When it comes to home improvement, many homeowners believe in an all-or-nothing approach. They prefer to wait for a total remodel rather than tackling a series of smaller, more manageable projects. Choosing the latter can save money and make your home a more attractive and enjoyable place to live. Here are some tips and tricks to get you started.
Use an old, dirty paint roller to clean the gutters on your house. The old paint roller that you have deemed unusable will quickly and easily clean your dirty gutters. Attach the roller to an extended handle. Then simply remove debris and leaves by sliding it along the gutter.
Put your used paint brushes and rollers in plastic and in the fridge! If you are going to continue using the same paint in the near future there is no reason to wash out your brushes and rollers. Just seal them in a plastic bag and put them in the refrigerator. They will be usable for weeks!
When it comes to home improvement, small things such as replacing your central air blower's air filters are essential. This is important both to the efficiency of the blower, as well as being a necessary maintenance procedure. If you allow dust and dirt to gather and even bypass the filter, it will gather within the moving parts of the blower and eventually cause it to fail.
Keep your closet free of clutter by organizing your shoes. Keep boots and shoes that you don't wear often in a large plastic box, or in the original boxes you got when you purchased them. Only leave out the shoes that you wear at least twice a week. Doing this will allow your closet space to be organized, and your shoes to be neatly displayed.
Talking to a friend who is a contractor or does other work related to construction can often provide some helpful insights. They will have a good idea of what needs to be done for a certain project. They may even be willing to lend a hand for a difficult or tricky home improvement task.
Use school glue on your wall paper repairs. This cheap glue dries clear and works whether you are repairing a turned up corner, a tear, or a bubble that wasn't properly addressed when the wall paper was hung. The squeeze tip bottle even allows you to easily insert the glue into small places.
Deal with maintenance issues as soon as they arrive. If you have tenants that complain of a leaky faucet, or a heater that is on the fritz, not only can they withhold rent until you have it repaired, but waiting can be more costly if further damage ensues.
Improve the look of your kitchen with a natural stone counter-top. Stone counter-tops come in a range of patterns and colors, and are possibly the most durable surface that you can choose. Sold in slabs, they are waterproof and heat resistant, and resist scratches and stains. There are a number of popular natural stone counter-tops to choose from, including marble, slate, granite and soapstone. While they tend to be quite expensive, it is worth the investment, as they last a very long time, and add value to your house.
If you can, fix things as soon as problems are apparent. Sometimes it seems much easier to turn a blind eye to the issue. You need to resist the urge to ignore it. Because the various working systems in your home are interconnected, it is easy for problems to spread quickly. Something that may seem minor can cause great damage.
Resist the temptation to use fancy bricks with decorative faces in your next home improvement project. Not only is such brickwork an unnecessary expense, it is rarely as strong and durable as ordinary brick. Decorative bricks are easier to deface, spoiling their aesthetic advantages. Finally, decorative brick styles are rarely produced for long, making it incredibly difficult to find matching replacements for repair work later.
To add style to your walls without spending a lot of money, hang up family photos. While artwork can be costly, picture frames can be picked up on the cheap. Don't feel like you have to pay for a professional photoshoot. Even normal photos shot with a digital camera can look very stylish when framed.
If you frequently read in bed, consider installing a wall-mounted swing-arm or flexible-neck lighting fixture in the bedroom. Unlike overhead lights or bedside lamps, these lights can be easily adjusted to provide just enough light for reading without keeping your bed mate awake with a harsh glow. This will also help you to prevent eye strain from reading in dim light.
A leaky toilet can waste as much as fifty gallons of water in a single day. To determine whether or not your toilet has a hidden leak, remove the lid of the tank and place just a few drops of colored dye into the toilet's tank, but do not flush. If you notice dye seeping into the toilet bowl, this indicates that you do have a leak.
If you find yourself falling in love with a particular pattern of wallpaper but find that it's either out of your price range or not quite durable enough for high-traffic areas, consider buying a roll of it anyway for decorative purposes. You can easily have it matted and framed, or can keep it around the house for smaller, more craft-type projects.
Browse magazines and shops to find good ideas about home improvement projects. You can purchase magazines or books for great tips. Be sure to bring home samples of different colors to help yourself develop a color scheme that you will be happy with. Try to develop an understanding of what you want the finished product to look like, in an effort to personalize your home.
Siding
If you are improving your home to increase its sale value, focus on the important portions first. Trying to renovate the whole home will become overly expensive and provide a diminishing return on investment. Items such as exterior siding, plumbing fixtures, lighting, and kitchen appliances, however, will be universally appealing as you try to sell the home.
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.
Add some curb appeal by adding a couple coats of some high-gloss paint to the shutters and front door of your home. Consider a nice bright blue if you have vinyl siding, or go with a cool color if the facade of your house is fairly dark.
When repainting the exterior of your home, use plastic sheeting and masking tape to avoid getting paint on unwanted surfaces, such as your windows. Use drop cloths to protect your driveway, porch, and shrubs from dripping paint. You will also want to use 3-inch masking tape to protect the trim while you are painting the siding on your house.
To remove green algae from your vinyl siding, mix a few cups of vinegar and a big squirt of dish or laundry detergent into a bucket of hot water. Apply the mixture and scrub with a sponge mop from top to bottom and rinse well with water from a garden hose, sprayer or power washer.
What does the siding on your home look like? Do you have the old asbestos siding that was so prominent decades ago? Maybe you have vinyl siding, and it is starting to fall apart or look dingy. Perhaps you are thinking about bricking your house which is all around the best type of siding. Whatever the case may be, siding your home, while it can be expensive, is one of the best options in improving the value of your home.
An excellent alternative to siding on your home is to replace it with stucco. Stucco comes in a large array of colors and styles and can be versatile and fit your personal tastes perfectly. Stucco is also fire resistant which can be a great selling point down the road if you are trying to move.
When you are replacing your siding with veneer some positive things to keep in mind about that material are the functional advantages to other sidings. The veneers can protect your home quite well from damages, they are very easy to install, and require little to almost no maintenance which is very important.
Updating the outside of your house by repainting the exterior or updating the siding is a very cost value added home improvement. It is one of the most effective ways to increase the sale price of your home. By giving your home an exterior facelift you can instantly add more buying appeal to your home.
Clean the outside of your home with a pressure washer. You can usually rent them for a good price, and they effectively clean dirt and grime off the exterior of a house. Be particularly cautious when approaching windows and the roof line. You want to be sure nothing is knocked loose.
Rather than wait decades to save up the money for a total remodel, why not look for home improvement projects of all sizes and scales? By following the advice in this article, you can discover the joys of making occasional enhancements and upgrades to your home without waiting for a day that may never come.
