Where to start with home renovations when you don’t have a big budget

Renovations can make you more satisfied with your home. They can also make your home more appealing for potential buyers. Renovating your house can be expensive, but it can be worth it if you’re looking to secure a good sale price, or just enjoy your home more. 

Where should I start?

When beginning renovations there are several questions to ask yourself, including: what is your budget? Your skill level with DIY projects? Will you need a contractor? The most important is, first of all, why you are renovating your home. What’s the objective? Is it for your own enjoyment or are you looking to appeal to home buyers? 

Take time to think about these things first. Write them down if you need to. 

With these questions answered, the next step is to break the project down into manageable steps. I have found it very helpful to keep a list of all the steps, in order, on computer or paper. It is best to always have it available to add intermediate steps and check off completed steps. Checking off an item can be very satisfying. 

What if I don’t have a big renovation budget? What can I do to make my home appealing to buyers? 

When flipping houses, I had to work within a specific budget and still achieve an appealing look. There are a few tricks I learned that really saved money.

An inexpensive cabinet from a big box store can be dressed up with a great countertop. Local granite dealers have remnants from their larger jobs that can include granite, marble and quartz. If you need a smaller countertop slab, these remnants can be your answer. A good dealer will give you a tour of their remnant stock, and do the installation once you have purchased it.  

You may have heard that the cheapest home improvement is painting. That is still true. Fresh paint can elevate the atmosphere of any space. A freshly painted exterior can make your home much more appealing. Compared to other types of improvements, paint can give you more impact per dollar spent. There are many good brands of paint at different price points, and clean up is relatively easy.

Of course, paint is not just for walls and trim. Do your cabinets need updating? Cabinets are a good area to focus on in improving your home, because they are a sizable item that takes a lot of wear. You can paint many kinds of cabinets if you sand them very well. You’ll want to make sure when sanding a cabinet to include groves and details. Painting oak cabinets may require a professional painter, but staining and coating them with polyurethane may be a reasonable project. Porch paint is a very durable product that can be used on porches and cement floors. I have used porch paint to brighten the insides of bathroom cabinets. 

There are a few other things that can update and beautify your home with an average skill level and a smaller budget. Changing knobs and drawer pulls can give an updated feel to kitchens and bathrooms. As I wrote when talking about curb appeal, we all get used to our surroundings. When you walk through your home imagining you are a prospective buyer, things will look different to you. For example, you may suddenly see heavy, dated window coverings. New window coverings can make a big difference, and they don’t have to be expensive. There are a number of online resources and big box stores with good prices. There are also mobile sales/installation companies that will bring their samples to your home. 

Something to consider with all of this is disposal. Home renovation projects tend to generate a lot of waste. Cabinets, appliances and flooring often end up in dumpsters, but they don’t have to. These may be useful to other people, if you post them on Craigslist or other marketplaces. Also, cabinets that aren’t worn out may be repurposed, perhaps in your own storage area or garage. If the old cabinets don’t work in your home, there may be local organizations that could make use of them, or salvage materials dealers may be willing to take them. 

Can I keep up with home renovation trends, without spending too much money? 

First, ask yourself which trends you like most and can see yourself or others enjoying for a long time, in order to avoid things that will seem dated in a short time.

Changing light fixtures can update a room inexpensively.

Changing light fixtures can update rooms inexpensively. Light fixtures have great impact, and usually very clear trends. There is a vast range of pricing and with careful shopping, you can find very similar products with much lower prices.

Many renovators will choose to replace a more durable, timeless floor with something trendy that is not very durable. In time, this doubles the waste. Ripping up and replacing the entire floor is not the most cost effective way to improve your home, though it can be necessary then dealing with damage, or old vinyl. You have no-doubt seen home renovators in the media remove layers of flooring to find the original hard wood floor under the layers, in fairly good condition. Hard wood floors and even softer wood like pine outlast most trends and give you long years of wear.  Wood  floors can be stained or painted to match almost any style. 

Whether you want to make your home more personalized, or more marketable, there are cost-effective improvements you can do. The key is knowing your objective and your budget.

Everything here is presented as friendly advice. Nothing here is to be considered legal advice.