Home Remodelling
When embarking upon a home remodel, it’s often difficult to decide what jobs to tackle first. Should you make over the kitchen or replace the furnace? Paint the exterior or build a deck? A good starting point is to ask yourself the question: “How long will I be living in this house?” If the answer is only a year or two, focus on upgrades that will make the house easier to sell when the time comes. If you don’t foresee a move anytime soon, choose improvements that will improve comfort and give you long-term personal pleasure.
- Suppress your home’s energy appetite
Energy repairs and improvements can range from simple air-sealing to a full insulation and mechanical retrofit. The first step, however, is to invite a building performance analyst to evaluate your home. The two
largest organizations that train and certify energy auditors are the Residential Energy Services Network
(www.resnet.us) and the Building Performance Institute (www.bpi.org). Both are good, but I prefer BPI because their inspectors specialize in aspects of building performance that go beyond energy considerations.
- Upgrade your entryway
Too often, we spend money on impressing others instead of making our lives easier. Upgrade the entry
you use most: the side or garage door. An updated everyday entrance or mudroom should include a welcoming, functional door (with glass if the fire code allows), as well as a place inside to drop off groceries, leave notes for family members, hang a coat, stash boots, and comfortably transition into and out of the house.
- Take cues from a lighting designer
Most of us work during the day and enjoy our houses mostly after dark. Upgrading lights and changing bulbs yield a quick uplift to your interior while saving energy. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) only where lights will remain on for at least 15 minutes, such as exterior fixtures, kitchens, and bedrooms. Use halogen bulbs where you toggle the lights on and off more frequently, such as hallways, stairs, and pantries. Halogen bulbs also work well on dimmers, which makes them ideal for dining rooms, master bedrooms, and family rooms.
- Upgrade the cabinets
New cabinets make up about a third of the cost of a typical kitchen renovation, so it pays to explore alternatives
to replacement. The options include painting, refacing, and accessorizing. I like to combine all three. Paint the boxes, replace the door and drawer fronts and pulls, then refurbish the interiors with an array of organizers, shelf drawers, and rollout bins.
- Refinish countertops and appliances
Refinishing companies such as Miracle Method (www.miraclemethod.com) specialize in resurfacing countertops. Similar companies offer services to refinish your appliances with electrostatic paint. The finish is factory tough and will make your appliances, if they work well, indistinguishable from new products.
- Build a better bathroom
Consider reconfiguring the bathroom to include double sinks and a privacy door between the lavatory and the tub/toilet area. To update a bath, use some of the techniques for kitchen cabinets and counters. Tub and shower options include ceramic-tile refinishing and thin stone veneers that apply directly over sound surfaces, such as old tile.
- Add trim
Millwork, or trim, does not have to feature high-cost exotic woods like cherry or laborious improvements like a fully panelled mahogany library. Paint-grade crown moulding, wainscoting, and casing upgrades can
transform a room for relatively little cost and time.
- Install better flooring
The flooring trend has moved decidedly away from carpet to hard surfaces. Cork, bamboo, ceramic, Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified wood, plastic laminate, and vinyl are now more popular flooring options. They also wear better, so if you decide to upgrade your floors, you not only will enjoy the marked change in your home’s appearance, but you’ll also have a long-lasting improvement sure to provide a sale-clinching wow factor even five or 10 years from now. Choose classic floor styles.
- Upgrade the siding
Although exterior improvements are best done right before a sale, there are some exterior improvements
that are worth considering because they provide long term practical benefits and immediate pleasure. From a cost and maintenance standpoint, don’t overlook vinyl and fibre-cement products. Vinyl siding is now available in countless styles, including clapboards, shakes, and even scallops.
- Expand outdoor living
If you need more space for entertaining, the one place where it’s relatively inexpensive to add square footage is your deck or patio. It’s also one of the better remodelling investments, with an 80% payback for a
wood deck versus most room additions, which yield about 60% return on investment (ROI). Decks also
provide the kind of homebody moments of happiness that make you want to keep your house.
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