The following is a guest post:
When thinking about renovating there are many aspects of a house that could use improvement. If you’re lucky enough to own a house with a front or back yard, why not renovate that area of the house? This will allow you, your family and your friends a place to chill on those slow summer days while having the added advantage of making all of your neighbors envious and possibly driving up the overall retail value of your home. Potential buyers are dazzled into submission when presented with super curb appeal. Here are a few additions that can be added to create that dream house that will make your house a success.
The Deck
Decks can be a beautiful and useful addition to any house. On warm summer nights you can lounge in lawn chairs chatting and playing cards surrounded by the aroma of the barbecue and the sound of the bug zapper.
Perfection and family moments are not priceless. A 400 square foot deck will cost anywhere from $4000 to $9,600. This price would depend on the quality of wood that the deck is built with and the possibility of paying for labor costs if you have zero construction experience. The cheapest wood that can be used is pressure treated wood that while cheap begins to fade and decay a few years after the deck has been built. The most expensive possibility is tropical hardwood. These woods are prettier and tend last longer before they begin to decay.
Fire Pit
A fire pit is a solid way to bring the outdoors home. Whether you don’t have the time to go camping or you detest nature, you can still share the experience of cooking s’mores with family or friends. The nice thing about a fire pit is that it can be a focal point of activity all year round. It can keep you warm while you soak in some much needed sun light during the cold winter months and it can be used on the slightly chill summer nights to ward off the nip in the air as you cook s’mores and gaze at the stars—you know if you live in a location where you can actually see the stars.
A fire pit is fairly cheap at around $500. You can find some solid how-to guides on the internet that can guide you through the process. If you feel that making a fire pit is beyond your skill, you can spend a little more to hire contractors to build it. If you have never hired a contractor, you can sign up for a Home Remodeling Boot Camp. This workshop will help you construct a solid building contract, so that a lazy or smarmy contractor can’t make your life hell.
Flower Garden
A flower garden is a solid way to add aesthetic appeal to your yard. Flower gardens with the occasional tree and bush can add some much needed color to your yard. On top of that if the flowers are planted near your deck, you will be surrounded by their sweet aroma. Trees are a solid natural way to create shade on your property. While sun bathing is will give some people a natural tan, not all of us are blessed with that type of skin tone. Sometimes you have to build away to enjoy the outdoors without turning the color of a lobster.
Vegetable Garden
Vegetable gardens can be a way to spruce up your yard, and get a more tangible bang for your buck. Seeds can cost as little as $2 dollars per packet and fertilizer doesn’t add much more to your cost tally. At the end of the growing period, you will have loads of tasty organic fruit that will more than pay for the starting cost, another skill to add to your repertoire, and the pride that comes with successfully growing something. If you want a garden, but feel that your thumb is more wilted brown than green, you can hire someone to tend the plants on your yard.
Adding plants to the grounds around your house can also to make up for the carbon foot print that we build up as we go through our daily lives. Driving, purchasing food at the supermarket and many other activities releases more carbon dioxide into the environment than it can safely hold. While one tree or a small garden will not turn around the downward spiral we have ourselves in, adding plants to our property will at least slowdown that spiral
While the renovations can be expensive, you will more than make up for the cost in organic foods and use of the trees, the fire pit, and the deck. Decks and fire pits can be places for family and friends to gather all year round. Trees provide much needed aesthetic appeal and shady areas for the more fair skinned to lounge in the shade near their tanned skin friends and family. Gardens provide aesthetic and practical value to any yard as the organic food is supplied for home barbecues.
Wade Myer grew up under the watchful eye his father, a contractor, who taught him the tools of the trade. Even though he can swing a hammer with the best of them, he’s always been drawn to the written word where he can frame sentences rather than walls. Currently he writes on behalf of Steiner Homes LTD. who builds Schererville homes.