At what point does a want become a need? Delineating between wants and needs – for anything in life – is one of the most difficult tasks. When you look around your home to determine what really needs to be upgraded it can feel like another want versus need debate. 

Here’s how we recommend looking at the situation:

What Needs Renovating in a Home

The general rule of thumb we start with is whether renovating a part of your house will change your life for the better.

For example: say you live in the Gables. Your backyard is the standard grass square with a few trees. You like cooking, but it would be a major renovation to expand the galley kitchen. In that scenario, building an outdoor kitchen plus living space would drastically improve the quality of time you spend at home. To us, that qualifies it as a need. 

On the other hand, if spending time outside makes you cringe, that same project is a want. 

Now, for the little things around your home that you glare at (just a little) every time you see it. It’s tempting to just keep living with it until you’re ready to do a full renovation, but hear us out – consider doing it now. 

Renovation A la Carte

Don’t get us wrong, we love to do full home overhauls. If that’s what you’re ready for we can absolutely take care of it for you. However, if you’re not there for any reason – maybe you haven’t made final decisions about what you want or you want to manage the budget – there’s nothing wrong with renovation via triage. In other words, start with the things that are the most troublesome. 

It might be one room, one section of your home, or one element of your entire home. Whatever it is let’s single it out and get it done.

The Usual Suspects

Every home is different, but there are some common themes we see repeated. After years of talking to homeowners here’s our list of upgrades we see that need to be done most often.

• That Dated Bathroom

Technology and fixtures for bathrooms have come a long way, so it’s not surprising that so many bathrooms feel dated. Get rid of the mid-century tub/shower combo and upgrade to a roomy walk in shower with digitally controlled water temperature and a rainfall showerhead.

• Your Flooring

Floors take as much abuse as any other aspect of your home. Installing new flooring is a big project, but it’s one that can stand alone. New floors will make a huge aesthetic difference in your entire home. It might even change your thoughts about how you want to design other areas in the future. 

• An Inefficient Kitchen

It’s hard to want to create amazing meals for your family if your kitchen is too small or just not well-designed. A kitchen renovation complete with updated, energy efficient appliances will make you see your home with new eyes.

At Debowsky Design Group our job is to make your house into the home of your dreams. Whatever your home renovation goals are we’re here to help you make them realities. Give us a call, let’s get that thing that’s making you crazy fixed.