Renovating your home can be a huge job. Even if you’re just redecorating, it can take months to complete the work you want to do.
If everything goes smoothly, it can still feel like a stressful experience that you wish was quicker and easier than it actually is.
But when something goes wrong, it can feel like a terrible disaster that you’re not sure how to fix. It might be a mistake you have made, either in the planning or execution of the redesign of your home.
Or it could be that you’ve hired a contractor who has done something wrong. Perhaps something unexpected has popped up that no one could have predicted would happen.
Whatever has happened to your home renovation to make it go wrong, you need to work out how to fix it.
You may be panicking, especially if you’re running low on funds, but you can still repair whatever has happened, even if it takes you a while.
Try some of these tips to get going and put you back in a place where you love your home.
Avoiding Mistakes
If you’ve managed to avoid anything going terribly wrong so far, you can take some steps to try to avoid mistakes. Even if something has happened, you can still make sure you don’t make it worse with your next actions.
There are a surprising number of things you could get wrong when you’re renovating or redecorating your home. The first is simply planning to do something unwise.
If you don’t give some proper thought to what you’re doing, anything could happen, from unbalanced decor to structural problems in your home.
A disaster when you’re renovating can ruin your budget, so hiring the right contractor from the start is essential. It’s vital to identify any potential existing problems because they could get in the way of a successful project.
However, you can’t plan for everything, so ensuring you have some extra cash just in case will always be useful.
Assessing the Damage
If anything does go wrong, the first thing you need to do is make an assessment. What has gone wrong and how can you fix it? If you’re redecorating, perhaps painting or wallpapering, your problem might not be that bad.
Maybe it simply turns out that what you had planned for your new living room is going to look awful, so you have to change directions and do something different.
But if you’re renovating, you can end up with a huge disaster on your hands. If you’re working with a contractor, they can probably let you know what has gone wrong and how to repair it.
However, if not, you might need to bring someone in for a bit of help. Don’t be scared to get a second opinion if you need one, either.
How to Pay to Fix Things
When you’ve had a home design disaster, you need to pay to fix it. The costs could be small or large, anywhere from a few tins of paint to days of work.
But whatever has happened, you need to make sure you have the funds to fix it. If you’ve planned your budget so there’s extra breathing room, you might be alright.
However, many people don’t have extra cash in their budget or at least don’t have enough. You might need to find a way to get more money to fix your problem.
In some cases, just leaving it, so you have time to save up might be acceptable. However, there are other times when you’re problem can’t wait.
In these situations, you might have to look for a short-term funding source, such as a loan, to help you pay for the repairs you need.
If you’re hesitant to take out a loan, you could use alternative savings, or perhaps see if your insurance could cover you. Or if you have credit cards available, they can also provide a solution to pay for things.
Correcting Your Disasters
Of course, your next steps are to work out how you’re going to fix whatever has gone wrong. Sometimes, it could be a simple solution.
If what you thought was going to be quirky and eclectic decor turns out to be messy and a little too eccentric, simply rearranging some things could be enough to make it all better.
But if you’ve had a huge structural disaster, it’s going to take a little more work to sort things out.
Putting a plan in place will help you get the ball rolling and ease your mind once you know how you’re going to repair everything.
Just like with your original plan for renovating or redecorating, you need a budget and a timeline. But if you’re not yet finished with your main project, you might be adding these to your original budget and schedule.
Should Your Contractor Fix It?
If you’ve been working with a contractor, you might be asking yourself whether they should be fixing whatever has gone wrong.
Another essential question is whether you should have to pay for it. There might be some occasions when you feel that whatever has happened is their fault and that it’s up to them to fix it free of charge.
Firstly, you should check your contract to see who is responsible for what. You should also check your consumer rights and any relevant regulations that might be useful to you.
It’s possible that your contractor has a responsibility to fix the problem, although not necessarily for free.
Time for a New Contractor?
On the other hand, if you are using a contractor, you might decide it’s time for someone new.
Even if you were careful with your selection, you might still have accidentally chosen the wrong people to work on your home.
If you think that mistakes could have been prevented if you had used a different contractor, looking for a new one is probably the best thing to do.
On some occasions, you might have to find someone else because your original contractor abandons you.
It’s a huge inconvenience, but in the end, it’s better that you choose someone new who will do a good job than stick with contractors who couldn’t follow through on their promises.
Lessons Learned
Once you’ve got your project back on track, you can think about how you might learn from what happened.
Even though it might not have been your fault, you can still consider whether there are some lessons you can take away from the experience.
Perhaps next time you make any changes to your home, you need to plan more carefully to ensure everything goes as you intend it to.
Another precaution you might need to take next time is to check your home for any potential problems before you begin any work. Hidden problems can often be the cause of things going wrong when you’re working on your home.
Choosing the right contractor is another lesson you might need to learn for next time.
Perhaps this time you didn’t use a contractor at all, and it’s trying to do everything yourself that caused something to go wrong.
But hastily selecting the cheapest or most readily available contractor might also have been a mistake you made. It’s important to spend time comparing quotes and speaking to contractors to ensure you pick the right one.
Another lesson you might have to learn is that it’s always better to have a larger budget that you really need.
If anything goes wrong with your home renovation or redesign, it can seem like a disaster. But you can still fix it, and perhaps learn some lessons along the way.
