It is said that there never is a bad time to renovate your home. When the market is booming, people want to move up and that sometimes requires updating the bathrooms and kitchen; when the market is stagnant, people stay put and spend money beautifying their existing surroundings.

Even so, there has rarely been a better time to tackle home renovations than right now. With the recession taking hold, costs are starting to drop on everything from contractors' fees to building materials. Added to that has been the new measures announced in the last budget, which allows homeowners to claim a tax credit worth up to $1,350 on renovation expenses.

Those tax credits are only available for projects carried out between January 27, 2008 to January 31, 2009, so the window of opportunity won't last very long. If you have thought about renovating, it is time to put those plans into action. I have often said that the details are in the planning and that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. But nothing can really prepare you for a major renovation and all of the things that can and will go wrong.

I have no desire to be a pessimist, and one truly hopes that all will go well, but the reality is that it rarely does for a whole variety of reasons. The first thing that may go off the rails is a struggle for every designer and contactor: there is no way to know what is going on behind the wall, or ceilings or floors. This is why people have repeatedly said that you need to have a contingency fund that will allow you to deal with problems that come up. 

For instance, we had worked with a client who really wanted the master bathroom to have a large soaker tub in a Japanese style. The tub had arrived on site before the demolition had begun. However once we started to remove the flooring to have access to the drain plumbing, we discovered that the house had been renovated previously and the floor joist was compromised due to the previous work. When they move plumbing they often cut a section of the joist out to make way for the pipes. The weight of the soaker, which had cost $7,000, when filled with water and a person, would have ended up soaking the living room on first use. While that repair was not part of the budget, there was no option but to add it to the work.

The second thing to consider, particularly if you are acting as the general contractor for your own project, is the fact that not everything you order will be appropriate for the job you are trying to execute. While it may seem like you can have any variety of stone for the counter tops in the kitchen, the reality is that some stones are more porous than others and won’t work well with many foods. While the crew is waiting for an alternate solution, you are paying them to wait on a decision to be made. If the order of installation is not followed precisely, all of the elements will not fit together properly. You need to not only have the product ready to install but also consider what information is necessary for each individual specialist (plumber, carpenter, glass install professional etc) to be able to execute their portion of the job properly.

Expect a mess! No matter how often I warn clients that there is going to be a mess (I sometimes encourage them to take a vacation for a week until it’s all cleaned up), they always seem to be surprised that the mess and dust is beyond their expectations. Paint, plastering, drywall, stone tiles etc all create a good amount of dust in the air. It is a bit like taking a large bag of icing sugar and running around the house, spreading it everywhere. 

I do recommend that you block the venting ducts in any room that you are working in to stop the dust from going through the furnace and being spread to the other rooms of the house as much. Even with that done and the work room sealed fairly well, there is still going to be way more dust than you ever expected and you will be living in a very messy home while the work happens. If you can afford to hire an industrial cleaning company at the end of the process, it makes getting back to your life that much more smooth. 

Finally, working with a contractor can be either a nightmare or a pleasant experience. As a gross generalization, very few are reliable in terms of scheduling and your renovation can last far longer than you anticipated. They work contract to contract, and sometimes underestimate the time it will take to finish a project. Not wanting to lose the next job, they may begin the process and then stall the work while they complete another task. 

A few years ago, I fell victim to this myself, signing up a contracting company and then finally, after five months, being forced to replace them. Many people pay a good portion of the cost upfront and have no recourse to getting those funds back, so I think it is important to have a contract that spells out some of the timeframes to be expected. Also request that budget changes be made in writing. While you ask them to alter little things that come along or that you notice in another part of the house, you are being charged for that work and the final bill can come as a bit of a surprise. Few contractors are good with the book keeping part of the work so you may have to do it for them simply so you have a clear idea of what you are spending. 

The result is usually well worth the effort but you have to know that it is going to be an effort. 

Happy renovating!