One of the most exciting rooms to renovate is the kitchen. A kitchen is a room with a personality. It is a place to live and enjoy and celebrate life. It is the place where the family comes together for something other than television. But there is a tremendous range of choices available to you when you redo a kitchen, and costs can get out of control very quickly. It is important to decide on a budget and use it as a firm boundary that you will not cross. From there it is time for research and planning. Make the plans fit the budget and not the other way around.
- Make Good Plans: Your project will go much easier when a detailed plan is in place. This is where having some computer skills will come in handy. Being able to lay out what you want to do with accurate dimensions in a modelling program, is a good way to know what you are going to get. On the computer, you can make all the changes you like for free. And when it comes time to do the work, everyone can be on the same page, including contractors.
- Suppliers: Suppliers and contractors know where to get materials and appliances cheaper. Sometimes they get a discount, sometimes they just know where to go. Do some research, talk to people in the field. Maybe you can make a deal and get a contractor’s discount on material, or you might find where to get a wholesale price. But make sure you get quality materials. You can use the Internet to search for quality kitchen floor tiles where you will find a long list of suppliers. There is no sense saving a little money if you are just going to have to do the job over again soon.
- Appliances: The world of kitchens is like everywhere else; many things are overpriced because of effective marketing. Don’t be fooled, do your research, all refrigerators do basically the same thing, as do stoves and dishwashers. You need to decide if the expensive features are worth your time, and which brands and models do the best on reviews. And there are tons of reviews out there. Also buying green appliances should be one of your considerations. You can literally save thousands by making informed decisions.
- Do it Yourself: An obvious place where you can save money is in the labour. There are many things that contractors do that can be learned. At the very least you can do some of the demolition work. If you have some skills and some tools, you should define which jobs you can do and which ones you will leave to someone with experience. Sometimes contractors are willing to work with the homeowner to split the labour. In this situation the customer shares the workload while learning how the job should be done.
Saving money is mostly about knowledge, the more you learn, the more money you are going to save. That is why you need to do a lot of research before you pick up any tools or head to the store. Take your time, make a budget and a good plan, and don’t get sucked into features that nobody needs. Search for quality and good value, and you will save a lot on your kitchen reno.
