Since no one actually lives in the world of HGTV, we don’t get to skip over weeks’ worth of demo with a commercial break. 

Unfortunately, miraculously tight schedules with small, curated bumps in the road do not exist in the real world of home renovation and design. 

When building new or undertaking a larger scale renovation project at home, there are a number of key stages that your project needs to meet and complete before it can move on to the fun part: moving in. 

With this post, we are going to walk you through a brief overview of the renovation process. Stay tuned as we will get into the weeds of each stage in upcoming blog posts. And, as always, if you have questions – don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team of design experts.

The Five Stages of Home Renovation 

The good news is – every home renovation project gets to start with the fun part: the creative stage. This stage breaks down into two key areas.

• Feasibility & Inspection: This initial stage of the home renovation process focuses on developing, in immense detail, the scope of your project. Your architect should conduct a full on-site inspection of your property and gather all the pertinent surveys and material necessary to create a sturdy foundation (pun intended) of your renovation.
• Schematic Design: Okay, this is where the fun really gets going. Here you will get to see your project come to life and be able to work with your design team on the details of your project. Want a bigger island in the kitchen? More space and a window in the mud room? Let’s do it. 
• Design & Development: At Debowsky Design Group, our architectural and interior design teams get to work in this stage on finalizing the plan for your project. Here you are looking at details like colors, tiles, flooring, plumbing, and all the hardware you can imagine. 
• Permitting & Planning: During this near final stage of your project, the construction documents are submitted to your municipality. Your architecture team will work diligently to respond and revise your design documents to address any permitting comments. This is perhaps the most difficult and taxing stage, but it is also absolutely vital to get perfectly right. 
• The Big Build: Once your permits have been approved, it’s off to the races. Your architecture team hands off the baton to your construction team to start building on your project. At Debowsky Design Group, we like to hold onto the baton a little longer and serve as your advocates on site to ensure everything is going as it should. And, in the event that it’s not, we’ll step in and make sure it does. Because we’ve got your back. 

Renovations are never as simple as they seem on television. Although, we all do wish a new construction build could be envisioned, designed and built within a 30 minute episode. Alas. The key to a great renovation is working with a design partner you trust and you know has your back throughout the process. It will be bumpy. There will be times where you may want to toss in the towel but the end result (you know, that big reveal) will be worth it all in the end when you get to live in the home you only dreamed of.