Here’s the thing that no one tells you about your home and its luxury renovation. If you try to reside in your home while renovations take place, you’ll considerably rough it before your home reaches its luxury state. Unless you take your project one room at a time, and it did not occur because of a disaster like a flood or fire, you will find yourself without a bathroom and kitchen. Here’s a primer from an experienced homeowner on how to best weather your home’s luxury renovation and remodeling.
Obtain Temporary Housing
Speaking from experience, before work starts on your home, either rent a nearby hotel room or rent or purchase an RV. Sometimes, you won’t reside in an area with an available hotel room, or you’ll find all the rooms booked because it’s the high season. Consider renting an RV, so you will have a viable toilet, shower, and kitchen.
Ideally, you won’t need to do that. In a perfect world, you can take your renovation one room at a time, starting with the least impactful room. Otherwise, read on to learn how to muddle through until that wonderful moment when your home’s plumbing, electrical, flooring, structural, and other work finishes, and you can plop down in your favorite chair to simply enjoy it all.
Rent a Few Bathroom Trailers Before Renovations Begin
Regardless of the promises of your construction crew and family members, no one wants to go without a toilet completely, even for a day. Every aspect of your luxury renovation depends on a pristine work environment, so yes, it will mess up the new tile floors if someone walks on them moments or even hours after installation. Instead of forcing everyone to hike to a nearby public toilet, try bathroom trailer rentals, otherwise known as port-a-potties.
These portable toilets save the day. Construction crews everywhere swear by them, but if you want to remain in your home and all the available plumbed rooms will have workers in them, you might also consider a portable camping toilet or composting toilet. You’ve probably used one or both of these types of toilets before but did not know the technical name.
The former refers to the toilet portion of an RV, boat, or port-a-potty toilet, without the room constructed around it. It’s a toilet that you can relocate from room to room, placing it in any guest room while the real toilets undergo their transformation. The latter refers to the waterless toilet that functions like a compost heap in your yard; these toilets enclose the compost heap, so you don’t smell the composting. Whichever solution you choose, having some type of restroom at home proves imperative to family and construction workers.
Have a Dumpster Ready Before Construction Starts
You’ll need to rent a dumpster. Although it doesn’t sound like something that belongs at the site of a luxury renovation, you’ll find that dumpster rental makes demolition and construction move along more quickly. It also controls the construction debris collection, keeping your yard gorgeous.
What type of dumpster would you like? You’ve got choices! Most private refuse firms offer either over-sized waste collection cans or proper dumpsters to their residential and commercial customers.
Other options stem from private companies like PODS that deliver a large, empty container to your home. You fill it and the company picks it up.
Some firms include the pickup and commensurate delivery to either the local landfill or their private dump site. The PODS service will deliver your container to any address in the U.S. that you specify, so you can also use these containers for moving.
Speak About New Ceiling Ideas
Once you’ve lined up your toilet and trash needs, you can move on to the fun stuff. That refers to interviewing and hiring your construction professionals. Presumably, you already know what projects you want to do during your luxury renovation and have a look in mind for each room.
Start at the top, literally. Begin with a roof inspection to ensure that it remains up to par. You’ll need to do this before updating your ceilings. Meet with a few pro designers to consider materials, such as cypress wood ceilings, brass tiles, or copper sheeting. While many people simply paint the ceiling and consider it done, to add luxury, add texture.
Consider adding crown molding, carved trim, and ceiling panels. Doing so can make a drab ceiling exciting. You’ll add weight to the interior of the home by doing this though, hence inspecting the roof first.
Look Up a Few Different Plumbing Experts Before Your Renovation Starts
Perhaps your luxury renovation ideas include new bathrooms in the basement and attic. In space-constrained areas, many homeowners choose to build up or down instead of out. The most essential way to do this remains to finish out the attic or basement. These complex jobs require a plumbing contractor.
Changing a washer, you can do it yourself. Installing an entire plumbing system that interconnects with the one above or below it requires a professional plumber. A basement bathroom will prove an easier project since gravity flows water down; attic toilets typically require water pumps that draw the water upward, defying gravity.
Interview your potential plumbers with these intricacies in mind. Your chosen plumber should be able to explain understandably how they’ll achieve your goals. If they can’t or won’t explain it in straightforward terms, they’re probably trying to scam you, or they lack the experience to do the job.
Ask a Plumber to Inspect Your Septic and General Plumbing System First
Once you’ve picked your plumber for your luxury renovation, have them visit the property to conduct a septic inspection or sewer inspection. How does this differ? In a rural setting, homes feature septic systems that require periodic pumping of the sewage from them. In an urban setting, homes feature large sewer lines that connect with the municipal system, which transports the raw sewage to a treatment plant.
Whether your home features a septic or sewage system, this inspection needs to occur before any work commences of any type. If the plumbing of your home requires updating or the septic tank needs pumping, it will have to occur before you undertake other projects. A backed-up septic or sewer system floods the yard and home with raw sewage, which would ruin all materials stored at ground level and create a stinky disaster that would require an emergency cleanup.
Consider New Tile Floors
Finally, you’re ready to consider the fun parts of a luxury renovation. In this step, you determine what you want to change and how to change it. Although wood flooring remains a top choice for many luxury homes, consider tile flooring, too.
Tile offers a better solution for kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry rooms. It proves easy to clean with a mop and soapy water and requires no special care. The versatility of tile flooring comes from its vast materials list. Choose from ceramic, glass, Linoleum, marble, granite, parquet wood, and much more.
With this immense materials list comes a bright array of colors. Any shade of any hue you like either comes in a ready-made tile, or you can hire an artisan to create it. Similar to having Home Depot or Lowe’s create a custom paint color, an artisan can create a custom tile in any color, shape, or size that your renovation project requires.
Research Different Types of Hardwood
Consider using hardwood flooring in the remaining rooms of your home, except the garage. Designing a luxury renovation that includes flooring updates naturally should include natural materials that provide durability. Hardwood floors do that.
Today’s hardwood options range from a pale ash that appears white to a dark ebony that looks black at first glance. Ebony wood is a very dark brown. Other woods, such as oak, mahogany, spruce, and pine, fill in the tan and brown color hues. Natural hardwood comes tinged with either blue or red undertones, so they can complement virtually any decor.
Consult with a flooring professional before purchasing your materials. A blue-hued wood would not go well with red-toned walls and vice versa. A flooring consultant can help you choose the right wood for the wall paint colors that you want to use.
Compare Pricing for Different Types of Cabinets
Some people think of custom cabinets as only belonging in the kitchen, but during your luxury renovation project, consider these cabinets as an option for the bathroom, mud room, laundry room, and home office. Any room that needs more storage can benefit from custom cabinets.
Adding cabinets to a room creates closed storage above the floor. Instead of taking up floor space with bookcases or curio cabinets, having a cabinet maker create a custom design that uses upper wall space provides cubbies for everything, and retains the airiness of the space.
In some cases, small changes like new doors for the cabinets you have can create the new look you want. For example, replace solid wood doors with doors that feature a glass pane. You’ve created a space for your curios and collectibles without needing to gut anything or build anything new. Few people put to use every kitchen cabinet, so you probably have an empty one, perhaps above your refrigerator, that could become a display case.
Decide if You Want New Doors
What luxury renovation would be complete without replacing the entry doors? Consider installing custom wood doors to update the way people access your home. An artisan can cut and carve a door for your entryway that helps transform your house into a home.
Never fear if you want a luxury look but lack the funds for a true luxury upgrade. Shop your local hardware stores, home improvement stores, and any reclaimed materials options near you, such as Habitat for Humanity ReStore. These options offer ready-made doors that you can either paint to your liking or that someone else had custom-made and then changed their mind about.
Assess Outdoor Addition Costs
Outdoor kitchens and living areas have become a true feature of luxury renovation projects. Once considered a place to sit for a breeze in hot weather, front porches, and backyard decks have become the new family hub room. You don’t have to be a grill master to enjoy cooking on the deck either because as more people took to the outdoors, kitchens designed for decks took hold.
These outdoor kitchens feature ovens, stoves, refrigerators, grills, and many other food preparation items. They build cabinets and counters onto the deck and feature both conversational areas and food consumption areas. That results in areas for relaxing, using deck chairs and chaise lounges, and for dining, using covered café tables and picnic tables.
While these immensely fun areas can become pricey to install, many designs let you complete the kitchen in stages. First, construct the deck using the talents of a deck-building professional. Make sure to explain to them at the outset that you’ll add to the design bit by bit. This lets them build with the next step already in mind.
It’s a good idea to stick with the same building professional through all stages of the construction. When you choose your deck contractor, choose one with experience building kitchens onto the deck or patio. Ask to see portfolio examples and check their references with the individuals who hired them. This process ensures that you end up with someone who can manage a multi-stage project and who can bring your vision to light.
Creating a Home Through Luxury Renovation
Not every house you purchase starts out feeling like home. Sometimes, you have to pull up some flooring, replace a little sub-floor, and perhaps even level a home, to get the safety, structural integrity, and opulence you desire. Plan your project in stages so you can live in your home while you renovate it. Although that may take longer, you’ll be able to appreciate the changes the workers make each day. One day, you’ll walk across the threshold through your new custom door and gasp in awe at the palace in which you reside.
