likes to mix up your living spaces now and then. These colours also allow for brilliant, eye-popping feature walls, and are perfect if you plan on selling your home in the near future.
Now let’s look at the top 3 renovation don’ts for 2018, to see what you should avoid doing when renovating your home.
1. Don’t: Go it all alone.
Please, pretty please (from all of the Active Building Systems team who have come to the rescue on many occasions), do not try to do everything yourself. Renovations are not weekend DIY projects, and if you do it yourself, the chances are that it will take a very long time and you could feel like you’re living in a halfway house for months.
Doing your renovations all yourself can really taint the way you see your home too, so it’s best to get professionals who can turn your renovations around quickly, with the highest quality so that your new areas last the test of time.
