Masters in Construction Management

The wealth of most Americans is locked away in four walls and a lawn.  Owning your own home is the truest sense of the American dream, and is an investment that if managed properly will provide your family financial security for years to come.  As more and more Americans watch the value of their home plummet with each passing day, improving the value of your home is paramount to ensuring this source of wealth will survive the country’s worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Here are seven little known ways to improve your home’s value:

1.  Install new hardware:  door knobs, cabinet knobs, faucets—for home owners on a budget, installing new hardware is the simplest, most effective way at improving your homes value.  Hardware accents rooms, and gives bare cabinets and worn doors  a clean, luxury look.
2.  Mirror your walls:  mirrors accentuate the light in a room to make them warm, inviting, and more attractive.

3.  Ensure your doors and windows open smoothly.  Use paraffin wax for lubrication.

4.  Study the neighborhood: access the value of you home by examining the home sales of properties in your area.  Judge the value of a new kitchen, etc by looking for comparable properties that sold in your neighborhood with a new kitchen.

5.  Organize:  buyers are attracted to homes that are organizer-friendly.  Install garage cabinets, closet systems, and shelving to set your home apart.

6.  Remodel your kitchen:  families and couples alike spend a majority of their time while at home in the kitchen.  Remodel to give your kitchen a spacious, clean feel.  For the added touch, update your appliances.

7.  Use fluorescent light in bathrooms to give them a clean, invigorating feel.  Adding a glass shower door, towel racks, and fixtures will further improve the your bathrooms appeal.

Overall, buyers want a house that is put together well, with fine but not extravagant detail.  Achieve this and you will be on your way to increasing your home’s value.

The do-it-yourself spirit is a beautiful one and it lurks in every red blooded male. You only have to stoke it, take your wife’s permission, and you’re on your way to exploring your rugged creative self. The great thing is that the urge to do something with our hands – particularly to our homes, affects all of us from the “sharpest tool in the box” to the “empty attic”. We’ve decided to help you broaden the scope of your information on DIY home restoration and also network with guys that have lived through to recount achievements similar to yours notwithstanding the fall from the ladder and the windows installed crooked.

Here are 7 Twitter users that every DIY home restorer should follow.

1. DIYNetwork – This is the twitter page of perhaps the most elaborate DIY network on the net. The tweets inform you on what’s the latest project that can be of interest to you. Does your home have a garage? Are you looking for some creative DIY projects to do in the garage in the winter or would you rather waterproof the basement? Find links to projects and elaborate how-to videos on weather-sealing doors, repairing a loose carpet sea, installing a wall safe and much more.

2. FixTheHome – Tweets here lead to informative articles on home remodeling. The twitterer is not averse to retweeting good posts on the subject. A good way for you to get exposure if you have a site of your own. Plus, the site provides information on the best contractors out there; a nice way to cover that very remote possibility of something going wrong with your project and then having to turn to professional help.

3. HGTVPro – The tweets on the HGTVPro page cover all aspects of home remodeling. DIYourselfers can learn from the experience and insight of professional home builders on various best practices. Learn about the right tools for the job, the best ways to save money, and how to get it right the first time round itself. The tweets lead to idea-filled articles that are sure to fire your desire to pick up that long-neglected project of setting up a water-saving toilet.

4. ThisOldHouse – Official Twitter account for ThisOldHouse.com. If you’ve watched the Emmy-award winning television series then you know what to expect. The planning and ideas and the how-to and repair categories contain enough material to satisfy the knock-down and tear-apart urges of the most thoroughbred DIY champ.

5. ImproveYourHome – Home improvement and landscaping-related tweets here. You learn about new products and services related to home improvement. Perhaps the best thing about the tweets here is that they focus on eco-friendliness and using green products. You can also get your home improvement projects featured on their site.

6. houserepairtalk – Follow the tweets to a cool house repair forum where experienced DIY home repair enthusiasts meet to exchange ideas, commend, and commiserate. Brick-work, insulation, foundation, lawns, everything is covered in the timely tweets here.

7. NYTimes Home/Garden – Covers all things home and garden related including home repair. Tweets on well-thought of articles that will help the DIY guy think laterally, get ideas, and very importantly the superb content on the New York Times site will appeal to women too and will aid you in getting a buy-in of your better half for your home repair projects.

There’s basically no end to what you can do to spruce up your home and make it more live-worthy. Following these twitterers is going to make DIY home restorations that much more fun. Plus, there are ideas galore about the most appropriate home improvements for your budget and locality so that you will get you the best returns if you decide to put up your home for sale.