To Remodel or not to Remodel?

By Kristy Sherrill, ASID, NCIDQ, Principal Designer

Remodeling your home is a decision not to be made lightly!  Life, Death, and Taxes are certainties in life, right? Another certainty in life is that Remodeling your home can be a stressful process and one that requires great preparation.  Now, I’m not talking about putting new tile in your bathroom floor.  I’m talking about remodeling the entire living space where you and your spouse have to retreat to a small spare bedroom and bathroom and have to eat fast food, make coffee and use a small refrigerator in your garage for eight weeks while your home is torn apart and put back together!  This is enough to stress out even the calmest and collected people in the world!  I have organized, facilitated, and watched this process firsthand!  The best suggestion I can give anyone who wants to remodel their home is to move out!!!  It may sound extreme, but it will save your mental and emotional wellness!  Now some people tolerate all the constant change, tradesman in and out all the time, and dust flying everywhere better than others, but my advice is still to move out of the house!  You can thank me later!  I had a client one time who bought a camper to live in while the whole house was being renovated.  If you like to camp, that is a fabulous solution!  

If you don’t have the option of moving out and eating out of your garage doesn’t sound appealing, one option is to renovate the house one room at a time instead of all at once.  On the surface, this seems like more of a hassle because the project would be spread out over a longer period, but it will reduce the amount of stress you experience throughout the process.  Another very important factor is to find out actual timelines it has taken your contractor to finish previous projects like yours.  You may even ask your contractor to provide referrals for you to speak with about how the experience was with the contractor.  Will your contractor leave your project to go work on another? Will he be on your project every day until it is finished?  Most commonly price is the focus when interviewing a contractor.  Price is important but out of three contractors, they will all be within a similar range.  The lowest cost contractor may help your budget, but if he or she takes twice as long to do the project, you will be regretting your choice.  Once you know the overall budget, the most important questions you should ask have to do with the experience you will have working with that contractor.  

Another great way to help the process be less stressful is to hire a designer to design your project before it ever begins.  Design is way more than the color of the tile and countertops!  Design encompasses every detail of the project from moving walls, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC to determining all your finish materials down to the light fixtures and cabinet hardware.  If you have a professional design your space first, you will know exactly how much your project will cost before you ever begin.  There is no guessing, no ballpark pricing, no allowances for materials yet to be selected.  The designer will have all of this done for you and through the experience of the designer, all the details you never knew you needed will be taken care of!  This will take a tremendous amount of stress off of the remodeling process!  

Lastly, if you choose to take the deep dive into a major home remodel, you must have patience!  You must be patient to get through the process, to let all the professionals do their job completely, and to watch all the layers of the design and construction come together to create this beautiful new home that you never could’ve imagined yourself living in!  A major remodel is like moving into a new home.  It might even take some getting used to, especially if you have lived in your home for 15-20 or more years.  The new version of your home will surely bring you many more years of enjoyment and a place to make memories with your family!  So, to remodel or not to remodel, that is the question!!!

For the last 14 years, Chambless Hall Design Build has been creating remarkable interior designs and custom homes for our clients. With great design, great architecture and great furniture, we can create your retreat from the world, the place to make all your family memories and the place you call home.  

Kristy Sherrill is the owner and principal designer of Chambless Hall. She graduated from Georgia State University with a bachelor of arts degree in interior design and is certified by the National Council for Interior Design Qualification as a residential and commercial designer. She has owned and operated Chambless Hall since 2010. Each year Chambless Hall completes numerous design builds including kitchens, baths and whole houses as well as provides furnishings and fixtures for all projects. Kristy’s passion for using design to improve her clients’ lifestyle keeps Chambless Hall growing and expanding the services they offer year after year.