Articles Tagged "Home Affordability"

When you're first settling into a new place, you may not want a lot of projects on your plate, but a few carefully chosen DIY projects can help your new house feel like home. Here are a few quick and relatively easy projects our real estate agents recommend for helping you feel at home.

• Paint the front door.
  Especially if your new home hasn't seen a coat of paint in some time, painting the front door can make a huge impact on how it looks and make it feel a little more like yours, even if you don't have the time, money, or bandwidth to paint the whole home just yet. Consider painting it a fun new color, such as red, green, or blue, as it will liven up the look of your house. Remember, Bradenton homes for sale and Sarasota homes for sale are often painted in neutral color schemes so as not to turn off potential buyers, so repainting that door can add a little of your personality to your new home.
  
  
• Update your house number.
  While you're painting that front door, consider updating your house number as well. It's not unusual for homes to have small, outdated house numbers that are hard to see, so make sure whatever you choose is well lit and large enough to be easily seen from the street. Choosing more modern-looking numbers and changing how they're mounted will also give your home a more updated look, even if that (and painting the front door) is all you do.
  
  
• Hang string lights.
  Want to make your outdoor living spaces in your new home both cozy and cool? Hang string lights from your patio or porch roof, or use them to brighten a gazebo or pergola. Even if you don't have a roof or fence to hang them from, you can make your own planter posts for hanging lights using wooden barrel planters.
  
  
• Modernize your popcorn ceiling.
  Nothing dates a house faster than a popcorn ceiling. They're not only unsightly, but they're also a magnet for cobwebs and dust. Fortunately, they're easily removed with a drywall knife, a shop vac, and a fresh coat of paint afterward. Remember that some popcorn ceilings could contain lead or asbestos, though, and have your ceiling tested before tackling it as a DIY-er, especially if your home was built before 1979.
  
  
• Replace kitchen hardware.
  An easy way to make your kitchen feel more like home is to update the kitchen hardware to something more in line with your tastes. Swapping out cabinet hardware is fairly easy and can be done in an hour or two unless you choose to repaint the cabinets while the hardware is off. The hardware store offers a variety of options, so there's sure to be something that suits your tastes, whether they are traditional or modern, classic or funky.
  
  
• Paint the kitchen cabinets.
  While you have that cabinet hardware off, think about whether you'd like a whole new look in your kitchen. Painting the cabinets is usually a fairly fast job compared to repainting the rest of the house and uses considerably less paint. That being said, it's also a project that yields big results for its relatively small investment, as changing the color of your cabinets can make your kitchen look like an entirely different room.

Little DIY projects like these are a fun way to help you settle in and improve your new home, but it's important to find the right house to start with. Contact us today and let us help you find your dream home.