Money spent updating your kitchen rewards you better than money spent on any other upgrades to your home. When it comes to kitchens, buyers continue to demand improvement in efficiency and style, and they love remodeled kitchens and new appliances.
Even if you home costs less than the newer homes in your area, buyers view the model homes and hold the ideal in mind while home shopping.
Newer homes place kitchens open to the family room and often have wide views of the outside. Newer homes also boast larger kitchens with more than one preparation area because cooking has become a social activity, and new homes often include a bar or buffet for entertaining. Cooks want to be in the middle of family activities so they can enjoy companionship.
Buyers look for a kitchen with large open areas that allow guests enough room to mingle, along with workspace for kids doing homework or even a small kitchen workspace for paying bills or making phone calls.
Present your kitchen as an organized, clutter-free, versatile space that will help your buyers feel they could be productive and happy working and interacting in the heart of their new home.
You don’t need to completely makeover your kitchen to sell your home. Packing and storing extra kitchen pots, pans, and utensils generates a more spacious presentation. You may also wish to invest in an attractive portable kitchen island to use as a prop for a kitchen with an open center and insufficient counter space.
Consider easy, low-cost changes that instantly upgrade a kitchen without major remodeling. These include the following ideas:
1.) Replace your faucet with a fancier model.
2.) Change your cabinet hardware.
3.) Paint cabinet faces.
4.) Replace or paint ugly laminate countertops. (Use Marine-grade paint.)
5.) Add warmth during cold seasons with a gorgeous rug next to the sink counter.
No matter your makeover budget, prepare your home for sale with little changes like clearing the countertops, adding new dish towels, and a bowl of fruit. Make your kitchen entice a buyer to say, “This is my new home.”
Copyright © 2005 Jeanette J. Fisher. All rights reserved. (You may publish this article in its entirety with the following author’s information with live links only.)
By: Jeanette Joy Fisher
Posts Tagged ‘New Homes’
Prepare Your Home for Sale: Kitchen Makeover Ideas
May 29th, 2010Soundproofing Techniques – Home Improvements With Big Payoffs
December 3rd, 2009
You can find soundproofing techniques both for individual rooms and for your entire house, and the selections of which ones are most suitable for you situation will depend on three factors: where your home is located: what sort of noise you want to eliminate: and how much you can afford to spend.
Soundproofing Techniques For New Homes
If you are having your home built, you can get an early start on soundproofing it by having your doorways staggered so that none of them is directly across from another one. In doing so, you’ll prevent the noise from one room from being transmitted across a hallway and echoing around the home’s interior. You should also request that your contractor design each room so that at least 25% of it will be taken up with sound-absorbing materials like draperies, carpeting, or furniture. If you can afford it, also request that your walls and ceilings have soundproofing mats installed.
Soundproofing Techniques For Existing Homes
If you are trying to make an existing home quieter, and are bothered by noisy floors on the upper stories, you can remove the ceilings beneath them and add triangular wooden strips to both the floor joists and the floors themselves. You can also consider using a liquid adhesive to secure the squeaky floorboards so they move around less.
Another of the commonly used soundproofing techniques is to frame back-to-back walls with a double set of disconnected wall studs, and add some fiberglass insulation to deaden sounds. If you live in a traditionally framed home, your wall framing and drywall will allow sound to pass through your walls from one room to another. The wall studs attached on one side of the drywall will transmit the sounds from one room through it into the drywall of the other room to which they are attached.
You can dampen the sound transmitted in this fashion by installing fiberglass batts, but in order to eliminate it completely, you’ll have to put up a separate set of studs for both the walls, so that the noise from one room can’t be transmitted to the drywall of the other.
Soundproofing Techniques For Windows
In addition those you use on your walls, ceilings, and floors, you should find some Soundproofing techniques to employ on your windows. Think about using both vinyl window frames and double-paned glass, because although you’ll pay more for double panes, you’ll be rewarded with both quieter and a more energy-efficient house.
Finally, one of the soundproofing techniques which will not only make your home less noisy, but add an attractive privacy accent to its interior, is to install shutters on the insides of your windows.
By: Eric Henry