Due to rising costs of living, people are cutting costs anywhere they can find. Homeowners are cutting costs anywhere they can. In order to maintain the value of your home, money must be put into maintaining your home. Do it yourself home projects can increase the resale value of your home, while saving you money and expensive labor costs.

Here are a few examples of Do it yourself home projects that can be completed fairly easily and will increase the resale value on your home.

Maintain Your Home’s Exterior and Interior Paint:

Maintaining your home’s interior and exterior paint is not just aesthetically important. It is important to keep exterior painting up to date since a quality exterior paint job protects and maintains the integrity of your home’s wood, preventing wood decay and rot. Homeowners living in the southwestern United States only need to repaint their home once every 8 years where as homeowners living in the northeastern United States must repaint every 10 years, assumed you are using a high quality exterior paint. The main reason for this is the winters in the northeast are much harsher than winters in southwestern regions and paint quickly chips and peels.

Floor and driveway renovation and maintenance are key components to increase the resale value of a home. Hardwood floors significantly increase the value of a home. Not only are hardwood floors a manageable do it yourself project, the installation of hardwoods have the ability to increase the resale value of your home, up to 10% of your home’s value. The materials required can be found here. The cost of materials are high, yet the gains that yield from the installation of hardwood floors can range anywhere from $2,000-$10,000 in a resale return.

Home renovation projects require the financial investment yet the overall financial benefits are great. The most important idea behind home renovations is that all projects can be done by yourself. Since all the home repairs can all be completed by the homeowner, a great deal of money is saved on the labor costs.

There are many do it yourself home renovation projects that offer a return of up to 100-80% investment return. Major and minor kitchen remodel, fireplace, or deck can offers a resale payback between 90-70%. Do it yourself home renovation projects that offer from 90-100% payback include a single bedroom addition and a 2^nd full bathroom addition.

Things to Keep In Mind:

The type and value of do it yourself home improvements projects should be appropriate for the home they are being performed on. A $20,000 bathroom renovation for an average priced home will not earn a huge return. It is important to maintain the integrity of your home when deciding what types of do it yourself projects you should undertake. Be consistent in terms of your choices with respect to interior and exterior of your home. Style changes rapidly so very trendy renovation choices should be reserved for changeable decorations like couches and rugs. You will not see returns on highly stylized moldings, fixtures, and windows.  Lastly be aware of the location of the property.  A home could be worth a different value in the New York Real Estate market, than one in the New York City Real Estate market so pay attention to your respective markets.

Holloway House is a leading manufacturer of floor care products and its top-selling product line is Quick Shine®.  The Quick Shine® No-Bucket Floor Cleaner is simply squeezed onto the floor and spread with a clean, freshly rinsed sponge mop. The water-borne polymer formulation naturally cleans dirt, grease and scruff marks without harsh alkalis or ammonia.  The floors were clean without a haze and no stickiness left behind.

            Then, we went on to the next floor cleaning step: Quick Shine® Floor Finish.  Applied with the applicator microfiber mop which comes with the floor care kit, the product is easy to apply and quickly provides the quick shine in 15 minutes as claimed.  And although the floors are shiny like they had just been polyurethaned, they are not slippery. 

            And, if you accidently drop something on your beautifully shined floors, Holloway House makes individual Quick Shine® Floor Wipes that provide a perfect method for quick clean-up and shine.

            For additional information please go to www.HollowayHouse.net .

In the past decade, ready-to-assemble (RTA) kitchen cabinets have been steadily gaining popularity. RTA cabinets are regular cabinets that are shipped unassembled. They are available in standard cabinet sizes with a wide range of styles and finishes to choose from. High-quality RTA cabinets are made from the same materials as custom cabinetry featuring solid wood construction, dovetailed and soft-closing drawers, European-style and adjustable hinges among many others. The assembly is relatively simple as they are grooved and predrilled wherever necessary.

The obvious question is if custom cabinets are the same quality as RTA cabinets why would you opt for the latter? Answer?  Simple. The price. RTA cabinets can be up to 50% less than custom cabinets and look just the same! RTA cabinet manufacturers are working hard to compete in the upscale kitchen market. Besides for the quality and durability of the cabinet, many decorative pieces are now available to match. Cabinets such as plate racks, shelving units and desk cabinets are available as well as various sizes of crown molding, furniture base molding, turnposts, spindles, fluted fillers, glass doors and decorative overlays. They are all standard items that are offered to match the cabinet style of your choice. Storage solutions such as drawer bases, lazy susans, soap tip-outs, trash pullouts, and rollout trays are offered as well.

Wait, it gets better. RTA cabinets come in flat boxes which take up minimal storage space not to mention the low shipping cost. It is therefore not uncommon to find that they are in stock in the US and ready to ship within 2 weeks. No more paying your contractor for days that he can’t do any work due to backordered items.  Or how about when a project gets delayed and the cabinets are already ordered? Instead of canceling and reordering, Ready To Assemble cabinets can be easily stored in a storage room or garage until they are needed. 

With all the luxury features at a low cost, it is no wonder that RTA cabinets generate a superior reputation among homeowners and contractors alike. However you look at, functionality, aesthetically or durability, RTA cabinets can work for you.

At Construction-411 we get asked all the time about niche contruction areas and where to go to get a small fortune going. The best niche markets online are usually areas of high and growing demand and not much supply.  So is it bathrooms, kitchens, attics?  We are going to go through these niches and tell you in the next few posts on where you can do some great internet marketing for these contruction niches.