The renovation of a home has many “value” decisions to make. Often we think of a renovation as a new toilet or sink, addition to a home, new windows which bring on a complexity of decisions we will need to make.
Oddly enough, most homeowners get sucked into the wonderful world of construction, labor, and materials. Many such owners spend hours trying to make decisions as to the look they are going after. Some weaklings pay designers huge sums of money to tell them what to do (for most of us, not a bad idea). The choices are in the millions. Picking the right contractor to do the work adds to this list and is another huge task often blinded by a lack of knowledge (ie Ignorance). How much fun is all of this?
What do you hope to accomplish? When the renovation is finished how will the rooms be purposed? What is the point of all of this? Too often we build without any reference to the word Home. Home is where your family resides. It is a place where the kitchen smells are inviting. Where rooms reflect an emotion for its occupants to absorb. We have built many homes where all the right decisions were made. Yet, for many the decisions never included community and family. Many of the home held divorce within months of completion. How does community function in your new space? We once built a home with a very sophisticated Cable delivery system to everyone in the home. The home became divisive because everyone stayed in their own rooms and never gathered as a family. That is one small example. There are many more.
If you were to ask a simple question: “How will the rooms of our home promote our family?”, then you will begin to understand the moral value of the home. I believe that this is where every renovation project or new home construction should start. Pour your money into the investment of your family and community. Don’t overbuild. Think before you start. A home well purposed will be a delight to your family and be the foundation for building a strong family. BF