Do It Yourself With Help From These Home Improvement Tips

By Hilaria Roberrtson


There are many reasons to learn how to do your own home improvements, including that it's cost effective. If you know how to do things right, making your own improvements can save you money on things that will increase the value of your house. Here are some smart ideas for doing your own home improvement projects.

When deciding what exterior renovations a home needs to make it saleable, step out to the curb and take a picture. The picture on your listing is the first exposure any potential buyers will have to your home. If your picture shows a dingy house with overgrown landscaping, fix it!

Some home improvement projects are best suited for a group of people. By enlisting the help of the whole family, much more work can be done than would have been accomplished by one person. Neighbors or other friends can even be recruited, in return for the promise of future help from you.

Painting the interior walls of your home can be a great way to freshen up your decor. Painting is inexpensive and allows for much creativity, based on your color choices. It's also easy to change, should you decide to go in a different direction. To add a quick and effective punch to any room just grab a can of paint and go!

If you're painting your home, you should make sure that you paint the trim last. Moldings can actually be cut to size and painted before you place them on with a finish nailer in order to avoid any drips, but you should always wait until the end. Painting these first will result in you having to go back over them.

When renovating your home, you should always stay close to the home's original character. If your street is lined with Victorian-era tudors and you choose to turn your home into a glass-fronted homage to modern architecture, it will stick out uncomfortably and annoy your neighbors. Also, the more you differ from the home's original structure, the higher the cost of the renovation and the less your chance of getting a return on investment.

To prevent animals like birds or squirrels from nesting in your chimney, install a chimney cap. These devices feature mesh sides that allow smoke to escape, but the solid top prevents animals from entering your chimney to build nests, which can ignite and cause a chimney fire when you use the fireplace.

Add a bit more swing to your home run swings when playing baseball, by putting a little uppercut into them. When it's a higher pitch, add a bit of a slight uppercut to your swing to really send that ball flying. That kind of swing relies more on powerful hip and midsection muscles to be successful, so you also get a great workout.

One of the best ways to increase value in a home, is to add additional rooms. This can be done by reducing the size of the back yard and increasing the size of the living room or another family area. This is a great advantage to selling your home.

To increase your kitchen's value without spending a lot of money, add a new backsplash. Backsplashes are highly desired by buyers, and can make your kitchen look more put together. To save money, use a material like tin tile or stainless steel in place of costly ceramic tile. Be sure to pick out something that compliments your kitchen's color scheme.

For a high-impact update that can be completed in less than a day, consider freshening up your front door with one or two coats of brightly colored, ultra-glossy paint. Homes with light-colored brick or siding look best with a bright red or blue door; darkly colored homes do best with a deep, cool color like eggplant or slate blue.

Knowing simple tips like these is half the battle of doing all the home improvement projects you have in mind. With a little time, effort and knowledge you'll be able to do a professional-quality job at do-it-yourself prices, and that's just one of the beautiful things about making your own home improvements.




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