Fsbo

The coming article is a guest post, written by our friend Cedric Crumbley. His ideas on house renovating can be of a great help to many. Please, enjoy reading and get inspired by wonderful ideas of improving you living in a house or making it better in order to sell.

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We spend time and finances on updating our cars, our computers and most every area in our lives; however, often the home is neglected. Many people feel the best way to update the home is just to move into a new one; however, with a few repairs, renovations and upgrades the home can become new again and offer many more years of comfort and security to your family. Taking the time to improve the look of the home and making sure the home is in good working order will also increase the market value if you choose at some point to sell it and move.

When beginning your renovations start with the simple and more obvious repairs that will not cost you a lot financially such as repairing leaky faucets and pipes, adjusting a sticking door and securing the squeaky wood floor. These simple repairs will certainly improve your home and will also provide a sense of accomplishment and build confidence when faced with larger repairs.

Larger renovations such as tackling the décor of the home will come along the way as you address each room. Avoid ripping everything out right away and take the time to choose the manner in which you want to address your changes. Instead of replacing your kitchen cabinets try re-facing them for an affordable new look. Is your old porcelain kitchen sink looking dull and worn? You may want to update to a stainless steel sink or possibly look into discount kitchen sinks to update your kitchen without going over budget. A few small changes such as this can really change the look and feel of your kitchen.

In other rooms a simple color change will add a fresh new look, adding paneling or installing new lighting can have the same effect as well. Often we find that we are more dissatisfied with our home’s appearance and have become bored with the look more than being dissatisfied with the home itself. Making a few cosmetic changes can help curb the boredom and give you a fresh excitement in your living space.

Other changes that you make can have drastic advantages in energy savings. Begin by paying attention to your gas and electric meters to get a grasp on your usage and how you may be able to save. Investing in a bit of caulk can save you in heating costs. On a colder day you may want to light a stick of incense and hold it up to the edges of all windows and doors. The smoke from the incense will tell you if you have air leakage. If you have air leaks along the window or door edges you will know where to caulk to seal out the cold and seal in your heat. Have your furnace serviced each year to ensure its safety and efficiency. Wrapping your heating ducts and your hot water pipes with an insulating wrap will also help make your home more efficient and save you in energy costs.

Finally you may find that the simple changes such as color schemes, re-facing cabinets and replacing your leaky faucets, while improving appearances and efficiency, is just not enough. You are ready for some drastic changes in your home and are willing and able to invest more money into your home. The best place to invest is the bathroom and the kitchen.

Updating a bathroom will often include replacing the major fixtures such as the sink and cabinetry, the bathtub and shower as well as the toilet. Not ready to go that far? You can get a brand new look for your bathroom by installing a new floor, updating your bath surround with ceramic tile and exchanging the shower curtain for shower doors. This will offer a fresh new look to your bathroom and increase the value of the home.

The kitchen updates will nearly always add to the value of the home and is an ideal place to invest. Solid surface countertops such as granite, marble or Corian offers a seamless beautiful look to any kitchen and with the solid surface countertop you can add a beautiful undermount kitchen sink. A sink such as this offers a smooth transition from counter to sink and provides a lifetime of beauty and service.

Additional improvements to the home may be replacing carpeted floors with hard wood or laminate flooring in some rooms or adding carpet to other rooms. Installing a fireplace or central air can offer a modern and comfortable feel to your home as well. Finishing off the basement and adding an egress window can offer square footage to your home if you feel you are running out of space.

Author’s Bio:
Cedric Crumbley lives in Des Moines, Iowa with his beautiful wife Angelica. He enjoys running, reading and writing. Growing up he developed a love for kitchen sinks which led him to publish his first website eminent-kitchen-sinks.com.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 26th, 2009 at 11:30 am and is filed under FSBO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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