How to avoid the major mistakes people make when renovating
LAURA HEYNIKE, ONEROOF
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any people think that renovations will add value to your home, and while this is mostly true, poor choices can lead to frustrated home buyers and a difficult task for your real estate agent to market. Quality workmanship and unfinished work is one of the biggest factors that buyers notice, and they sure notice it if the execution is poor. Repainting a home is a great way to freshen up the old bones, but don’t paint over
imperfect walls or wallpaper that actually needs to be stripped. The prospect of having to re-do what the seller has done is frustrating and devalues the home instantly. Shoddy work whether it be tiling, building or painting is best reflected on what should be DIY and when to call in quality tradespeople to carry out the work to a high standard that is council compliant. A great exercise is a ‘defect walk’.
Stand one metre away and look at every defect that you can see. Start working your way through this list, you will find you can remedy most of them with a mix of DIY and professional trade help. Bad colour choices also make it on the list. By keeping your paint scheme or kitchen splashback neutral you appeal to a wider range of buyers ready for them to make their mark on the interior with colours that they physiologically connect with. Bold feature walls and tiles in bathrooms are tricky to replace so think carefully about your product selection. Overpriced renovations catch home owners out when they get carried away with starting on one area which evidently leads to two or three more areas that subsequently need to be updated as now it looks worse. By being selective with zones, you can avoid this completely.
Keep in mind that most homes are open plan so if you do tackle the kitchen, then the whole living-dining area generally needs to be updated too for a finished renovation. If you are working on a small budget perhaps look at replacing the flooring, paint, make sure all fittings aren’t mismatched, updating the laundry and the street appeal of your home for first impressions. Lastly allocate a proportion of your budget to styling your home both inside and out. This could be a new front door and the street front refreshed with new plantings and letter box through to replacing light fittings and door handles, hanging artwork, and staged or at least curated existing furniture to remove the personal touch and achieve more of a show home experience.
For over 15 years we’ve been proudly building Kiwi homes for Kiwis using all the best stuff from right here in good ol’ NZ. Over the last 15 years the Kiwi dream has come a long way since the elusive quarter acre. That’s why we’re proud to still be able to provide a Kiwi solution for your first home, second home, a home where you need a bit more home, or even your home away from home. We offer a range of plans from 60 to 250 square metres. These can be built straight from the plans, or we can use them as inspiration to create your own Kiwi dream.
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