Making improvements to your home doesn’t have to be expensive. If you are creative about it, you can find ways to transform the look and feel of your home even on a limited budget. Here are some home improvement tips that will help you save money!
Spruce Up the Front of Your Home
Image Credit: Jisc infoNet
The first things people see before they even enter your home are your front yard, porch and door. Making improvements in these areas can greatly increase your home’s curb appeal and it doesn’t have to be costly.
Simply painting your front door can make a big difference. If the hardware on the door is worn out, get a new doorknob. Clean up the porch and make sure all the light fixtures are working. If the numbers for your address are looking faded, replace these.
Renovate the Kitchen
The kitchen is widely considered to be the most important room in a house. It’s used by everyone, and companies often congregates there. Making some updates there can be a good investment, and it’s possible to do it frugally.
Replacing your kitchen cabinets is expensive, but you can make upgrades by making a few small changes. Putting in new hardware on your cabinets along with a paint job will make them look new.
Improve Your Home’s Lighting
Light has a dramatic effect in any home. This includes both natural light that enters through your windows and artificial light. One innovative way to get more natural light is to get a skylight tube kit and install it in your kitchen, living room or hallway. These are not difficult to install and they will brighten up a room with sunlight.
You can often transform a room with the right use of lighting. Make sure the lighting is not too bright. Experiment with different lighting arrangements and be aware of the effect. Dimmers are useful in any room, as they allow you to control the amount of light for different occasions.
How to Save on Building Materials
You can save quite a bit on your materials if you get them from a Habitat For Humanity ReStore or other such source. These salvaged materials can be bought at half the price of new materials, and they are fine for any task you might have in mind. The only reason you might not want to do this is if you are hiring a licensed contractor to do the work. In this case, the contractor may not want to work with such materials. For DIY jobs, however, they are a great way to get cheap supplies.
Another option is to buy building supplies at an auction. Provided that you can find a building supply auction in your area, you never know what you might be able to pick up at a bargain price.
Pick Up Your Own Materials
Part of the cost of building supplies is getting them delivered –unless you pick them up yourself. If you don’t have a pickup truck, you may not think this is practical. However, it can be more economical to purchase a utility trailer and hook it up to your SUV than to keep paying delivery charges. Utility trailers are easy to find online, and this is a purchase that can very quickly pay for itself.
Author Bio: Derek is blogging for Nationwide Windows, a home improvement company located in New Jersey. He loves to blog about home improvement, renovation tips, and weekend projects he does on the weekends.
These are some great tips, and I appreciate your advice to change the lighting of your home. I’ve been wanting to update the light fixtures in my living room for a while now, but the electrical work won’t allow for what I want. I’ll definitely look into hiring an electrician to update the electrical work so I can adjust the living room’s lighting to improve its appearance. Thanks for the great post!