Home makeover tip. Timescale.

TIMESCALE – if you have a short timescale for your home makeover, are your plans realistic?

• Consider all the trades involved and how they impact each other. Allow them the time and space to work efficiently, don’t book them all to work in the same room on one day.

• Be realistic with your own time

If the home makeover is for selling purposes…

• The timescale is usually very short – the faster the property is back on the market, the better

• Try to prepare before the property goes on the market, rather than after, because you’re not showing the full impact in the photographs

• Consider the availability of trades, supplies and furnishings. Can you get hold of everything you need in time? It’s helpful to use a spreadsheet when planning a full home makeover, as savings can often be made by bulk-ordering, or having several items delivered together, or having one tradesman work for a full day on numerous small tasks rather than returning several times at more cost.

Here are some examples of timescale issues we have dealt with:

Before – for selling, I really wanted to stage this room as a dining room, but time was against us, and there was a baby grand piano in the room which would take a while to sell or move…

After – we had to change our ideas of making this a dining room, so we kept the piano and staged the room as a music room

Before – an empty house with only a couple of days before the owners were moving in

After – everything we chose for the room had to be available for immediate purchase and delivery – ex-display sofas, readymade curtains etc.

Before – this lady had promised her daughter a room makeover before her party at the weekend, but she ran out of time and called us for emergency back-up!