When springtime arrives and everywhere around us begins to burst with new color and life, we get the irresistible urge to get outdoors and get to work making our home fresh and new. With longer days, warmer temperatures, and all of winter’s pent up energy just waiting to be released, no wonder the springtime is the kick-off of the home remodeling season.

Whether you intuitively know this winter was the last one your old roof could take, or its time to install new siding, you don’t have to wait for the spring thaw to begin making preparations for your home remodeling projects. Today is the perfect day to begin. At HomeWise Roofing and Exteriors, a significant portion of our work entails helping homeowners improve their living spaces. Here’s what we’ve observed about clients who have the most successful home remodeling experience.

Home Remodeling Must Be Done Purposefully

In all seasons, home remodeling begins with an assessment of your home’s needs. Aging, weather, and a host of other factors can take a toll on your home, especially its exterior, so evaluate the condition of these key areas: the roof, gutters, window and porch screens, siding, wooden stairs, railings, and decking.

Remember to also inspect and service systems that have been lying dormant over the winter, as their repose is about to come to an end. When it’s time to crank up that air conditioner or hydrate your blooming landscaping, that’s not the time to discover these systems are not functioning!

Because home remodeling can be stressful, expensive, and time-consuming, getting your mind focused on the “why” of your project will make it easier to follow through. If you know those new gutters are going to keep water moving away from your house, preventing water damage, then you’ll appreciate the short-term expense for long-term peace of mind it provides. If your living space must become a maze of kitchenware boxes while you install new kitchen cabinets, you’ll have much more patience for the mess (and the many take-out meals) when you focus on the dinner parties and holidays you’ll soon enjoy hosting in your new kitchen.

Home Remodeling Succeeds with a Well-Thought-out Plan

As you inspect and make note of the areas that you need (or want) to improve, keep a running list of home remodeling projects and prioritize them in order of urgency first and preference second.

Then, begin investigating. What will it take to tackle this project? What is the anticipated cost? What is my budget? Is this a DIY project or one I need to hire professionals to tackle?

Now it’s time to prepare, so you can get those projects done with maximum efficiency and minimal stress. You can’t go wrong with these strategies:

1. Make appointments early. The springtime is the start of the busiest season for home remodeling professionals. For exceptional service for your exterior projects, such as roof inspection, gutter repair, window replacement, or siding installation, call HomeWise Roofing and Exteriors early to get your project scheduled. Helping your home’s components operate with maximum efficiency and customer satisfaction is our goal.
2. Budget your time, whether it be for meeting with service providers or clearing your weekend calendar to complete projects yourself. As a general rule of thumb (and a great way to reduce stress), go ahead and assume that your projects will run into challenges that require more time and effort than you initially anticipated, and add some extra time into your budget.
3. Clean up/ prepare the space that will be remodeled (clear off the porches before installing new siding, move furniture away from windows before putting in new ones, etc)
4. Rent a storage unit for furniture or other items while the remodeling project is underway if the scope of your project requires it.
5. Communicate with neighbors and help them be more agreeable with the extra noise, the construction dumpster in your yard, and early morning construction team traffic. A bottle of wine or homemade baked goods make an excellent peace offering from one good neighbor to another.
6. Make arrangements for your pets. Do you have a yapper? A pint-sized guard dog? A cat who will be traumatized by strangers and hide under your bed for a week? Your four-legged family members may benefit from a pet vacation during the renovation project, and it might reduce your stress as well.
7. Prepare for changes in your home’s function. How will the day-to-day operations of your home be impacted by the project? Will you be able to tolerate 2-3 days of scraping and hammering on your roof while you try to take work calls from home? Will your power be shut off for a lengthy period of time while the electricians wire the addition? Will you be able to get into and out of your driveway as needed? Having a plan for mitigating these hassles will make the home remodeling less of a stressor on your day-to-day experience.

Do I Call the Professionals or Do the Project Myself?

Let’s be honest here. If you don’t even own a toolbox, you’re probably not the man (or woman) for the job. While it is tempting to save money by doing our home remodeling projects ourselves, we are likely to create a whole host of additional projects and encounter endless headaches if we try to do the work ourselves. If, however, you are fairly handy and have some experience working on your home, you can likely tackle a number of the most popular spring home remodeling projects yourself.

The key is knowing yourself. If you are better at delegating or DIYing, your personable home improvement professionals at HomeWise Roofing and Exteriors stand ready to help you with all of your exterior remodeling projects. Call us right away and beat the springtime rush. You’ll be glad you did.