6 Keys to Avoiding Regret When Remodeling

New Spaces Design-Build
March 1, 2022

6 Keys to Avoiding Regret When Remodeling

When you remodel your home, whether it’s a kitchen, basement bathroom or even an addition, you really want to do it right the first time and avoid regrets. We’re going to show you how to approach your remodel so that you’re not going to have any regrets about your contractor, your selections or the process.

We’re New Spaces Remodeling, and we’re a design-build remodeler serving the west metro and south metro Twin Cities, and we’ve been doing this since the mid 1980's. We’ve remodeled about 30 projects a year for about 35 years, and we know what leads to problems and regrets.

So we’re going to show you 6 keys to avoiding regrets and having a successful remodel project.

Remodeling is a really big deal, and it can be an outright daunting process.

What makes remodeling an even more difficult process is that you typically only want to remodel a space once in your life, so you need to get it right the first time.

What does it take to get a remodeling project done right the first time? Well, we put together 6 keys to avoiding regrets when you remodel.

You’ll see that these keys are all value propositions that we bring to the table here at New Spaces, and we want you to know that we’d love to earn your business and have you choose us to design and build the space in your home.  If you’re interested, just book a consultation on our website here, and we’ll get one of our homeowner advisors to help you get started .

So without further ado, here are the 6 keys to avoiding regrets when you remodel.

1 - Hiring the right Designer for your Project

The first key to avoiding regret in your remodeling project is that you should work with a designer that can provide a professional, long-term perspective and ideas.  

You’ll want someone who knows how to make your space look fantastic, but you’ll also want a veteran that understands how to design spaces that enable you to live the way you want.

Our designers will take your dreams and ideas as inspiration, and then transform them into a top-caliber design & construction plan that are exhaustive, so nothing is missed.  We’ll make sure you’ve considered everything, and you end up with a space that’s everything you’d hope it would be.

So the first key is to work with a professional designer, like we have here at New Spaces, to develop an exhaustive design and plan, that will result in a space that’s as good as possible.

2 - Select a Designer Committed to Guiding You

The second key to avoiding regrets in your remodeling project is to work with professional designers that provide leadership & guidance to transform your ideas and dreams into top caliber designs.

You don’t want an “order taker” when it comes to your designer, you want that special designer that can understand the heart of what you’re trying to accomplish, develop an understanding of YOUR aesthetic and lifestyle, and then integrate that, into a robust, thoughtful design that would win awards.

Our designers are veterans of design-build construction, and they’re award winning, industry leaders in their field; but we’re also anchored in our customers perspective and lifestyle.

If you want your remodeling project to go off without a hitch, you need to work with a design-build firm like New Spaces, where the designer doesn’t just ask you want you want, but brings a tried and true process to discover your dreams, ideas, lifestyle and goals, and then integrates them into a design & plan that’s exhaustive, and worthy of submission to any design award program.

So the second key is to work with a designer that’s truly a guide.

3 - Create Your Master Plan

The third key to avoiding regrets in your remodeling project is to think long-term and with a master plan in mind.

As we just talked about, a great designer will integrate the heart of your lifestyle, ideas and dreams into a design.  But a true professional will help you develop a long-term master plan.

All of our clients will receive guidance to consider how they might age in their house and how they might remodel other spaces in the future.

Designing and planning with an eye on your aging process is critical so you don’t have to undo things or have regrets. We gently provide insight through the design process about what folks appreciate at different stages of life.

Also, you shouldn’t remodel without having a designer consider future projects.

There’s nothing more frustrating than spending time and money remodeling one space, only to find out that it’s detrimental to remodeling another space later on down the road.

When you remodel, you’ll be best served to work with a design-build company that will integrate a master plan and aging in place perspective, so that you don’t find yourself full of regrets if you remodel another space later on.

It’s worth noting that since we’ve been doing this here at New Spaces since the 1980’s, we also have a well-formed perspective about how styles and materials age, and how various styles will cycle through.

So when we design a space, we have a master plan in mind, we consider how you’ll age, and we try to help you get a design that doesn’t go completely out of style and has more of a timeless feel.

4 - Design-Build is Key to Success

The fourth key to avoiding regrets in your remodeling project is to work with a build team that’s deeply integrated with the designer & their specifications.  

Here at New Spaces, we’ve intentionally become a design-build remodeling, firm where we have full-time, veteran lead carpenters along with vetted trade partners as our sub contractors.

Our veteran build team knows precisely how to take the plans from our design team, and build them to perfection.

Time and time again, we hear stories of upset homeowners choosing low-bid general contractors to build their designs, and the results leave them frustrated and full of regrets.

When you choose to work with New Spaces, you know exactly what your home is going to look like when it’s finished, before you pay to have it built.  

Our build team has been deploying our designs & plans for decades, and just listen to our customer testimonials if you’re wondering whether we’re able to deliver on this.

5 - On-time, On-budget & Built to Perfection

The fifth key to avoiding regret in your remodeling project is to work with a build team that has a truly proven track record of executing projects on-time, on-budget, and with superior craftsmanship.

If you were to ask 10 friends that remodeled with different companies, you’d be startled by how many experience budget creep, variances, change orders and just poor execution.

What’s beautiful about the Design-Build approach we take here at New Spaces, is that our lead carpenters and build team take complete ownership of everything, and we’ve built a long list of completed projects, almost 30 a year since the 1980’s, that ended on-time, on-budget and were built to perfection.

Sometimes we’re hesitant to talk much about delivering on-time and on-budget because it seems so common sense, but every year we hear the horror stories of folks that are frustrated because of unprofessional results from other contractors.

How are we able to deliver on this?  It has a lot to do with our design-build process, and the designers and lead carpenters learning to work in tandem to produce fantastic outcomes for customers.

So if you want things to go well, choose a build team that has a reputation of building out designs to perfection, and doing so on-budget, on-time, and with fantastic craftsmanship.

6 - Defining a Budget & Scope is Critical

The sixth and last key to avoiding regret in your remodeling project is to work with a company that will invest the time and energy to help you early on in the process, as you decide on your budget, scope and ideas.

Your project will go better if you have a well informed guide, to help you determine the basic scope and budget, so you can choose a project that is completely worth it.

Here at New Spaces, we have full time homeowner advisors whose job it is to help people through the confusing first stages of a project;  when you don’t know what type of project would enhance your life the most, or what type of budget you should commit to the project so that it can be done well.

Our homeowner advisors’ mission is to help homeowners figure out their budget, ideas, and scope so that they can start a remodeling project that truly makes a difference in their life.

In other words, we invest in helping you get started, in the hopes that you’ll also notice our approach and reputation and choose do business with us.

Homeowners often feel like a sheep among wolves, because every contractor and remodeler will take their money and build them something, but we know that homeowners are best served when they can decide on a project scope and budget that will deliver meaningful results, and leave them feeling completely satisfied with the outcome.

We invest time and money into a more educational approach to help people get started, because we know how helpful it is.

Our homeowner advisor will invest time and effort into helping you figure out what spaces you should remodel, what kind of budget you will need to do it properly, and then take ownership of the entire process.

If you want things to go well, you should work with a company that will invest the time and energy into helping you on the front end, to help you decide.

Conclusion

Minneapolis and the surrounding Twin Cities are full of good remodeling contractors, but we’re confident that when you choose New Spaces, our process and team will ensure you end up with the perfectly remodeled space without any regrets about the process or outcome.

Book with us today to get started on your ideas.

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