Your home was probably pretty great when it was first built. Maybe you did an update here and there, out with the shag and in with the hardwood, down with the wood paneling and up with the tasteful paint job. But entropy is real, and it takes no time at all for the projects to pile up. Now is a very good time to look ahead at your year, take an honest inventory of everything your home needs, prioritize, plan and execute. This project can seem daunting, but if you break it down into a few simple processes you will surprise yourself with how much you are able to start crossing off your home to-do list.
There are a lot of ways to approach this project, but we'll stick with applying two simple criterion to your planning:
1. Enjoyment
2. Effect on property value
Enjoyment
You can look at this 2 ways, positively and negatively. Let's start negative.
As you go down your list of everything that could be done in and around your home, take note of the items that are most painful/stressful/annoying to think about. Some of these are simple projects that keep getting pushed back for no better reason than that football will always beat bathtub caulking on a Sunday afternoon. Very likely you could blast through the top 5 things that are annoying you in your home in 2 good weekends. "But those are my weekends!" you protest. Then hire someone to do those things for you. "But that's my hard-earned money!" Okay, then be aggravated for another year.
On the positive side, what are the projects that get you most excited? These are worth differentiating from the pain points. Maybe the landscaping is just fine, but you would love to have a front porch and some trees in the yard. Maybe you have wanted a hot tub for years. This is not a defense of unwise spending, but if you know that you would enjoy that porch and hot tub to the fullest, then you should make that investment for you and your family.
Effect on property value
Instead of listing out a bunch of home improvements and their corresponding value return, we’re going to demonstrate some methods for deciding if and when to renovate your home by using a few projects of our own as case studies. Stay tuned for follow-up posts and an inside look into the nitty-gritty of home rehab.