Inexpensive home makeovers

Are you looking to do up your home? Perhaps considering renovations? Well so am I and let me tell you something, it doesn’t come cheap.

The risk of over-capitalising your property is a very real one for many home owners. The idea that whatever you spend, while it might be nice for you, is adding a value to your home that won’t be retrieved come time to sell.

So what are some options to help you renovate your home without going all out and over capitalising? Here are a few ideas to keep you in line and avoid over spending.

Always start with a master plan

Before looking to add value to your home, ensure you have a master game plan as to what you want to achieve in your renovations or minor touch ups.

This will stop you from attacking a million different projects and avoiding the finish line as you try and take on too much. Set yourself a list of items to fix and ensure you stick to the plan.

Lighting adds value

A quick and easy fix for many homes is improving the natural lighting within the house. Many homes are clouded in shade and lack of natural lighting, making inspections, open homes and general living that much darker and colder.

Look to investigate skylights, or even better, solar tubes. These little tubes add what looks like a small light fixture to your roof but allows a large volume of light into the house at only a fraction of the cost/labour required for a skylight. Google them!

Plumbing is expensive

Moving toilets, sinks and pipes can be expensive. Look to leave them in their original places but instead fix the new designs and products to the existing area. This will save you a heap of money and give you a fresh new look and feel.

The cost of demolition and rubbish removal

Often a large added cost to any home renovation project is that of demolition and rubbish removal by a third party. While demolition isn’t suggested (largely because of live wiring and other dangerous things that exist inside walls, etc), a great money saver can be to do your own rubbish removal.

It might mean making piles of things you want to take to the tip and either calling the council for pick up or hiring a skip bin, a great way to slash a tradies quote significantly.

Opt for off the shelf kits

Places like IKEA offer ‘off the shelf’ kits for kitchens and bathrooms. Look to engage a tradesperson to help you with fitting and the savings will be enormous. Anything that requires bespoke designs and installation means larger costs.

The trick in this one is ensuring you engage the person who is going to fit the product BEFORE you buy. If the person fitting the product is you, god have mercy on your soul (I nearly died of exhaustion trying this).

The building game is a cash game

Be sure to ask for discounts when buying materials. The building game is built on cash options, so why not offer to pay cash for their best price? If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

Never pay people for painting

Painting can be fun and not that hard, as long as you setup properly. Opt to do your own interior painting instead of paying someone else. I know firsthand how expensive it can be to get someone to redo even just one room, you could instead buy all the paint, brushes and prepping products you need for nearly one third of the price.

Remember, it’s just paint, you can’t go that wrong with it all. You can always paint over it (or have a tradesperson fix up your mistakes if you have any), just avoid painting over light switches and other details within the room, this is why you need to prepare before painting with tape and floor coverings.

Don’t discard until you are sure you cannot improve

Another big mistake DIY renovator’s make is chucking things out before they think about whether or not they actually need them. Countless people have removed old bath tubs only to realise they are actually quite trendy and with a little bit of work, would be a standout piece within the home.

This applies to old doors, bricks and floorboards as well, they are all likely to be prime candidates for fix up jobs instead of chucking out, it will save you a tonne of money and give your home a more natural vibe.

Story by Alex Wilson, Story Source: www.bigpondmoney.com.au