Whether you plan on selling soon and want to drive up your home’s resale value or you’ve finally decided to update your 1980s inspired kitchen into the 21st century- a successful home renovation will have you benefiting from both the financial and lifestyle ends of the equation.
Yet, while our favourite tv shows like Property Brothers may have us thinking the only way to renovate is to gut the entire house, that far from the truth and not an option for many.
So if you want to avoid the headache and cost of a full head-to-toe home transformation, what projects should you take on? While scouring the internet we found a post on the social news site Reddit that helps answer the question: What inexpensive upgrade had the biggest impact on your home?
Answered by those who love home improvement and do-it-yourself jobs, we’ve listed their top responses below:
•“Properly functioning, maintained, and oriented gutters and down sprouts. Make sure they are secure, routed such that they drain the right areas, and are in good shape. Parts are cheap and it’s easy to add extensions when required. It’s one of those things that often get overlooked and can lead to ground erosion and water problems in the basement.”
– heyho-offwego
•“Replace the toilet seats and locks. Paint before you move in. Remove popcorn ceilings if you have any.”
-CleverBandName
•“My wife and I just finished re-painting our house lighter colours as we are getting ready to sell. That and finishing the crown moulding have been the biggest improvements in the 7 years I’ve owned it..”
-blgrn
•“Replace all of the light switches and outlet covers to something modern. It makes a place go from feeling 40 years old to feeling high quality and new.”
-_gesundheit
•“I replaced almost every bulb in the house with LED. To me if a house was already converted to LED that would be a selling point. I think most people who are aware of LED would be thinking $10-20 per bulb, but if you can get them through the power company it will cost you much less than that.”
-LandlockedPirate
•“I got a Nest programmable thermostat for a wedding gift in Dec. 2014 and have already dropped my bills $20-22 a month by seeing its daily use. It would of paid for itself in a year if I had bought it. I highly suggest it!”
-spike_africa
•“Landscape the exterior. A $1000 DIY job can be fairly extensive, especially if this is one of your first projects and you buy trees and shrubs that are not yet mature. It completely changes the first impression of your home by potential buyers.”
-whipped_honey
•“New knobs, handles and hinges in the kitchen. $100 of hardware made the cabinets look a decade newer.”
-ritchie70
•“Adding some hardwood floors makes a huge impression on potential buyers because it is one of the first things they see when entering a home. Many times when the home is no longer furnished for the showing, the hardwood floors give a sense of activity and keeps things interesting.”
-azhengsta
•“Thinking specifically for resale, some cheap + easy DIY options (presuming you’re a decent carpenter) that will add value are:
1.Landscaping. Prospective buyers are looking at your house from the outside first.
2.Wood vent/return grates (presuming forced-air heating). You can either buy them, or make them yourself. Even just on the main floor makes a difference in how fancy the house seems to be.
3.Chalkboard paint. On a door, kitchen or playroom wall etc. People love it; I don’t know why. Our house has a chalkboard door, and I think every single woman who comes in comments on how cute it is. When staging your house to sell, put grocery lists, kids drawings on it.
4.Built-in closet organizers.
5.Built-in storage + bench or cubbies at entryway/mudroom. Again, people love them, and can be staged in a really cute way with kids names in cubbies, etc. when selling.
6.Clean up, patch, or re-putty any old nasty-looking windows. It won’t give you the energy-efficiency gains of new ones, but it’s free, and buyers won’t notice the old windows as much.”
-Section37
We’ve also decided to cram in one more tip that didn’t make it on the above list.
Painting your existing kitchen cabinets.
If you’re cabinets are in good condition, you don’t have to undergo the headache of installing completely new ones. Instead, liven up and update them with a new fresh coat of paint.
All you need is a screwdriver to unhinge the cabinet doors, 220 grit sandpaper and a cloth to wipe down the surface (to remove all fingerprints, dirt and dust).. oh and paint of course. But not just any paint will do, you’ll need one that’s specially made for cabinets.
RedPin
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