In Vancouver, the popularity of restoring traditional homes has been a key factor in the thriving home improvement business. In addition, the cost of building a new house in the current real estate market is such that renovating an existing house is more financially viable. Today’s home buyers are also more likely to renovate before occupying the house rather than moving in and making gradual improvements.

Ask anyone who has ever performed an extensive renovation on a house and their story is often filled with frustration, excitement, disappointment and elation. In other words, it can be an emotional roller coaster. Having endured two majour home renovation projects of my own, I feel somewhat qualified to provide a little advice. To mitigate the negative aspects of home improvement, a few basic steps can go a long way:

1. Determine the maximum amount you are willing to spend and then discount it by 25% to arrive at a total budget figure.
2. Draft plans for your renovation project. Depending on the complexity of your renovations you can hire an architect or do it yourself using home design software.
3. Get at least three quotes from reputable contractors, even if you decide to do it yourself. Talking to the experts will often reveal deficiencies in your plans or at least better alternatives. The quotes will provide you with a better sense of the true costs.
4. Segment your renovation plan into cost components and assign a portion of the total budget to each component in order of priority until the budget is fully assigned. At this point you can decide what can be deleted or scaled down if there is no budget to cover the remaining components.
5. Before deciding on a contractor, ask for at least three references and request a viewing of previous jobs. Genuine references tend to be very candid about their experiences, so it is important to follow through and contact them.
6. If you are unclear whether certain work is included in the quote, do not assume that it is and confirm.
7. Establish specific timelines and milestones that allow for partial payments. Never bow to pressure for premature payment if you do not feel there has been substantial completion of a milestone.
8. Make notes of your discussions with the contractor and date them. Ensure that all schedules, agreements, notes, invoices, receipts and other documents are properly filed to provide for easy referencing.
9. Hold back about 10% of the contract price for about two months to ensure that no deficiencies materialize and the house is free of liens.
10. If you decide to do it yourself, be prepared to commit considerable time, not only doing the work, but hiring and managing the sub trades for the work you cannot do. Unless you have very flexible work hours, some construction experience and familiarity working with the sub trades, it is unlikely the benefit from doing it yourself will outweigh the cost.
11. Resign yourself to the fact that unforeseen changes will put you way over budget and hopefully your 25% reserve will absorb the additional cost.