The ultimate guide for upgrading your house in 2022

house upgrade remodelling

The house you live in is a direct representation of the kind of person you are. In this day and age, everything a person owns or does is under scrutiny. From the shoes you wear to the briefcase you carry, everyone is making assumptions about you based on these factors and more. Likewise, every time someone enters your house, they are evaluating you based on the condition of the house. That is why it is extremely important for you to keep your house up to date at all times. Since your house is a direct extension of you, you need to make sure that your house is not outdated. That does not mean that you need to make enormous changes in your house at the turn of every decade. It just means that you need to make sure that your house is not in a condition that could embarrass you in front of your friends, family, and neighbors.

Besides just making a good impression in front of people, you need to upgrade your house so that when the eventual time comes when you want to sell your house, you can get a good value for it. Think of it this way. If you have the option of buying a house that is nice but has not yet kept up with the times and a house that is equipped with all the latest offerings, you would obviously go for the house that has been recently upgraded.

You never know when the time might arise when you might need to part ways with your house so you need to make sure that your house is in tip-top condition at all times. Houses that have kept up with the times have been known to sell out more quickly at higher rates than houses that don’t stay up to date.

Home Remodelling Tips: Ways to Upgrade your Home

So here are some ways through which you can upgrade your house in 2020:

Create more livable space in your home

One grave mistake that people often do while creating their homes is that they do not fully utilize all the square footage available to them. Square footage is one of the most important buying factors for a home and it needs to be utilized to its full potential. When you buy a house, you are paying for the square footage, so it’s important that you utilize it down to its very last meter. If you feel like your house is cramped and physically increasing the area of the house is not an option, you can create more living space instead.

One way to do that would be to change the floor plan of the house. By changing the plan and moving things around, you can completely change the amount of livable space in your home. You can remove drywalls from places they do not belong to. You can buy more minimalistic furniture to give the illusion of more space. Browse through any interior decoration magazine or such and you will find that the days of big and bulky furniture are behind us. In today’s time, everyone is looking for more minimalistic furniture options that can serve as good decor for the room without taking too much space in it.

You also need to put away all the things that have no use being in your room. Create a storage space to store all that stuff that is taking up extra room in your house without adding anything of value to it. Or if you do not want to dedicate any extra space in your house to all that junk, just store it in a place like a storage locker.

Replace your curtains with roller blinds

If you want to give a modern and classic look to any room in your house, one way to do that would be to do away with the usual curtains. The best alternative to normal curtains would be roller blinds. Roller blinds can change the whole look of the room by making it look chicer and put together. The great thing about roller blinds is that you can totally customize them any way you want to. You can go with a classic monochrome color with a metallic finish if you want to keep it chic or get blinds with patterns and kitschy colors on them if you want to make it artsier.  If you are dealing with a space situation, then curtains will definitely put you at a disadvantage. Since curtains are so big and bulky, they can automatically make any room feel smaller with their presence.

Furthermore, if you live in a house with children or pets, you know how much nuisance curtains are. Children often view them as playthings and get tangled in them, bringing down the whole frame by putting too much pressure on them. By replacing your curtains with roller blinds, you are not only making your space more modernized but you are also making it safer. Installing roller blinds are a great way to create an impact on a room’s aesthetic for the better without spending too much money on it.

With roller blinds, you can adjust the amount of lighting that you want to enter the room or keep out of the room. You are also getting easier to clean alternative to curtains as the maintenance of roller blinds is super easy as compared to the maintenance of curtains.

Make your house more energy efficient

Switching to alternative sources of energy not only helps you save money but also helps you increase the value of your house. After all, who would not want to purchase a home that helps them save so much money? In this day and age, energy efficiency is a high scale priority for people who are looking to purchase homes.

One way to make your home energy efficient would be to switch to solar panels to generate electricity for your homes. While it may seem that the cost of installing solar panels is a bit steep, think of all the money you might save with reduced electricity costs. Another way to utilize electricity would be to replace all the current lighting fixtures in your home with LED lighting. If you live in an area where the climate remains pleasant through most of the year, then you can also invest in creating entry points for natural lighting in your house. After all, what could beat the sun’s light?

One way to do this would be to install skylights and sky shelves inside the house so that natural light has a way to enter the house and you can control how much of the light you want to enter. Installing tankless water heaters would also be a good option for you to switch to energy efficiency. Tankless water heaters produce hot water on demand, thus they conserve electricity while still making sure that you get all the hot water you need.

The issue with standby water heaters is that they use up a lot of energy I making sure that there is hot water available 24×7 even when you have no need for hot water.

Upgrade your kitchen

Kitchens are an extremely important part of any house. More than any other room in the house, kitchens need to be upgraded at all costs. No one wants to buy a house or live in a house where people are still using wood stoves to get their work done. Upgrading your kitchen does not mean painting your countertops or adding fancy knobs to all doors, it means equipping it with the latest technology.

You can add different types of things to your kitchens but some essentials include a dishwasher and garbage disposal. Not only will these two gadgets make you feel inherently easier but they will also help you sell your house to more tech-savvy clients who want to see modern tech advancements in every part of their household. A dishwasher will not only be an asset to your house, but it will also be an asset to you as well. Just imagine the feeling of not getting your hands dirty with the grime of other people’s leftovers. You would be able to just load the dishwasher and be done with it.

That’s not to say you cannot invest in little Knick knacks to increase the aesthetic value of your kitchen. You can get the cabinets repainted or get scones put in to make sure that your kitchen looks like it has just been remodeled.

Another way to make sure that the kitchen looks like it’s in the best shape is through making sure that the floor has been polished to the point of being flawless. Kitchen floors are always neglected and end up being more stained and full of grime than floors in other rooms of the house.

Make sure the outdoors is as appealing as the indoors

When someone enters your house, the outdoor space is the first thing they see. It doesn’t matter how great your house is from the inside when the first impression that people get of your house is a backyard full of trash. Even if you do not want to spend exuberant amounts of money on sprucing up your backyard, the least you can do is clean it up. In an era, where free space is such an important commodity, you are wasting your space if you are letting your backyard be just an empty plot. There is a multitude of different things you can do with extra outdoor space.

Adding a deck to your house means not only utilizing the space you have been given but also creating an area to relax and chill. Imagine a space where you are basking in the afternoon sun and where you can get all your reading done. Or space where you can barbecue some ribs with your closest friends. The possibilities for transforming your extra outdoor space into something useful are endless. You can even transform your backyard into a cute playing space for your pets and children by adding plastic slides and swings. Or if your children are more grown-up, then you can add bean bags and standalone shelves for your children to utilize as they seem fit.

Another fun option would be to add a trampoline there. The best thing about a trampoline is the fact that it can be enjoyed by people of all ages. From children to adults, everyone can derive joy and fun from a trampoline.

Add a splash of color with new paints

One of the best ways to reinvent your home without drastically changing the interior is through painting it. Gone are the days when the only options available for decorating and painting your home were muted colors. Now you can go crazy with any color or design that you want. With such a wide range of options available in the market, you can choose a design that can be uniquely yours. The possibilities for dressing up your home are endless.

This is one job that you can even do yourself if you want to save money and you have an artistic flair. The walls are your canvas and you can go as crazy with them as you want. The more kitschy your walls are, the more people are going to be curious about them and talk about them. Furthermore, a new paint job will help you hide all the imperfections that you want to keep hidden like crayons scrawling’s by children or burn marks. A fresh paint job can hide away any imperfections that you don’t want people to see.

A small scale way through which you can touch upon your paint job is through only painting the trims. Adding a fresh coat of paint to the trim can give the illusion of a freshly painted room without actually painting the whole room itself. One area which people often forget to give adequate attention to are the ceilings of the room. The ceilings are just another wall and you can go as crazy on them as you want. Plus, painting the ceiling can automatically make the room look bigger than it actually is.

Become more efficient by upgrading your windows

Replacing the windows in your house is not just a decision that you will come to love for aesthetic purposes. Getting new windows can also help you make your house more energy-efficient. If you feel like more wind is getting in, instead of staying out despite closed windows, then it’s time to get some new panes.

Your windows don’t need to just look pretty, they need to be functional too. Whether the winds are super chilly or super dry, they need to be kept out of your house and that can only be done with the right kind of windows. You need to put in windows that can keep out the cold and keep in the heat. That way not only will you cut down drastically on electricity bills but you will stop feeling cold inside your house. The right kind of windows can keep the temperature of the house in check by ensuring that heat or cold is retained inside the house. Secondly, if your windows are doing their job but are not pleasing to the eye, then it’s time to dress them up. You can get fancy window panes both on the interior and exterior side to make sure that your windows stand out.

Besides window panes, another way to grab attention through your windows would be to get them painted. Stained glass windows are the new interior decor fashion item that can completely change the look of any house. If you do not want such a permanent fixture, then you can even get stained glass window stickers that can be added and removed at your will.

Give your bathroom a more modern look

When people upgrade their houses, one important element they forget to focus on is our bathrooms. Our bathrooms are an integral part of our houses and they need as much care and attention as everything else. One of the most important bathroom upgrades that you might need to focus on includes the replacement of tiles. As the years pass by, our tiles get all grubby and disgusting as the stains start building up. If you feel like your tiles have taken on a permanently stained look, then it’s time to invest in some new tiles.

As the years pass on by, time takes a toll on the tiles and mold can start to develop in between the cracks. Mold can also be prevented through the installation of a bathroom vent fan. A bathroom vent fan would be a great addition to your bathroom as all those steamy showers can lead to stuffy bathrooms. With a vent, your bathroom gets dry faster plus you won’t ever have to deal with foggy mirrors ever again.

Furthermore, you can also upgrade your bathroom by putting in better faucets and improving the water pressure in the shower and the sink. Another way you can add more value to your bathroom is through accessorizing it. Adding tiles around your bathtub can change the whole look of the bathtub and give your bathroom a classy feel.

If you are also not happy about letting the contents of your bathroom forever be out in the open, then it’s time to invest in a medicine cabinet. With a two-in-one medicine cabinet, you can have the convenience of a stylish mirror in the bathroom as well as a spacious cabinet to store all your essentials.

Invest in some landscaping

Before people even enter your house, they make their first impressions based on the exterior of the house. An unkempt yard crawling with extra stuff and weeds can give a really horrible impression of not only your house but also the people who own the house. To make sure that your house does not look ragged, you need to invest in landscaping.

You can surround your house with a hedge to not only make it look neat but also keep out rodents and other animals. A hedge will create a green barrier for your house which will not only aesthetically amazing but will also serve as a deterrent against unwanted animals entering your house. Or you can plant flowers of your choice in your yard and create a gorgeous garden of your own creation.

Gardening has been shown to have an incredible effect on stress alleviation and keeping people happy. So why not use all that free space to nurture a hobby of gardening that will reap you innumerable physical and mental benefits. Trees are also a great option as they come with a multitude of benefits that go beyond aesthetics. Trees can not only filter the groundwater for you but then can also help block storm-water runoff.

Furthermore, with trees, you are getting the chance to create natural shade for the outdoor portion of your house. Even if you do not want to put me in so much work, the least you can do is clean up all the filth and dirt. Just the mere act of cleaning up your landscape can have a huge effect on the outdoor aesthetics of the house.

Make your house centrally air-conditioned

If you live in a warm climate, you know how heavenly it feels when you finally get home from a day out in the sun and get embraced by the cool comfort of an air conditioner. Imagine how amazing would it be if this coolness was not just limited to one room of your house. How great would it be if all rooms offer you the same level of comfort? Central air conditioning is a great way to live a comfortable life in cities where the climate is always warm. It is also a great way to save money as central air conditioning units are a cheaper alternative to single air conditioning units.

Furthermore, with central air conditioning, your window views won’t be blocked by big and ugly outer devices that come attached with ACs. Single air conditioning units also contribute to noise pollution levels as they make a lot of noise whereas central air conditioning units remove that hassle. Due to technological marvels, now there are units available that can switch between cooling and heating with just the switch of a button.

So with one unit, you can either go towards central heating or central air conditioning. You don’t need to have bulky units inside or outside your house anymore as central air conditioning operates in compact conditions. Once you get a central air conditioning unit, the value of your house is going to automatically go up as potential buyers will see the appeal of this. Since the benefits of central air conditioning are innumerable and go from reducing noise to making the air cleaner, any potential buyer will see the value of this added upgrade.

Give some purpose to your basement

People often make the mistake of ignoring their basements to such a degree that it feels like the next horror movie could be shot in the duplicated mess there, your basement is all this extra space that you have and yet people waste it by using it to store all the things that they do not want. Even if you want to use your basement as this extra storage space, you need to make sure that the storage space is clean and well put-together instead of looking like the set of a mystery thriller movie.

However, it is in your best interest to fix up the basement instead and use it for purposes other than just storing stuff. The value of your house will automatically skyrocket by fixing up your basement because you are offering potential buyers all this extra space. You can turn that basement into anything you desire by using some money to fix up space. You need to make sure that your basement is not prone to extra moisture as a damp basement smell makes the whole house reek.

Once you install insulation and other basics like drywall inside the basement, you can do anything you want with space. You can add some speakers and turn the space into a giant dancefloor or throw in a few beanbags and a TV to make it a space for chilling. Even if you do not want to turn the space into something extravagant, you can just make sure that your basement is not a hazard. Just cleaning it up so it’s ready to be transformed into a space of your liking is enough.

Use the extra space to put up a swimming pool

As children, didn’t we all just yearn for houses that had swimming pools in them? Now as adults, we can make all those wishes come true. Having a swimming pool in your house won’t just make you the envy of all your neighbors but will also drastically increase the value of your house. By installing a swimming pool, you can change the whole vibe of that extra space. Don’t just stop at just a pool. Install lounging chairs, showers and slides to make it an all-inclusive package for your family and children.

The more features you will add to your home and your pool, the more appealing your house will be to potential buyers.  Furthermore, if you are living in a place where the climate borders on being hot for most of the year, a swimming pool can be a welcome reprieve from the unforgiving heat. You don’t even need a humongous space to put in a pool, there are different variations of the standard pool that you can create, even with limited space. Your family will thank you for this decision especially you’re children and your pets. A swimming pool is a special value that not every house has. If your house has a swimming pool, it’s just going to sell itself.

Swimming pools are a necessity in summers and wouldn’t you rather have your family enjoy this necessity from the comfort of their own home than wade out to public pools that are crawling with germs? Not only are swimming pools a great form of entertainment but they will also keep you fit and healthy as swimming is an amazing form of exercise.

Spruce up your cabinets

One way to give your home a new look is through making minor adjustments that would improve the overall quality of your home. One of those minor adjustments would include painting the cabinets. Painting the cabinets is a way cheaper option than getting them replaced entirely and yields the same results. Nobody likes decaying stain splattered cabinets as they can ruin the look of the entire room. Just put on a fresh coat of paint or polish on them to spruce them up and improve the look of the whole room.

The only thing worse than stained cabinets are cabinets that creak and groan every single time someone opens or closes them. The solution to this problem may be as simple as oiling the hinges or getting them replaced. If painting and oiling do not seem to do the trick and your cabinets still look ghastly, then it’s time to replace them. Because without good cabinets, the whole kitchen might start looking like it’s falling apart. Good cabinets are an essential part of the kitchen or whichever part of the house they might be located in. Fixing your cabinets is not something you need to do on a periodic basis.

So if you are incurring a one-time cost in fixing your cabinets, you should make sure that you are getting it done well. You can get as fancy as you want as this one-off cost can increase the value of your house by making your kitchens look amazing.

Put flattering lighting inside your home

It won’t matter how great your paint job is or how amazing the interior decoration is if you don’t have the correct lighting to highlight it all. You need lighting that highlights the best aspects of the room instead of bringing out all the things that are wrong with it. You don’t need lighting that reveals all the stains and cracks. When you are considering hanging lights from ceilings, you need to ensure that the lights are neither hanging too high or too low.

High hanging lights won’t be able to properly light up the whole room while low hanging lights would focus too much light in one place. Another way to ensure that you always have the perfect lighting in every room is by making sure that you get lights that come with dimmers. That way you can turn up or dim down the lights depending on how you want to set the mood of the room. Furthermore, you should also research fully before getting lighting for your house. There are a variety of different lightbulb options available in the market including halogen, compact fluorescent and LED bulbs.

All of these bulbs come in either warm or cool hues. The hue you get depends on the color of your walls and that’s why you need to make this decision with careful consideration. Invest in good lighting that makes not only you look great but also makes your room look great. If you want to make the space feel super fancy then you also need to swap out your cheap lighting fixtures for some classier options that tie the whole look of the room together.

Hide eyesores with cute decor

There are some things in our houses that no matter how much we try, we just cannot get rid of or fix. For those things, the most important thing to do is to keep them out of focus. For example, your kid used the walls for their artistic expression and while you can’t bear to see it ruin the tone of the room, you also can’t take it down for sentimental reasons. So the best solution, in this case, would be to cover it up with a wall hanging or painting so it’s still there, but it’s not visible to anyone. Or maybe you have a scorch mark on your fireplace from an overenthusiastic 4th of July party that turned out to be too wild.

No matter what the case, there are issues with everyone’s houses that they need to keep hidden. Likewise, you can cover up thermostat buttons, light switches, home alarms, safes, etc. This way not only are you covering up things that you do not like but you’re also getting the chance to add some personal touch decor items to your house. There is a wide array of items that you can use to cover up unsatisfactory marks in your house. Paintings are a great option as they will not only cover up everything but they are a great decor item that can add value to any room.

Besides paintings, you can use different kinds of artifacts like hanging statues, wall rugs, wall cutouts, etc. to hide marks on the walls, ugly switches or anything else you might like. Another fun way to hide cracks in walls or walls that have been damaged by water would be to put up an array of picture frames on that wall.

Create an illusion of open space with mirrors

If you cannot create an open floor plan yourself, the next best thing you can do is create the illusion of open space. One hack that could work out for you and not cost you the big bucks would include placing an ample amount of mirrors in your house. Placing a mirror directly opposite a window can make the room look bigger than it actually is. The light coming in from the window is reflected in the mirror which then disperses throughout the room.

The extra light lightens up every nook and corner of the room and gives it a more vibrant feel. Plus you can think of it this way, a lot of mirrors just mean more spaces to check out your beautiful reflection wherever you go. When you put in a mirror in a small room, the open space of the room is reflected back in the mirror, making the room look way bigger than it actually is. The same logic can also be applied to make a narrow hallway look bigger.

Furthermore, mirrors can also be used to help amplify a room’s lightning as it can increase the brightness of the room. If you want to bring in more natural light into the room, then that can be done by hanging mirrors from the windows. Plus you can always use beautiful mirrors to hide imperfections in any room. Gilded framed mirrors are always a good option that can bring style and class to any room they are a part of.

Give your house the best level of protection

We live in tumultuous times where burglary is a concern that needs to be addressed by every homeowner. The best way to protect yourself, your loved ones and your home against possible mugging attempts are through making sure that your house has the best level of protection. Besides just normal locks for your home, a smart camera is also a great investment that can help you make sure that your house is protected at all times.

Smart cameras provide a direct stream to your phone so you can keep an eye on your house at all times. Besides that, they also provide you alerts if they notice any suspicious activity happening. Anti-burglary locks have advanced very much in current times and you can easily find a lock that suits the needs of you and your family. Houses that come with protection systems attract more buyers than houses that do not come equipped with them. When potential buyers see houses that are not protected, they think about all the costs they will have to incur in order to protect the house.

Besides home alarm systems, you need to also make sure that the gates of your house are reinforced with the best material available. All entry and exit points have deadlocks or systems that can lock the place up when you want to. The best part about these smart cameras is that they come connected to your doorbell to so the next time an annoying salesman comes to your door, you don’t even have to get up and answer the door to hush them away. You can intercept them without even getting up from your couch.

Get a smart assistant for your house

We live in the modern age of technology where everything you ever thought was only the stuff of movies and tv shows, is now a possibility in real life. From cars that can fly to bots that can control all the functions of your house for you, all of these are things that can happen. Make your home as tech-savvy as you are and get a smart assistant to help you control your home. Imagine a house where everything from the fans to the television can be controlled at the touch of a button.

A smart assistant will empower you to do everything from switch on the lights to turn off the thermostat without moving an inch from your position. Controlling all your electronics with an app through your phone will not only make life incredibly easy for you but it will also help you remove any hurdles associated with appliances that you forgot to switch off while leaving the house. With a smart assistant, you won’t have to worry about accidentally burning down your house because you accidentally left the toaster on. You can easily switch it off with the touch of a button from your app.

However smart assistants do so much more than just helping you control the electronic switches in your house. These virtual assistants can help you just like a real assistant can. They can help you look up recipes, book and cancel appointments for you, make reminders for you, etc. With a smart assistant, you will have a tech-savvy home where everything you want is available at the touch of a button.

Improve your doors

When entering someone’s house, the first piece of decor that anyone interacts with is the door. That is why it is important for you to make sure that the doors of your house are always in impeccable condition. People often do not get their doors cleaned as much as they need to be cleaned. Imagine a pristine room with great furniture and decor but a stained door that creaks every single time someone opens or closes it.

The whole ambiance and look of that room would be spoiled by that one door. If you don’t want this to be the case with you too, then invest a little in making sure that your doors are flawless. While doors made of wood may look good, they come with their fair share of problems. You need a door that adds appeal to your house while being resistant enough to stay put during weather anomalies like strong winds and rain. However, wooden doors cannot stand in the face of these requirements. That is why more and more people are replacing their wooden doors with fiberglass doors. Not only are these incredibly strong where they can withstand everything from strong winds to being kicked down, but these doors are also incredibly energy efficient too.

You can get fiberglass doors with thermal insulation so whether you want to keep in the heat during winters or stop cold air from escaping during summers, these doors will help you do that job. Another great thing about these doors is the fact that besides withstanding extreme weather patterns, these doors can also protect you from other elements. These doors can withstand being kicked down thus protecting you and your loved ones from the threat of a home invasion.

Do all the minor repairs you have been putting off

For you, it may just be a tiny crack in your living room tile or a tiny hole in the roof, but if these things keep piling up, they can give your house a haggard look. Sometimes a home upgrade does not mean you need to completely weed out all the old stuff and replace it with new high-end stuff. Sometimes an upgrade means fixing all the stuff that needs to be fixed because the only thing wrong with your current house is all the broken things that keep on piling up.

Some basic fixes that you need to keep an eye on include making sure that there are no leaks in the roof. Roof leaks can lead to your furniture being destroyed and ruin the ambiance of the whole house. So you need to make sure that you fix a leak as soon as it appears. If your house has a lot of wooden furniture and fixings, you need to keep checking the wood for termites and immediately remove wood furniture and fixings when they start to eventually rot. Mold is also an issue that eventually plagues any house and it is an issue that needs to be eliminated as soon as you discover it.

The presence of mold is not only bad for your health but can also decrease the value of your home. Other things that need constant vigilance and need to be kept up to date include the plumbing and insulation of your house.

An important thing to consider while making upgrades is that your plan needs to completely aligned with your budget. If all your plans for an upgrade don’t fall into the budget that you currently have, you don’t have to overextend yourself to make everything happen. You just need to tailor your plans according to your budget and according to your own requirements.

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