If you’re looking to remodel or upgrade your house these days, creating lasting value is sure to be a top concern. You’ll want to add features that won’t be outdated just a few years from now — reducing your home’s marketability and making your house look like it just crawled out of a time machine. Many people have the idea that a home remodel has to involve a new kitchen or bathroom. But some simpler, less expensive projects, can also bring lasting value to your home.
Lighting: Adequate light is more than just brightness — it’s a major contributor to our sense of comfort and well-being. Good interior lighting reduces fatigue and stress by reducing strain on eyes; outdoor lighting adds curb appeal and safety. Interior and exterior lighting fixtures — recessed ceiling lights, sconces, track lights, and flood lights — contribute to the overall value of a house and property, making it more marketable when it comes time to sell.
Storage: Storage is one of the most sought-after features of prospective home buyers, and built-in storage solutions always deliver. Built-ins have a neat, fitted appearance that takes advantage of every available square inch of wall area. Because they make use of existing structural components, such as wall studs, built-ins generally cost less than free-standing furniture of comparable size, quality, and function. Fit built-in storage solutions under stairs, as window seats, and in closets.
Paint: From boring beige to rocketing red, your rooms will never go out of style. Why? Because you can easily redo them — a new paint job is one of the simplest, least-expensive of all remodeling projects. A Do-It-Yourself paint job on a 12-by-12-foot room costs only about $150 for paint and painting tools; if you’re not the do-it-yourself type and need to hire someone, expect to pay a licensed paint contractor $300-$400.
Wood Floors: Shag carpets come and go, but wood flooring has the uncanny ability to look great in any setting, whether traditional, contemporary, or country. The warm, upscale ambience of wood floors helps preserve the value of your home, and the cost isn’t prohibitive: Pre-finished wood floors in oak, maple, and bamboo run $8-$12 per square foot, installed.
Molding: Adding architectural interest with trims and moldings is a good way to bring rooms to life. Little details can have a big impact when it comes to creating homes that really stand out. You’ll pay $1-$3 per linear foot for a 5-inch-wide, paint-grade crown molding; $1.50-$6.50 for wood.
Stonescaping: Masonry materials used to create walkways, patios, and retaining walls helps define and shape outdoor spaces. Making your yard usable for sitting and strolling increases living area, which contributes to your property’s value. Materials, such as brick and stone, are virtually indestructible, readily available, and have timeless good looks. You’ll pay $17-$28 per square foot for professionally installed natural stone pavers.
Because fewer and fewer people are deciding to take the plunge into the troubled waters of buying or selling a home, remodeling projects are on the rise. Instead, home owners are refinancing and investing more into their existing homes to make them more comfortable, to modernize them or perhaps to make it easier to sell in this competitive market.
In their haste to make their house beautiful, people face a lot of the same problems over and over again. Whatever the reason for the remodel, it’s important to do your research and plan, plan, plan, so you don’t make many of these common remodeling mistakes.
Setting an Unrealistic Budget
Most homeowners underestimate their budget by at least 25 percent. As you can imagine, not having enough money to complete a project can not only stress you out, but can also force you to live with a half-finished project for a lot longer than you expected. Most experts suggest calculating your budget and then increasing it by 20 percent. It will help provide a financial buffer zone for when you run into unexpected costs – like finding out your kitchen pipes had a leak when all you budgeted for was a new countertop and sink.
Keeping Up with the Joneses
One of the biggest mistakes people make is remodeling or redesigning a space for what’s most popular right now. The more trendy the project, the more likely it will feel out-of-date in a few years. That’s not to say you shouldn’t update your home to match your style and interests, but if you’re looking to sell in the near future, do not get hung up on trends. A good idea would be to match the redesign to the style of your home. If you have a craftsman style bungalow, chances are investing in a very stark modern industrial look isn’t going to age well. Investing in classic styles with spots of your personality thrown in here and there will always stand the test of time.
Over-Improving
A lot of the time, homeowners invest in remodeling their home hoping that when they do sell, they will be able to maximize their return on investment. However, they fail to consider the quality and state of the homes in their neighborhood. Say you invest in a $50,000 swimming pool, top-of-the-line products – marble counters, glass and imported hardwoods – to make your remodel a true showplace, but the rest of the homes in the neighborhood are modest and average, then you run the risk of having an even more difficult time selling the home.
You will be hard pressed to find someone to pay $250,000 for a home with extra amenities in a neighborhood with $100,000 properties.
Doing it Yourself
This is probably the biggest problem homeowners make when deciding to remodel. In order to keep budgets low or reduce the costs of some projects, many homeowners think they can tackle big projects themselves. HUGE MISTAKE. Unless you have the right tools, training and connections, you could actually cause more problems down the line – including doubling your budget when you have to call a professional to come in and fix your mistakes.
Remember, when hiring a contractor, don’t try to cheap out by hiring the contractor who simply offers the lowest bid. It’s easy to find someone who will charge less just to get the job. It’s harder to find one who not only fits within your budget and your personality, but also is licensed, insured and comes with a list of great references.
Here are some basic things you must have to get your home remodeling or new home building project ready for competitive bidding so you can be sure you’re getting the best price possible.
1) Complete, detailed plans
Your local building department doesn’t require much to issue a building permit. All they want to know is whether the plans meet the building code, and the code is mostly about safety – not about what kind of countertops you want.
A set of “permit-ready” plans is missing a lot of what you need to get accurate and complete bids. You need far more information – especially drawings of architectural details inside and outside of the house.
2) Specifications
“Specs” aren’t part of the drawings; drawings tell the contractor where things go, the specs tell them what those things are. The drawings will show a toilet in each bathroom, but the specs tell the contractor what kind of toilets you want. If you want a different toilet in the master bath than the kid’s bath, the specs spell that out.
Without specs, you’re leaving the decisions about fixtures and finishes up to the bidders – which causes confusion and misunderstanding and makes it much tougher to compare bids.
3) Bid Invitation Letter
When are the bids due? What format should the bids be submitted in? Who do bidders call with questions? Where should the bids be turned in? How many bidders are expected?
These questions – and more – should be addressed in a bid invitation letter sent out to each bidder.
4) General Conditions
There are dozens of little issues to deal with on a construction project that have nothing to do with construction, but everything to do with the price.
Insurance is one, as are working hours; parking for subcontractors; change orders; quality assurance; dispute resolution; cleaning, and on and on. A “general conditions” document spells all of this out.
5) Quality Bidders
An experienced, qualified contractor with a track record of success competing against two guys with a pickup truck and a magnetic door sign isn’t going to get you an apples-to-apples comparison.
6) References
You might be surprised by how often homeowners don’t check references. They can give you confidence in a contractor, but they can raise important red flags, too.
If you hired an architect to design your project, ask him if he offers this level of service. Many do, and would be more than happy to help manage the specification and bidding process for you.
The important thing to remember…three quotes based on accurate and detailed specs would result in a very good idea of what a fair price for a job should be. You can’t get that kind of assurance with just one price!
Competitive bidding works the same way in new home and remodeling construction. Qualified contractors submitting bids on a well-defined project know they’ve got to give their best price if they want to get the job.
With temperatures falling and meteorologists predicting a colder than normal winter, the easiest and most cost efficient way to keep your home’s heat inside, while keeping your heating bill respectable, is to add fresh insulation to your attic, ceilings, basement, and walls. Mark Wolf (of the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association) states that these do-it-yourself home upgrades could cause instant energy savings between 10 and 20%.
Here is a list of four cheap and easy tweaks to seal up and insulate your home that will surely lower your heating bill this winter.
- Update Your Thermostat – Cost $80, Yearly savings $200+
According to Consumer Reports, a memory management thermostat unit can cut 20% from your heating and cooling bill. You can program the thermostat unit to save heat while you sleep and wake up to a warm and toasty home in the morning by upgrading to a programmable thermostat.
- Weatherize your Doors and Windows – Cost $100, Yearly savings $200+
This is an important, yet easy step to insulating your home. First, apply water-based acrylic caulk to seal small leaks around doors and windows. Second apply weather stripping to your doorframes to seal air leaks around movable joints. Last, apply shrink film to old windows, single-pane windows, or unused openings (like a small pet door) to keep cold air out and warm air inside.
- Insulate Water Heater (Pipes) – Cost $30, Yearly savings $200
Exposed hot water pipes can lower water temperature at the tap by as many as four degrees. Insulating these exposed pipes on your water heater with fiberglass or foam sleeves costs less than $30 in most cases and can save you five times that amount yearly (via heating bill). An insulating blanket for the tank of your water heater costs $20 but will save you nearly 9% on your heating bill.
- Cover Wall Openings – Cost $50, Yearly savings $150
Spray insulating foam sealant around the holes for outdoor faucets, wiring, and outlets. Nearly 15% of air leakage manifests at wall openings. Foam sealant will keep the cold air from entering through these small openings.
Inflation is elevating the cost of living in many facets of life, but a lower heating and cooling bill can be obtained through the methods listed above. Insulate your home properly and beat the winter chill with lower heating bills.
Federal energy tax credits were eliminated on December 31st of last year, meaning, home improvements on insulation can no longer qualify for the $1,500 tax credit.
An average home loses up to 30% of its heating and cooling energy through air leaks. The most significant air leaks tend to occur around windows and doors. To stop air leaks and prevent your home heating and cooling dollars from vanishing in the wind, it’s important to seal any air leaks around windows and doors.
Check for Air Leaks
With windows and doors closed, hold a lit stick of incense near window and door frames where drafts might sneak in. Watch for smoke movement. Note what sources need caulk, sealant, and weather-stripping.
Seal Air Leaks Around Windows
If you have old windows, caulking and adding new weatherstripping goes a long way toward tightening them up.
- Bronze weatherstripping (Around $10 to $12 for 17 feet) lasts for decades but is time-consuming to install.
. - Self-stick plastic types are easy to put on but don’t last very long.
. - Adhesive-backed EPDM rubber (About $8 for 10 feet) is a good compromise, rated to last at least 10 years.
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Nifty gadgets called pulley seals (About $9-$10 a pair) block air from streaming though the holes where cords disappear into the frames.
Seal Air Leaks Around Doors
Check for air leaks, and replace old door weatherstripping with new.
- Foam-type tape has an adhesive backing; it’s inexpensive and easy to install. If it comes loose, reinforce it with staples.
. - Felt is either adhesive-backed or comes with flexible metal reinforcement. It must be tacked or glued into place. It’s cheap and easy to install, but it has low durability.
. - Tubular rubber, vinyl, and silicone weatherstripping is relatively expensive and tricky to install, but it provides an excellent seal. Some types come with a flange designed to fit into pre-cut grooves in the jambs of newer doors; check your existing weather stripping and replace with a similar style.
Check exterior trim for any gaps between the trim and your door frames, and the trim and your siding. Caulk gaps with an exterior latex caulk (About $5 for a 10-ounce tube).
Seal Door Bottoms
If a draft comes in at the bottom, check the condition of the threshold gasket. Replace worn gaskets. If you can see daylight under the door, you may need to install a new threshold with a taller gasket (Around $25 for a 36-inch door). Or, install a weather-resistant door sweep designed for exterior doors (About $9). Door sweeps attach directly to the door and are easy to install.