When you think about home improvement, you may imagine how a new carpet or updated room will appear, but it is more important to make a clear plan about how you can reach that goal. You can start with these tips to help you begin and map out your home improvement journey.
When making outside cosmetic improvements to your home, don’t neglect the front door. A cheap, ugly front door can make the whole front appear less attractive. To replace a standard front door, costs less than $200. The improvement you will see in the appearance of your home is more than worth the cost.
If your living room and dining room area are combined with no doorway, a great way to define both spaces and keep them separate is by painting both areas a different color. Color serves as a great separator for spaces and you don’t need a doorway or door to be able to keep the two places functioning separately.
A lot of older homes have wall-to-wall carpet in every room, but it looks faded and nasty due to wear and tear. Real wood floors are more desired now and wear well for years.
Give your kitchen cabinets a brand new look with paint. This is a very inexpensive way of updating your kitchen cabinets. Remove the doors and thoroughly clean all surfaces with denatured alcohol to get rid of dirt and grease. Apply a coat of primer: this should take about an hour to dry. Use a latex or oil paint, and choose a gloss finish, as this stands up well to scrubbing. If the paint you are using is roughly the same shade as the original, you may be able to get away with one coat of paint over the primer. Your cabinets will look brand new again!
One energy-efficient improvement you can make to your home is to replace your windows. Older-style single-panel windows don’t insulate the inside of your home nearly as well as the newer double-panel style. New windows will increase the aesthetic beauty of your home while saving you money each month in electricity bills.
An easily-missed factor in cooling costs is your AC unit. You may not need to replace your insulation or windows, if you simply replace or clean the filters in your air conditioner. This is true for both window and central air units. The cost of a new filter for your central unit is much less than new insulation!
To maintain hot water while traveling through pipes during the winter, you should insulate all plumbing. Heat tape also works very well and is relatively easy to install, even if you’re a home improvement novice. When you use weatherizing tape, you will avoid damage to your plumbing due to freezing.
Any home improvement project should start with planning and research to get the results that you want. Use the tips here to make yourself more prepared. Being organized and knowing what to expect is a key to successfully tackling problems as they arise. This careful planning will guarantee that your project comes out great.