When people bought their first homes during the pandemic, they were limited to pre-owned or newly-built homes that they had no hand in designing. While some loved their newly-bought homes, others preferred to improve them to make them fit their personality and lifestyle.
Homebuyers have several options for turning a house into a home. These home improvement projects range from decorating the home with personal mementos to significant renovations in different parts of the property.
Here are some home improvement ideas that allow you to make a house you bought into a home you’ll love to live in.
Decorate the Home with Mementos
The easiest way to make a house cozy for you and your family is to decorate it with family mementos. You should not keep special items inside the storage room. Instead, it would help to put them in different parts of the house to feel homey.
A blank wall is a good place for a picture gallery of happy moments of the family. Decorating open shelves with trophies you and other family members won is also a good way for you to turn the house into a home.
But you should also make sure not to overdo it to avoid making your home look too tacky. Buying wicker baskets also give you a place to store extra mementos that you want to show to guests when they visit your home in the future. These wicker baskets also serve as decorations that make the house look cozy.
Alter the Floor Plan
Altering the floor plan of the home allows you to redesign it. Removing a couple of walls inside the house makes it look bigger. It also allows you to have more space to use inside the house.
One option is to remove a wall separating the kitchen and the living room. This renovation makes these spaces approachable and convenient. But before knocking down any walls, check with a structural engineer since these walls hold a good amount of weight. You would not want your newly bought house to collapse after removing one of its internal walls.
It would help if you also got a permit from local authorities since changes to load-bearing structures in a house, such as walls, require one. Similarly, you should also get access to cut a hole in the wall to make a new window in the house.
Work on the Backyard
The backyard is another place to work on making the house homey for you and your family. With the pandemic yet to be over, you’ll likely stay home more often than not. In this situation, a backyard is an excellent place to get your daily dose of vitamin D.
Adding a deck or a covered patio increases the appeal of your backyard and makes it enticing for you to hang out at the end of the day. Installing a grill is another good idea since it allows you to have a weekend grilling party with the family over the weekend.
Installing an above-ground luxury spa in the backyard also gives you a place to relax after a stressful day at work. Just make sure to work with a reliable company with decades of experience under its belt. They should also offer options and features on their products to ensure you have a relaxing experience once the spa is set up.
Add Bigger Windows
Installing more enormous windows allows you to increase the amount of light coming into the house. Expanding the light inside a home makes it look fresh and homey. It also allows you to improve the ventilation inside the house. Better ventilation is one way to prevent the virus from entering the home.
More enormous windows also allow you to save on electricity costs since it facilitates natural light inside the home. Instead of turning on the switch while working inside your home, you can open the windows to let the light in.
Aside from natural light, more enormous windows reduce the need to turn on the air conditioning unit during summer. The natural ventilation from the wind outside the house will cool and make your home comfortable even in the middle of summer.
But similar to walls, you should get a permit if you plan to open a hole in the walls to install a new window. It would help if you remembered that the walls carry a lot of weight, and cutting a hole will reduce its capacity to carry the heavy load.
Turning a house into a home is challenging. But doing so makes it a more comfortable place to stay in, which is essential in the middle of a pandemic.
