After years of living with chipped kitchen countertops, dingy carpeting, unattractive paint colors and old sinks, you are bound and determined to upgrade your home. You have the money saved up and you are figuratively chomping at the bit to get started.
While your enthusiasm is admirable, it might be a good idea to look at the calendar and decide if now is really the best time to start tackling these projects. As it turns out, when it comes to timing, home improvement projects are not created equally. With that in mind, the following guide can help you decide when to embark on certain home renovations:
Consider Upcoming Events at Your Home
Home improvement projects do not take place overnight, and this can be especially true if you are a devout weekend warrior, painting and tiling in your spare time. Pull out your calendar and take note of any upcoming events and plan your remodeling accordingly. For example, if your beloved nephew is graduating from high school in early June and you have promised to throw him an amazing party, you don’t want to start a major renovation project a few weeks before.
Most people who plan home improvement projects also try to get them done before major holidays including Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve. When planning a room remodel, speak with your contractor and “work backward” to come up with the ideal starting date, adding in plenty of wiggle room for delays. If you plan on tackling it all yourself, be reasonable about how much you can get done in a certain amount of time and if possible put off the project until the graduation party is over.
Paint When It Is Cold
Indoor projects like painting are perfect to tackle during the winter, according to the Huffington Post. If you are going to hire a professional painter, you may get a better price than during the spring and summer, when his or her schedule will be full of exterior painting jobs. As a bonus, the job may be completed more quickly because the professional can focus only on your home and not numerous clients. If you love to paint and want to upgrade the look of your bedrooms, one gallon at a time, the cold winter air is actually great for curing paint. You can crack open the windows in each room for ventilation, and let that cool dry winter air help to dry the paint in record time.
Update Kitchen Appliances in May
Different products tend to go on sale at predictable times of the year; if your fridge is small, old and an unattractive color, May is when this appliance usually goes on sale. If you don’t have any major family functions coming up over the summer, you might also start your kitchen renovations in the late spring—with the school year winding down and the holiday celebrations months away, May is an ideal time to tackle a kitchen redo. Kitchen renovation costs vary widely, depending on what you want to do; to keep the entire remodeling project as smooth as possible, look into how much each upgrade is likely to cost you and budget for it accordingly. For example, the contractor’s plans will run between $400 and $3,500, depending on how large your kitchen is and what you want to remodel, and new cabinets can run from $5K to $14K.
A Time for Everything
By taking an honest look at your calendar and upcoming events, and knowing when certain items are more likely to go on sale, your home renovation projects will be less stressful and gentler on the pocketbook. For the best results, remember that you don’t have to tackle everything at once, allow plenty of extra time and know ahead of time what each project is likely to cost.
