Summer is the perfect time to work around your home, and you might as well spend it doing projects that also increase the value of your house. Some renovations will cost you a lot of money, but at the same time they will add the most value to you home. Rogue Real Estate Sales & Property Management suggests you start small if you don’t have enough money, and later continue with bigger projects. We’ve put together our list of seven favorite home improvement projects for the hot months of summer that add value at the same time and won’t cost you a fortune.
Build and Install Shutters
One of the best and simplest ways to increase the value of your home is to add to your curb appeal. This is the impression people get when the pull up to your curb, and it mostly has to do with your front yard and home exterior. Small updates can have big impacts to your home’s value.
Installing shutters to your exterior windows is an extra touch that adds elegance and sophistication. And, depending on the style you opt for, they a really easy to build. You’ll just need wood, a high quality jigsaw for cutting, and a paint or seal.
Paint Your Front Door
Painting your front door is another simple way to increase your curb appeal. The front door acts as a statement piece for your house, adding style to what is often times an otherwise difficult canvas to be stylish on.
Its both trendy and fashion forward to paint your front door a bright color, such as a fire engine red or sunshine yellow. Since the door is relatively small compared to the entire façade of the home, the pop of color adds a lot without being overwhelming.
Seal Your Wood Deck
Decks and other wood structures at your home are valuable assets, but left outside on their own, they will wear away over time. Unsealed decks attract termites, which you’ll most certainly get dinged on when you try to sell your home.
Spend a day sealing any and all exterior surfaces that are wood, especially a deck that gets a lot of traffic. Preserve your investment so that it will give your home maximum value when it comes time to sell.
Insulate Water Pipes
As water pipes carry water away from your hot water heater and throughout your home, any spot they are exposed to the outdoors causes them to loose a lot of heat in the winter. That’s money you end up spending on your utility bill, but its simple to prevent.
Go around your home in the summer when the weather is warm and assess all of the pipes that are exposed to the exterior. If they are hot water pipes, pick up some foam sleeves to go over them. During the winter, this will protect your pipes from losing valuable heat.
Add Baseboard and Crown Molding
Both baseboard and crown molding are treasured commodities in a home, and elevate the look and feel of any house. Installing them is not overly difficult, although it can be time consuming depending on how large your home is.
Baseboards are much easier because they are on the ground and the angles are simpler, and adding these might be plenty. If you have higher ceilings, consider also installing crown molding as a separate project.
Assemble an Outdoor Bar
Summer time is for hosting and hanging outside, and what better way to upgrade your hosting space than with an outdoor bar. Buyers will pay a premium for finished outdoor space, and a bar is a fantastic way to separate your home from others and command a premium.
Outdoor bars can range from simple pallet wood construction pieces to built in, concrete structures. Determine what your budget and tastes are before starting.
Add Exterior Lighting
Back to curb appeal, exterior lighting a great way to create an ambiance in your yard, while simultaneously increasing its functionality at night. Nowadays, lighting is a lot easier to install because you don’t need tricky wires run all over your yard. Solar lighting makes it possible to drop lights in wherever you prefer, and rely on daily sunlight for powering them.
