A Long List Of Potential Renovations For Your Home
Are you looking to renovate your home? Sure you are! There are plenty of things that you can do that will turn your home into a more attractive version of its current self. As you probably already know, home renovations have a number of different functions. Not only will your home become warmer and more lively due the addition of new paint coatings, new appliances, and outdoor projects, but you’ll find that its resale value will increase as well. That means with a few key renovations, you can kill two birds with one stone!
There are plenty of mistakes you can make when you are renovating a home, so we are going to stick to talking about things you can do that will likely increase your home’s value (as well as its attractiveness and your happiness!). Some projects are just too lengthy and costly to be worthwhile, especially for new families who are looking for cost effective ways to renovate. But there are smaller and easier projects that you can complete in a relatively quick period of time, and for that reason we advise that you take a look at our projects that you can complete this autumn! Unlike other projects which are expensive and can take over a year to complete, these projects can be completed in a mere season and are great for remaking a home.
Here is the list of things that you can do to quickly improve the quality of your home:
Hallways and Stairs
1. Remove the lead from stairs via scraping 2. Sand and then oil the stairs 3. Repaint the stair boards
4. Sand the bannisters 5. Oil the bannisters
Heating Projects:
1. Research and buy insulation for the attic (that will trap heat and lower your gas bill during the winter months!)
2. Remove plaster and lath the ceiling in the room where you will install the insulation
3. Buy new radiators (energy efficient ones are recommended)
4. Fix gaps or broken windows that let heat out and waste energy
Outdoor Projects:
1. Dig up unwanted plants and weeds
2. Plant new grass seed
3. Cut unwanted tree branches
4. Add a new fence—they give gardens character!
5. Plant flowers such as tulip bulbs
These are just a few renovations that you can perform on your home in order to bring out its character and make the interior and exterior more attractive and comfortable. These aren’t large renovations, but ones that you can complete within one season and that will be relatively easy to finish. If you are interested in making your home a bit more attractive, than try out some of the renovation options above! If you have some different ideas for a season long renovation, feel free to let us know or send in some of your ideas!
When Renovating, Don’t Forget the Electrical System
We humans are sight oriented. When we decide to renovate our personal space, the tendency is to focus on the parts of that renovation that we can see. That means we spend hours pouring over fabric swatches, rug samples, paint chips and in choosing the perfect fixtures. This is the cosmetic part of renovations, the part that advertizes our personal taste.
One of the most overlooked items in home renovation projects are those barely thought about unless needed electrical outlets. Do you know where the electrical outlets are in your home, and where those outlets are? Could they be placed more conveniently, or do you need more of them? Renovation time is the best time to take a good look at your electrical system and ask yourself these questions.
Consider the master bedroom outlets. The best scenario is to have one outlet on each side of the bed. The worst is to have two people trying to share one outlet that is directly behind the middle of the headboard. Reaching it sometimes requires moving or crawling under the bed or otherwise turning yourself into an amateur contortionist.
Having “his and hers” electrical outlets in master bathrooms makes life more enjoyable, as does plenty of counter space. Having an electrical appliance fall into the sink at the wrong time can be disastrous.
The kitchen is another area to be considered. Kitchen islands are becoming more popular and they indeed create more work space. Some of the fancier ones sometimes double as additional eating areas. Making sure your kitchen island is wired gives you someplace to plug in a coffee pot, toaster, or even warming trays for a buffet.
Heating registers are also often overlooked. To heat your home efficiently, there should be at least one in each room. Larger rooms require additional registers to insure the heat is distributed evenly and more quickly. Vaulted ceilings offer a feeling of spaciousness to a room, but they should have a ceiling fan for proper air circulation. Having a remote control for your heating, cooling and other appliances is a plus.
With the advent of wireless Internet, it is no longer necessary to wire the entire home for service. Consider putting cat-5 cable in the living room to handle one of the more advanced entertainment centers on the market. You may want to similarly wire an additional room or two, especially if you have a home office or designated entertainment room.
Lot Orientation – How It Affects Value
Many factors go into determining a home’s value. Location is consistently one of the primary factors, and having a premier lot in a premier neighbourhood can be a very strong indicator of property value. The condition of the home is also a consideration, as is whether the design is useful and has eye appeal. Another factor, and one that tends to fluctuate the most, is the real estate market itself. A slow market means homes usually don’t sell as quickly as you may like, and may go for a lower price. On the other hand, a hot market may mean you will get multiple bids on your property and you may sell for more than your asking price. Proper marketing and staging of your home also helps to make you home more desirable.
Yet it largely does come down to location, not only the physical address or the neighbourhood, but the shape of the lot and how it is oriented. Let’s look at pie shaped lots as an example. If the tip of the pie is in the backyard, you have less private space and most likely less space between your home and the next. This also means the large end of the pie-piece is in the front. If you live in an area where you are required to keep you sidewalk clear of snow this means there’s more of that snow for you to shovel. This type of lot is not as desirable as when that pie-piece is reversed, with most of the lot being your backyard.
As far as orientation, homes with backyards that face west, southwest or south tend to be more valuable because of increased sun exposure. If your property is next to an open green space, that can be good or bad. You may end with more privacy, which means the lot is more expensive, or you may end up having to put up a specific type of fence between your lot and that space, making it into a potential high-traffic footpath. Since these types of lots tend to be more expensive, better check into the neighbourhood rules before you buy.
If you are looking into a corner lot, consider the neighbourhood and its rules before you commit. If you live in a snowy part of the country and you are required to keep your sidewalk clear, that’s twice the shoveling. If your neighbourhood has the shoveling contracted out and the corner is quiet, the extra space might be welcome. Think twice if there’s lots of street traffic. Other considerations are lots that are near power lines or set on slopes. Some neighbourhoods may also have unusually strict covenant regulations.
