Contingency Funds 101: How Much Extra Should You Set Aside for a Renovation?

You know what’s funny about renovations? Everyone gets excited about the big stuff. The kitchen island. The new shower. The flooring. The countertops. The finished basement. But some of the decisions you’ll appreciate the most when everything is done are the ones you probably haven’t even thought about yet. Where does the garbage pullout go? Can two people actually walk past each other around the kitchen island? Where are you plugging in the coffee maker? Is there an outlet exactly where you’ll need one? Is the shower niche at a comfortable height? Which way should that door swing? None of these decisions are particularly exciting on their own. But get a bunch of them wrong and, trust us, you’ll notice. The Stuff You Don’t Think About Until You Have To One of the biggest parts of our job at Davies General Contracting is thinking about how a renovation is actually going to be used once we’re gone. A beautiful kitchen is great. A beautiful kitchen where you’re constantly walking around the island to get from the fridge to the sink? Not so great. The same thing happens in bathrooms. You can pick beautiful tile and fixtures, but if the storage doesn’t make sense or something feels awkward every morning, the room isn’t really doing its job. And basements? That’s where planning can make an enormous difference. A Burlington basement renovation might give a family a TV room today, but with a little foresight, that same space could include a bathroom, bedroom, office, gym, or additional living space that changes with the family over time. That’s why we ask a lot of questions. Not because we like making things complicated. Actually, it’s quite the opposite. We want the finished renovation to feel effortless. A Great Renovation Is Hundreds of Small Decisions After more than 20 years in construction, we’ve learned that great renovations rarely come down to one brilliant idea. They’re hundreds of smaller decisions working together. During a Burlington kitchen renovation, that could mean getting the island dimensions right, choosing drawers where they make more sense than cabinets, planning lighting around how the kitchen will actually be used, and making sure there’s enough storage without filling every available inch with cabinetry. For a Burlington bathroom renovation, it might mean getting the shower size right, thinking about storage before the walls are closed, or positioning lighting where it’s actually useful. A main floor renovation introduces another set of questions. How should the kitchen connect to the dining room? Does opening a wall improve the home or just create one giant room? Where does furniture go afterward? How will people naturally move through the space? And when we’re doing a whole home renovation in Burlington, those decisions become even more important because every room needs to work together. There’s no magic formula. You look at the home, you listen to the people living there and you figure out what makes sense. Then Somebody Has to Actually Build It Here’s the other half of the conversation. You can plan an incredible renovation and choose beautiful finishes, but eventually somebody has to build the thing. And that part matters – a lot. Cabinets have to be installed properly. Tile layouts need to be thought through before the first tile goes down. Trim joints should be tight. Floors need to run true. Countertops need to fit properly. Walls need to be straight. That beautiful full-height backsplash doesn't look nearly as beautiful if the workmanship around it is sloppy. Good design and good craftsmanship need each other. That statement applies whether Davies GC is working on an interior renovation, an exterior renovation, a kitchen, a bathroom, a basement, or the entire home. It all has to be built properly. “Good Enough” Has a Way of Showing Up Later There are plenty of opportunities during a renovation to say, “Eh, good enough.” We’re not big fans of those. A shortcut might save a little time today, but homeowners are the ones who have to live with the result for years. That's why the work nobody sees matters just as much as the finishes everybody does. For homeowners looking for a Burlington General Contractor, we think that's an important distinction. A renovation isn't finished just because it photographs well. It needs to work well, feel right, and hold up to actual everyday life. We bring the same approach to our Oakville renovations as well. Different home, different project, same expectation: think it through and build it right. The Goal Is Actually Pretty Simple When a renovation is finished, we don't want homeowners thinking about where we put the outlets. Or why the island is that exact size. Or how much work went into getting the tile layout right. We want them to walk into the room and think: This just works. That's usually the main sign that all those little decisions were the right ones.  If you're thinking about renovating your home in Burlington or Oakville, start the conversation with Davies General Contracting. Tell us what works, what drives you nuts, and what you wish your home did better. We'll take it from there.

You know what’s funny? A lot of people start planning a renovation by thinking about what they want it to look like. New cabinets. New countertops. New flooring. New paint. All important. But that’s not where we like to start. One of the first things we want to know at Davies General Contracting is pretty simple: How do you actually live in your home? Because once we know that, the renovation starts making a whole lot more sense. Your Home Has to Work on a Tuesday Morning Too It’s easy to design a room for the photos. Real life is a little different. Maybe everyone ends up standing around the kitchen whenever you have people over. Maybe weekday mornings turn into a traffic jam outside the bathroom. Maybe you have a beautiful dining room that gets used three times a year while everyone actually hangs out somewhere else. Or maybe your basement has slowly become the place where hockey equipment, Christmas decorations, and everything you don’t know what to do with goes to retirement. That’s the stuff we want to know. Because a great renovation shouldn’t just make your home look better. It should fix the things that drive you nuts about living there. Sometimes the Answer Is a Kitchen. Sometimes It’s the Whole Main Floor. We do a lot of Burlington kitchen renovations, and one of the first things we look at is how that kitchen connects to the rest of the home. Would opening it to the dining room make entertaining easier? Does the island need seating? Is there enough storage? Is everyone constantly crossing paths while somebody’s trying to cook? Sometimes the kitchen itself isn’t even the whole problem. That’s where a Burlington main floor renovation can completely change how a home feels. Opening up the right spaces, improving how rooms connect, adding storage where it actually helps, and giving the main floor a purpose that fits the family living there. And no, that doesn’t automatically mean knocking down every wall in sight. Sometimes a wall is there for a reason. We like those too. The Same Thinking Applies Everywhere Else Bathrooms are another good example. A Burlington bathroom renovation might start because the room looks dated, but once we start talking, the real issues usually come out. Not enough storage. A shower that’s too small. Poor lighting. An awkward layout. Two people trying to get ready at the same time and neither one particularly enjoying the experience. Now we have something to work with. Basements are the same. Instead of simply “finishing the basement,” we want to know what would actually make you go downstairs. A family room? Home office? Gym? Extra bedroom? Bathroom? Somewhere for the kids to disappear for a few hours? A good Burlington basement renovation should turn that square footage into a real part of the home – not just a nicer place to store boxes. Bigger Isn’t Automatically Better This is something we’ve learned over the years as a Burlington General Contractor. The best renovation isn’t necessarily the biggest one. Sometimes changing a layout solves the problem without adding any square footage. Sometimes one bathroom needs attention. Sometimes the kitchen is the missing piece. And sometimes the house really does need to be reconsidered from top to bottom. That’s when a whole home renovation starts to make sense. The point is, the scope should come from what the home needs – not from trying to make the project bigger for the sake of making it bigger. The same thinking goes outside. Exterior renovations can improve how you use and enjoy the home while making the exterior feel like it actually belongs with everything you've done inside. Every house tells us something different. What About Resale? Of course resale matters. Nobody wants to put money into their home and make it worth less. But we also don’t think you should spend the next ten years living in a home designed entirely around what some imaginary future buyer might want. There’s a balance. Homes with sensible layouts, useful storage, quality workmanship, functional kitchens and bathrooms, and spaces people genuinely enjoy tend to make sense to future buyers too. So yes, think about value. Just don’t forget that you’re the one living there right now. Burlington First. Oakville Too. Burlington is home for Davies General Contracting, and it’s where we complete a large portion of our renovations. We also work with homeowners looking for an Oakville General Contractor for renovation projects, bringing the same straightforward approach to kitchens, bathrooms, basements, main floors, interiors, exteriors, and whole home renovations. Different houses. Different families. Different priorities. But that’s exactly the point.  Start With a Conversation Before you start worrying about countertops, tile, or what colour the cabinets should be, figure out what you actually want your home to do better. What works? What doesn’t? What annoys you every single day? What do you wish you had more of? That’s where the good stuff starts. If you’re planning a renovation in Burlington or Oakville, start by talking to Davies GC about how you actually live in your home. We’ll take it from there.

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