Blog

Building Your Granny Flat WITHOUT the help of HGTV

Watching HGTV might give you the right amount of gusto to start building your Granny Flat on your own, but reality TV doesn’t always get the whole “reality” thing right.

In a 30 or 60-minute window, you are taken on an entertaining adventure of charming career remodelers who seemingly manage to turn a dilapidated fixer upper into a Pinterest dream with little to no headache — and that’s with time for commercials!

If you’re ready to add a Granny Flat to your home and have no idea where to start, you might think watching a little home renovation show on TV will answer all of your questions. I’m here to tell you to put the remote down!

These HGTV renovation shows are becoming a dime a dozen and make home remodeling, adding granny flats, and any other home renovation look too easy: A quick walk-through, a little design sketch, knock down some walls, a splash of paint, cut to moving in the furniture, and the homeowners crying for joy. So simple! But before you head off to your local hardware store (or a store whose commercial chimed at every break convincing you that it’s easy to just pick out and purchase the materials yourself), let me tune you into the reality of remodeling…

As a home remodel and granny flat construction expert, I know everything there is to know about remodeling a home.

I’m a construction manager who has overseen the successful completion of dozens of remodeling projects for my clients. Major remodeling projects are not easy DIY jobs. They are time consuming, invasive, and expensive — especially if you have know idea what you’re doing.

It’s great to feel inspired by a TV show, but there is so much that goes on behind the scenes, off-camera, and on the cutting room floor that you would never know about. A successful remodeling project requires extensive planning, months of time, and, depending on the scope of your remodel, a nice big chunk of change. And when you’re not informed, it’s easy to get stressed, swindled, and sunk.

These remodeling shows don’t show you how they assemble their A-Team of remodel experts, designers, construction managers, contractors, engineers, etc., nor does it show the hours of planning, strategizing, and budgeting to make everything run smoothly before it even begins!

But, it’s not all bad news. You can add a granny flat to your home successfully. With a little dose of reality (not reality tv), and staying informed on the real realities of remodeling, you can have the same results as the last five minutes of those popular series shows! You just have to make sure to read all about it here first!

To avoid the pitfalls of remodeling, read my book, Remodel Success: Home Remodeling Done Right, On Time, and On Budget.

You can also read more tips, tricks, and hints to remodeling here!