Learn how to assess your home renovation needs with our expert guide, helping you evaluate your home’s condition, set realistic budgets, and prioritize projects. Start planning your perfect renovation today with our comprehensive resources and Crafted Renovator Workshop!
Living in a home you don’t love or that is it functional for your family can be super frustrating. It’s easy to want to renovate your space.
But actually do it? It requires a lot of planning and execution.
The first step of any home renovation is to assess your home’s needs to determine what you need your renovation project to cover.
Today I want to talk about the steps you should take to assess your home renovation needs and to plan the perfect home renovation for your space.
How to assess your home renovation needs
It’s important to make a detailed plan before diving into any home renovation. The first step of planning is assessing your current situation to determine the scope and overall vision for the renovation.
Here are the factors that you should consider as a part of this process!
1. Evaluating the Current Condition of Your Home
First, you want to take a thorough and honest look at your home in it’s current state. Focus on the area that you hope to renovate.
Pay special attention to these areas:
Structural Integrity: Checking for foundational issues, roof condition, and overall structural soundness. These issues aren’t fun and can eat up your budget and require a professional.
Utilities and Systems: Assess the plumbing, electrical, and HVAC systems. Does anything need to be replaced? That should potentially be taken care of outside of the renovation, or plan to budget in for it.
Interior and Exterior Assessment: Inspect the walls, floors, windows, doors, and exterior features. What
Overall Functionality: What works and doesn’t work for your family? What would make it as functional as possible for you?
Aesthetic Look: What elements are out of style or would you like to replace? Write them all out in a long list. Dream big – this is just a starting point. Things will be eliminated as you go!
2. Identify Your Renovation Goals
now is the time to start thinking about the goals of your renovation. Typically, there are two categories of renovation, goals: functionality and aesthetics. It’s OK to have both in your goals list.
However, functionality should always be the top priority. Once you get the space functional, you can update the aesthetics to fit your style and as your budget allows.
But you should really prioritize budget towards improving the functionality first.
Functionality and Practicality
Make a list of how you would like to use the space, ideally. Write out anything getting in your way, any elements of the space that feel awkward or limit the way you can use it.
Aesthetics and Style
Decide on the style and design changes you want. What elements in the space do you dislike?
Create a moodboard of styles of similar room and use this to narrow down your shopping list and material list as you move forward with the project.
Increasing Home Value
Don’t forget that certain renovations will add value to your property, and others will not. How important is resale value to you?
If you plan to move soon, stick to more neutral, mass-appeal choices. If this is your forever home, you can make a few more personalized choices – as long as you know that they might not pay off whenever you do sell down the line.
3. Prioritizing Your Renovation Projects
Next, you want to take that goals list and label everything by priority. This serves a few purposes.
Mostly, it helps you to set the scope of the project. If certain elements are low priority, they will be the first to be cut as budget or time requires it.
Just because things are cut doesn’t mean they will never happen. Maybe you can do a phase 2 in a year or two when you’ve had time to save up for them!
Decide if each project is:
- Necessary – is is a NEED or a WANT?
- Urgent – does it have to happen now (or before other elements that are necessary can be done) or could it happen any time?
- On budget – can you afford it?
- Long-term vs short term – is it a quick fix or a long term solution?
Thinking of each of these factors will help you to label all of your goals and make a realistic, doable renovation plan!
4. Set a Realistic Budget
Next is one of the hardest – but most important elements – of a home renovation: setting the budget.
Its very important to create a well-researched and realistic budget for your space. Don’t forget to include 10-15% on each item as a contingency, in case costs increase as the project goes on.
Go ahead and budget for all of your renovation goals and sub-projects.
Then, determine how much money you realistically have to spend. This could mean exploring financing options like loans, savings, and payment plans.
When you compare these two, you will find if you have enough money or are short. At that point, you will need to cut things – ideally starting with the low priority projects you previously identified.
Then, you will need to work hard to stick to your budget as you renovate!
5. Create a Renovation Timeline
Finally, we want to create a renovation timeline. Assign a time (add a 10% contingency here, too!) to each project on your list.
You might want to arrange the projects in chronological order and use that to break the project into several phases.
Use this timeline to determine if things will have to be cut to be achieved by any deadline you – or potential contractors – have.
Planning a home renovation can be overwhelming – but by breaking it down using our simple formula, you can make it a doable task even for a beginner.
Grab our home renovation project planner below – or check out our Crafted Renovator Workshop – to learn our exact formula to plan your home renovation today!
Click here to grab our Home Renovation Planner and FINALLY get your next big DIY project organized!
Looking for something?
We’ve been doing this since 2012 so we have a LOT of blog posts!
Search stuff like: Ceiling Projects | DIY Plant Stands | Thrift Flips
Hello, I’m Morgan, half of the creative force behind CharlestonCrafted.com! With a passion for DIY that dates back to 2012, I’ve transformed three homes and now I’m dedicated to helping others craft their dream spaces. Let’s turn your house into a home together!