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Thursday 11 December 2014

What to Do When You Outgrow Your Home?


When you outgrow a house or it doesn’t work for you anymore. - What do you do?

Well, you could go two routes – one is to throw the towel and look for another house or you can renovate/ extent the old one. Just like on Love It or List It which I quite like watching. I am usually not a great fan of renovation shows, but this one is at least shows some of the realities of renovation. But this is still TV.

In real life we can offer something that is BETTER than shown on TV. Part of the issue with renovations is that most times there is not enough planning and investigation done beforehand. Decisions are made with incomplete or assumed facts and this leads inevitably to disaster. When doing renovations and when with buying houses.What is the key – planning and risk minimization.

Feasibility Study of Your House - to Make an Informed Decision

So the decision “to love it or list it” starts with a feasibility study of the old house. What is possible, what will it will cost, what are the risks, even doing investigative explorations for possible problems down the line, what is the process. There are a lot of memories in your old house, your friends, neighbours and social networks are usually close by and your kids’ school is nearby. Doesn’t that house deserve a fair shot to see what is possible?

With our Roadmap to Your Renovation we look at your lifestyle, the house, your wish list, your tolerance level, your renovation knowledge and comfort level, the design possibility, costs, financing, contractor concerns and many more planning issues.

If You Do still Want to Buy a  a New House

If after this you still want to leave and look for a new house we will start planning for that – from arranging your mortgage to realtor services to renovations. And we do this through our Casavant Corporation partners (a one stop shop for home buying). More about this option in a later article.

If your home deserves a makeover

The feasibility study is a factual and unemotional tool for you to make an informed decision. And unlike in Love it or List It you do not have to do the renovations to make the decision. A feasibility study is a lot less expensive than a major renovation and, if a renovation is a go, it can mitigate a lot of risks during the construction phase.

Let’s say you would like to do a second storey addition. 

Here is the planning process you need to do:

1)    Determine what your needs versus wants are.
They are usually different from each other. Your needs are determined from your life style or a change in life style. Let’s say you would like to have another bedroom, but your kids are flying the nest soon. Do you really need the bedroom or could you use the extra space for something else? Maybe you don’t need to extend, only to rearrange. 

2)    Determine the possibilities and options.
a.    Know the implications on
i.    Costs
ii.    Finances
iii.    Timelines
iv.    Disruptions
v.    Obligations
vi.    Risks/Risk Mitigation

b.    Decide on a preferred option.

3)    Investigate the construction feasibility for your preferred design. Only then start the detailed design.
4)    Design the option
5)    Investigate and decide on the contractors.

We can help through all of this through our Roadmap for your Renovation packages.

If you want to talk to us about doing a feasibility study, please call us on 416-402-2679 for more information or, if ready, book your 'Roadmap for your Renovation Assessment' Now!

We would be happy to help.

Martina Ernst
President/CEO
Wo-Built Inc. - Innovative Design and Build

An Interesting Read:
@wobuilt: How do you budget for a home #renovation? @TDNews_Canada has #RenoTips for you! http://td.mediaroom.com/2015-05-07-to-renovate-or-not-to-renovate … #infographics


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