Kitchen is considered the heart of a house. It should be appealing to the eye and somewhere you enjoy working. If you are tired of your old kitchen and want something new, make little efforts and bring in a trendy kitchen.
Fitted kitchens have their own advantages. Top of the list is it elevates the overall look of your home.
You do not need to employ a professional for kitchen fitting job. Homeowners certainly can do it themselves. It might be a time consuming and expensive job but you will find it an exciting experience.
How you design it is completely your choice, but you need to consider a few important things. Fitting a kitchen requires a lot of skills including plumbing, carpentry, tiling and electrical work. To do it perfectly, read on the following points.
Take Measurements
Before planning the whole layout, you need to take the appropriate measurement of the kitchen area. Once you have your exact measurements, plan a proper layout. Decide the places of everything in your plan. It would save you from future problems.
Decide your Items
For your convenience, make a list of types of items you will like to have in your new kitchen. There are varieties of choices like for surface you have solid wood, granite and laminate options available. Every option has its advantage and disadvantages and chooses what suits your kitchen.
To be certain about your liking, have a glance at your old kitchen. Decide whether you want integrated or freestanding appliances. Other items that you need to have done the job include:
Drill Bits
Electrical Screwdrivers
Gloves
Cabinet Accessories
Cabinets
Claw Hammer
Basin Spanner
Bolster Chisel
Safety Goggles
Saw
Silicone Sealant
Crow Bar
Doors
Drill
Pliers
Pump Pliers
PVA Wood Glue
Hammer
Handles
Kitchen Sink
Kitchen Taps
Masking Tape
Measuring Tape
Screwdriver
Slotted Screwdriver
Spanners
Spirit Level
Wire Pipe and Power Detector
Worktops
Plus, add power tools in your list. You might already have these devices at your home. If not, then buy them especially RCD (Residual Current Device) for the job.
Decide your Budget
Things can easily get out of the hand of not decided before everything. Go through the options of items like drawers, cabinets etc. available in the market.
Kitchen appliances are not cheap and determine the cost and save you from shelling out extra bucks.
Safety Comes First
Fitting a kitchen is not a risk-free job. It is a dangerous mixture of gas, electricity and water which requires to handled carefully. If drilling holes, check water pipes and electrical cables. It is better to turn off main water, gas and electricity valves before starting removing old kitchen. Use safety equipment like gloves and goggles while drilling.
There is no dispute that opting for DIY when it comes to your home improvement projects has tremendous benefits. It’s however worth noting that if you do it wrong, it can end up being disastrous for you.
In this article, we are going to highlight the 3 main cons of DIY when it comes to home improvement projects especially if they involve a lot of construction work.
1 It’s likely to be more expensive in the long run
The belief or rather assumption that engaging in DIY for your home improvement projects is a very good cost cutting measure will only hold true if things go well, and in most occasions, they seldom do. The main reason professional contractors don’t come cheap is because they invested time, money and sweat in building their skills therefore they will charge you a premium for it. Assuming that you can simply go online, look at a tutorial and become a master in construction is a fallacy especially if you have no background in construction. What this means in summary is that you may opt for DIY but end up making a mess of the work and this will force you to bring in a professional to repair your errors and do the job how it was meant to be done in the first place, and this will ultimately cost you more.
2 It’s a very time consuming venture
Considering the fact that you have very little or no experience in the task you are about to engage in, you will need to set aside time to learn the skill itself as well as about the tools and material you will need for the job. This, plus the time it will take you to do the job itself factoring in all the errors before you finally get it right will take you triple or even quadruple the time it would have taken a professional to get it done. Therefore DIY is only practical if your project is not time sensitive.
3 The work will be of low standards
The reality is that as long as you haven’t had sufficient experience which has to be gained over time, the quality of work you are likely to produce will be nowhere close to the quality of work a professional will produce. In fact, you should be content with work that is of low standards during the period you are still a DIY novice.
Before you make the decision on whether to engage in a DIY project, it’s a good idea to weigh the pros and cons first. A word of advice would be for you to first start with smaller construction projects around your home as you slowly hone your skills before you take up larger home improvement projects.
If your long term plan as a home owner is to eventually sell your property then, it’s a high time you started thinking of home improvement ideas that will help increase the value of your home. These ideas will often go beyond construction and may even involve just some subtle changes in your home’s exterior environment.
In this article we are going to share with you 3 simple tips on how to increase the value of your home.
1 Make the house more efficient
Today, home owners are looking for homes that will cut their cost of maintenance therefore part of the improvement you can do is the construction of amenities that help make the home more efficient and less costly to maintain. Some of these amenities can be solar heaters, underground water storage tanks, water filtration systems, and biogas systems amongst others. This will help in the reduction of utility bills thus increase the value of your home.
2 Adopt low maintenance landscaping
Any home owner who has a lawn will fully understand how expensive it is to maintain one. The time, money and energy required to keep it looking beautiful can be a lot. It’s therefore a good idea to adopt a low maintenance landscaping and this can include replacing your lawn with a flower garden that has plants that are originally from the region. These will require very low maintenance thereby bringing down costs and essentially raising the value of your home.
3 Do some tree planting on your compound
Trees not only increase curb appeal but will also have added benefits such as ensuring you have a good environment in your home and also some much needed shade. This essentially will bring some tranquility to your home and this is something home owners will be willing to pay extra for because it’s very rare to find.
These are very doable things and the beauty is the long term payout will be way higher than the investment cost.
Before planning the whole layout, you need to take the appropriate measurement of the kitchen area. Once you have your exact measurements, plan a proper layout. Decide the places of everything in your plan. It would save you from future problems.
Today, home owners are looking for homes that will cut their cost of maintenance therefore part of the improvement you can do is the construction of amenities that help make the home more efficient and less costly to maintain. Some of these amenities can be solar heaters, underground water storage tanks, water filtration systems, and biogas systems amongst others. This will help in the reduction of utility bills thus increase the value of your home.
Any home owner who has a lawn will fully understand how expensive it is to maintain one. The time, money and energy required to keep it looking beautiful can be a lot. It’s therefore a good idea to adopt a low maintenance landscaping and this can include replacing your lawn with a flower garden that has plants that are originally from the region. These will require very low maintenance thereby bringing down costs and essentially raising the value of your home.
Trees not only increase curb appeal but will also have added benefits such as ensuring you have a good environment in your home and also some much needed shade. This essentially will bring some tranquility to your home and this is something home owners will be willing to pay extra for because it’s very rare to find.
These are very doable things and the beauty is the long term payout will be way higher than the investment cost.