Roadmap to Home Renovation
Unless your house is brand new, you have probably worked on some home renovations recently. And depending on the age of your place, your to-do list might be an ongoing balancing act of what you’d like to upgrade and what simply must have your attention first.
Remodeling can be very specific endeavors, designed to change the functionality of your house in some way or another – like a couple turning a storage area into a nursery, or a middle-aged family making room for a mother-in-law’s suite.
Unfortunately though, some projects are born of nothing but tired old fixtures and worn-out furnishings that need to be replaced. These are not the design-inspired updates that get us excited, but plumbing and leaky roofs need our attention too and these general improvements still fall under home renovations.
Often too, the need to fix is a response to our changing lifestyles and the minimum standards we have come to expect our homes to provide. When your house was built, people did things differently than we do them today. Homes were built to suit timely needs, so a generation gap of usefulness emerges as homes get older.
Target These Areas
If you live in an unmodified early-century home, telltale signs of past habits confront you every day. Why are the closets so small? It’s true, people and their clothes were a bit smaller back then, but the answer says more about you than it does about them. You simply have a lot more clothes than the folks who built your house – the closet sizes were fine for them, but not for you.
Outdated kitchens exhibit workmanlike sensibilities of domestic days past, with minimalistic layouts that allow for basic food-prep. Modern people expect their kitchens to be more than just places to bake the day’s bread. We want to gather there socially, and connect our food to the memories we create with friends and family. To that end, modern kitchens must be bigger, more open and equipped with seating when possible.
To facilitate our changing needs, home renovations keep our living spaces up to speed with technology and social trends. Home offices are a product of changing times that have more people working from home than ever before. Offices were not standard architectural features of houses built before the late 20th century, so home renovations are the only way to create workspace within your house.
Bathrooms are primary targets for home improvements. Porcelain tile lasts forever, which is a good thing – unless it’s a 1950′s remnant of glossy pink that doesn’t suit modern tastes. Victorians used to call bathrooms ‘water closets’, which sums up the renovation needs for turn of the century bathrooms.
Updates are Renovations That Make Sense
Budget and other considerations drive your home renovation strategies. Where to sink your dollars, when you have the choice, can be a difficult decision. A pragmatic approach keeps you on track when your resources are limited.
In bathrooms, tiling the floor and shower surround are must-do features of your makeover effort. Replacing worn fixtures like the vanity, shower and commode is a reasonable approach to modernizing. Once you are tiled and sporting new bathroom fixtures, there is little else to do beyond paint and decoration.
Your bathroom project will most likely include some plumbing updates, and the scope of your project might include expanding its size, but even minor modernization goes a long way.
Expect to upgrade your plumbing for kitchen renovation projects, and to add features that are consistent with modern lifestyles. Durable flooring and countertops are ready for heavy traffic and provide easy to clean surfaces.
Cabinetry is the signature feature of your kitchen design, and represents your largest budget entry. Custom options address dishwashers and other modern conveniences, while integrating storage space into the floor plan. Increased counter space is a highly sought kitchen upgrade that reflects the modern approach to cooking.
Beyond the kitchen and bath, home renovation projects might include taking out walls, or just adding a couple coats of paint. Whether you are building an addition onto your house or just bringing it up to date with some general improvements, renovations add value and appeal to your home.
