Setting Your Renovation Goals
Your home renovation should provide you with improved functionality, comfort and convenience. When completed, your home should also be more energy efficient and healthier to live in.
It's important to set some general goals for your renovation project. These goals should address both the things you want to change in your home, and anything new you want to add. In some cases, such as simple repairs or maintenance projects, your goals will be straightforward. However, if you are considering more significant renovations such as major improvements or additions to your home, more detailed goal setting can be very helpful.
Renovation goals should reflect your day-to-day experience living in your home and describe what you want to achieve, rather than dealing with the "nuts and bolts" of how the actual work will be done.
In most cases, there are three aspects you should consider when drawing up your renovation goals:
- Use of Space How you use a room determines the amount of space required and the extent that this space needs to be open or closed to surrounding areas. Consider how you plan to use renovated areas of your home, what furnishing must fit into it and whether noise from one area of your home will be disruptive if not contained.
- Movement of People What are the traffic patterns in your home? Do access requirements between rooms conflict with activities? For example, do people have to pass through the television room to get to a bathroom? Are there areas of your home that currently cause "traffic jams" or that are too restrictive a certain times of the day?
- Light Requirements You need to consider the lighting requirements for activities planned in each room. Do the existing windows provide adequate daytime lighting? Do you want the room to feel more spacious and brighter? Will you use the space more during the day or evening? What sort of lighting fixtures are best suited to the space e.g., task lighting, area lighting?
A major benefit of setting renovation goals is that it helps you identify the existing problems you encounter in your home.
Download CHBA's Renovation Goals Worksheet PDF.
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