Whole Home Remodel Checklist | HBRE Twin Cities

Whole Home Remodel Planning Checklist: Where to Start (and What Most Homeowners Forget)

June 23

Taking on a whole home remodel is a big decision, and for good reason. It’s also one of the most overwhelming. When everything is on the table at once (kitchens, bathrooms, basements, additions, finishes throughout), the number of decisions involved can feel paralyzing before a single wall comes down.

The homeowners who get through it with the least amount of stress are usually the ones who came prepared. Not perfectly – surprises happen on every project. But having a clear picture of what the process includes, which decisions must be made and when, and what to expect from your contractor, makes a real difference.

HBRE has been managing whole-home remodels across the Twin Cities since 2013. Every project runs through the same three-phase process: vision setting, design, and construction. That structure exists specifically to keep complex projects organized and on track. Here’s a checklist to help you walk into that first conversation ready. If you’d like to learn more about how we work, visit our about page for the full picture.

Know What You Want Before the First Phone Call

Sitting down with a contractor before you’ve thought through your priorities is a bit like grocery shopping without a list. You may spend more, second-guess yourself, and probably forget something important.

Before your initial consultation, take time to think through the following:

Which spaces are being touched, and which are staying as-is?
What is the intent and purpose?
What are your non-negotiables versus your nice-to-haves?
Do you have a realistic budget in mind, and have you built in a contingency?
Are there structural changes on the list? Removing walls, adding windows, bumping out square footage?
Do you have any timing constraints as to when the remodel needs to either start and/or be completed?

You don’t need to have all of this figured out before reaching out. But the more you’ve thought through these questions, the more useful that first conversation will be for everyone involved.

Room-by-Room: What to Think About Before Design Starts

Part of what makes whole home remodels complicated is that every space has its own set of decisions, and many of those decisions affect one another. Here’s a basic checklist by room category:

Kitchen

The kitchen is usually the most complex and expensive room in any remodel. If yours is on the list, spend some time thinking about the layout before design begins. A full kitchen remodel involves not just cabinet and countertop selections, but also decisions about appliance placement, lighting, traffic flow, and whether any important structural changes (like removing a wall to open up the space) are part of the plan.

Is the basic layout staying the same, or are you looking at a floor plan change?
Any walls coming out or windows being added?
Have you thought about appliances: integrated, freestanding, or professional-grade?
What’s driving the remodel: function, aesthetics, or both?

Bathrooms

Bathrooms involve a lot of small decisions that add up quickly. Before design, think about whether you want a full gut and reconfigure, or more of a cosmetic update? Do you want a tub, a walk-in shower, or a combination of both? Single vanity or double?

Features like heated floors and specialty tile are worth discussing early so your designer knows what’s a priority and what’s more of a wish list item. And if you have multiple bathrooms in the mix, it’s worth deciding up front whether you’re tackling them all at once or working through them in order of importance.

Basement

Unfinished basements are among the most straightforward projects to scope; finished basements that need a redesign require a bit more discussion. Either way, consider:

Primary purpose: guest suite, entertainment space, home office, kids’ area, home gym?
Does a legal bedroom factor in? That typically means an egress window.
Wet bar or kitchenette: yes or no?
Bathroom: half, ¾, or full?

Main Level and Other Spaces

Are you updating flooring throughout, or only in remodeled areas?
Trim, doors, and millwork: keeping what’s there or standardizing across the home?
Lighting plan: Is this staying room-by-room, or part of a bigger electrical update?
Paint and interior finishes: handled as part of the build, or DIY after the fact?

The Design Phase Does the Heavy Lifting

One of the most common misconceptions about whole home remodels is that the design phase is just about picking finishes. In reality, design is where the entire project gets organized. Drawings get created and refined, material selections get locked in, select subcontractors walk the site, and a final build estimate gets put together based on actual bids, not ballpark numbers.

At HBRE, design and construction are handled as separate contracts. That structure exists for a reason: by the time a construction contract is signed, every decision has already been made. It mitigates the scrambling during production, the waiting on materials, and the pressure on the homeowner to make quick calls about expensive finishes while a crew is standing by.

The design phase for a whole home remodel typically runs 3+months depending on the project size, scope, and your personal availability. Trying to rush it almost always creates problems during construction. The checklist above exists partly to help you show up to that design process ready, with a clear sense of priorities, a realistic sense of budget, and enough flexibility to make good decisions when options are in front of you.

What to Look for in a Contractor

When you’re interviewing contractors for a project of this scale, the list of questions matters less than the quality of the answers. A few things worth paying attention to:

Are estimates broken down clearly, or are fees buried? Do they separate allowance items (the things that depend on your selections) from fixed-bid work?
On a whole home remodel, who is actually managing your project day to day? At HBRE, an owner is involved from the first consultation through the final walkthrough.
Can they tell you exactly what happens and when? If the process is vague at the sales stage, it tends to remain vague during production.
Any contractor who gives you a very short timeline on a whole home remodel without asking many questions tells you something. Accurate timelines require understanding the entire scope.

Living Through It: Setting Practical Expectations

A whole-home remodel means living on a construction site for months. The more people in the household, the more challenging it gets. Dust barriers and floor protection help, but there’s no way around the reality that daily life gets disrupted. When possible, some HBRE homeowner customers either plan a whole home remodel for when they are out of town on vacation for an extended period or are able to move into a different residence temporarily, whether a relative’s home or a short term rental property.

A few things that tend to make it more manageable:

Know in advance which spaces will be inaccessible and when.
Plan your temporary kitchen setup early. A microwave, air fryer, and hot plate go a long way.
Stay available and responsive. Decisions that take a week to make when they only needed a day can push timelines in ways that ripple across the whole schedule.
Build a buffer into any hard deadlines. If you need to be done before the holidays, that completion date needs to be weeks earlier than you think.

Ready to Start Planning?

If a whole home remodel is on the horizon, the best first step is a conversation. HBRE’s vision-setting phase is designed to assess feasibility, get aligned on scope, and provide a realistic estimate before any design work begins. Contact HBRE to start that conversation and get a clear picture of what your project involves: timeline, cost, and process included.