Top Home Improvement Tips For Your Property
Owning a home is a lot of fun but it’s also a major responsibility. Not only do you have to ensure that the bills are paid and all your real estate loans are accounted for, you have to get necessary tax help, the fridge has to be stocked with groceries, and everything needs to be clean; additionally, you must keep your entire property safe at all times. When it comes to improving the look and feel of your home, you’re going to want to do plenty of stuff to reflect your interior design skills, but you must focus on safety, as well. What is more, after watching home improvement videos, you may remodel your house in such a way that its performance on the real estate market will be formidable. Those home improvement videos demonstrate how to make your house not only pleasant for the current household but future ones, too!
The Real Estate Industry Today
If you are considering buying, remodeling, or selling a house, you’ll need more than home improvement videos to know about a house and its value. Many statistics are tracked every year to monitor the state of the American retail industry, and IBIS World research shows that American homeowners are investing a lot of money into refurbishing their homes inside and out. This ranges from fixing support plumbing systems to hiring a fire protection company to cedar sheds in the backyard, and more. Across the nation, just over 5,000 home improvement companies are in business today, staffed with experts who can transform a home’s interior with great skill. Estimates say that this industry will grow 1.4% per year, and indeed, there was a 12% growth for home improvement work from 2012 to 2013.
Houzz and other researchers confirmed some more statistics to show how this industry tends to run. The two most popular types of home improvement projects of all involve the kitchen or the master bathroom, though other rooms such as a bedroom or the basement also prove popular. Around one in three home improvement jobs, in fact, involve the entire house. Around 84% of these remodeling jobs are done to improve the aesthetic and style of the home, and 54% of jobs are intended to boost the house’s value. Indeed, remodeling vital rooms such as the kitchen or master bathroom might yield an ROI (return on investment) as high as 70-80%. Those are not hard and fast figures, but they demonstrate that remodeling work can easily pay for itself when the homeowner puts their property up for sale later on. The same is true for landscaping in the front and back yards; estimates say that when a homeowner invests a mere 5% of the property’s value into landscaping work, the ROI can be as high as 150%.
Overall, it is easy to say that home remodeling is a serious business that can yield serious results, and watching home improvement videos for ideas, or browsing catalogs or websites such as Pinterest, can really pay off. Now, it is time to see which areas of the house may benefit the most from the contents of home improvement videos or catalog browsing. Nothing is off-limits.
Plumbing
Ideally, the plumbing of the house will work so smoothly and efficiently, you will take it for granted. A house’s plumbing will only draw your attention when something has gone wrong, so plumbers should be hired for any job more complex than tightening a gasket on a sink. Commercial kitchen appliances such as the sink or dishwasher, a toilet or shower, and even the backyard hose are all involved in the plumbing, and higher water efficiency is to be desired. Plumbing, for the most part, is invisible work, but home improvement videos may give you ideas on stylish showerheads, comfortable toilets, a charming kitchen sink, and the like. These bits of hardware, if they look nice, will make the house more pleasant and will almost certainly impress home buyers when the property is put on the market.
What might go wrong? A homeowner may suffer a high water bill if their utilities are very old since older toilets, showerheads, and bathtubs were not built or designed with today’s water efficiency standards in mind. Worse yet, pipes, valves, and more may get leaks if their gaskets wear loose of if the metal is damaged, and leaking water adds up fast. Statistics say that across the United States, an incredible one trillion gallons of water is wasted every year due to leaking plumbing hardware, and a typical leaky house may lose 90 gallons of water in just one day. That leaking water may pool on the floor, stain drywall, or short out electrical components in the wall (and that means even more repair work).
Home improvement may involve hiring plumbers to unclog, repair, and replace hardware as needed, and these workers may even dig up the sewer main and remove solid waste that is impeding water flow. They may also repair or replace cracked pipes in the basement, or swap out an old water heater with a new one that is more efficient and has not yet been clogged up with sediments. As for aesthetics, home improvement videos may show off today’s advanced showerheads, sinks, and dishwashers, which look nice and may have many convenient features in them. They are also typically water-efficient, which saves on the water bill over time (and this helps ease the strain on natural water tables and aquifers). For the elderly, a special tub may be installed that has a hatch-like door, so the user does not have to climb over a solid wall to get in or out of the tub.
Fire Protection
Modern types of fire suppression systems are quite advanced, and they can help save lives and alert local fire departments of a fire right away. House fires are still a common hazard, and a variety of threats may cause them. For example, a badly frayed electrical cord has exposed inner wires, and those hot wires can easily touch a carpet, drapes, or papers and set them on fire. Or, embers and sparks may get flung out of a fire in a fireplace and land on the carpet or papers, and candles might be dropped or fall over. Cigarette smokers might drop their lit cigarette when they fall asleep or for any other reason, and lit tobacco can set drapes, the carpet, or papers on fire. These fire hazards maybe even direr in dry weather, such as winter or autumn.
A home improvement video may urge the viewer to review all of the safety-related hardware in their home, and that may include checking their fire detectors to see if they need battery replacements. In other cases, such as when an older home is bought, the owner may hire experts to inspect the fire detection systems and diagnose any outstanding issues. Not only that, but carbon monoxide detectors should get their turn for inspection, as carbon monoxide is a colorless, tasteless, and odorless gas that is quite deadly. Also, make sure that the house has at least one or two fire extinguishers on hand, and ensure that they are not expired (read the tag on them). Teach any children in the household where to find the extinguishers and how to use them, and discourage any youngsters from misplacing or playing with the extinguisher.
Finally, make sure that all doors and windows in the house can be easily opened, and remove any debris or clutter that blocks access to them. In case of a fire, any and all doors and windows must allow a person to climb or walk through to escape a burning house. A sealed window or jammed door is a dead end when someone is trying to exit a burning house or other building.
Interior Design
If all the utilities in the house are up to date, in good repair, and safe to use, then it is time to explore different ideas for the home’s aesthetics, too. Many interior decoration experts recommend that a homeowner update the looks of their house every five to 10 years, and many homeowners do just that. A person’s tastes or lifestyle may change over time, and their house should match. All living spaces, big and small, budget and extravagant, have furniture and lighting fixtures and flooring too. The question is what they all look like, and accent pieces such as an art wall or a chandelier can help complete the living room’s look, along with a charming fireplace. The possibilities are many.
This is where home improvement videos, Pinterest, catalogs, and more can be helpful. A homeowner may decide that the carpets in their house are worn out, too badly stained, or an undesirable color and crews can be hired to remove that old carpeting and put down something new. When the carpeting is lifted, the floorboards are exposed, and those, too, might undergo some repair or remodeling work. Some homeowners opt to remove a carpet, refinish the wood, and leave it as bare floorboards rather than have new carpets. It’s a matter of preference, and attractive floorboards made of cherry wood or bamboo can be very attractive and practical. Bamboo floorboards, in particular, are good for the environment since they ease pressure on hardwood forest logging, but take note that bamboo flooring suffers in humidity extremes.
What about furniture? This is an entire topic in itself, but suffice it to say, a piece of furniture serves two main purposes: aesthetics, and function. In-home improvement videos, a homeowner may get new ideas on how to arrange their furniture, or what it should look like. The furniture may form a theme, such as art deco or Victorian revival or more minimalist looks that some homeowners favor. Color, material, and more can be factored in, too, from leather couches to shelves painted white to a glass-top coffee table. A buyer looking for particular furniture may turn to an online catalog, but otherwise, visiting furniture retailers is often the best route. The buyer can sit on or lay on furniture to test for comfort and durability, and ask the store associates questions to help narrow down the selection.
Some of those home improvement videos may also take cramped living spaces into consideration. Some homes are quite large, but other people are renting small apartments or college dorms, and space-saving furniture is exactly what they need. Fold-up chairs and card tables are a fine choice to save on both room and cash, and sleeper couches are another fine idea. If there is no room for a guest bedroom, a homeowner may get a fabric or leather couch that can unfold to form a bed for one or two people. Meanwhile, a storage bed is one that contains drawers in its body, to store clothes and the like. Such beds can double as a dresser, and save the space that a regular dresser would take up. Finally, the entire function of a room can be altered based on the type of furniture in it. An old bedroom, for example, can be converted into an art room or a home office.
Landscape
The final major area to consider is the one under the open sky: the front and back yards. This topic does not concern apartment renters or condo owners, but Americans who own a lot with a front and back yard are urged to take this seriously. As mentioned, investing in the landscape can really pay off, and many surveyed Americans agree that they value their time spent in the front and back yards. How to do this?
Consider fencing, to start with. A good fence can be installed with the help of a fence company, and a quality fence can help keep a pet dog inside the lawn while keeping stray animals (dogs, raccoons, cats) away from the property. Fences can also help make the property more private and secure, keeping away intruders or burglars. Wooden fences are best for this, but make sure that the support beams are on the inside face, not the outside one. Otherwise, intruders can use them as foothold and handholds.
A cedar shed is a fine idea for storing gardening or hobby goods, containing those valuable items inside walls and a locked door. This is especially helpful if there is no fence to keep intruders away, and the owner can use padlocks to keep the shed doors locked tight. Inside, shelves, pegs, and open space can store a lawnmower, power tools, hedge clippers, a hose, gardening goods such as bags of fertilizer, and more. Amish-built sheds, in particular, may be quite durable and high quality, as Amish craftsmen are known for building wooden goods of the highest order. Amish builders can also assemble chicken coops and picnic benches for interested clients, and then ship them once built. In other cases, though, a homeowner may opt for a lighter, plastic garden shed that can be assembled with ease.