Estimate vs. Budget

You know when you get that estimate from a contractor and you’re wondering, is this the real number, or is he going to add a bunch of stuff on in the middle of the project that makes this number twice as high?

Yea.

That’s an “estimate.”

An “estimate” is the lead cause of renovation anxiety.

At Happy Renovations, we work on “budgets.” It’s may not necessarily be the budget you gave us, but it’s definitely the budget we recommend. The hope is that your budget is the same as ours so that we can work together.

The difference between an estimate that most contractors give and the budget that we give is that our budget line-items every product you will need and the labor costs to install each item. We even include towel racks and toilet paper holders. Our goal is to give you a true budget that you can actually achieve.

Otherwise, it’s like going for your weekly $100 grocery store trip with only $20. That’s a scenario where you’re going to be left with nothing but beans and rice and we don’t want to leave you with a beans and rice renovation.

Since we are service oriented renovation specialists, we are more concerned with your experience. The cost of managing your experience to our expectations is built into your budget allowing us to work with you on the labor and, especially, the products in order to meet the budget goal.

If your budget goal is so low that it inhibits us from operating in a service-first manner, then we advise you as far as we can and then let you manage the project in the hopes that you can achieve your dream space within your budget.

Check back soon for worksheets on how to direct your contractor so that you can build a complete budget on your own.

Happy Renovating!

Photo by maitree rimthong from Pexels