I was talking with a friend of mine, last Saturday during a break in
our improv class, about the house he bought about a year ago in St.
Paul. He and his wife are really bummed out, they had wanted to do so
many things to this house and are overwhelmed and do not know where to
start. He said all the fun was gone and they are actually thinking of
selling the house.
Anyone who is overwhelmed by all the changes and projects they are
trying to do in their house, might find some relief in creating a master
plan.
What does a master plan do?
A master plan allows you to collect all your thoughts on what changes
need to be done, and helps you prioritize and budget for them. A master
plan, also, keeps you from making mistakes – such as doing one project
at a time, to find you have to undo some of the work once another
project starts.
Have you ever painted a room, then decided to change a wall or
window? Redoing a project a second time is not nearly as much fun is it?
How do you create a master plan?
The first step is to create a wish list of everything you might want
to change in your house. Get this all on paper, or a spreadsheet for
those of you who are spreadsheet folks. Then prioritize the list by
most important to least important. Oh, make sure you and your wife or
significant other agree on this scope of work and its importance. If
not, there may be conflicting priorities and confusion as you start the
master plan.
Once you have this organized list, you can start to put the plan together.
If you have never tried something like this before, getting help from
a contractor, architect, or designer might be critical. I have a saying
that I firmly believe in “I don’t know what I don’t know.” There have
been times in my life when I have tried to do something, that I had
never done before – both personally and professionally – and have come
to realize the value in getting help from professionals.
Understanding all your options, costs, and how to value engineer in a remodel, takes quite a few years of experience.
If you have gone through at least 7 or 8 remodels over the years, you
might feel OK doing this yourself. You will also need to know how to
measure and draw your space up. There are some fairly easy to use
programs out there. Google SketchUp
is one of them. You can try measuring and drawing the space up on your
own. Don’t feel bad if you get frustrated. It happens to all of us.
Once you have a master plan in place – then it is just a matter of prioritizing what you want to do first.
Mike Otto, Fair and Square Remodeling
