Top 3 Renovation Projects to Start in the Fall
Every year we get the same phone call in April. Someone has decided this is finally the year they open up the kitchen or redo the main bathroom, and they want it finished before summer. By then the calendar is full, the permit office is busy, and the tile they picked is on backorder.
Fall is the quiet stretch nobody thinks about, and it is the best time of year to get a real renovation moving. Here are the three projects we would tell you to start now, and why the timing matters in Kawartha Lakes specifically.
Why fall is the right time to start
Four things line up in your favour between September and December.
- Crews have room. Spring and summer are taken up by work that can only happen in good weather: decks, patios, additions and cottage projects. By late September that work is winding down and the schedule opens up.
- The work is indoors anyway. Kitchens, bathrooms and basements do not care what the weather is doing outside. Once the crew is working inside the house, a February job runs the same as a July one.
- Permits take time. Structural work needs a building permit from the City of Kawartha Lakes, and the application usually needs drawings. Getting that started in October is a very different experience from getting it started in May.
- Materials are ordered, not bought off a shelf. Cabinets, vanities, tile and windows all have lead times. Ordering in the fall means the material is waiting when the crew is ready, instead of a finished room sitting idle for six weeks waiting on a shower door.
There is a fifth reason that matters more than people expect. Start in October and you have your house back long before the good weather. Nobody wants a torn up kitchen in July when everyone else is at the lake.
1. Opening up the main floor
Most of the homes we work in around Lindsay, Bobcaygeon, Fenelon Falls and Omemee were built with a closed off kitchen. There is a wall between the kitchen and the living room, another one between the kitchen and the dining room, and whoever is cooking is stuck in a different room from everybody else.
Taking those walls out changes how a house feels more than any other single project, and it almost always costs less than adding square footage to get the same result.
The catch is that at least one of those walls is usually holding up the floor above. That is not a reason to stop. It just means the job needs a structural engineer, a properly sized beam and a permit before anyone starts swinging a hammer, and fall is exactly when you want to be doing that paperwork instead of waiting behind everyone else in the spring.
If you are only going to do one thing to your house, this is the one that changes daily life the most. You can see a few of these on our renovations and remodels page.
2. A bigger bathroom, or a proper ensuite
The second most common call we get is about bathrooms, and it is almost never about the powder room. It is the main bathroom that is too small for a family of four, or a primary bedroom with no ensuite at all.
Fall suits this project for a practical reason. A bathroom is the room a household misses the most while it is out of service. If you have a second bathroom in the house, losing the main one for a few weeks in November is a lot easier than losing it in the middle of July when you have guests.
This is also the project where ordering early pays off the most. Tile, glass, vanities and fixtures all have lead times, and a nearly finished bathroom you cannot use because one part has not arrived is the most frustrating way to spend a month. See more on our bathrooms page.
3. Finishing the basement
A basement is the cheapest square footage in your house. It is already built, already under roof and already heated. Finishing it costs a fraction of what an addition costs for the same amount of usable room.
Fall is the natural time to do it, for one simple reason: winter is when you actually want that space. A proper family room, a spare bedroom or a real home office in the lower level earns its keep between November and March, which is exactly the stretch it will be ready for if you start now.
We also get a lot of calls about in law suites and lower level apartments in this area. If that is what you have in mind, start earlier rather than later. A second suite brings in more requirements around ceiling height, egress windows, fire separation and heating, and those are things you want settled on paper long before any drywall goes up.
What to have ready before you call
You do not need drawings or a finished design to have a useful first conversation. What actually helps is:
- A rough idea of what you want the space to do, which matters more at this stage than what it should look like.
- A budget range you are comfortable with. A wide range is fine. It just keeps everyone honest about what is realistic.
- When you would like to be finished, and whether there is a hard date behind it, like family arriving at Christmas.
- Photos of the space, and the original house drawings if you happen to have them.
That is enough for us to walk the space with you, tell you straight what is realistic, and put a real number and a schedule in front of you.
Book it before the spring rush
Fall bookings fill up faster than most people expect, because the homeowners who have been through a renovation before already know this. If you are thinking about any of these three for your home or cottage anywhere across Kawartha Lakes and the surrounding areas, the quickest way to get an answer is a phone call.
