Budgeting Your Project: Tip 2
This is part of an ongoing series that addresses one of everyone’s most common questions: How much will it cost? In today’s blog, I am going to guide you into the tricky question of budgeting for a new build, remodel or addition. There are NO simple, easy answers here, so I hope these ideas will help.
My first suggestion, addressed in my previous blog, was to have a detailed, comprehensive plan drawn by an architect or designer.
Today’s tip: You need to develop a spreadsheet, and if that’s not your strength, start learning. Can’t you just have a contractor and designer tell you how much it will cost? Yes…but…. I have seen bids from contractors and quotes from architects vary by hundreds of thousands of dollars for the same project. Doing your research, with the assistance of an architect, designer, and/or contractor, will help you generate a budget well-tailored to your unique needs and desires.
For every product and every labor quote, you want a column for each quote or item. If you get three contractor quotes for labor, there are three columns. The same goes for all your products: If you are considering four different types of hardwood floors, you should put those in four columns and compare prices. Then you can start adding: a row for flooring, another for labor, a third for appliances, or windows, etc. At the bottom, you will be developing…yep, your bottom line.
Your rows can start with something as general as contractor quotes or be broken down into construction products, including windows, doors, and flooring. A door can cost a couple of hundred dollars or many thousands. Flooring can be good-quality engineered wood or an antique floor imported from France. It makes a big difference in your bottom line.
The point of all this is that you must do your homework, and the more research you do, the more accurate your spreadsheet gets. Yes, you can get ballparks from contractors, architects, or designers. Those are a start. But particularly for the more substantial options, you will probably want to write down those variations and get real pricing, not ballparks.
The best advice I can give you is not to make random decisions. When I am designing a kitchen, I explain my various cabinet lines and the reasons they vary in price. I explain the various options for counters and also for appliances. These items all cause budget swings of tens of thousands. Start researching before you order, and place your options into your spreadsheet. Then you can decide if you want to save in one place and splurge in another, and you will feel good that you made the right, educated choices that work best for you. Add rows for every item you can think of. At Fresh Design, we have project management spreadsheets which are similar to budget spreadsheets. As an example of what is included for a kitchen, we have all the sinks (one, two, or even three), all the faucets, including filtered, insta-hots, pot fills and prep faucets, the counters, the backsplash, lighting, flooring, furniture, appliances, hardware and more.
Lastly, talk to designers and contractors who are recommended and experienced. I can look at a room or a plan, get to know you by asking pertinent questions, and give you a pretty close estimate right off the bat. The more experience someone has, the better their estimate should be. Sometimes when I provide an estimate at an initial meeting, the prospective client’s answer is a firm “nope,” and that’s fine. I’d rather know before we start working together that this is not feasible. And for the majority of folks who want to move forward, I always give them a spreadsheet lesson, so you can track as you go.
