Before you commit to organising and overseeing your home renovations yourself, you need to think about what project management entails. You'll be leading the renovations, and you'll be expected to co-ordinate the movements of everyone involved.

That includes gathering quotations, formulating and revising budgets - even dealing with local councils.

You'll first need to consider the size of your renovations, and how that matches up with your experience, available time and level of commitment. For instance, a relatively uncomplicated renovation of a bedroom or study would be a lot simpler to manage than a bathroom or kitchen renovation, which would require liaising with plumbers, electricians, handymen, painters and the like.

If you're happy to leave it to the experts, you might consider limiting your involvement to making regular cups of tea for those doing the hard yards to get your house into shape.

However, if you want absolute control over your renovations, project management is for you. Here are a few tips on how to ensure the renovations run as smoothly as possible.

Plan, plan, plan
You don't want to enter into renovating blindly. Planning beforehand as much as possible will give you a clear outline of what you want to do and how much you want to spend. Think about what happens when you do the groceries without a shopping list: you panic, then spend all your cash on fun-sized mars bars and bottles of fanta. Similarly, in a renovation scenario, a lack of planning means you could find yourself in debt and without the perfect home you'd dreamed of.

Budget
Renovation costs can quickly spiral out of control if you don't have a specific budget to stick to. It's important to inform your contractors of your budget, and tell them to consult you on any changes or upsets that may affect your spend. It's a fact of life that renovation projects usually go over budget, so it's also important to factor that in - ideally, you should prepare for a 10-20% increase on your initial budget.

Hire the best
Only hire people in whom you have the utmost confidence. It's often a good idea to ask for references, particularly for contractors performing large or complex jobs - you want to ensure you won't be chasing them down a laneway in six months time, Anna Coren in tow, for a Today Tonight 'shonky builders' special. Ensuring you choose trustworthy, autonomous workers also means that if it all gets too hectic and you need to nick off to Daylesford for a weekend, you can be confident that you're leaving the place in good hands.

By NICK BOND