My account here aims to assist or alert you, the reader, about some important points of a construction project.
First of all, my project is a renovation of a two-story, ground-floor house.
My husband, two children, and I have lived in the house for 12 years and decided to make some necessary corrections and modernize it.
Our renovation would initially be small; but after calmly analyzing the house’s improvement needs, we decided to expand.
The first step we took was to analyze the cost forecast and thus organize the resource for such an investment. It is worth mentioning that when it comes to construction, some unforeseen events happen, and the budget changes. In our case, that also happened.
We requested assistance from an architect, and after approving the project, we went to the budgets. You’re probably going to ask us if it’s worth investing in an architect. The answer is YES. Firstly, you can count on a structured project, assistance during the work, and some expense reductions, as the architect brings you some solutions that save you money. Also, with the project in hand, it’s much easier to organize the stages of the work, structure material forecasts, and visualize the expected result of your project.
Pay attention to the budget
Our budgets focused on labor, heavy construction material (cement, mortar, block…), glass (we invested a lot in glass), carpentry, marble flooring and cladding, pool, railings, among others. We literally made a cost spreadsheet to monitor and control.
I emphasize that it is essential to make budgets and always consider extra expenses. For example, we invested a lot in glass, and after finishing applying them, we realized that we would also need to invest in curtains, as our old ones were too worn to use in a brand new house.
I really liked closing a lump-sum contract
Regarding labor, we chose a lump-sum contract, which we found very suitable financially and in terms of speed. We noticed, of course, that the masons and helpers were interested in speeding up the work.
Difficult decision, but correct
We also chose to stay at home during the renovation, which was complicated. We are a couple with 2 children. Initially, we all stayed at home, but due to the dust and my youngest son’s allergy, we preferred to take them to their grandmother’s house. We chose to leave one room intact for us to use during the renovation. The positive side of living on the construction site is that we managed to follow it closely, all the details. The negative side is dealing daily with dust, noise, mess, and confusion of materials on the floor. I also really missed my children at home. But, as there was a time to end, I decided to face it.
Challenges overcome and renewed vigor
The work started in full swing. In the beginning, we were very excited and involved, loving each change, even if small. All this until a big unforeseen event occurred. Our city received excessive rain, which flooded the city a lot, and our work had problems. First, work and rain don’t mix; the service doesn’t progress, everything is delayed, and the external area can’t be worked on. Second, our neighbor’s wall, next to where we were digging for the pool installation, fell, which scared us a lot. In addition to all the danger we went through, we had a very high cost to rebuild the wall, in addition to delaying the work. All this due to the rain and infiltration in the wall. One of the great lessons we learned. INFILTRATION needs to be treated and corrected as soon as possible. The positive side of all this was that we managed to correct everything always talking and agreeing with the neighbor, without friction.
From this event, we got real and got a little discouraged, after all, it was an unplanned expense, associated with the delay of the initial schedule. But even so, we continued with all the work. As our house has 2 floors, we decided, on the architects’ advice, to focus on the first floor, where the bedrooms are, to free up this part of the house for use.
From there, we got excited again. Seeing the result of the work and starting to think about decorating the environments is very stimulating.
The Marbles are giving new vigor and sophistication to our house. The glasses brought natural light and ventilation, the pool a new life to the external environment that we didn’t use, and the gourmet area gave us new encouragement to live in shared environments. We are a homey family, we like to be at home, to use the TV room, to be with friends and family, which has greatly awakened us to invest in our residential property.
Our work is currently 70% complete, as there was a delay, but we have already had great learnings and victories. Today, I conclude that we understood almost nothing about work and learning along with the jobs is difficult, but satisfying.
I will be committed to concluding this text at the 100% completion of the work, reporting the entire result.
