Don’t Make These Costly Common Home Renovation Mistakes

Katy, Texas

When making home renovations, following these simple guidelines will prevent you from possibly throwing away money on home renovations.

1. Do it yourself. Unless you have professional quality skills, doing it yourself could be worse than not doing it at all. Poor paint jobs and tile and wood floor installations may sound easy but the quality of the work is as important as the quality of the materials. Bad workmanship negates the upgrade.
2. Choosing a great contractor. The cheapest bid is not always the best bid. Ask around for referrals for a dependable contractor who does good work.
3. Poor quality materials. Yes, people CAN tell the difference in good quality and poor quality materials.
4. Extreme quality materials...are nice but don't go overboard for your neighborhood. For example, gold plated faucets in a $300,000 home is going overboard. On the other hand, gold plated faucets in a $3,000,000 home is not overboard.
5. The wrong colors. Liking and living in your home is one thing, selling your home is another. Neutral colors are always a safe bet for resale value when updating. Unique greens, blues and reds are more risky.
6. Too many different floors. Having different types of flooring meet in one area is risky. In other words, carpet meeting wood and/or tile is ok, but two different tiles butting up to each other is a faux pas.
7. The wrong styles. Visit model homes to learn what's hot and what's not. Polished brass is out, brushed nickel is in. Do not mix and match brass and nickel unless that is the original design.
8. What's hot, what's not. Pergo-no, wood floor-yes. Berber carpet-no, fris carpet-yes. Corian counters-no, Granite, Avanza, Silestone counters-yes. White appliances-no, black or stainless-yes. Mini blinds-no, 2 inch blinds and plantation shutters-yes. 12 inch ceramic tiles-no, 18 inch tiles-yes. Wallpaper-no, faux walls-yes. Polished brass-no, brushed or polished nickel-yes.