Whether you were trying to spruce up that old home of yours for resale, or looking to make your new house a little more homey and a little more personal, you've probably been bitten by the renovation bug at some point.
When the urge to revamp strikes, you could always call reliable contractors and get estimates to have them take care of the project (hopefully seamlessly.)
But if that's not in the budget, or you prefer to do things yourself, you might find yourself in need of guidance on how to make your vision come alive. (Or else you might end up with a scene like the one depicted in that "unmotivation" poster above!)
In this post, we're going to provide you with five of the best resources we've found online for teaching you how to do almost any renovation or repair project on your home. So get out your pen and paper and write these sites down, so you'll know where to find them later when you just can't wait to start knocking down walls!
This comprehensive site, which is run by popular home improvement network HGTV, is completely dedicated to providing easy-to-follow video guides for any do-it-yourself project you can think of, including home renovations. From Installing Cabinets to tricky Plumbing and Electrical jobs, this site has videos to tackle whatever you're trying to do.
As concern for the environment grows (as well it should), it is becoming more and more common for homeowners to be worried about the green-ness of their renovations. If you fall into the eco-conscious renovator category, you won't want to miss this excellent site.
It is provided as a free resource centre by the US Green Building Council (Creators of the LEED standards for green homes that is also promoted by the Canada Green Building council north of the 49th, and has been mentioned on this blog before.) It is all about ways to make your home renovations as green as possible.
I'm sure you've heard old adages like "measure twice, cut once" and "an ounce of preparation is worth a pound of cure." (And then there's "don't use too many cliches in your writing in order to keep it fresh", but I digress.) The point is, with a renovation, like any other endeavour, it can really pay of to plan carefully before you start tearing down walls and replacing fixtures.
Luckily, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Commission (CMHC) provides the most in-depth guide I've seen online for choosing and executing renovations based on need, cost and return on investment. Definitely worth a read.
In this age of web 2.0 collaboration and wikization of the web, I would be remiss if I didn't include the foremost for-the-people-by-the-people how-to resource online, eHow. This site is a sort of grassroots organization similar to wikipedia, where anyone who signs up can write or edit articles on myriad different subjects. The only difference is that on eHow, articles must be guides for completion of specific projects, and members can vote these up or down so that, in theory, the cream rises to the top. These are also supplemented by a number of expert-written guides.
The site features nearly half a million different articles, nearly 5000 of which are on the top of home remodeling and repairs (the section linked to above.) There is also a burgeoning how-to videos section of the site as well, the Home and Garden section of which can be found here. Between this site and the DIY network, you should be able to find step-by-step instructions for completing whatever project you have in mind.
As the former owner of a professional painting company, I may sound biased in saying this, but we all know that every reno ends with a paint job. And whether you tackle it yourself or pay a pro to take care of it, at some point you're going to run up against the age old question: "What colours should we choose?"
Of course, if you're priming your home for sale (no pun intended), I had some advice on choosing appropriately neutral paint colours in a previous article about prepping the interior of your home for sale. But if you're renovating and choosing paint colours just for you and yours, then the sky is the limit. The problem with deciding on colours, however, can often be that it is difficult to visualize them in your home from those small swatches.
Enter BEHR's excellent ColorSmart tool. With this utility, you can choose a model of room that is similar to the one you'll be painting, and then simply point and click to see how different colour combinations will look together. The site also makes suggestions for complimentary colours and the like. All in all, well worth checking out for anyone struggling with visualizing that final touch.
There is also a paid service offered on the same site that allows you to upload actual photos of your home and colour them using the ColorSmart system, instead of using computer models. I'm not sure this is really necessary for most people, but if it interests you, it's only 5 bucks a year for unlimited use.
Of course, this list could go on, there are hundreds of thousands of sites on home improvement on the web, but these are the five that we've found to be the most thorough and comprehensive of the bunch.
What do you think, do you find them helpful? Are there any resources you would add to the list? Let me know in the comments, and I maybe lengthen the list to 10 at a later date.
0 comments
Post a Comment