Before You Repaint, Make Sure You’ve Fixed the Fundamentals

What’s the primary motivation for tackling any room renovation, whether it’s a living room, bedroom or bathroom? Aesthetics, according to HomeAdvisor’s State of Home Spending Report, released in June. Especially if you’re looking to remodel your living room, improving the appearance of the space and boosting your overall enjoyment of it are almost definitely the end goals.

However, before you make plans for a new paint color, fresh furnishings or taking down a wall, be sure you’ve addressed more dire concerns both in your living room and throughout the rest of your house.

“Aesthetic improvements have to take a back seat to systems and fundamental parts of a home,” says Chip Wade, a home improvement expert and master carpenter who has appeared on HGTV shows including “Ellen’s Design Challenge” and “Curb Appeal: The Block,” as well as a consultant for Liberty Mutual Insurance.

That means if your roof or water heater are near the end of their life spans, let the living room renovation take a back seat. In the living room itself, asbestos and lead paint abatement are costly projects that require the work of professionals, but they are worth it the end. Even if the work takes up your entire budget, removing dangerous materials from your home should always take precedence over knocking down a wall or buying a new sectional.

Once you have those necessary repairs out of the way, you may find your remaining budget is much smaller for those more fun renovations.

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