What Comes First: The Designer or the Remodeling Company?
Just like the proverbial “chicken or the egg” question, the question of who comes first in the remodeling process may seem almost silly. You’ve got to have a plan before you start remodeling, right?
Not so fast, Chicken Little! While there is no question that you need a plan before you launch into a project, it’s easy to get the cart before the horse. We can share plenty of stories of people who spent tons of time (and money) on designs for a dream renovation—only to find out that it was going to cost a whole lot more to turn those plans into reality.
What happened? Designers are great at coming up with ideas—and they come up with some really good ones, but designers aren’t trained to do cost estimates. Often, they aren’t aware of construction issues that can make the implementation of their ideas costly.
Does that mean you should give up on innovative ideas? Not at all! But the smart thing to do is to meet with your remodeling company and discuss your budget before meeting with a designer (and, by the way, some builders have some pretty innovative ideas, too!). That way you’ll avoid planning things that sound great but aren’t feasible—or will shoot your budget.
Make sense to you?