The Best Way to Approach Renovating a Fixer-Upper

When you’re looking to find your dream forever home, it can often look a different way than you first think. To some, buying the final product is the best way to do it. While to others, designing a custom home is exactly what they want. But then there’s the option of renovating! Whether you’ve renovated your own home before or not, it’s easy to think that renovation work can take a long time and be expensive. And in some circumstances, it can be. However, there are also times when it can actually pay off hugely – by giving you the dream home you’ve been looking for!

This is often why people purchase fixer-upper properties. With a fixer-upper, you’ll usually get it for a lower price upfront. This then gives you more money to renovate with. But at the same time, if you do buy a property that needs a whole lot of work, you always need to ensure that you approach it in the right way. 

So in this blog post, we’re going to take a look at exactly what you need to do when you’ve invested in a fixer-upper in order to transform it into your dream property. Let’s get into it!

Have a Detailed Plan

To begin with, you’ll find that it really helps if you can have a detailed plan of how you’re going to approach this. If you’re working with an architect, they may be able to help you out here. If not, any advance planning you can do in terms of what needs to be done and when will help. It can also be useful to have a list of things you need to purchase at each stage too. That way, you’ll feel organized from the start.

Gut the Place First

When it comes to getting things underway, the first thing that you need to do is ensure that the property is ready to renovate. This often means clearing the entire place out and getting a junk removal service in to take it all away. With this done, you’re then able to start construction.

Consider Any Structural Work

When it comes to the major renovation work that needs to be done, you’ll want to work out whether you plan on doing any structural changes. You might want to extend the property, knock down walls to change the internal layout, or even convert spaces such as the garage or attic to make extra living areas. This is the work you’ll need to start off with. Just be sure that you have the right permits and permissions before you get going.

Bring in the Priority Contractors

When you have your structure sorted, you’ll then want to think about getting your main contractor in for things like plumbing and electrics. Depending on the type of property you purchased, you may need to replace all of the electrics and the plumbing systems – or just make a few tweaks. Either way, it’s important to have these sorted before you do any decorative work.

Get Your Fittings and Fixtures in

When the shell is ready, you can then look at bringing in your key fixtures and fittings – namely the kitchen and bathrooms. This is why you need to ensure that you have things chosen out and purchased early on, as then your contractors can get underway with installing them. When each of these rooms is ready, you will find that the bulk of your renovation work is complete.

Get the Space Decor Ready

Then, you can finally look to get the home decor ready! It’s all about ensuring the walls are ready to be painted and you’ve got your flooring choices made. You can then choose the interior design style you want to work with and look at bringing in the right furniture pieces to set everything off.

Make it the Perfect Place for You

Finally, you then need to add in the finishing touches. By styling and accessorizing your fixer-upper, you’re going to be able to really set off all of the hard renovation work you’ve done. You’ll also want to get out into the garden and make sure that you have any landscaping work done to truly finish off the job with style!

Final Thoughts: How to Stay Sane When Renovating a Fixer-Upper

As you can imagine, looking to renovate an entire property from scratch can be a lot of work. You may have times where things don’t go to plan and there are delays or issues that come up. This can make it all feel very stressful. However, it’s always going to be important for you to try and keep yourself sane. Here, managing your expectations and being flexible can really help. Then, when it’s all finished, it’s going to feel worth it!