Image by StockSnap from Pixabay
Most everyone would love to gain some extra room, especially those in small homes with limited space options. Here are three home interior DIY projects to help you maximize your space.
If you’re lacking the room for a home office, transform one of your closets into a mini-office. This is a relatively easy and inexpensive way to give yourself a dedicated workspace.
If you prefer a traditional desk and your closet is wide enough, slide one in and eliminate the need for a deep shelf.
Modern styles are all about minimalism and entertainment centers don’t exactly fit this look. Besides, media consoles take up a ton of floor space. An easy way to reclaim this useful space is to mount your TV to the wall or above a fireplace.
Media consoles were useful before flat-screen TVs became the norm, but most people today can easily get by with a wall-mount and a shelf to hold cable boxes, media players or game consoles. If you need additional storage, add a small table with cabinet space.
Adding window seats to any room eliminates the need for extra seating on the floor, gives a cozy look and offers additional storage space.
Tip: Be sure to avoid positioning your seat over an HVAC vent or baseboard because you don’t block out your heat or A/C.
If you’re working with some tight spaces, you can better utilize it by transforming your existing space.
Photo by SpeedKingz via Shutterstock
Living green is the goal of many young homebuyers. Once in their new home, they want to take steps toward improving their home’s efficiency. The first step to improving your home’s energy efficiency is to choose the right house.
Solar panels and LED light fixtures aside, the most efficient form of housing is an attached home. When your house nestles between the walls of adjoining homes, you share their heating and cooling through ambient temperature exchange. When a home sits above another home, their heat rises in the winter to warm that home. If it’s below another home, it’s cooled by the temperature set by the neighbor above. When energy efficiency remains a high priority for your home location, choose a condominium, townhome or duplex to improve your heating and cooling properties.
If you own a typical single-family, detached home, you’ll find a lot of wasted space being heated and cooled. But address these areas, and you’ll see a marked improvement in your energy consumption and costs:
While they won’t make a drastic different, you will see an improvement in your energy bills.
If your goal is to purchase an energy-efficient home, let your real estate agent know. That way, you won’t waste energy looking at ones that don’t fit your desire to leave a lighter footprint.
When buying an older home, you might wonder how to get more livable space out of that low-ceiling basement. There are two ways to gain height: raise the foundation or lower the floor. Raising the foundation requires lifting the entire home off its current foundation, building a new foundation, and resettling the home. For most homeowners, the sheer number of things that can go wrong with a project of this magnitude makes it an unlikely option. An alternative is bench footing, a method of lowering the floor of the basement that results in a higher ceiling.
Bench footing is a straightforward technique regarded by contractors to be an optimal approach for supporting your building while providing room for more structural support and depth. With bench footing, professional contractors do not need to dig deep into the home’s foundation. Instead, they can lower the basement floor and add structural support from there.
The process is straightforward, but don’t try to do this one yourself: Hire a professional contractor. Bench Footing costs less than other methods because it doesn’t require you to dig underneath the existing footings. Instead, a new floor is dug through the existing basement floor. A new foundation is laid inside the existing one, creating your new basement floor and an additional wall inside your existing basement. It is important to consider that the width of your bench footing is determined by the depth you want to add to your basement. For every foot in depth that you add, you will need about a foot of width for your bench footing. The floor space of the basement will decrease in area by the thickness of the new wall.
The result is a ledge or “bench” all the way around the outer wall of the basement. That’s why they call it Bench Footing. A savvy contractor can make use of the space above the bench by installing cabinets, reading nooks and other built-ins. Others simply inset the entire wall to the new location.
If you need to increase your usable space but you are unable to add another story or extend your home on any side, making better use of your basement is the most valid option. In addition to being less damaging to your existing home, bench footing is less costly to complete and doesn’t change the exterior aesthetic of your home. This is particularly important if your home is in a historic area or has a strict association.
To get the best results with your bench footing, hire a professional contractor with several years of experience and with many positive reviews. Consult with your real estate agent for recommendations for a local contractor who can help you with your project.
Windows have both aesthetic and functional uses in the home. They help the keep the fresh air in the house and the elements out. Windows are also an essential source of security in a home, and poorly secured windows can be dangerous for you. Many people do not plan enough for windows when building or renovating a house. Here are some things that you must consider when selecting windows for your home:
Type and Quality of Materials
The quality of window production materials is critical to note because it plays a vital role in the lifespan of the windows. Windows made from vinyl frames, and high-performance low-E4 thermal glass, are excellent for adding energy efficiency. They possess strength with the ease of vinyl. They're resistant to rot, cracks, and corrosion.
Personal Style
Windows come in many unique styles. When it comes to window selection, there is a wide array of window types for you to choose from for your home. These include styles like classic double-hung and casement windows to a dynamically beautiful bay, bow, or picture windows. Also, you can get specialty windows which are custom built for unusual-sized or shaped openings. No matter the type you desire, be assured that your choice of selection fits your style and convenience.
Cleaning and Housekeeping
You may not consider cleaning windows as a tedious task. Still, it could become so if you have too many windows around the house. While making selections, ensure that windows you choose have features like tilt-in sashes and easy-to-operate handles. These are standard accessories you should find on most double-hung, sliding, casement, and specialty replacement windows. They also make windows easier to clean.
Contractor Installation
If the contractor in charge of the job does not install your windows correctly, the window might likely not look the way you want. If you choose your windows and the contractor carefully, then it's a sure bet that you'll be satisfied with your purchase even after many years.
You can go to the local home hardware store to look at the many styles available, ask questions, and also ask for information about contractors and window installers. You may also be able to buy directly from the manufacturer and save some money depending on the quantity you are buying. You also get to know first-hand what you are buying and how to get the best out of it.
Are you a procrastinator? If so, you're not alone! It's human nature to postpone tasks which you consider to be boring or unpleasant. However, it's also frustrating when you're making little or no headway on a project you know needs to get done ASAP.
Whether it's cleaning out the basement, painting a bedroom, or pruning those overgrown shrubs in front of the house, it can sometimes take a lot of resolve to get the project underway and completed! In most cases, the longer you wait, the harder it is to get started.
Perhaps Isaac Newton's First Law of Motion explains why it's so difficult to start a project and stick with it: He stated that “A body at rest will remain at rest, and a body in motion will remain in motion unless it is acted upon by an external force.”*
Motivating Yourself to Get Started
So the question is: What kind of "external forces" do we need to overcome procrastination? After all, those closets aren't going to clean themselves! Well, the following techniques aren't rocket science, but they can produce the psychological nudge you may require to get that home project started and wrapped up.
