One of the most critical stages in a new home renovation project is the design phase. This is where lots of projects get derailed because the design blows out the budget without the homeowner realizing it until it's too late.

And it's a problem that is easily avoided or at least anticipated.

When you start a renovation project, it is only natural — and smart — to have a set budget in mind. There's no sense in improving your home if you can't afford to live there after the project is completed. But it is important to avoid sticker shock, so design around your budget.

First, you want to make sure your contractor has developed a realistic schematic plan — a floor plan showing your wish list of how you want to improve your home in this renovation. The process of drawing up one of these schematic plans is relatively inexpensive, but it will allow you to evaluate your budget and determine if it allows for your dream renovation to become a reality.

What if it doesn't? Well, that's why the schematic plan is so invaluable. If you can't afford to increase your budget, then it's time to hold off. There's no sense in spending thousands of dollars moving forward with a project if you can't afford the final product anyway.

However, this phase of the project is not the time to start cutting corners just to get something close to what you were hoping for. Do it properly because you have to live with it.

You don't want to walk into your room addition every day and see only the things you weren't able to include because you rushed into the project with a smaller budget than was needed to do it right.

Another benefit of the schematic design is that it allows you to see what is important to you in the final product, and allows you to see what your different options are, before you lock in by approving the drafting of construction documents.

You can quickly tell, with the help of the schematic plan, what your needs really are. Maybe a 100-square foot addition will fit your lifestyle, neighborhood, and personal needs just as well or better than adding 500 square feet.

The schematic plan allows you to look at these options and choose the best, and most cost effective, way to accomplish your goals.

So, with your schematic plan in hand, you'll be able to budget properly for the project — possibly with adjustments — or to put the project off until a later date when you can do it right.

If you are moving forward, the next step is design development and construction documents. Without a schematic plan, these often run way over the original budget because there isn't a good feel for the realities of the project, and they themselves are involved and expensive documents to create.

However, having completed a schematic plan first and budgeting to that plan, it is more likely for the construction documents to come in within 10 percent of the original budget, keeping you from falling out of your chair when you see the final estimate.

Once you have your construction documents, and you know the project is proceeding within your budget, the next step is breaking ground.

You'll have the confidence that your design is within your budget, and you'll know that the end result will be a room addition, remodel job, deck, or accent that you can live with for a long, long time.

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