The EndLess Century Home Renovation

If you have dreams of buying and owning a century home then you should plan on doing major renovations UNLESS you are buying a century home that someone has already done the major renovations too. The difference of course is that once someone has completed those much needed renovations the home is worth a lot more then it was before the update.

When you start renovating an old century home that hasn't been renovated in a long time there are a lot of things that need to be addressed and they are things that should be done in the whole house and not piece meal room by room;

• Electrical update of wiring and panel.
• Plumbing upgrade of drain pipes.
• Heating system and ductwork.
• Insulation.
• Structural beams and walls.

If you think of the nature of these 5 things in any home they are things that run throughout the entire home and replacing, repairing or upgrading them requires work in every part of the house. This means that you will be cutting and removing lath and plaster in every part of your home at some point.

Whenever you have to deal with lath and plaster its a dirty dusty job, its far worse then drywall dust. The more you can do at once the less time you will have to live a dirt dusty mess. 

The more you can do at once the cheaper in the long run it will be, if you hire an electrician to wire one area at a time over several months or years you will be paying more then if you had the electrician re-wire the entire home at the sametime.

Re-pairing or replacing the lath and plaster with drywall or other materials is always more expensive if trades men are doing smaller jobs where they have to come back several times and start the process over again.

So if you have that romantic vision of buying and over the years slowly fixing it up remember that you will be costing yourself a lot more money then you think and you will also be living in a lot bigger mess for a lot longer time.

Do as much work as possible at one time, hire the right people to do it for you and you can get to enjoying your home instead of living through one endless renovation. At the end you will see the value in hiring the right people with the added value in your completely renovated century home.

Rob Abbott

Village Builders Inc.