July 2024
“We just bought an older house with great bones that needs tons of TLC. I always fall for a house with character but now I have sticker shock as I add up all the things we need to do to make this our forever home. Would you decorate first and wait to tackle the big ticket items (kitchen and 3 bathrooms) or renovate now and wait to decorate? Help!”
You're asking the right person! I lived with this dilemma for years, and here's what I've learned: don't decorate first and renovate later. With our house, I initially made it look okay with some pretty fabric and wallpaper, but the house still had a million quirks. The old charm quickly wore off. The money we spent on those decorative refreshes could have been saved for a renovation. If I could do it over, here's what I would do:
Create a Master Plan
Before spending a penny, I recommend making a comprehensive plan for your home. This plan can be executed over several years but will give you a guide for what to do now vs. later. Here are a few questions I ask my clients as we go through the master planning process:
How do you want your home to look and feel?
What areas of the home do you use the most?
What functionality is the home missing?
What structural things need to be updated (plumbing, electrical, etc.)?
What is most important to you and your family’s lifestyle?
Determine Your Budget
Once you have a master plan, you can meet with architects and contractors to get a preliminary budget range for the projects you want to tackle. This will help you understand what you can do now vs. later. If budget isn’t an issue, I recommend doing it all at once to avoid going through the pain (and renovations can be painful) more than once.
Fix the “Most Lived In” Spaces First
Kitchens and bathrooms are used every day and should be done right from the beginning. Plus, new kitchens and baths add value if you ever decide to sell your house. Some might suggest painting cabinets and getting new hardware to freshen up the space, but I recommend saving that money and living with it until you have the budget to do it right.
In my experience, I wish we would have done it differently so we could have enjoyed our home with more comfort and functionality for longer. Get the bones right, and the decorating will follow. Let me know if you need some help figuring this out. I love old houses and am well versed in developing a plan of attack - aka the Master Design Plan!
