Home improvements do more than simply improve the functionality of your home. While renovating might give you more space or make your home a much more comfortable, it can also be considered an investment in your home. If you ever feel the need to sell your home, some changes, like taking care of all roofing or drainage problems, will make your home far easier to sell closer to your asking price.
Here are 7 ideas for home improvement that you might want to consider:
1.Home Security:
One obvious way of improving home security is to install alarms and other home safety equipment in and around your home. While you can do this on your own, it might be more beneficial to rent a monitored home security system for a small monthly fee. Not only will you not have to worry about if you have done all the installations correctly, but you will get all the latest home security tech and support that you could possibly need.
However, one overlooked aspect of security is the use of fences. These are likely to be a deterrent to burglars and they will help secure your home from animals wandering into your yard, which could be a problem if you live in a rural area, and from strangers casually “casing the joint” from the sidewalk if you live in an urban area.
Consider the advantages of installing a precast fence when deciding on fencing. Unlike traditional fences, which are usually made of concrete blocks, brick, wood, wrought iron, or vinyl, they require little maintenance because they aren’t susceptible to deterioration over time due to insects, temperature fluctuations, weather changes, or other environmental factors. Besides their durability and low maintenance, they are also easy to customize to make your home look more secure and attractive.
2. Roofing:
If you have roofing problems, they will only get worse over time. Besides the numerous inconveniences they cause your household, they are one of the first things prospective buyers ask about when reaching for a bargaining tactic or finding an excuse to eliminate your house from their list of promising homes to research. Some common roofing problems include leaks, moisture, pond water, blow-offs, and billowing, as well as damaged or missing shingles. Besides tackling the issue of roof repairs, you may also want to consider the many advantages of installing solar panels.
3. Doors and Windows:
Although doors that don’t close and windows that won’t close can be expensive to replace, buyers expect them to be in excellent condition. While replacing them will not cause an increase in the resale value of your home, not taking care of these irrigating glitches will definitely make it harder to sell the house.
4. Kitchens:
Improving your kitchen is a must, especially if you have an older home and you have learned how to get by with older appliances and an outdated look. People looking to buy a new home are keen on buying one with all the modern conveniences. In fact, many real estate ads mention updated and upgraded kitchens as a selling feature.
5. Bathrooms.
Coming in a close second to kitchen improvement is bathroom remodeling. If you have an older style of sinks, tubs, or tiles, you may want to think about ways to modernize your bathroom. This investment will usually give you a good return.
6.Outside Maintenance.
Do you need to improve the siding? What about landscaping? Improving the curb appeal of your home is yet another good return on investment. Walking through a beautiful, well-kept yard to get to your front door will make a huge, positive impression on buyers.
7. Drainage:
Another damper when it comes to selling your home at a good price is drainage issues. This is something that often concerns prospective buyers. You know you have drainage problems if you have gushing gutters, dumping downspouts, and a water-stained basement. Other signs to look out for when it comes to water-related problems are cracks in your home’s foundation cracks and mildew accumulating in the attic.
While there are many things that you can do on your own to save money, it’s important that you leave some of the more expensive projects to seasoned experts. For instance, you might be able to tile your own bathrooms, but it’s always a good idea to hire a professional installer for your windows. Making beginner errors on expensive projects will only end up costing you more money.
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http://www.nuwireinvestor.com/protect-investment-7-home-improvement-ideas-consider/
Last April, I had the amazing experience of selling our old home just seven days after getting the crazy idea that we should move to a new house. Finding a mint mid-century home with a sunken conversation pit—in your price range—will do that to a girl! To say it was a whirlwind week would be an understatement! I remember feeling heartbroken the night we signed papers with the buyer because we discovered the dream home which launched this crazy scheme was already under contract with another buyer. But man, was I excited that we had just sold our house so quickly! … And of course I was also a little worried about being homeless and living with my parents indefinitely.
Surprisingly, not many details changed from the ideas that had popped into my head that night that I viewed the home online for the first time. For budget reasons, I wanted to reuse as much from the original kitchen as possible, and because I was not a fan of the oak raised panel cabinetry, painting the cabinets white would allow them to fade to the background and not make much of a design statement. I also wanted to make the space feel much airier, so I decided to remove all of the upper cabinets completely, and only replace them with a single row of open shelving. As far as storage goes, I had plenty of cabinets left in the island and below the countertops (the lazy susan in the corner is amazing!). The cabinet I built above the fridge as well as the wall of shelving gave me the rest of the storage I needed. (Oh, and there’s a pantry closet behind the shelving wall.)
Literally the day we closed on the house, Phil and I began demo! I pulled out all of the carpet on the first floor, and for a date night, Phil and I busted out and removed all of the tile from the kitchen and hallway. Talk about romantic! Then my dad helped take off the old countertop and separate all of the cabinets. We reconfigured them so we could move the stove to a different wall, making more space for a main dining area in the eat-in kitchen. (We are using the formal dining room as a play room.)
The most exciting day of the rebuilding has to be the day my new stove was installed! I had only ever dreamed of owning such a beauty—six burners, dual-heat steam oven … forget about it. I love all of our new appliances, but this stove makes it easier for me to get out of bed in the morning. (Especially if I have ingredients for pancakes, bacon, and eggs in the fridge!) I still pinch myself every day I get to use this bad boy. I also am so glad we moved its location to this other wall. Our old stove was electric, so we had to run gas lines anyway, we may as well move the stove to a more convenient spot. Rerouting the exhaust vent wasn’t bad because the joists in the ceiling happened to run parallel with the stove wall. We plugged up the hole from the old vent with ventilation and covered it on the inside with drywall and tile, and covered the hole on the exterior with a metal plate and silicon until we’re able to patch the siding.
People often ask about the jars I use to store my food. They are Le Parfait brand, and you can find them lots of places online, but I’ve also had luck finding them at discount home stores such as Marshalls and HomeGoods. I used to have labels on every jar, but now I only have them on certain necessary ones that are easily mixed up. (Once I tried to make frosting using baking soda instead of powdered sugar!) I’m frequently moving the contents of a barely filled jar into a smaller one to free up the big jars, so things get shuffled around and labels just get to be annoying in that instance.
My girls and I begin every morning at the kitchen island. I sip coffee and answer their crazy questions while they usually eat eggs and toast or fruit and yogurt. We usually have lunch at the counter, too, but dinners happen at the round antique table that I scored on Craigslist. It has three leaves, so we can make it bigger for when we’re hosting friends and family, but most of the time it stays small like this.
I carried the traditional-rustic-meets-minimal-modern vibes to the dining area where I use the antique table alongside these elegant Lippa chairs from LexMod. The vintage booster seat gives this spot the perfect mix of old and new.
I can’t believe I’ve come this far without acknowledging my pink sink. I chose most of the materials because their were inexpensive and because they were safe enough that I knew I’d be happy with them for years to come. But I had to have a little fun somewhere! That’s where the pink sink comes in. This is an acrylic sink by Thermocast which is undermounted beneath our white Corian counters for the perfect pop of pink. I use a tray in the bottom of the sink to keep it from getting scratched up, but also to conveniently rinse dishes when things get piled up.
With all of the new materials, I hadn’t considered how junky our old outlets and switches would be until I saw them alongside the new white walls and tile. Ugh. Details matter! So we installed new paddle switches, universal dimmers, and outlets from the Legrand Radiant line. The screwless wall plates are the perfect finishing touch and just fade to the background, letting my design choices take center stage. We also installed outlets with built-in nightlights in our halls and pathways, so we can easily sneak into the kitchen for midnight snacks!
Choosing a shade of white for our walls was a little stressful (even though I wrote an entire blog post about choosing white paint!), but I’m happy with Benjamin Moore’s Super White in our kitchen. It’s a particularly tricky space because there are a lot of white I don’t have control over, shade-wise, like our KitchenAid appliances, the dining chairs, the tiles, and to some extent, the countertops. Super White ended up being the perfect neutral white for this environment (not cool or warm) that felt very bright, but not as stark as untinted white would feel. It feels bright, crisp, and modern— perfectly at peace with the other white elements in the kitchen.
If you’d like to check out some of my older posts that chronicle my kitchen planning and process, I’ve listed them out for you below. You can also see a list of products and materials I used at the end of this post! If you have any questions, I’m more than happy to talk shop in the comments section.
Materials and Products: