Wherever you are in your journey as a homeowner, at some point, you’ll see an opportunity to make renovations to your home. Whether you’re a new homeowner or you’ve lived in the place for years, choosing the best home renovations and finding the best contractors takes considerable effort. A home improvement guide is what you need to transition into a new season, start a new year, or bounce back after an exhausting few months.
A home improvement project can fill you with excitement and energy the moment you decide to start. Maybe you should focus on the bathroom first, where you can add hints of luxury and elegance to the walls. If the kitchen area is your preference, you can also start there and add a new appliance. Start a home improvement project with goals and purpose in mind, and along with this guide, you’ll have everything you need to successfully renovate the home you want.
Renovate Your Bathroom
If you’re ready to get started on the bathroom, begin with a vision of how you want the room to look. Would you prefer a nature-inspired theme with fresh plants and green colors on the walls and showers? Or does an elegant, sophisticated look appeal to you most? Either way, the benefits are clear and substantial. Renovating your bathroom and installing a new shower will increase your home’s curb appeal. More importantly, you have plenty of resources from which to choose.
The options are limitless when renovating your bathroom, from a new toilet to a new shower to fresh cabinets and a new sink. When you have a chance, look over your list of new fixtures you want to add before you begin renovating. While you won’t necessarily have to remove the walls, part of your bathroom renovation might involve water damage removal. Beyond that point, you may still have plumbing issues worth being concerned over, so hire a plumber at some point in the process if you notice leaks, water temperature, or water pressure issues you can’t quickly fix.
Renovating your bathroom should be one of your priorities when improving your property’s value. In the end, adding a new wall-mounted cabinet or a new sink, a new faucet, or a new bathtub will give you an advantage as a homeowner. Not renovating your bathroom can pose a problem if the size is the issue and you simply don’t have enough room. If the color arrangement is wrong, you’ll need a fresh coat of paint to apply to the walls. Finally, you might notice it’s difficult to detect minor signs of mold and mildew building up in your bathroom. But when this problem becomes worse, you’re putting your family and friends at risk.
Replace Your HVAC System
It’s that time of the year, and the weather is getting cold. Or is the weather getting warm? Take your pick, but the time of year matters when examining your HVAC unit. Even with the best care, your age-old unit will face problems. Clogged air filters are one of the top problems that can take place, and sometimes, the temperature doesn’t get cool or warm enough, or your unit ceases to function. When these problems arise, it may be time to call an HVAC technician. It’s time to ensure you have everything you need to feel comfortable year-round.
An AC repair service works wonders for a home improvement project. A home improvement project centered around your HVAC system will help you reduce energy costs, a problem you may have noticed significantly when the temperatures rise or drop. The point is the more inefficient your HVAC system, the more complex the system must work to provide comfort. This extra energy translates to an increased energy bill, and even then, you still may not enjoy the level of comfort you have always sought.
Fortunately, a professional HVAC contractor will come prepared with the tools of the trade. Part of their job will be to fix a malfunctioning thermostat that might prevent you from getting your temperature in the home to the correct temperature. An HVAC specialist may do intricate mechanical work to repair and improve an HVAC system worn down by old age. Of course, if your HVAC system is too old, an HVAC specialist might have the enormous task of replacing your system altogether. When that happens, you’re in good hands; a new HVAC system means a happier home life for everyone involved.
Install New Bathroom and Kitchen Cabinets
Cabinets dramatically improve the aesthetics of your home. The cabinets in your home can potentially add to your home’s property value. As you look around your bathroom and kitchen, consider how handcrafted cabinets would increase the property value of your home. A home improvement guide like this can help you see the value of handmade, custom-made materials. Custom cabinets will surely add an enchanting look and style to the kitchen and bathroom.
For the best-looking cabinets, hire a contractor with carpentry and cabinet-making skills. Ideally, a home improvement guide like this works best when you have an experienced contractor doing much of the work; after all, cabinet-making can be rather complicated and time-consuming. If you want, watch in awe as your chosen contractor workers. Do you see how important it is for them to correct all of their measurements?
You might be wondering about the signs of wear and tear on your current cabinets; they’re all the more reason to get replacement cabinets and get them quickly. Making mistakes like slamming cabinet doors or not cleaning them adds up, and you might notice the damage on your initial walkthrough of the home. If you notice cracks in the wood, it’s time for replacement cabinets. Make sure you choose from available cabinets as if you were picking through a catalog. The closer your cabinets are to your aesthetic goals, the better. Refreshing cabinets raise the property value of your home significantly.
Swap out Carpet for Hardwood Flooring
Swapping out old carpets and adding hardwood should be on a home improvement guide list of home improvement projects to increase property values. Why? For two reasons: one, carpets can get old and filled with pet dander, dust, and bacteria, and, when released into the air, can cause indoor air pollution, all of which hurts you and your family’s health. Two, carpets get stained quickly, and you might not notice the stains unless you look harder than usual. To add freshness to your home and increase your home’s property value, add hardwood flooring to your list of the most important home renovations.
Your hardwood flooring can extend to nearly every inch of your house, including a custom door that you recently decided to install. While designing hardwood flooring requires the work of an expert, you can get ahead of the process by removing the carpet yourself. Doing so saves you the added expense when the hardwood flooring contractor has to take this step, so consider your overall budget and keep it. Stripping your carpet from the floor takes only the essential tools you have around the house. According to This Old House, you must detach the carpet from the tack strip before cutting the carpet into strips. Only then can you remove the carpet pad and the tack strips.
After stripping the carpet, look around closely. Do you notice how your home seems slightly bare and ready for a massive overhaul? Now would be an excellent time to spend more effort cleaning the home. House washing is an essential part of cleaning, and an expert should be the person to do the washing. But the basic cleaning tasks you do daily are more crucial than ever. From this point forward, you’ll be adding costly additions to the home that will require more space to work. Consequently, deep cleaning is a major must starting at this point in the renovations.
Replace Your Roof
You’ve gotten rid of the carpet. Great job. Now’s the time to head outside and check your roof. Have you noticed any signs of wear and tear on the shingles or severe damage? Part of understanding roofing is knowing that even minor wear and tear can lead to severe leaks in your home. You’re planning on getting comfortable before the seasons change; now, you have to worry about the weather and outside elements interfering with your daily living. Trust that roof replacement should be a home improvement guide task you complete, even if you think you want to save money.
While you’re considering replacing the roof, it’s also a great time to think about window treatments. Why? Because your windows sustain damage throughout the year. During the winter, especially, your windows are more prone to damage from being rigid in the cold, and moisture from humidity in the winter can also cause the window frame structure to weaken. There may be a time when you think about replacing your windows altogether. If so, think carefully about the level of energy efficiency in your home. If you notice issues with your energy bill, it might be time to opt for new windows. You might as well take care of this step while planning a much longer-term renovation, like replacing your roof.
Improve Your Home’s Landscape
Your home’s outside should be as appealing as the inside, and the landscape, especially, has a way of drawing positive attention from neighbors and family. Elevate the appearance of your yard by completing some DIY gardening and landscaping activities. From planting flowers and vegetables to trimming the edges of your lawn, the basic landscaping tasks are those you can handle. Leave the most sophisticated landscaping challenges to a landscaping team. Landscaping services prove you need to consider your budget before beginning home renovations.
Elevating your landscape is a task that can make you feel like you’re finally at home. In addition to improving the way your grass and plants look, landscapers can pursue hardscaping tasks. Here, they’ll be working with stone, wood, and even fire pits or benches, adding to the attractiveness of your landscape by giving onlookers more to see. Professional landscapers make your home look inviting and welcoming from the outside. But while landscapers interact with the land, there’s still a problem lurking in the grass that can cause a disaster. That’s right, it’s bugged, and you’ll need to hire an exterminator after working with a landscaper.
Insects of all species, including spiders, silverfish, ants, and ladybugs, can eat the grass and plants in your yard, lay eggs and multiply, and eventually cause a full-blown infestation. Before settling for DIY extermination activities, call your local exterminator. An exterminator will focus on the source of your insect features, whether deeper in the ground or in a hard-to-reach area you often overlook. Exterminators have equipment that allows them special access and extermination abilities you might not have. You’ll see that there aren’t many reasons not to include extermination in your budget.
You just read a home improvement guide that taught you what renovations are worth doing. You learned that you needed to focus on the bathroom and kitchen cabinets, and your bathroom itself needed renovation. You understand now that your HVAC system may require replacing, and potentially sooner rather than later. You can increase your property’s value with all the current information on home renovation.
It’s all up to you now to take the steps forward. Renovating your home can be an exhilarating experience, provided you take your time and plan each renovation in the future. As you address each element, watch in satisfaction as your dream home comes to life. Now you realize why it was so important to have a home improvement guide to teach you.