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When I started out building Home Renovation Hub I built it with the homeowner in mind. I had read that 60% of renovations go over budget due to poor planning. Being kind of frugal I didn't want to go over budget but I also didn't want to skimp on materials or quality. If you have read other blogs on Home Renovation Hub you might remember that we bought a 1976 ranch style home on the south side of Denver in October of 2013. The house itself was not exactly what we had in mind, but the land was amazing. Our home sits on a 1 ½ acre horse property with beautiful views of the mountains and brilliant sunsets off the back of the house. When we purchased the home, it was very outdated, boxy and compartmentalized. This home felt dark and closed in with walls dividing rooms everywhere you looked. There was an individual room for every living function enclosed by walls and a formal living room, which we knew we would never use. Large master bedroom suites with big bathrooms in our neighborhood did not exist. My wife actually couldn’t even visualize that someday this could be a home she would grow to love. I however saw the potential and beauty that this house could become and we bought the house.
In the spring of 2014, we began the process off gutting the entire home to open the floor plan to meet our needs for entertaining and a floorplan that flowed the way we wanted. We have been working on our home ever since and have completed the most crucial part of opening up the main area living space in our home. I call this Phase 1 of the project, which was to open up the living area for entertaining. Here are some pictures of the before and after.
Now that we can host lots of get togethers in our open living space it is time to get started in the bedrooms which are equally important…beginning with the master suite. This is what I call Phase 2 of our home renovation.
Our current master suite falls in line with home styles of the period. Our bedroom is large with wasted space, a small closet (we were used to a large walk-in and had the clothes to support it!), the room has limited light and is dark despite its windows. Our “master bathroom” is tiny with one small sink, limited counter space, a small shower with outdated fixtures, ugly tile, and is damaged from hard water stains. The toilet, shower, and sink are all very close to each other and the whole bathroom is approximately 6’ x 7’, not enough room for two in the morning. Ugh. So we decided we would combine two bedrooms into a single large master suite, and get the walk-in closet and master bathroom we wanted.
Planning for the Phase 2 of the home renovation I could use all the tools available on HomeRenovationHub.com.
Using the tools provided with Home Renovation Hub I'm going to walk through our own real renovation of our master bedroom suite. To illustrate how the Home Renovation Hub tools work I will share each step we went through to transform our bedrooms. With using the tools from start to finish we will reach our goal of having a beautiful master suite that we will no longer be embarrassed to show off.
Step 1: With the design tool provided through a Home Renovation Hub subscription I created an existing floor-plan to show the original lay out of our bedroom and then will show you the transformation into the new master bedroom suite, depicted in the finished floor plan picture below. Planning should be the first part of any remodel. Having a blueprint of what you want helps guide the work that needs to happen. This planning tool will also help determine dimensions of the room, plan for existing or new furniture, and the amount of materials needed. Then from using the design tool you can move on to build your material list and budget, which are also tools found on the Home Renovation Hub.
Here is the plan for the new master bedroom suite, the design will be our roadmap as we work through this renovation. As you can see we are enlarging the floor plan to give more room for storage and master ensuite.
Now on to the next step of our renovation! We hope that you follow my blog as I update each step until we finish our project.
We will show you how we use the tools of the Home Renovation Hub to build out a material list with costs, determine what tasks will require a contractor, and work through all of the stages of our personal remodel project.
Please feel free to contact us with any comments, concerns or ideas on what would make our tools more useful for your remodel effort.
We would love to follow and see your home renovation projects so think about sharing them on Home Renovation Hub! Start your renovation here and share with others!
The goal of creating HomeRenovationHub.com is to give homeowners tools they can use in real world renovations to help manage their project budgets, keep home improvements on course, and to track investments that build equity in your home. Since we use the tool extensively for our own personal remodels we are constantly tweaking and updating features to make it the most useful tool available to the DIY homeowner. If you are going through a remodel we would love for you to give us a try. In addition, we want your feedback as we build a collection of tools to help home renovators.
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