Plan Your Home Renovation (During a Pandemic)

 

Getting clarity about what your home means to you as both the haven where you really and truly live, and what it means to your wholeness in a material sense—that’s how I help my clients.  Home planning is no less relevant in this pandemic time.  

Knowing that where you live is functionally and emotionally meeting your needs and that it’s pulling its weight as an investment is essential.  Changing that important spot needs to do all those things as well.

People may be looking at reduced income, no income, or at the least a different expectation of how to foster one’s net worth.  Decisions about how to spend money on home renovation, if at all, need to be looked at with a critical eye toward cost and ROI. 

And our needs for home renovation haven’t gone away in spite of the economic & world environment.  Many of us are really using our houses now in an intense way – home is sheltering our bodies, work if we have it, school, food and leisure. 

We desperately need home to do that job of being a haven and to be our financial rock.  I think it’s doable with smart renovation planning. Forecasting suggests a fairly small drop in housing prices relative to the larger hits the economy is taking, making it a pretty sound investment.

A smart homeowner will not just throw up their hands and camp out in the corner of the bedroom with the unfolded laundry.  They’ll continue to dream, but be flexible and look for opportunity.  They will:

  • plan for altered timelines

  • plan for varied availability of materials

  • plan for adjusted safe labor practices

  • plan for delays in permitting

  • research new funding possibilities

  • learn how to set a renovation budget and stick to it

  • consider when to carve out a DIY portion and when to leave it to the experts

  • know when to splurge on a finish and when to go budget

  • source locally for more than just the ethos of it, but for supply chain issues

If this list sounds a little overwhelming, that’s understandable.  Just the idea of going to the grocery store exhausts me right now.  I can’t solve the grocery store, but there are solid steps you can take with your home planning. 

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Erika Woodhouse