Renovate your first floor - the face of the house

First floor of most houses is usually the place where you spend most of your time when you are not away from home. It’s also where the family meets their guests and dines. Here is where the kitchen, living and dining room should be. With that in mind it’s safe to say that the first floor is the face of your house. When upper floor bedrooms, guest rooms and bath rooms also need renovations from time to time, lower floor rooms see much more use of this. So if you are considering making a first floor renovation, gather the home counsel and discuss the options and ideas. The most important thing is to plan the budget ahead. Starting first floor remodeling without a budget plan can result in large overspending. Start planning by crossing out all the unnecessary improvements and all "it-will-be-nice-to-have-one-of-those" kind of things. After you are solid with your renovation ideas, there is just one last thing to consider – are you going to make the remodeling yourself or hire a contractor.



While do-it-yourself kind of remodeling seems very old-school and macho, it may consume most (if not all) of your time. If you like that idea, there are few ways to make things easier for yourself. First check your equipment – renovating your first floor may require a lot of tools and it’s annoying to find you are missing some in the middle of the work. There are a lot of store specialized in selling tools and materials for renovating your house. After you decided which are the rooms you would like to renovate, you can look up the web for ideas and tutorials how to do this. Internet is full of articles on home renovation or even step-by-step do-it-yourself videos, which can be very useful for beginners.



If you prefer hiring a contractor you have two options – 1) hire a general contractor who will do the work on the project by hiring the required specialists; 2) hiring each of the individual contractors for the specific jobs (woodwork, electric networks, etc.) and overseeing the project yourself. Ask your neighbors and family about contractors or check local contractors over the web. After you gather a few names, call them and see if they are taking on projects for house renovating of your scale. Ask the contractors about references from past clients and are they working on some projects at the same time. Getting the opinions of former customers and seeing the contractors work will let you know if he/she is reliable and good for your project. It’s good to have at least several contractors meeting your conditions – this will give you the freedom of choice. After they have passed the initial check lay down the plans and see their bids on the project. Usually there is ground for negotiating the price.



The word for first floor that the Danes use is Byg 1. sal. To get more information about renovating yours or buy materials, check out this amazing and very resourceful Danish website. For some great home renovation ideas, read this article.