All homes could use an upgrade from time to time. Be it just a simple home or the most high-end one, they could all do with a tweak or two. That said, if you’ve been mulling over the idea of revamping your home to either give it a new look, enhance some already existing elements or to just enjoy the remodeling process, we hope that you’ll be satisfied with these upgrades. We guarantee that by the time you’re done with these upgrades, your house’s overall character will improve drastically.
Upgrade Your Backyard
We can’t stress this enough, a home’s backyard is akin to a home’s back-bone (pun intended). It’ll ideally make or break the overall feel of your home. The best homes on the market today boast a beautiful and robust backyard filled with tidbits of the owner’s personality. For instance, you’ll find that most nature lovers will have a beautiful collection of flowers in a part of their backyards. On the other hand, you’ll find that most antique lovers will have a trinket or two conveniently displayed in their backyards. Yours should be no different after fiddling with these upgrades, especially the backyard improvement one.
While the above is applicable, a backyard’s sole purpose is to act as a spill-over space for the lounge or dining area. Imagine the idea of having well-cooked family meals in the backyard after you get bored by eating your meals from the inside. Dreamy, right? If this novelty entices you, consider adding a backyard as an extension to your living room or dining room. To do this, you’ll need to make an allowance for sliding doors between the two spaces. This will be to facilitate the flow of the rooms and the new yard.
Protect Your Home
Your home is your sanctuary, and as such, it needs proper protection to live up to that expectation. You can’t have a sanctuary that doesn’t protect you from the weather elements. For this reason, you should ensure that your home is not affected by extreme weather conditions like rainfall or too much heat. The latter can be fixed using ideal insulation materials available on the market. The former, on the other hand, might need some additional measures to ensure that not only is your home protected from a downpour but that the rainwater collected is rightfully channeled to storage tanks.
The correct rainwater collection methods will protect your home from not only the periodic uncalled-for splashes on your home, but they’ll also ensure that your water is well-preserved for future use in your home. This simple water collection task should ideally be left to gutter installers. It shouldn’t take up your mental space. Experienced gutter installers will calculate the sizes of the gutters that’ll mesh well with your existing roof and are better placed to gauge which sizes of gutters will best fit your locality. This is because places with more regular downpours will need bigger and stronger gutters compared to the ones with minimal rainfall.
Perfect Your Landscaping
The common theme with these upgrades is that they ought to take your home to the next level, not a mere basic level. This is why you’ll need to not only improve your landscaping but to improve it to perfection. What this means is, if you don’t have the said skills in landscaping, either take time to take some classes or conduct some thorough research on the same. This will not only go a long way towards making sure your landscaping is top-notch, but it’ll prevent you from going through landscaping pitfalls that you could have avoided from the onset. For instance, nothing screams novice like planting drought-resistant crops in a place that often gets a lot of rainfall.
When you’re done with your classes, consider going a step further and going under the tutelage of your local landscape supplier. This is because he or she will be best versed in the plants that do well in your specific location. They’ll also know what’s locally available and that’ll serve your needs best. For example, they might know that your area is prone to mosquito infestations and this will lead them to suggest that you use mosquito-repelling plants for your landscaping project. If you don’t have a landscape supplier near you, look for a mulch shop near you instead. It’ll serve the same purpose.
Put in Modern Touches
The projected end goal of interacting with these upgrades is to not only know and implement them but to also enjoy the final outcome afterward. All this while still keeping the costs at a minimum and being in tune with current modern trends in home design. For this reason, you should put in modern touches whenever possible and applicable. Modern is synonymous with lighting. This is why it’s very rare that you’ll find new modern homes or malls that haven’t gone wild with the lighting fixtures. This same concept should apply to your home. Modernize it with lights.
To make use of lights to bring out a modern look is not as easy as you may deem it to be. For one, there are different types of lighting fixtures, and they all have other uses separate from lighting up your home. Lights can be playfully used to set the mood of a space. For instance, white lights will have the effect of keeping members on alert, whereas warm white will give the room some warmth and comfort. This capability is what should guide you on exactly where to place different light types.
Something else that you should consider with these upgrades is their energy consumption. Moreso when dealing with items with recurrent power usage like lights. They’ll be used on a daily basis when you are around, and some will still have utility in your absence. For instance, your outdoor security lights should always be on whether you’re at home or not. For this reason, try to integrate alternative energy alongside your electrical energy to keep your electrical bills manageable. To do this, consider incorporating a solar panel to light up some of the lights that run on the entire night, like the security lights we’ve just mentioned.
Update Your Exterior
While putting up the modern touches on your exteriors, why not go the whole hog and update your entire home exterior as well? The issue with these upgrades listed here is that doing them partially and not as a whole will have the opposite effect from what was initially intended. For instance, putting up exterior lights will add warmth and uplift your home’s moods, but it’ll also go further and illuminate the mistakes, whether real or perceived, around you. So, if there’s something in your exterior you’d rather be kept in the shadows, perhaps it’s better to have it spruced up and well displayed.
For instance, if you’ve had your roof for a long time and it’s started to show signs of fading or it has leaks. Instead of wishing the problem away, consider having it repaired or replaced altogether. For this, look for a roof company with a proven track record and good purchase rates. Once you’ve engaged them, have them do a sample first, so you get an inkling of their abilities and also get a glimpse of what your finished roof will look like. There have been instances where a homeowner purchased a roof only to absolutely hate it once it was put up. Take the necessary steps to avoid such an occurrence.
Pick New Appliances
Old appliances are a dead giveaway whether a home is modern or not. This means you should consider replacing your old appliances with new ones. The appliances that have been going through a lot of positive tweaks in the last few years are mostly washing machines and fridges. So, if yours are an old model, you’ll do with new appliances that will offer you peak performance and appealing aesthetics and also leave your visitors wowed and envious. Strive to go toe to toe with these upgrades to ensure you keep up with the latest trends.
If, however, keeping up with the Joneses is not up there on your priorities list, you can weigh if your existing appliances can serve you for a longer period of time after they undergo minor repairs. For instance, if your refrigerator is high-end, just slightly outdated, and has been working properly, but the noise it occasionally makes irks you, it would be more favorable to opt for refrigerator repair services than to get a brand-new fridge that’ll give you a similar discomfort in the future.
Make Your Home High-Tech
It should go without saying that no home should exist without having internet connectivity in this day and age. So if, for one reason or another, you haven’t installed internet in your home, you should drop everything and call an internet provider as soon as you possibly can. Having a steady internet connection will ensure that your home is the haven that it should be. It’ll enrich you with endless entertainment and educative platforms that will not only make your world richer but also that of everyone else in your entire household.
Internet providers are often readily available in most parts of the world. The benefit of competition is that customers are able to get the best offers available. So, to get the best package deals, engage at least five and work with the one that’ll give you the most value in terms of internet speed and monthly costs. The good thing with these upgrades mentioned here is they fit all needs and budgets across the board. You’ll most likely be spoilt for choice.
Use Unique Textures and Supplies
While minimalism is a trend that’s been catching on in the past few years, there’s nothing that can quite replace the warmth, character, and harmony that adding textures will bring to your home. This is why you should make use of unique textures and supplies whenever you can. The thing to note with these upgrades, however, is that they’ll need proper and meticulous thought prior to having them incorporated. To start with, you’ll need to know the intended purpose of each texture you intend to use. For instance, if you would love to add texture to your bathroom or kitchen walls, you’ll need to consider a few factors. For one reason, the intended wall finish should not only provide you with the texture you desire, but it should also be waterproof, as both of those spaces are wet areas.
The above scenario will call for stucco remodeling as stucco is a flat wall finish that not only boasts a rich texture but it can also be waterproofed by applying a special wax after it has dried up. On the other hand, if the desired effect you are looking for is to create warmth in a room, or even if your intended purpose is to create a feature wall in the same room, you can opt to go for cedar lumber cladding on the space. The atmosphere that the lumber will create is bound to have a very distinguished and lasting effect on the said room. Moreover, the wood and cedar will add an unmatched touch of class to the room.
If making the distinction between one texture and the other, and even knowing what texture creates which effect sounds like gibberish to you, do not despair with these upgrades. Instead, leave the task to people who have not only studied in that particular field but also the ones who eat and breathe home interiors. These interior designers will only need a few pointers to understand your overall vision for your house and then undertake the intricacies of making your dreams come into reality.
If you are well pleased and inspired by these upgrades listed above, then you shouldn’t let time pass by before you implement them. To start off, pick the ones that are most applicable to you, then list them in order of priority. Once that’s done, make a list of all the items that you’ll need to purchase for each individual item. Afterward, allocate a budget for each item, then start the implementation as soon as you can.