Home renovations can be one of the most exciting things to happen to a house - not to mention one of the most expensive! Sure, there’s always going to be expected and planned costs for any home improvement project, but if you’re not careful you can find these expenses getting a little...out of hand, to put it mildly. There’s a lot of things you can do to try and keep these expenses under control and within your pre-determined budget, and while it may require a lot of thought and foresight, you’ll be glad you did when all’s said and done: Keep It Realistic Sure, part of the fun of doing home renovations is to let your imagination run wild, but for your wallet’s sake you might want to keep your ideas and plans a little more...grounded. If you want to update your staircase, maybe consider just painting it and renovating the bannister instead of putting in a whole new staircase. Bring in some inexpensive kitchen organization solutions to supplant what’s already there, instead of tearing down and replacing your entire cabinet and pantry. Whatever you plan on doing, try not to let ‘feature creep’ start to bloat your budget! Make A Plan - And Stick To It Once you’ve arrived at your plan, make sure you stay with it. Sure, repainting the kitchen might suddenly make you want to repaint the entire ground floor of the house, but you need to think about how much time and money that will eat up on top of what you’re already spending. Concentrate on one project at a time - there will be plenty of time for any ideas you have during your first project! Prepare For The Unexpected Now, yes, we are telling you not to go crazy with overspending, but you also want to keep some extra money in case of developments in the plan. If your living room renovation project suddenly requires some extra decorative shelving to hold everything you planned on displaying, or if part of knocking down or renovating a wall means you need to replace a fireplace mantel you’ll want to set some money aside to plan for these expenses. Just make sure they’re all needed, otherwise you run into the problems we’ve mentioned already! Manage Changes, And Remember - Keep Calm! If you absolutely do have to change part of the project, the first question you need to ask yourself is “how will this affect my budget?” Minor changes are fine, such as a brief color change or a switch from marble to granite, but otherwise if you want to make any big changes midway through you will want to take some time and think about how this will affect the scope and cost of your projects. And, if nothing else, maybe the most important advice we can give you is this - just remember to stay calm! If something changes or something unexpected comes up during your renovations, it isn’t the end of the world, and getting too frustrated can lead to making even worse financial decisions. Trust us, it’ll all be worth it in the end.