How should we approach DIY home renovation?


Homeowners
are increasingly attempting do-it-yourself
home remodelling, but is it truly worth it when all of the risks and
benefits are considered?
At best,
I believe the answer is “Maybe.” Unfortunately, many homeowners will
discover that their DIY projects turn
out to be more expensive and complicated than they could have ever
imagined.
We are
obviously captivated by how simple everything appears on TV and YouTube, but we
must keep in mind that we are watching an edited production, particularly in
the case of TV shows. These presentations are meticulously put together, with a
lot of underlying advertising driving the creation process; they are fully intended
to get you excited about DIY; they
are always entertaining to watch, and the finished products are usually
spectacular.
After
watching these shows, many people find themselves salivating at the prospect of
doing their own home reno projects
and have an undeserved level of confidence in how it will all turn out. Before
you know it, they’re off to Bunnings, Mitre10, or perhaps more of a speciality
store, loading up their ute or trailer with products worth thousands of
dollars.
This is
not a good idea; there should be a lot of checks, research and planning done
before you could even start to think about what
products your home reno might require. These TV shows are great for station
sponsors, but I’m concerned about the knock-on effects they have on new home
owners or those that might lack a bit of maturity. So the question is, why
shouldn’t we be fascinated by home
improvement shows on television?
For
starters, they frequently overlook the most important aspect of home
restoration: ‘Planning.’ Very detailed
planning is the key to any successful home renovation. Property renovation
is a no-brainer for those who have got the skills, plenty of money and enjoy a
good challenge as well as a beautiful home.
Yes, if
done properly, a home reno will nearly
always yield financial benefits for those wishing to flip the property, but
it can also improve the quality of your
home life if you intend to live in the property once it is completed.
A home reno,
like any other worthwhile project, requires thorough prior planning and takes
time and effort to do well. It’s an
excellent way to breathe new life into
an old house, imprint your personality on it, and increase its value,
especially if you know what you’re doing.
However,
it can be costly or even dangerous if
you don’t know what you’re doing. In fact, as a result of DIY issues, a
dramatic increase in injured TV and YouTube educated home renovation enthusiasts has been filling up the emergency
department wards. According to an article I read on prochoicesafetygear.com,
hospital admission rates and emergency department presentations for
unintentional injuries have increased 54% and 22%, respectively, over the last
decade.
Every
year, a slew of new reality home improvement television shows debut, and they
are hugely popular. It’s no surprise that these shows are so popular and
successful because they appeal to the dreamer in all of us. These television
shows contribute to the growth of a multibillion-dollar
renovation industry. Because of these home improvement shows, major home
improvements, modest room remodelling
projects, and interior makeovers
can often appear more affordable, simple and safer to attempt than the average
person can understand.
The cost
is always lower on home improvement shows than it will be for you, simply
because they aren’t paying for everything they use, and if they do have to
reach into their wallets, you can be sure they aren’t always paying full price.
Suppliers
and contractors gain from being featured on these shows since they frequently
donate their goods and services in exchange for the exposure.
The
contestants on these shows are heavily backed by professional tradesmen, and
any major problems, no matter how devastating they would be for the average
person are always fixed up in the background. Remember, the show must always
move forwards and keep the audience hooked on the theoretical importance of home renovation.
Another
factor contributing to the low cost and lack of injuries on television home reno
shows is that the work is often purely
aesthetic in nature. In practise, significant undertakings, particularly
when repairing an older home, may necessitate structural work.
Most of
us are quite interested making our homes nicer and are not afraid to spend up
to $30K on a house renovation, and banks often make it fairly easy for property
owners to access up to this amount. So
we have a situation where these TV shows hook us on the idea of performing a home renovation and the banks make it all
so easy to get our hands on $30k, so what could possibly go wrong?
To begin
with, $30k is a heck of a lot of money, and when you consider that most people
go over budget by at least 15% during
home renovations, we lack a sense of reality regarding home renovation
prices. In retrospect, this is a little amusing because we were encouraged to
undertake this work by watching ‘Reality Shows’ on TV.
These TV
shows are so well-produced that they seem to easily persuade us that we will
profit handsomely from our improvements, but the truth is, we should always get
qualified financial guidance before
taking on a big home reno project and your friendly local real estate agent
or licensed builder would be able to give you a good idea of just how much
value you would be adding by doing particular work.
Even for
experienced DIY’ers, if we do ever manage to stay inside a budget, most of us
will have had to make design or material compromises along the way, as planning
and doing are 2 very different things.
So why is
it easy to underestimate the expenses of
house renovations? One of the problems, I believe, is that most people have
aspirations that are slightly higher than reality, and these TV shows fuel
false expectations in the home viewer.
As I
previously stated, there is normally a significant number of unseen fully certified tradies that assist in
ensuring that everything runs smoothly on the TV show home reno programs. They
have design specialists on hand as well as large budgets to draw upon. They have plenty of TV production tricks up
their sleeve to make things appear better than they are.
The home renovation genre on television
satisfies our desire for luxury and newness, but it may not place enough
emphasis on the actual cost of labour, materials, and other factors. Should we
stay away from all home improvement shows? No, not at all; they are, after all,
very entertaining and they do come across some pretty interesting and humorous
people to compete on these shows.
Just
remember, genuine reality is something you are not going to see too much of via
a TV home improvement reality show. So, before you reach for your wallet and
grab your credit card, consult with an experienced professional about decisions
that will impact the liveability and financial worth of your property and always
take what happens on these shows with a grain of salt.
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