Your home is a valuable place. It’s valuable to your family, to your community, and to prospective buyers. You might decide to tackle a home renovation so that you can add enjoyment to your everyday life. At the same time, you probably also have home value in the back of your mind as well.

Many home renovations not only make your life more comfortable, they also increase the value of your home for future buyers. Consider the following renovation tips and ideas…

1. Add More Space 

Even if you can’t actually add to your house, you can create the feeling of more space. If your home has many tiny rooms and hallways, see if you can open these up to create larger living spaces. Remove some of the clutter from your home and take a page from the tiny house movement, develop hidden storage spaces and living areas that fold away when they’re not in use. For example, if you’d like a breakfast bar but you don’t have a lot of space in your kitchen, consider adding one that folds in and out every morning. 

You can also convert a smaller office space or den into another bedroom by adding a closet area, increasing the total number of bedrooms in your home.

2. Make it Tidy 

Even if you don’t have the funds for a complete kitchen or bathroom remodel, you can improve these spaces with paint and new fixtures. For example, if the kitchen faucet is older and leaking, replace it with a newer model. If the bathroom floor is cracked, consider replacing only the floor. This feeling of tidiness and completion will not only add value to your everyday life in your home – it will add value for buyers.

3. Add More Light 

Adding a small window, skylight, or even an updated light fixture adds the pleasure of additional light to a room. Bankrate suggests that “if you have boring recessed lights in your dining and living rooms, consider replacing one of the room’s lights with an eye-catching chandelier.” 

4. Green Your Home 

According to This Old House, if you’re going to update your home, “do the update green, because everyone is now, for the first time in five years, asking about the utilities.” Greening your home not only saves energy, it also makes your home healthier and more comfortable. Consider making the following updates to your home: 

• Repaint using low-VOC paints
• Add solar heating for the pool 
• Add solar panels if they make sense for your climate 
• Insulate the attic 
• Invest in better heating and cooling systems
• Add energy-efficient windows 
• Replace bulbs with LEDs
• Add an outdoor water system such as a rain barrel or rain garden connected to your seamless gutters 

5. Fix Up the Little Things 

Whether you’re managing your home for the long term or you’ve decided to sell, doing small maintenance tasks doesn’t involve a lot of money, but it definitely pays off. You’ll reduce your own stress and increase your home value. Buyers will look at your home and see projects that are complete rather than work that they need to do. What should you fix up around the house? 

• Clean your gutters 
• Mow and weed the lawn – or replace it with something lower-maintenance 
• Install storm doors 
• Repair leaky windows 
• Fix the plumbing

6. Prevent Future Work 

To add value to your home now and in the future, invest in an ounce of prevention. For example, by adding gutter covers to your seamless gutters, you prevent your gutters from clogging and overflowing. You don’t need to clean them, and you won’t suffer the damage experienced from overflowing gutters. How else can you prevent work around the home? 

• Make sure that the landscaping moves water away from the house 
• Inspect your basement for cracks, and repair them before major problems develop
• Look for attic leaks, and add a gutter heating system to prevent ice dams or repair or replace the roof
• Keep an eye out for small plumbing problems that could become large 

7. Develop Easy Transitions 

What do you value most about your home? Is it the pile of clutter by the front door? If you have a busy family, it’s likely that you have transition zones of your house that are more prone to being cluttered. Reduce your stress by adding storage to those areas or developing transitional spaces, such as converting part of your entryway into a mudroom.

8. Clean Up Outdoors 

Simple actions that you take outdoors can have big results when it comes to maintaining and adding to the value of your home. 

• Prune and trim trees and bushes to reduce future maintenance and make them look neat 
• Add a shed or other storage spaces to make your outdoor living space tidy 
• If you want a contained space to entertain or play, add a deck to your home 
• Add low-maintenance seasonal planters instead of adding new garden beds 
• Reduce the amount of lawn you have if you don’t enjoy mowing it

9. Improve Your Home Air Quality 

A home that smells good and keeps your family healthy is a home that’s valuable to your family’s wellbeing. How can you improve the air quality in your home? 

• Add appliances, furniture, flooring, and paint that are more natural and don’t send out harsh chemicals 
• Replace old carpets with flooring such as hardwood
• Add air-purifying plants such as pothos to your indoor spaces 
• Improve your ventilation by adding an air purification system or new windows  
• Clean out your furnace filters

10. Get Extra Help 

If you’re struggling to keep your home clean or make it look a little better, talk with a maintenance or interior design professional. In a short amount of time, these professionals can give you insight into ways to make your home look and work better. Their small suggestions can add a lot to your quality of life and to the sale value of your home. 

At Harry Helmet, we don’t want you to trudge through a dreaded renovation. We want you to enhance your space and increase the value of your home. If you’re considering making your life easier by adding gutter covers or seamless gutters to your home, contact Harry Helmet to schedule a free estimate today.

Written by Del Thebaud