The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Melissa Batai. Melissa is a freelance writer who covers topics ranging from personal finance to business to organics to food. She blogs at Mom’s Plans where she shares her family’s journey to healthier living and paying down debt.
We bought a house in August, and while it is a nice house overall, it is 18 years old. There have been no significant renovations, so much of the house is out of date. There is definitely room for improvement.
Here are some of the projects we’d like to tackle:
Replacing Broken and Green Blinds. We bought the house with all the blinds included. After the sale went through, the owners e-mailed and informed us that the large blind in the master bedroom and the blind in the guest room are broken, so they will fall down if you try to open them. (We’d already discovered this with the guest room blind during the home inspection.) The rest of the blinds work fine, but they are a deep hunter green. In some rooms, that color works. In my daughters’ pink and purple room? Not so much.
Lack of Sun Screens. Many houses in Arizona have sun screens on them. These are dark screens that go on the outside of the house and keep out the intense UV rays, protecting items in your home from sun fading, and more importantly, reducing how much the sun can heat up your house. With sun shades, your cooling bill can be reduced substantially. Our house had no sun screens.
Our home had a few other issues too.
Faucet that Hangs to Low Over the Sink. The space from the faucet to the bottom of the kitchen sink measures 10 inches. That means it’s impossible to fill the sink with soapy water to wash and still be able to rinse the dishes. Even without water in the sink, rinsing a large pot is nearly impossible and involves me putting water in my hands to splash the soap off the sides of the pot that I can’t reach.
Pale Pink Kitchen Cabinets. The kitchen cabinets are a pale pink, and the finish is coming off in many places, exposing the wood. It’s ugly, and I would like nothing more than to paint all of the cabinets white. The cabinets also lack hardware, so I’d like to add handles and knobs, too.
Orange and Brown Sponge Painted Living Room. Finally, the living room is sponge painted ala the 1990s decor style in shades of orange and brown. No thanks.
Choosing What Renovations to Make on a Limited Budget
While I would like to make all of the changes to our home at once so I could live in the house I want, that’s not possible thanks to budget constraints.
We’ve created a hierarchy of renovations.
Those That Will Save Us Money
The renovations and improvements that we are making a priority are those that will save us money.
Sun Screens. We had a few hundred dollars available when we first moved in, so we immediately bought sun screens for the five windows that receive the morning and evening sun. Doing so helped keep those rooms cooler and saved us on our electric bill.
We are now saving so that in March, when the temperatures in Arizona ramp up again, we’ll be able to buy solar screens for the three windows that receive the afternoon sun and heat up the master bedroom.
Kitchen Faucet. Water is precious everywhere, but even more so when you live in the desert like we do. Having a kitchen faucet that gives us so little room to manipulate pots and pans underneath it wastes a lot of water. This is another priority repair, though this renovation may have to wait until after we install the sun screens.
Those That Will Increase the Value of the House
Next on our list of renovations are those that will improve the value of the house. (This is important because we know this isn’t our forever home. We will likely move in the next 5 to 7 years to be closer to family.)
Painting the Kitchen Cabinets. Our kitchen has a lot of great features–open concept, huge island, eat-in dining space. However, the cabinets are a real eyesore. We plan to DIY paint the cabinets white and also install knobs and handles on the cupboard doors. Just doing this, assuming we do it well, will increase the value of our home when we get ready to sell it.
Painting the Living Room. Remember that sponge painted living room in desert brown colors? That definitely has to be repainted before we sell. In fact, when we were house hunting and I saw the pictures of the home online, I didn’t even want to look at the property because the living room was so ugly. The sponge painting didn’t look like sponge painting in the picture but rather like some hideous wallpaper. Besides being aesthetically pleasing to us, painting the living room will make the house more marketable in the future.
Those Projects That Will Wait
The Blinds That Fall Down. The guest room is rarely used, so for now, we will leave that blind and not replace it. I do want to replace the blinds in the master bedroom, especially since the window with the broken blind is the one that brings in the most sun light. However, there are only a few months of winter left now, and in the summer we don’t open that blind to help keep the house cool. Therefore, this improvement will wait until at least next winter.
The Green Blinds. I really hate the hunter green blinds, but they’re functional, so they’re at the bottom of our renovation/improvement list.
Renovating and improving your house on a budget requires a great deal of patience, especially when it seems like several projects are important. It also requires discipline, because as much as I know that the sun screens are important, I would much rather have a living room that I like to look at!
Make Those Home Improvements That Increase the Value of Your House First
If you, too, have a list of home improvements you’d like to make, the best bet from a financial stand point is to first make the improvements that increase the value of your house.
In general, these areas offer the most bang for your buck:
- Home systems. These include things like replacing hot water heaters, air conditioning/heating systems, and plumbing. If you can replace the current model with an eco-friendly version without wrecking your budget, you’ll likely get even more value for your money. However, don’t overspend for a “green” system because you won’t recoup that much.
- Kitchens. The kitchen is the heart of the home, so you want to make it as nice as you can. This is one area where you’ll definitely improve your resale value. Minor upgrades like painting the cabinets and installing hardware don’t cost that much money yet can dramatically improve your house’s value.
- Curb appeal. Finally, consider making your home more friendly from the outside. Install outside lights, plant some greenery, consider adding a tree. The front of the home is most important, and first impressions only happen once.
Deciding which home improvement project to tackle first is an individual decision, but financially, consider the one that will most improve the value of your home or will save you the most money.
How about you all? Do you own a home that needs or needed renovations or improvements? If so, how did you decide which project to tackle first?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
