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Guest Post: Intelligent Remodeling Ideas For Your Home

Working Smarter, Not Harder

Here’s a question: will indulging what you want now help you achieve the goals you seek later? Or put it another way: say you’re eating a delicious bowl of sugary, marshmallow-filled Lucky Charms. Do you eat the marshmallows first, eat them equally with the healthy grain cereal, or eat all the cereal first so you can have a big bowl of only marshmallows at the end?

See, if you do all the hard, undesirable work first, what you’re left with are only fruits — only “treats”, if you will. If, instead of remodeling your home to the “nth” degree (such that it’s luxurious, perfect, and costs you an arm and a leg), you instead strategically approach remodel solutions that add value to your property, you’re giving yourself marshmallows.

The other approach would be remodeling so you break even in terms of property value expansion and associated costs. That’s like eating the sugary bits with the cereal, if you will. Whether you want to have the good things up front and pay later, take the good and bad together, or do the hard stuff first so you can enjoy the easy life later, is up to you.

Regardless, the most intelligent approach will be maximizing the value of your home after you’re done remodeling. This makes each remodeling effort an investment in your property. Following, we’ll explore several remodeling ideas that can produce more value than they cost to get done, ultimately giving you better living premises and assets simultaneously.

1. Maximizing Property: Basements, Attics, Garages, Sheds

A lot of properties have unfinished basements—unless you’re in California, where basements are rare. However, attics aren’t rare on the west coast, and these are often unused or strewn with garbage. Garages additionally become repositories for junk, as can sheds. First, clean out the junk. Have a garage sale with what’s salable, throw away what isn’t, keep any “finds.”

Next, clean the premises, apply paint, finish the walls if they need it, install wallpaper, put in a rug. With a shed, you can turn that outside space into an insulated man-cave, apartment, or secondary residence for the mother-in-law. You might even make a “tiny home” back there and feature that in your property listing. You can build a nice tiny home for under $10k, and it’ll definitely add more than that to the property value. Consider the market, and if this is the right choice for you. Still, a little gravel for a driveway, utility hookups, and a several-week build can produce a fine tiny home expanding property value. The kids will love it, too—just teach them to clean up after themselves if you can.

2. RTA Cabinetry

RTA stands for Ready To Assemble. RTA cabinets can be purchased online in a “commissioned” sort of way such that they ship you cabinets which fit the space of your home. This has become a big trend in remodeling. It’s cost-effective, the results are qualitative, and the value can be greater than your expenses, if you’re savvy.

You’ll want to look into means of vetting certain RTA options. Some of the most appreciated RTA cabinets will come with a positive word from those who’ve purchased them — for example, look at this Forevermark ice white shaker cabinet review.

3. Implementation Of Property-Friendly Tech

Solar energy arrays can expand property value between $5k after purchase and installation, and $15k, for a total value increase of $10k to $20k. The average is a little over $16k, excluding solar panel costs. Installation of solar panels isn’t that hard. Mount them on the best part of your home in terms of sunlight — basically you just screw the mounts in.

Make sure you run the right cables to the right surge controller, and from there, to the right battery array. From the battery array, you’ll run a power inverter. You’re going to be looking at around 30 to 50 panels, depending on energy needs and the size of your home.

Each panel will be about 100 Watts, and cost around $1 a Watt. $3,100 gets you 31 panels for 3.1 kWh, another $1,900 gets you mounting brackets, cables, inverters, surge controllers, and batteries. A weekend gets the job done. Do this properly right before you sell and bump up the value of your premises by a minimum of $10k, and as high as $20k, essentially doubling or quadrupling your investment.

4. Landscaping, General Repair And Upkeep

Lawns, bushes, trees, flowers, and vegetables — what works best for you? Figure it out, and then husband that foliage perpetually. Installation of sprinkler arrays can help you do this with less hassle. A well-landscaped property with a built-in sprinkler system can increase associated property value. What’s more, you can put something like that together relatively affordably.

Expanding Property Value And Utility Through Remodel

Smart remodeling involves finding areas where you’ll get money back on your investment. Bedrooms, kitchens, and bathrooms can be good remodel ideas; but they can be costly, too. Weigh existing resources and options, and determine if you want to forestall appreciation of your labors, or take them up-front.

Landscaping, technology, space maximization, and RTA cabinetry represent several exceptional remodeling tactics that deliver solid value for their cost. Consult landscaping and construction contractors to determine other areas of remodel conducive to profit for your home.

About the author: Wendy Dessler is an outreach manager and blogger.

How to take the pain out of remodeling

If you are like me, you are nursing a serious Halloween hangover. 

Maybe you took too many sips from the witch’s cauldron or, in my case, ate all of your kids’ candy after they went to sleep? 

While we can’t help with that, we can help take some of the pain out of remodeling your home. 

CNBC has a great article outlining four steps that will make your home renovation a little less painful.

The article reminds everyone to perform due diligence on the contractors, review your contract, ensure permits are obtained, and pay bills on time. 

It may sound straightforward, but you would be surprised how many people don’t honor each step. 

As far as what projects you should undertake, Reader’s Digest has you covered with its article on the best projects to get done before winter

Granted the Valley doesn’t get a true winter, but all of the projects in the article are great places to start. 

Some of the best projects mentioned in the article include master suite upgrades, HVAC replacement, new flooring, or a closet renovation. 

If kitchens are more your thing, then check out these seven kitchen remodeling ideas from AZ Big Media.

Have a good week!

Keeping remodeling costs and headaches at a minimum

We’ve all seen the home improvement TV shows that follow a project from start to finish. 

Usually, there’s a hiccup, but either the owners secure a last-minute funding boost or the contractor finds a work-around to keep things under budget. That’s the magic of TV!

Life works differently. 

All parties, homeowners and contractors alike, have a role to play in keeping costs and frustrations to a minimum, as this Daily Herald article says. 

Like the article notes, homeowners can save themselves some headaches by remembering  that remodeling the kitchen is no small endeavor. Working within the existing plumbing structure will cut down on costs, while making big changes to the kitchen’s footprint will lead you to blow the budget. 

Also, enlisting the help of a designer and sticking to the plan once construction begins will keep you on your timeline and budget. 

If fixer-uppers are more your jam, here are some lessons one interior designer learned while fixing up her house. 

Monitoring progress, checking shipments, paying attention to details, hiring and firing folks, and working around holidays turned everything into a full-time job for the writer. 

And her partner is a carpenter!

Have a great week!