God bless you remodelers. I don't know how people can stand doing that.
I remodeled the first and second houses I bought because they were purchased as fixer uppers, so I had to. That wasn't so bad because I was on a pretty tight budget. I told the contractor to offer me choices slightly below budget, on budget and slightly above and then I always chose the "below budget" options.
Some years later, my wife and I had bought our "dream home" and year by year she redid this and redid that. It was going just fine for me; she was handling it and she loved doing it. Then my wife took ill just as she/we were part way through our last round of remodeling -- basement and in-laws apartment. Both spaces were a mess but so was she, so we put the thing on hold. She passed and I let everything sit for a while, but in the end I had to finish it, kind of because I couldn't stand the mess and sort of to finish what she'd started.
What a headache. The stuff one has to choose among is just ridiculous....textures, materials, fabrics, sizes, colors, layouts, features and functionality of this gizmo and that one...and none of it looks the same in a photo as it does in person. And don't even let there be water, electronics, sound and video involved. It was just one damn thing after another...
I had no idea my wife had sorted through so many things. She'd occasionally show me a photo of of something, asking what I thought of it. I'd tell her it looks nice and that'd be that. Several weeks later, I'd go into a room and there'd be the chair, or faucet, or upholstery, or whatever she'd asked about. I'd say, "Oh, isn't that the 'whatchamacallit' you asked about?" She'd tell me it was and I'd tell her how much nicer it was than whatever we had before, and all was well with the world.
She had a vision of what she wanted the place to look like, and that's what it was going to look like regardless of what I said. At the time, I lived in hotel rooms and corporate apartments more than I lived at home. All kinds of things looked nice to me. I'm just not that fussy, or at least I wasn't until I had to make the decisions.
When I got round to resuming the remodeling, I really didn't have a vision and I had no idea of what budget she was working with; she had the vision and knew the budget, and both died with her. The project had gotten as far as installing the new floor -- an ultra modern but formal looking black and white marble -- so that's where I had to pick up from. I just wanted the mess gone so the spaces were livable again, but I knew I couldn't just go basic, as it were, because the house isn't in a "basic" neighborhood. (That was my wife's doing too. I could've made the rowhouse we had before do just fine.)
So the point of all that is this:
- Have a clear vision of what you want. It'll make so many of the decisions you'll have to make so much easier.
- Have a budget and stick to it, even if you can afford a bit more. That is yet another way to simplify the decision making process.
On the other hand, maybe you don't mind facing tons of choices, in which case maybe you don't need a plan. I'm a guy who hates shopping so much that I shop at small boutiques that carry stuff I find suitable, but not so much of it that I can't readily identify "which one" I like best. (If you don't know what I mean, go to a store like Penny's or Macy's or Saks or something and tell them you want a woman's white casual shirt. I bet there'll 20+ choices.)
Anyway, the remodeling/redecorating is done and I'm living in the house I expect live in until I die, and I'm not remodeling it or any part of it again unless a catastrophe happens. When I die, the whole place is going to look just like it does now -- no new furniture, no new appliances, cabinets and fixtures, etc. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree as goes remodeling. Momma's house looks just like it did in the early 1990s when she and Dad last updated everything to convert the house from it's compartmentalized traditional/formal floorpan to the modern "open layout." It's going to stay that way 'til the end of her days.
)
