Tag:Tips
Steps to Home Resale Success
Seth Murphy at www.papadiy.com contributed today’s tips. If you like the post, check out his site.
If out on your horizon of upcoming life events, you see the listing of your home for sale, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work on increasing its resale value and boosting its chances on the real estate market. Such a task may appear overwhelming, but when broken down into doable parts based on your personal budget, it’s a simple process.
First, determine both the current listing price potential of your home and an achievable goal for resale price by seeking the advice of a local agent. Based on the difference between each number, strategically decide, then, upon a budget for home improvement spending and which portions of your home. If renovated, your home will deliver the most return for your money.
Even small changes can go a long way toward increasing the resale price of your home. Examine the following potential renovations, listed by budget capability to plan your approach to home improvement.
Under $100
- Hire someone to conduct a thorough inspection of your home. They may discover hidden issues with basic structures and systems that could negatively impact its resale value.
- Update interior paint. This is one of the simplest, most cost-effective improvements you can make. Freshly painted rooms appear clean and up-to-date, indicating value.
- Zillow conducted research to find which paint colors yield the highest monetary return upon home resale. From the outside in, choose these colors in order to appeal to the broadest audience of home buyers:
- Front door: Navy blue to dark grey or charcoal
- Home exterior: Mix of grey and beige
- Kitchen: Light blue to soft grey-blue
- Living room: Light beige, pale taupe or oatmeal
- Bedrooms: Light cerulean to cadet blue
- Bathrooms: Powder blue to periwinkle
- Avoid these color placements, as they were found to yield negative returns:
- Home exterior: Medium brown, taupe or stucco
- Kitchen: Yellow
- Living room: Blue
- Dining room: Red
- Bathrooms: White
- Trim your lawn and shape your hedges. Curb appeal is of utmost importance–if potential buyers don’t like what they see when driving by, they won’t be coming inside.
- Conduct a top-to-bottom cleaning of your home, especially of those nooks and crannies you tend to overlook as time passes. You get one chance at a first impression–make your home sparkle.
- Visually increase the square footage of your home. Rid yourself of unnecessary clutter or chunky pieces of furniture that create obstacles to maneuvering through the space. Let in more natural light (sunny = spacious) and consider adding a large mirror to a small room to make it feel bigger.
- Zillow conducted research to find which paint colors yield the highest monetary return upon home resale. From the outside in, choose these colors in order to appeal to the broadest audience of home buyers:
Under $200
- Ditch the popcorn ceilings, as few structural elements date a house more. Find a solution to soften the texture, and then simply scrape the popcorn away.
- Make simple repairs to your roof, the most common being replacing broken or missing tiles. Cut wooden shingles with a saw, asphalt shingles with a utility knife and clay or concrete tiles with an angle grinder. Position the new tile, hooking its nibs over the furring strip and ensuring that it’s securely attached. Remove the wedges from the adjoining tiles, and check that the new tile is sitting flush with its neighbors.
Under $400
- Replace outdated lighting and cooling fixtures with new, more energy efficient options.
More expensive, higher returns
- Renovate the master bathroom, or add an entirely new bathroom if your home features a limited number.
- Replace old appliances with updated, commercial-style versions.
- Add insulation to the attic to reduce utility costs.
- Replace the garage door, an improvement option from which sellers can expect to recoup 85 percent of the cost, according to Remodeling Magazine.
- Replace the front door, adding functionality, safety and curb appeal. Sellers usually regain 91 percent of the cost of a steel entry door and nearly 78 percent of the cost of a fiberglass door.
With some budget examination, strategic thought and goal-oriented planning, the renovation of your home will pay off by improving its resale appeal and price potential.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
Simple Sound Proofing
I’ve been remiss on posting tips lately. There has been a lot going on! With the construction underway on the Sand Hill Farm apartments, I thought I would share a few simple sound proofing solutions we are using on this project. Most of these are green solutions as well as sound proofing.
2′ Stud Spacing:
First, we have used 2′ spacing on studs wherever possible. On the green side, every stud removed from the project is a savings of cost and and material. Literally hundreds of studs were removed from the project through this reduction of studs as well as doing things like using California Corners. Sound travels more easily through hard surfaces. By eliminating the number of studs we’ve eliminated the sound transfer points. On the exterior, this has the other benefit of allowing more insulation. Just as the studs transfer sound, they are more efficient at transferring heat. Every stud removed is one less heat transfer point as well. That stud space is filled with insulation. We are using 2×6 exterior wall framing which allows for additional insulation.
On the inside, it is more directly sound transfer. We have continued to use 2′ centers wherever possible. This helps sound transfer throughout the building.
Staggered Stud Walls
In the walls between the units we are not only using 2′ centers, but we are using a staggered stud wall. This is done by using 2×6 top and bottom plate and then staggering the studs from one side to the other every 12″. In the picture to the left, you can see the green (treated) 2×6 base plate and the staggered 2×4 studs attached to it. This effectively give you 2′ centers on each side and reduces the direct connection for sound transfer to the top and bottom plates. We will then weave sound batt insulation between the studs for additional sound deadening. There are a few exceptions where a 2×6 column is required, but in the majority of these adjoining unit walls, the staggered stud configuration is continuous.
Open Web Floor Trusses
The floor trusses between the first and second floor are open web trusses. Using open web trusses reduce those hard service transfer points that you would have with standard dimension lumber or even with I-joist. The other advantage to the trusses is we can increase the spacing from the standard 16″ spacing used for solid wood to 19.2″ on centers. Sound batt insulation will be placed between the trusses to further reduce sound transfer.
Sound Channels
Before the drywall is installed on the ceilings, we are installing sound dampening channels. These are Z shaped channels that run perpendicular to the floor trusses. The changes the hard surface connection to just the 3-4 square inches at each channel to truss connection. The Z shape of the channel allows some minimal flex which again will absorb some sound.
5/8″ Drywall Walls
Normal residential construction would have 1/2″ drywall on the walls and 5/8″ drywall on the ceilings. We are using 5/8″ drywall throughout. The additional mass will not only provide a more durable surface when spanning the 2′ stud spacing, but it will also help reduce sound transfer.
Sound dampening Underlayment
All of the floors on the second floor will be laminate. This was chosen after talking to several realtors. The number of people having allergy issues has increased and this has increased the popularity of hardwoods and laminate floors. Hardwood floors tend to transfer sound though. Laminates reduce that. We have chosen a laminate plank flooring that will simulate a hardwood look, but absorb more sound. In addition to this, using this material allows us to put down a sound dampening underlayment beneath the laminate planks adding one more layer of sound protection. This system has the added benefit of being nearly impermeable to water.
Sand Hill Farm 3D
The First 3 wall panels installed February 16, 2018
As we all know, this winter has been challenging to say the least. Four 50+ degree swings so far this year. Despite that we’ve muddled along and made some progress at the Sand Hill Farm site. Most of the work has been underground, but as of last Friday, wall panels have begun to stand up on the building pad. We;re now in 3D! The erection crew worked over the weekend and about half the first floor is framed. At this rate they will make quick work of things and we’ll be weathered in before we know it.
In the picture you can see that the first three panels at the Southwest corner are in place. The panels are 2×6 framing with OSB exterior sheathing. The 2×6 framing allows for additional insulation. The 2×6 studs are on 24″ centers to reduce the areas of heat transfer for energy efficiency. California Corners (Green That Saves Green 101) were used to increase insulation as well. The window and door openings are pre-framed, so once the panels are up and the house wrap is installed, the fenestrations (our big word of the day) will be filled quickly too.
Fire Hydrant at the Southwest corner of the Building
Note the fire hydrant in the lower right of the picture. The main water lines are in place as well. We have a fire hydrant waiting on the Town to bring water to it. My understanding is that the street and utilities project should go out for bid within 2 weeks with bids due in around 6 weeks. We’ll be needing that soon! They’ve promised installation by the 1st of June.
The building will be sprinkled, so we already have the riser in place in the maintenance room for fire protection. Rough-in for that will begin once framing is complete so we can get things placed prior to drywall installation.
It’s great to see things coming together after some of the earlier struggles.
Thoughts on Murphy Doors
Murphy Door from themurphydoor.com
I ran across an ad for Murphy Doors that I thought was interesting. I liked some of the pictures of doors to secret rooms hidden behind bookcases a la Batman… and Richard Ford. (Richard had a hidden bookcase door that took him from the the kitchen to the bar in his lake cottage.) And anyway, I’m always intrigued by anything with the Murphy name on it as always reminds me of my grandfather.
The first thought that came to mind was that it seems like a natural fit for a “Tiny Home” solution too. (Yes, despite generally dispising most of the home improvement shows, I do watch that one occasionally.) Few of them seem to use the Murphy Bed solution opting for low-headroom lofts, but any double purpose installation seems to be fair game.
I was particularly intrigued by the idea of using these as a pantry solution. We have pantry cabinets in our home, but without exterior shelves. The idea of a combination of interior and exterior shelves would make that installation more aesthetically pleasing while increasing the functionality.
I was concerned about the hardware strength, but it looks like what they provide is substantial and should do the job. I’m not sure how comfortable I would be installing one in a retrofit situation where I didn’t know how the door framing was completed, but it should be perfectly fine in new construction or in major remodels were the framing could be beefed up or at least verified.
I think the Murphy Door can be a cool solution for the right application and actually become a conversation piece in some locations. Great idea!
Sand Hill Farm Logo
I used the new Sand Hill Farm Logo today in a post to Town, Gown and Lake about the Habitat for Humanity site at Sand Hill Farm. (If you’re not on Town, Gown and Lake and and want to read that post, I’ve included it below.) I chose to work with Shelly Schrimsher of Unlocked Creativity since this is a local project. I’d seen her work through her assistance to the Town on the Stellar projects and the new Town Logo. She helped me work through some of the ideas I already had and I think the collaboration resulted in something versatile that I can use for years.
Sand Hill Farm Site Sign Concept
I wanted to include a graphic that brought the sand hill and associated woods into the logo. She did this in a creative way bringing the curve of the hill slope into the “s” in sand. I also asked for the graphic to be independent of the words to make it more versatile and she was able to to do that. And finally I had a vision of the entry sign made from rusted, cut, multi-layer metal on a gabion base/background to carry through the Culver Charrette field stone theme. From several examples I showed her, she was able to provide a mock-up capturing the concept. Now I can show the fabricators what the goal is – which makes it more likely they’ll achieve it for me. This is out for quotes now.
Overall this was a good experience and I am pleased with the results. You’ll be seeing the logo show up more and more as the project moves forward. Give Shelly a shot if you have similar needs.
