Call it home sweet home, not money pit
Plan renovations during the house hunt, not after you’ve finally turned the key, interior design expert Laura Stein advises
So you’ve bought yourself a house that needs a little work because you didn’t want to live in someone else’s idea of a dream home. How do you keep yourself from falling into a money pit, à la Shelley Long and Tom Hanks circa 1986?
The first thing to keep in mind, says Laura Stein, principal and CEO at Laura Stein Interiors in Toronto, is making sure you don’t bite off more than you can chew.
A year ago, Stein and her husband bought a home in Toronto’s Roncesvalles neighbourhood that needed a complete renovation, a gut job from top to bottom. As a professional, she knew what she was getting into, had plenty of experience with long and complicated projects and understood she would be “frustrated with not being able to make it my own.”
Average homeowners, therefore, need to start thinking of their renovation when they are still househunting, keeping in mind three important factors: what you’re willing to take on, your timeline and your budget.
Walk through a home thinking of what you’d need to do to make it your dream house, cost out those projects, and then add 20 per cent for the inevitable surprises, Stein says.
“‘If my renovation is going to cost me this much money, can I afford to buy this house? Can I make this my dream house with what I have to spend on it?’ Your prioritizing needs to start from day one when you first set foot in that house.”
Projects to spruce up a home that is dated and just needs a facelift “are a lot easier to tackle quickly and to prioritize,” she adds. “If you’re gutting it to the studs, you can’t live there while you’re doing that.”
Building a few visits into your purchase contract will let you tour the home with an interior designer or architect to better understand the space and get a feel for what might be required.
“So often we go in with clients after they’ve closed and they say, ‘wow, I don’t remember it looking like this,’ ” Stein says. “So you want to give yourself some time to get to know your house and think through your renovation carefully so you’re not rushing into making changes.”
For any home, however, the first set of priorities is the same: making sure the house is working and safe, meaning the systems such as plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling are not only to code, but functioning to your standards.
“Those are the things that can cost a huge amount of money and are really important in the end,” Stein says. “You’d be very unhappy come February if your furnace wasn’t working. It’s not the fun stuff, your friends don’t come over and say, ‘wow, look at your new furnace.’ But it is really, really important.”
The next renos to consider when setting a priority list are ones that should be done before furniture is moved in. The top project on this list would be refinishing the floors, which can end up opening a Pandora’s Box of issues, Stein notes. If you replace the floors, you may have to replace the baseboards. If you refinish the floors, the baseboards likely have to be refinished, too.
And if you decide to tear down a wall (which itself may require a structural engineer and permits, plus could involve rerouting ducts or electrical wires), flooring will need to be added to the new floor space.
“There are a lot of things where you think about one thing, and it will lead to something else and lead to something else,” Stein explains, noting that her own home renovation went over budget by between 20 and 25 per cent, and she’s an expert.
Most of that was due to unexpected costs and the scope of the reno,” she says, including having to drywall the entire house because the original plaster was crumbling and mouldy, and replacing existing framing.
Stein also admits she over-budged by upgrading to more expensive finishes and fixtures. “This happens on every reno project I’ve ever worked on,” she says. “People think, I’m already spending so much money, I might as well spend a little more and get what I really want, but it adds up quickly!”
High-traffic rooms that you can’t live without, especially if you have children, should also be prioritized before moving in. That means kitchens, and at least one bathroom, should not only be safe to use, but also functional for your needs, Stein says.
“Especially if you’ve got a family, the kitchen becomes the centre of the home,” Stein adds
Renovations that can be put off include the basement or the backyard, and if your kitchen is just a little dated but doesn’t need a complete overhaul, simple fixes can allow you to focus on other immediate bigticket needs, Stein says.
Adding trims, crown moulding and backsplash, as well as changing hardware, replacing lighting and painting cabinets are all inexpensive ways to make a home your own while you tackle more urgent projects or save for major renos down the road.