Planning Tools

We are pleased to provide you with some information that you may find of assistance in planning a renovation in your home and some examples and guides to help you get started!

Check out our Renovation Tips and Design Guide sections.

 

Renovation Tips

As an alternative to building a new house, renovating your existing older home can be an excellent option to get the best of both worlds – a new modern look but the convenience of your existing location - developed neighbourhood, close to friends, close to amenities that you enjoy, and so on.

Experts consistently indicate that kitchen and bath renovations offer the best return on investment in your home.  The cost for renovating these rooms can be significant depending on how extensive of a make over you do, but the recovery rate is typically in the 80% to 100% of the cost of the renovation in terms of added value to the real estate.  In some circumstances, this can even exceed 100%!  This recovery rate is very high for a few key reasons:

  1. Kitchens and bathrooms are essential.  There really isn’t a day that goes by where you won’t spend at least some time in each.  How much is dependent on your lifestyle, but even those who aren’t gourmet chefs spend some time in their kitchen each day!
  2. Today many households have such busy lifestyles that the kitchen is not only where meals are prepared and consumed, but are also a family activity center where people quickly come and go, discuss activities, check messages, make phone calls, conduct business, pay bills, have family discussions and so forth. Kitchens are often the activity hub of the home. Kitchens are also often an activity hub for informal entertaining with people gathering and socializing at islands or peninsulas while meals are prepared. 

Most people know that remodelling a kitchen and to some extent a bathroom, is an extensive undertaking.  Thus, they would much prefer to buy a house that has had this done already than to have to go through the cost and inconvenience that is unavoidable with renovating such a central room in your home.

So if you’re thinking a renovation might be for you, here are a few tips you may find helpful in your planning.

Needs and wants

The best place to start is to make a list of the things that you like about your kitchen (or bathroom) that you like and want to keep but more importantly, what are the things you wish were different and want to change.  They might be the amount or type of storage, the location of appliances, more light, a better food preparation space, and so on.

Sources of design information

In today’s world there is an almost overwhelming amount of information available to get ideas from – “reality TV shows”, magazines, internet sites, show homes and so on.

Budget

What’s it going to cost?  That’s always an important question to ask, but difficult to answer without knowing the situation.  For some rough guidelines, experts often suggest that kitchen renovations should be anywhere from 6% to 15% of the value of your home and the cabinets can be anywhere from 30%-50% of the total cost.  Bathrooms of course are significantly less and vary whether it is the large master ensuite or the small back mud room.  The budget depends on whether you are planning a minor or major makeover.  Keep in mind there are often lots of other changes you might make when remodeling – moving/removing walls to open up a space; moving appliances to different locations; moving plumbing or electrical; new appliances; new lighting; new flooring; and of course the labour to do all the work.  All these are often overlooked and can be a significant portion of the total project cost.  This can make the actual cabinetry only a third to a half of the cost of the project and much less in a bathroom.

Here’s a few links that you may find useful to assist in planning your renovation:

Design Guide

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.  To help us get you started, one of the easiest most effective things you can do is produce a simple floor plan layout of rooms in which you are looking to install cabinets.  There’s no need to make the drawing fancy – it just needs to be legible with the critical information noted on the drawing.  A simple example is shown below and here’s a few suggestions:

  • Measure your space.  Write down the width and length of each room.  If the room’s wall are unfinished (e.g., no drywall in place yet), make a note of that or subtract the relevant allowance from your measurements.
  • Note the placement, widths and heights of all the doors and windows (measurement the inside opening width of each).  It is helpful to measure and note the distance of each window and door from a wall to the inside of the window/door frame.
  • Note the height of the ceiling and whether it is a typical closed, open, vaulted or other style.
  • Note the current location of plumbing for fridges, dishwashers, sinks and toilets.  Similar to windows, it is helpful to measure the location of these outlets relative to a fixed wall as a reference point.  For example, measure the from the wall to the center of the toilet drain.
  • Note the current location for key electrical outlets for ranges, cooktops, wallovens, spacesaver microwave ovens.  As with plumbing, measure the location of these outlets relative to a fixed wall as a reference point. 

To help you get going, below is a sample sketch of a room layout and you can also download our Planning Grid (currently under development) to help you sketch out your rooms.