So you’ve decided to renovate a kitchen or ensuite bathroom or do a complete remodel of the common living space in your home. Where to start? Perusing design magazines and scrolling through social media posts is fun and offers a plethora of ideas and design visions to transform your home. But before getting caught in dreams of marble-topped counters and appliance garages, there are a few things to consider before launching into a major renovation.

Step one is to establish a budget which will determine exactly what can and cannot be achieved.

“Make sure you know what your capacity to spend is,” advises Kevin Hatch, owner of Twin Lions Contracting, HAVAN’s 2025 Residential Renovator of the Year award-winner.

And make sure you’re transparent about that number with your contractor, Hatch adds. “So many times people will come to us and want to keep their budget close to their chest because they’re afraid the contractor will spend all their money. The reality is we can’t adequately give them advice if we don’t know what their want is to spend.”

The next step is to determine if the homeowners’ wish list aligns with their budget. For that to happen there needs to be a conceptual plan either from a designer or architect for a builder to assess. To create an accurate estimate for the builder, the contractor needs specifics.

“The more information the people have; the more accurate the estimate can be,” says Jim Smith, owner of Smithwood Builders, a 2025 HAVAN multi-award winner. “[Having] the idea of doing an addition, I say ‘how many square feet is it?’ If I have to guess at a lot of stuff, it’s not a very accurate number.”

Assembling a team of a designer or architect along with a builder right from the start is key.

“People will often go to a designer and get all designed up and we’ll price it and it’s way out of their budget,” Hatch says. “Or they don’t get a proper design, and they get a contractor to put some anecdotal pricing together and they don’t get exactly what they want.”

Interviewing a few contractors and designers will help homeowners decide who is the best fit for them and their project. Hatch suggests finding the contractor first because as typically it’s the largest part of the renovation where the most money will be spent. He adds they often can connect homeowners with designers. “We can pair them up with a designer that works really well for a project of their type and also respect the budget,” he adds.

Doing some research on their own will help homeowners understand the cost of materials and finishes and help them make decisions as the project progresses and keep it on schedule. Although not all design details are confirmed before construction starts — like a bathroom accent tile — a client’s indecisiveness can slow things down because ordering is involved and the time on that can affect the budget. You might not know what accent tile you want to use in the shower niche, but you do need to decide in a timely manner as the project moves ahead. “Time is cost,” explains Smith. “It’s also little things to consider— [like] temporary fencing. We’re doing a project where we need to fence off a property, so people aren’t walking into the job site. That fence rental costs — for every extra month of rental it goes up.”

And given that, as Hatch says, costs have risen significantly on everything construction related in the past four years, every way to save helps stretch the budget.

It’s also recommended that people find an alternate place to live during the renovation and to plan this well in advance of the construction start. While it may seem like a way to save money, Hatch says it can end up costing more because having to work around residents can mean “phasing” the project. That requires trades returning multiple times to finish their work instead of once. He uses the example of drywallers needing 10 days to complete the project versus having to return to do different rooms and the days possibly doubling. He notes that the noise can have an impact on the clients.

“While the money may be a wash to save the mental energy may be a win to move out,” he says.

Before committing to a contract, it’s advised that you get recent references on projects similar to what you’re wanting to do. “There are some contractors who just rely on the same three people to give them references year over year over year,” Hatch says.

A final caveat: communication is crucial, Smith says. “Keep the whole team apprised of everything. The more you have as a team talking all the time the better off you’ll be.”

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