Simple, budget friendly renovation strategies and advice to help transform your home. You may be astonished by the impact small changes can make.
Cleanliness is Essential
The first step is to clean thoroughly. A detailed cleaning can greatly transform your space. From gleaming windows to soap-scum-free showers, a little effort can rejuvenate your home. Additionally, this is an excellent opportunity to de-clutter, as excessive mess can detract from the homes character, making it unappealing or unwelcoming.
Refresh Your Walls
Next, address the condition of your walls. If they are marked with holes, scuffs, or feature outdated colours, it is time for renewal. Patching and repainting the walls is a relatively small investment when undertaken independently and yields remarkable improvements. If you lack the time or expertise, at least use a magic eraser to remove marks.
Elevate Your Window Furnishings
Window treatments should not be an afterthought solely for functionality. The right window furnishings can substantially improve your home. Replace flimsy blinds or stained curtains with elegant shutters, seamless roller blinds, decorative Roman blinds, or luxurious curtains.
Swap Out Your Hardware
Another minor yet impactful change is updating your hardware. Replacing door handles, kitchen cabinet knobs, and even tapware, can be accomplished on a budget and easily installed over a weekend.
Replace Your Lighting Fixtures
If your lighting consists of exposed bulbs hanging from the ceiling, consider an upgrade. Lighting significantly influences the overall style and ambiance of a space. Unattractive fixtures can detract from the room’s appeal, even when turned off. Affordable lighting solutions are abundant, and additional illumination can be introduced through lamps and sconces.
Add Personal Touches
Even if preparing your home for sale, do not hesitate to infuse personal style into the decor. Prospective buyers appreciate a vibrant, lived-in home as it helps them envision their own enjoyment and memories within the space. Incorporate art, seek out thrifted or discounted décor, and add plants to introduce unique style elements.
Infuse personal style into the decor
Engage Licensed/Qualified Trades-people
Many people opt to ‘DIY’ – do it themselves when renovating rather than engage a trades-person to conduct the work on their behalf; the main reason for this is to save money, however, depending on the scope of work required, it may prove mandatory to engage a qualified person, particularly if electrical, plumbing, waterproofing, or structural work is required.
Additionally, some critical finishing aspects of the renovation such as ceramic tiling, may require a specific skill-set to ensure that both the functional practicality and aesthetic outcomes you desire can be achieved.
In some instances opting for a DIY approach can be a false economy if the work conducted results in failure or substandard quality, and then has to be rectified or scrapped completely and re-done by a professional…
When engaging a trades-person, always make sure that they are qualified to conduct the required scope of work and licensed,where licensing is required. – Importantly, ensure that they have appropriate insurances and that these are current. Also ask for references, so that you can gauge the quality of their work and reliability.
Remember a licence does not guarantee a quality job, or a project finished in a timely manner; however it does give the home owner assurance and help if something goes wrong.
Licensing and insurance requirements have been put in place to protect the consumer. – A trade license is also evidence that the contractor has as a minimum, passed the state exam to show that they know enough about business and building practice to conduct the scope of work required.
Avoid Off-the-Books/Cash-in-Hand Arrangements
Avoid off-the-books, cash-in-hand arrangements when engaging trades-people; put simply, it is illegal for a trades-person to receive payment for work and not declare it as income to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), and there are important insurance and legal implications that the consumer should be aware of before ever contemplating this. – Remember what you’re really gambling with… sure you could end up saving a few hundred dollars… but it’s just not worth the risk!…
Tile Installation Performed by Qualified, Licensed Tiling Contractors