Resolve to complete your home maintenance in 2014
Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2013 7:31 pmNew Year’s resolutions are being written as people look forward to the advent of the new year. Some will resolve to lose weight, others to be nicer to their spouses, and yet others to complete those cleaning projects that just never get done. Make a note to add one more resolution to your list this year: get those home improvement projects done. You know the ones—the time-consuming, expensive, dirty projects that you never seem to have time for. Stop procrastinating and get to planning.
Break it up
Breaking a renovation project up into a number of small pieces will help you get started. Jeb Breithaupt, a writer for Louisiana’s Shreveport Times, suggested a few steps to get you into the home improvement mode. Make a goal for each month of the year, and by the end you could have 12 small projects done or one big project completed.
Complete a repair
January’s goal can be little. Focus on one repair project that’s been bugging you for a while but you’ve never gotten around to. For the do-it-yourselfers, possible projects might be fixing a leaky sink, upgrading a shower head, or replacing a broken faceplate. These small cosmetic things aren’t a big deal, but fixing them can improve your peace of mind and make good first impressions on possible home buyers.
Finish the unfinished projects
Next, look into those unfinished home improvement projects. In my home growing up, that included built in bookshelves my dad never put trim around, a small section of fence that was broken which didn’t get fixed for years, and speaker pipes that ran from room to room downstairs but were never connected with the upstairs. Breithaup said, “There’s no shame in hiring a contractor to finish what you started, especially if your project will never be finished—literally—unless you do.”
Correct an embarrassment
Another possible goal could be correcting something that embarrasses you. Such a project might be big—adding a bedroom or bathroom—or small—replacing that granny wallpaper in the kitchen or the dirty carpet in the living room. Stop dreading visits from friends or out-of-town relatives for fear they’ll judge you or your home. Make your home a place you’re proud of.
Interior Decorating and Remodeling News Brought to You by BaseBoardRadiatorCover.com
Source:
shreveporttimes.com/article/20131226/LIVING/312260011/Jeb-Breithaupt-How-honor-your-resolution-fix-up-your-home?nclick_check=1
Break it up
Breaking a renovation project up into a number of small pieces will help you get started. Jeb Breithaupt, a writer for Louisiana’s Shreveport Times, suggested a few steps to get you into the home improvement mode. Make a goal for each month of the year, and by the end you could have 12 small projects done or one big project completed.
Complete a repair
January’s goal can be little. Focus on one repair project that’s been bugging you for a while but you’ve never gotten around to. For the do-it-yourselfers, possible projects might be fixing a leaky sink, upgrading a shower head, or replacing a broken faceplate. These small cosmetic things aren’t a big deal, but fixing them can improve your peace of mind and make good first impressions on possible home buyers.
Finish the unfinished projects
Next, look into those unfinished home improvement projects. In my home growing up, that included built in bookshelves my dad never put trim around, a small section of fence that was broken which didn’t get fixed for years, and speaker pipes that ran from room to room downstairs but were never connected with the upstairs. Breithaup said, “There’s no shame in hiring a contractor to finish what you started, especially if your project will never be finished—literally—unless you do.”
Correct an embarrassment
Another possible goal could be correcting something that embarrasses you. Such a project might be big—adding a bedroom or bathroom—or small—replacing that granny wallpaper in the kitchen or the dirty carpet in the living room. Stop dreading visits from friends or out-of-town relatives for fear they’ll judge you or your home. Make your home a place you’re proud of.
Interior Decorating and Remodeling News Brought to You by BaseBoardRadiatorCover.com
Source:
shreveporttimes.com/article/20131226/LIVING/312260011/Jeb-Breithaupt-How-honor-your-resolution-fix-up-your-home?nclick_check=1