Remodeling a Home – Shop Smart

When it comes time to remodel a home, there are many different options you can choose form. It can be overwhelming at times, and the budget can get overwhelmed too if you let it. What you really need to drill down are your priorities. You need to decide what is most important to you, and accomplish that. If you hate the 40 year old wallpaper that you walk in and see everyday, but you really would like a bigger closet, change the wallpaper. While the bigger closet would be nice, by changing the wallpaper first, you will see a bigger improvement in your contentedness of your home.

I love shopping as you know, so I have never minded the task of sorting through the options. The biggest problem for me is letting my budget creep. If I see the improvements that a more expensive piece will bring, it is hard to settle for the lower priced item. So I suggest setting your budget, and only looking at items in that price range.

Check out the National Association of the Remodeling Industry’s site for more tips here. They can help you really narrow down and define your priorities. They also have a list of contractors that they recommend, which is similar to what you will find in my other articles.

What I am really looking forward to is getting my floor replaced. I think that will make the biggest difference in my home. My home currently has old, old hardwood floors. I really would love to replace them soon. Of course, this is not a cheap project, and one that must be budgeted for properly. The biggest challenge will be finding the right contractor to actually install the floors. If you know of a good one in Dallas, please shoot me an email. Otherwise, I will just have to Google one, and give it a shot. Either way, I will let you know how my experience went and give you an update on my hardwood flooring installation. I will try to give a full review of the whole process, from initial dream, to researching flooring materials, to finding a contractor, to the installation experience, to post-installation joy. Wish me luck! It should be quite the experience, and I have even heard that a lot of installations only take 2 days now.

Home remodeling
Hopefully my home will look like this one day!

After I get new flooring installed, my next priority is getting my air conditioning back in top shape. While my current system still runs and does the job, it seems to be expensive. I will call out a company and find out if I need air conditioning repair or if I need to replace the entire system. These Texas summers are not getting any cooler, and my electricity bill isn’t getting any cheaper. I will let you know when about this process when it happens. If you know about a good HVAC contractor, shoot me an email so I can do a review of them. I will also document this project so you can follow along and experience it all with me!

Thanks for joining me on this adventure!