SayEducate

The house that you bought three, five, or even ten years or more ago was the perfect home for your needs at that time. Fast forward to today and the way that you live has changed, so much so that your current living arrangement is cramped or out of date.

Should you sell your home or should you opt for a renovation? Not an easy question to answer, but one that can be answered by asking yourself several lead up questions. There aren’t any right answers, but the way that you answer each question and the weight that you give to each will. Let’s take a look at several questions you may want to ask yourself:

What are the property values in your neighborhood? Are they going up, down, or are they staying flat? If you’re in a market where prices are falling, selling now could mean that you might lose some money unless the home that you are considering buying has also dropped in price. Pay close attention to real estate agent comps!

Where is the new home located? The further the new home is away from your current residence, the greater your expenses of moving will be, never mind the hassles related to making any move. If you’re staying in the neighborhood, your costs will be limited mostly to moving charges and closing costs, but if you leave your zip code your moving costs will increase, your kids may need to switch schools, your car and homeowners insurance rates could change, etc.

Would your home benefit from a renovation, particularly an expansion? If you need an extra room and a bath, your newer home won’t be much larger than the home you previously had. However, if you’re considering an entire addition that will add 50% more living space to your home, how will your newly renovated home compare with homes in the neighborhood? Homes that dwarf the size of houses on the same street rarely return their full investment.

Will your needs be met regardless of the choice made? Will renovating your current home or moving to a new one resolve your living space needs for the long term? If you’re simply looking at getting an extra room for your teenager, renovating attic space may be the most cost effective renovation chosen. If you’re family is still growing, a new home could be the better choice.

Of course, other factors should be considered when making any change:

• Is your job stable?
• Will you need to make another change within the next few years?
• Do you like your current neighborhood?
• Can you do some of the remodeling yourself?
• If you choose to move, will you rent a truck and move everything yourself?

Finally, map out the amount of living space you will need over the next five years and compare renovating your current home to buying a larger home. Whether you choose to renovate or sell, having all of the information in front of you is the best way to make a sound decision.

I thought that it was only we Americans who had difficulty managing all of our stuff. Our homes are bigger, our play things more abundant, and our lives are seem much more complicated. We just have too many goods to manage, but we’re not the only ones who are finding their space too limiting.

Rather than just being an American problem, the accumulation of goods is a middle class phenomenon, something people in Canada, the UK, Italy, Japan, and yes, even in China and India are dealing with. I can’t speak for the rest of the world and probably not for every American, but when was the last time you actually put your car in your garage?

Yes, the family garage is now a storage room as is the attic, basement, and the storage shed out back. If we’re honest with ourselves, we should cut back on possessions and keep only what we need.

I’m not here to dispense to guilt, rather to encourage you to consider some ways to manage your clutter.  Managing your possessions keeps them clean and usable and can have a good side effect: your garage suddenly has room for your car!

4 Tips To Help You Organize Your Stuff

If you’re in need of a decluttering, I offer to you the following tips:

Sell Or Give Away What You Don’t Need – Garage and yard sales are a great way to reduce clutter, allowing you to move out stuff you don’t need, while taking in some cash. If you absolutely would rather get rid of what you have without holding a sale, consider donating your goods to Goodwill, the Salvation Army, Vietnam Vets, or some other organization. Mostly anything can be given away instead of thrown away, keeping our dumps from accumulating household goods.

Renovate The Garage — One of the least costly ways to get more room for all of your stuff, is to renovate an existing part of the house to hold what you need. Buy shelving, storage bins, hang up hooks, build counters, etc. along the perimeter of the garage to house what you know that you will use. If not the garage, consider the attic or basement areas of your home for a storage make over. Finally, if you don’t see something being used ever again, get rid of it.

Build A Shed – If you don’t already have a shed, consider building one. Raised floors, shelving, windows, and doors will add to the price of the unit, but if you plan on storing anything of value, then don’t spare on the project. Metal sheds are priced from $350, plastic sheds run about $700 on up, and wood sheds start around $900 and can easily climb to over $5000 when shingles, double pane windows, drywall, and electrical hook up are included.

Rent Storage — All of those storage units sprouting up are housing something, right? Well at about $50 per month on up, you can store everything you want, can’t get rid of, but don’t need right now at these types of facilities. Some are climate controlled, gated, and manned by security personnel. Others are much more basic, but every one of them allows you to secure your own space.

Easily, we can sort through our stuff and get rid of what we don’t want or need. But, when you need the room and you’re dying to declutter, then expanding your storage capacity makes perfect sense. Otherwise, selling your home and getting a bigger one becomes a costly and time consuming way to manage what you own.

Home Improvement on a Budget!

When it comes to unused spaces in many homes, garages are usually at the top of the list. After all, who really parks their cars in them anyway?

Seriously, if garage space could be better utilized for something else, then why not convert your garage into living quarters? Homeowners looking to add a spare bedroom, living room, or an office are the chief reasons to convert a garage and, compared to the cost of extending your home in a bid to add living space, a garage conversion makes perfect sense.

Of course, before you convert your garage for residential use, you’ll have to find a place to stash all of the stuff now stored in it. Do the following and you’ll get garage clutter under control in no time:

Hold a garage sale – Yes, sell off whatever you don’t need by holding a sale in the very room to be converted. If too cluttered for that, your driveway or lawn will do, but make this a top priority. Likely, you have boxes of old dishes, books, and knick knacks that aren’t ever going to be used again, so why not devote part of a Saturday to selling unwanted stuff off?

Rearrange the shed – Snow tires, tools, outdoor furniture and the like can be stored in your shed. If you don’t have an “out building” head over to the local big box retailer and invest in one big enough to store your seasonal items in and then some.

Recycle, reuse – Some stuff in your garage you may not find reusable, but throwing everything in the dump isn’t particularly environmentally responsible either. Give away what you don’t need as, even if something is broken, a handy person could see that piece of trash as a potential treasure find.

With all that stuff in your garage moved to the shed, up to the attic, or off of your property, you’re ready to begin the job. Of course, if you can do-it-yourself you’ll save thousands of dollars on a home renovation, but if you want to contract the project out you’ll need to hire someone to do the job for you.

When contracting out, consider:

Hire a general contractor to handle everything – Having one person in charge of the project is usually the best way to go. The contractor can determine exactly what needs to be done and get the right people to complete the walls, ceiling, floor, carpeting, electrical, heating, cooling, plumbing, etc.

Do some of the work yourself – Maybe you have a talent for drywalling or you prefer to hang your own lighting fixtures. Give those projects you don’t want to do to your contractor and handle the rest yourself.

Assemble a team of weekend professionals – If your garage conversion isn’t all that complicated, that is, only the garage doors need to be removed and replaced, one wall added, and flooring put in, assembling a team of handy friends could help you knock out the project in just one weekend. Naturally, if plumbing or electrical work needs to be done, then you’ll have to have one or two professionals among your team or hire these people to step in as needed.

What Will Your Town Say?

In some areas converting a garage to a home isn’t a simple process especially where local governments are concerned. Familiarize yourself with local building codes and check your association’s compact as any type of conversion could be a “no go”. Some municipalities will allow you to convert your garage as long as the exterior of that space still looks like a garage. In that case you can place a wall behind the garage doors or leave everything “as is” and convert the rest of the room.

Special Touches That Make A Difference

Natural lighting can be a problem in some former garage areas, necessitating the addition of a skylight or the conversion of a pair of regular windows into a bay window. Most certainly you can add recessed lighting throughout the room, but if you want to cut down on energy usage, considering maximizing natural lighting.

If extending the current heating and cooling system to the garage is too expensive, consider utilizing portable air conditioning and heating units to do the job instead. Modern, updated, and safe heating and cooling appliances can be a wise way to control your new room’s climate, regulating temperatures to meet the specific needs of that room. Besides, if you have plenty of computer equipment in the room, you may find having dedicated cooling equipment the best way for you to protect your investment.

Built in shelving can help you maximize floor space while keeping everything in order. A built in ceiling to floor wood cabinet unit can hold your television, stereo equipment, books, files, and much more.

Lastly, when deciding to choose a garage conversion, realistically assess how that new room could impact the value of your home. You may not have plans to sell, but if you do, would buyers want to change the room back into a garage to protect their Porsche 911 and Lexus LS? The more permanent your renovation, the less likely it could be easily changed. Then again, the addition of a new living area could add value to your home.

Resources

Finance Your Home Renovation

Look Over House Plans

Renovation Tips — Working With A Contractor

Take Out A Home Equity Loan