5 Things You Should Consider Before You Start Your Fixer Upper

A new home is a great opportunity to customize your space in ways that feel comfortable for your own needs and wants -- and it can also seem overwhelming at times. The new owner of a home needs to make several decisions about everything from paint color to the fixtures you wish to have in the bathroom and kitchen; its construction is complex, regardless of whether it is a brand-new home built by a developer or an updated version of an existing home.

It is possible to make your experience of new construction as smooth as possible, and even relieve some of the pressure of making some important decisions. Before you start your fixer-upper, make sure you keep these basic tips in mind. Before you begin your project, consider these 5 things.

Set a budget

Unless you're independently wealthy or somehow found a pot of gold, you'll have to work within the constraints of a budget. This needs to encompass both the building and all the fixtures and features you can add to your property. Once you have a budget range in mind, think about how much you really feel comfortable spending. We know it’s tempting to push to the very limit of your potential budget be smart and think about the monthly payments, oh yeah don't forget about the taxes and homeowners' insurance before you commit. Some of the upgrades that you'll be offered will also be a lot cheaper and offer a lot more options if you wait until after you're living in the home to take advantage of them. Remember that if you spend at the upper end of your budget, you won't be able to make those changes as quickly as you might want. When you've figured out what your budget is, make sure you stick to it. It's fine to leave some wiggle room, but if you find yourself constantly going over budget, you'll regret it later.

Create a vision board

Don’t think of vision boards as something you make at the start of the new year but be creative and make one for your upcoming project. Your home is a place where you're vulnerable and spend the most intimate moments of every day, so spending some time deciding what feels right will help you make tough decisions and eliminate options as the build progresses. A vision board is an excellent way to pin down your sense of what you want in your home to visually look like, use a vision board to collect your ideas. House vision boards can include textures, fabrics, colors, flowers and plants, pieces of furniture, windows, and doors, among others.

Know why you want what you want

This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, but different people need different things from their living environments. For example, a homeowner with a health condition that affects fine motor skills might prefer a fixture that's easy to turn on and off. If you don't have any fine motor skills issues, maybe the low-flow faucet is the best choice. Before you're tempted to dig into fixtures and make decisions about them that could be hard to change, sit down with the other people and have a conversation about what they like and don't like about how your current home is configured. Although the answer they give may surprise you, it will allow you to structure your home for maximum comfort.                               

Coordinate finishes

You don't need to use the same faucet in every bathroom or the same tile in each room. But thinking about how your finishes coordinate together within each room will save you from mistakes like inadvertently ordering a towel rack that's a completely different color than your faucet. For a good rule of thumb, keep finishes standardized within each room. Look at how each finishing option coordinates with the others.

Match the look and feel of your house

That marble countertop may look a little tacky depending on the color scheme of the kitchen; not everybody wants a house that's perfectly coordinated, of course adding a unique variant may make your home seem vibrant but it's important to make your home look and feel astonishing. This isn't a hard rule as much as a guideline, but it's still worth remembering: Do your best to match of each room in your home with your home's overall look and feel. It is a common practice for professional stagers to present homes in such a way that they are appealing to buyers, and if you follow their example, you can feel as if you were living in an interior design magazine every day that you reside in your new home.                                 

Try not to fall in love

New construction can be just as heartbreaking as it is exciting usually when you discover a fixture or an absolutely perfect upgrade, then realize it's way beyond your budget. When you find yourself starting to have feelings for something specific, recognize it as a warning sign to back up, take a deep breath, and remind yourself that you're going to be living in this home for (most likely) a long time, and you'll have more opportunities to make it perfect. If you bring some structure and strategy to your new construction project, it'll feel more like an opportunity than an overwhelming mess. Planning and managing your own expectations will make moving into a new-construction home that you worked on something that you won't forget.