Are You Settled In or Are You Going To Move?
First and foremost you need to answer this question for yourself. This will guide what home improvements you need to make. Even if you are planning on moving you should invest on improvements because those things will help you sell the home for more money.
How to get positive ROI on your upgrades. You need to understand what improvements your potential buyers are interested in. Here are a few improvements, starting with most interested in, buyers are looking for.
1: Laundry Room. Invest in a nice washer and dryer set. Ad some tables or cabinets. Match everything with a good paint job.
2: Exterior Lighting: Lights that bring out the lawn or line your walkway and driveway are one of the top things on the list of upgrades buyers are looking for. Also, a well lit exterior will help grab the buyers attention.
3: Energy Efficient Appliances: Everyone wants to save money. For example, installing energy efficient windows keep more heat in than other windows. This saves you money on heating. An energy efficient dishwasher will save you money for utilities.
Do Your Research Now
The worst thing you can do is try to pick colors, pay for everything, hire professionals, etc all at once right before you need the project completed.
First, decide on all the home improvements you will get done.
Second, number the list.
Third and most importantly! Take an evening every few weeks to sit down and do your homework! Figure out the cost, colors, materials, etc for your next project.
Fourth, have everything ready ahead of time.
Fifth, don’t stress out! Do a little bit at a time when researching so you don’t get overwhelmed!
Plan For Delays
Something WILL disrupt your perfectly planned out schedule for your home improvement project. You may find that the process takes longer than you thought. An emergency came up. You need more money than you thought. We can’t always plan for everything.
However what you can plan is more time. If you think the project will take 4 weeks to complete, plan for 6 weeks. If you think the project will cost $4,000 to complete, plan for $5,000. This way your budget will allow for things that may come up. And if you end up spending less than you budgeted, now you have some extra cash:)
Declutter Your Home
We tend to have so much stuff in our home, especially after the holidays, and nowhere to put it. All of that clutter will actually make your home look busy and smaller.
Step 1: Start one room at a time. Maybe even take one room a month and de-clutter. Clear everything you don’t use daily. Either store it away or get rid of it by donating or selling those items.
Step 2: Energize your year: Broken items or useless items can drain your energy or mood. Remove completely and replace those items with things that relieve stress such as candles.
Make Your Home Safe
Each home needs to be equipped and rid of any potentially health hazards.
Lead Paint: If ingested, lead paint can lead to serious health issues. If your home was built in 1978 or earlier make sure you test for lead and repaint your home.
Asbestos: Just like lead paint, asbestos is a serious health hazard and it was banned in 1989. Test your home for asbestos and professionally remove it if necessary.
Radon: Over 20,000 lung cancer deaths occur a year due to radon. Grab a radon test kit from the store and make sure you aren’t at risk. 1 out of 15 homes have above normal levels of radon.
Carbon Monoxide: Another deadly gas that will kill you without you even knowing. Install a carbon monoxide detector on each floor.
Dryer Lint: Lint is highly flammable and gets trapped behind the dryer machine and surrounding ducts. Lint is responsible for 15,000 fires a year. So make sure you clean those areas every once in a while.
How To Slash Your Bills In 2018
Every household can implement these few things that will cut your bills and save energy.
* Water your yard less. Watering your yard takes more water than you may think!�
* Every time you leave your room turn off the lights.�
* Replace all your bulbs with LED lights.�
* Install shower heads that use less water.�
* Dial down your heater/ac when you leave the house.�
* Wait until appliances are full before turning them on such as the dishwasher.
Create An Organization System In Your Garage
One of the biggest thing people resolve to complete right after New Year’s is to organize their home. This is one of the best ways to kickstart all home improvements because it is very simple to do and you won’t need a contractor to do the work for you.
Step 1: Measure the length of your walls. You can put shelves along any wall so figure out if you want shelves around all the walls or just a few of them.
Step 2: Now, you want to figure out what kind of organization system you would like to use. This can be shelves, bins, or any other storage system. Our recommendation is to install heavy duty shelves because all of your belongings are in plain sight and accessible without having to look for very long.
Step 3: Purchase your desired system! Go to a local home improvement store and select what you would like to use. Take your measurements with you because you will need those to figure out how many storage units you will need to purchase.
Step 4: Install them in your garage and get to work. If you need to, use boxes and labels for your stuff. Try to organize things with like items so you can easily find what you need.
Improve Interior Lighting
This is another great idea to start off the year with. We all have that one room that doesn’t get any natural light and there are barely any lights installed.
This is something you can actually get really creative with. You can do the basic recessed lighting where needed, but you can also try lighting underneath cabinets, ceiling fans with lights. If you were thinking of trying to get natural lights, look into tube skylights. They are simple to install and bring in light very well. They are also much more efficient than skylights.
Another option to try is smart lighting. As popularity is rising for smart lights, it is getting easier and easier to install easy to use and efficient smart lights that can be controlled by just your voice. These can be very convenient!
How To Change Your Home Without Buying Anything
Wouldn’t it be nice to freshen or renew the look of your home? However, nothing is free right? Well actually, false. There is a way to change the look without paying any money at all. All you need is time.
All you have to do is rearrange! Start one room at a time. Take everything off shelves, the shelves themselves, decorations, etc and throw everything into a pile in the middle. Then sort everything in a new way. Maybe sort by categories or colors. Finally put everything back together in the new way you decided on! Most importantly, have fun with this!
Create A Home Gym
We all start off the year by planning going to the gym every day right? And then January 8th comes around and you start skipping days. It’s hard to keep motivated to go out every day to hit the gym. Why not make it easier by having some equipment at home to make it easier to workout on those days that you just don’t want to leave your home.
Don’t just buy a few dumbbells and throw them in a corner somewhere. You need to be strategic about this. The space needs to be designed well enough to create the atmosphere you need to work out. Put your equipment in a well lit room looking outside if possible. Staying motivated while running on a treadmill facing a wall is nearly impossible. When looking outside, people walk by, kids run around, so the scene changes somewhat and helps distract from putting in the work.
