Good sound, great living - my Home Theatre den and home - Renovation musings

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Renovation musings


Getting the nice end result, requires planning, careful consideration to details and even if you get the best Interior Designer, Contractor or workers, some simple tips will prevent you from getting a total meltdown and give you that Home and Decor worthy home at the end of the day.

First plan, plan plan...
Attention to all the details is essential, even if you have employed someone to look after it. How the color flows from one wall to the next, or how one cabinet blends into the bay window requires you to give it some thought.

For those into Hi Fi, buying enough cable length is also important.

The Extra 20% rule....


Always give it 20% more, be it speaker cable length, budget or even time taken for renovation.

Do some spot checks

If you do not wish to find out that your home now resembles a horror house, pop into your place once in a while and check that things are going the way you want it. Sometimes things get lost in translation and what you wanted wasn't carried out simply because the contractor's interpretation was different. This helps save costly revisions.

 

Time….

 

Be realistic with the time frame but be specific. Rome was not built within a day and neither will your home. Buffer the time by 20%, then ask for specific details. i.e. what is the time line of events. If you are working with many contractors, this is very important.

 

Make a date…

 

Get your main contractor to sort out the dates, so the delivery dates for your bed, other pieces of furniture are well sorted. This prevents a situation where a delivery is scheduled whilst there is still dirty construction going on.

 

 Usually the curtains come last, and so do the other smaller pieces of furniture. For any installation work and movement of heavy items, do it near the end, before the big clean up and whilst the permit for moving items covers it and the walls of the lift are lined with the protective material.

 

Audition the work:

Ask to see the contractor's previous work or even visit an ongoing project to see the work in situ. Sometimes, if you only see pictures of his work, it can be deceiving.

 

The feel:

 

Working with another individual is not easy, and you need to see if you and your contractor can get along. That may seem obvious, but how responsive, or how receptive he is, is vital to your final outcome and plans. There will be those you get along famously and others you hate.

 

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