DIY Reno, how much do you plan?

After my umpteenth trip to the hardware, and finding I've got some 'spares' I started to ponder how much I could have saved by better planning. It's probably not that much in the scheme of things.

I'm not an experienced builder and my reno work tends to be a rough plan that changes as I move along, hence the many trips to hardware and buying stuff that doesn't always come in handy until the next project. I'll usually only get a good measure and estimate of quantities if I need to get an order delivered, and then it is often topped up on the go. My current reno I've had probably 50 trips to get more stuff since august, but there wasn't a lot of point in getting everything in advance an filling up the garage with stuff for 6 months ahead. Probably 10 of those have been a down tools type trip where I had to stop becuase i needed x. More than a few have been lunchtime trips from work because I can get to the big green shed, purchase and back in 15-20mins from work and it allows me to continue when I get home.

Is your reno a fully planned, costed, measured and budgeted work, or a bit suck it and see? I lean much more to the semi organised side of things. Get a plan into my head, maybe sketch it out then off to the hardware to see how it goes.


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