Home Improvements To Add Value To Your Home: Risk-Free Ways To Sell Your Home

You might be aware of the different ways one can increase the value of a house, but perhaps not of some smaller changes you can carry out to improve your sale price. It’s often cheaper improvements that offer the highest returns, rather than the expensive loft conversions or extensions that can be so tempting.

It’s not always a good idea to invest all your money into your home, as it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get more money back when you do sell. Some DIY(Do It Yourself) projects will add more value than you think, so it’s worth thinking about some of the ideas we have here when you’re looking to do a little home improvement.

Face Value:

Painting the front door and cleaning up the front of your house can do wonders for the overall look of your home. Remember, the first thing a potential buyer sees is the front door, and their first impressions on the house will be made when they arrive.

Once you’ve freshened up the front, have a look at your hallway and stairs. Shoes piled up in the porch or awkward furniture in the hallway can take up valuable space and make the entrance to the home look dark and dingy. Brighten it up by organizing coats and shoes into a cupboard, hanging some mirrors strategically to create space and painting the hallway with a bright color to create light. Again, first impressions count for a lot and you need to make sure it’s a good one.

Creating Outdoor Space:

Most outdoor log cabins or sheds don’t need planning permission, and the size is dictated by your garden space and budget! Ideally, your log cabin should have a clear space of about 1/2ft all around, to make installation and maintenance easier. If the budget allows, paving slabs or concrete is ideal for laying the structure on, and the walls and roof can be insulated to trap heat in during winter, and if you need electricity, it’s best to call in an electrician, unless you are one yourself!

Once you’ve covered the basics, you can furnish the inside however you like to create the perfect office space, although there are plenty more uses for a log cabin. Imagine what would add the most value for your target market, and use your imagination. You could have a personal gym, a mini sports bar, a home office or even just a little hideaway to chill out in after work!

It’s an easy way to add extra space to your house without forking out for an extension or conversion.

Scrub Up Well:

Your bathroom needs to appeal to a wide section of the market, so make sure it’s clean looking, with updated decor and modern fittings. A classic white suite with neutral decor will be more attractive to house-hunters as it looks clean, open and gives them a blank slate to decorate.

If you’re selling a family home, extra bathrooms are a big attraction for potential buyers. Many will be tempted by the idea of never having to wait in line for the shower, or having a separate bathroom from the messy teenagers in the house, so you can be sure that this will be a sound investment.

If you have the space, adding an en-suite bathroom to the master bedroom would make a great selling point, and add value to the house. If your bathroom and toilet are in separate rooms, it might make sense to knock a wall through to create one large bathroom, with the option to rearrange the layout to look more inviting. You could also use clever tricks like tiling up to the ceiling or hanging large mirrors to create the feeling of space and light.

Risky Additions:

Converting a cellar or attic can be a great way to add value, but these can be very expensive depending on the state they’re in. If your attic is already boarded out and insulated, with a floor laid down, you might simply need to do a little cleaning and moving to create a new bedroom. If you have to spend a lot of money on a conversion, it’s probably best avoided as you could struggle to make your money back when it comes to selling.

It’s easy to get carried away with simply knocking through walls or building extensions, but sometimes a different color scheme or rearranging furniture can create more space without the cash. Try moving furniture into different rooms, swap the living room with the dining room or swap the double bed for a single, to make the room look larger. Get a friend to come round and tell you how they arrange the house if they lived there – a fresh pair of eyes can give a different perspective and they might have some great ideas for your home!

John T. McDuff - Realtor - Find out more about Austin Texas Realtor John T. McDuff and his commitment to service.
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The New Generation of Commercial Flooring

If you’ve got good commercial cleaning services, they’ll be the first people to tell you when your flooring is having problems. The usual problem is the condition of the flooring surface. This can be a big issue, because the floor is after all the largest occupied space on the premises. New commercial flawing is everything its predecessors could rarely be-durable, easy to maintain, and cost-effective over its product life.

The trouble with the old flooring is that it simply wasn’t designed the way the new generation of flooring has been. Science has moved on, and better materials and manufacturing techniques are essentially driving a shift to new flooring types. Old flooring, even with the benefits of modern cleaning technology which can practically bring old carpets back from the dead, is well and truly on the way out.

The New Generation Of Flooring-Carpet Tiles :
The most dramatically different form of the new flooring is a new range of carpet tiles. These tiles don’t require underlay. They have their own built in backing, which makes them much easier and cheaper to install than traditional broad looms. This is actually a totally new form of carpet design, and the new manufacturing techniques allow these carpet tiles to be customized on digital software, allowing a huge range of decor and interior design possibilities.

The idea is simple enough:

Digital pattern design allows mix and match with decor.

Multiple designs can be used.

Digital patterns are easier to make than traditional stitch patterns for custom designs.

This is literally made to order carpeting, on any scale, which is extremely cost effective both for manufacturers and their clients. Being able to see a layout on a computer screen for a particular design is also a major plus for decision makers, making it easy to say yes or no to a design.

Arguably more impressive is the level of cost-efficiency built in to the design of the carpet tiles. The tiles can be easily installed, repaired and replaced. Work doesn’t have to come to a standstill to allow carpets to be lifted. New tiles can be installed in minutes.

The new carpet tiles are also tough. They’re now considered best practice at places like airports and other public space areas where massive amounts of foot traffic usually destroys old style carpets. They’re long life products and can take the strain off the budget simply because they don’t need to be replaced as often as traditional commercial carpets.

Structurally, the carpet tiles are physically much better designs. Because they’re not stitched, but glued together, they’re basically seamless. This single design feature removes the problems created by stress on seams, which is one of the main causes of major deterioration of carpets.

Checking Out The New Carpet Design Options:
It’s easy to explore your options for new commercial flooring online. As you investigate the new carpet tiles, you’ll soon see how easy it is to create your own designs and to get specifications and costs. This is office decor, the cost-efficient way.

Transform Your Room with a New Window Treatment

Are you bored with the look of your living room? Do you wish that you could get a new look, but don't have the time, or the money, to fully remodel the room? You can achieve a lot if you simply de-clutter the room, and invest in a new window treatment.

The Wonder of Light:
The type and amount of light that you let into the room can make a big difference to how it looks. If you have a fairly small room, then you could be making it feel even smaller than it actually is if you have large, heavy curtains that cover a bigger area than the window itself. You could also be losing out on wall space that could be used for storage or decoration.

For smaller rooms, or large rooms that catch a lot of sunlight, consider investing in some roman blinds made to measure. This will allow you to take full advantage of the incoming light, and maximise the amount of space in your home too.

When you get roman blinds made to measure, you will have the opportunity to choose the colour and pattern too.Smaller rooms may benefit from a simple, bold colour rather than a busy pattern. Save patterned roller blinds for rooms that are fairly spacious.

In some rooms, such as the bedroom, you may want to opt for patterned roller blinds accented with tie-back curtains. When you want maximum light reduction, you can draw both the blinds and the curtains.

Multiple Materials:
The main mantra for interior design at the moment is elegance and simplicity, but there's nothing wrong with breaking the mould if you have some interesting ideas for your living room. You could use ornate window treatments to complement the existing design of your room. For example, you could add a valance that uses the same material as your cushions or sofa, and get roman blinds made to measure with a cloth that matches (or cleverly contrasts) your carpet.

Some clever interior designers use three layers - valance, blinds, and tie-back curtains, to add depth to the dressing, and make the room look bigger than it is.

This kind of design is difficult to pull off, but when it is done correctly, it can produce a luscious and luxurious room.

Directing Attention:
With any interior design plan, the goal should be to drive attention to a given part of the room. The focal point could be your television, the fish tank, the fire place, or a particular work of art on your wall. If you have a spectacular view out of your living room window, the focal point could be the window itself.

What you probably don't want, however, is for your patterned roller blinds to be so gaudy that they become the key feature of the room themselves. That might count as a way to completely change the look of your living room, but it wouldn't be a new look that you would enjoy for long! Subtlety is the key to a successful new look.