Electric Heat Pumps: Existing Tech for Energy-efficient Future

I have equity in my house, can I release it for home improvement projects? The Motley Fool UK

Dulux’s Colour of the Year is ‘Bright Skies’, a peaceful and uplifting baby blue that will turn your home into a warm embrace. They can help you enlarge rooms, add in clever storage features, build better connections to your other rooms, among many other things. They can also help House & Home Improvement ensure you navigate all the legal requirements correctly, such as building regulations and meeting the permitted development guidelines. For all the added value they can bring to your home and the legal troubles you get to avoid, these professionals are well worth the extra costs.

  • Beaded board lends a traditional touch to kitchens and bathrooms.
  • Give outdated floors a refresh with our step-by-step guide to painting and stenciling ceramic tile.
  • However, it’s actually best to tackle some home improvement projects before all your moving boxes and furniture get in the way.
  • If you’re planning on staying in the home for several years to come, it’s fine to indulge your tastes and make rooms feel like you.

Once you purchase your paint, make sure to prep the room by covering what is needed and opening windows, when necessary, for ventilation. Head over to your local nursery, farmer’s market or home improvement store and pick up some new plants. Line your driveway with flowers to welcome your guests and cover your backyard in colors that make you smile. Construction engineer worker,civil engineer checking work at the construction site, house construction concept.

He says the pandemic has forced many people to prioritize family life and adopt a more agile approach to their well-being. Musselwhite says the supply of treated lumber, the kind that’s going into all those new decks and fences, shrank early in the pandemic, as stay-at-home orders slowed production. With the huge spike in demand, prices for deck boards and fence posts more than doubled — and supply dried up. Similar with framing lumber, the type used to make the skeletons of single family homes. And a lot of the work going on in backyards slips under the radar of people like Anderson. Astoria Camille, for instance, is working on a scrappy project behind her mother’s home in Kansas City’s Troostwood neighborhood.

Conventional wisdom among estate agents is that kitchens and bathrooms sell homes, so if you’re thinking of improving with a view to selling on, this is a good place to start. A new kitchen can add 5% to the value of your home while a new bathroom can add 3% according to figures from Zoopla. If you refinance with an FHA loan, you’ll need 15% equity in your home.

Deep clean

Either team them with light voile drapes or do away with other window treatments altogether. If your water pressure is low and you don’t have a combi boiler, your shower is probably less than invigorating. Installing a pump to increase the pressure and a thermostatic shower valve to maintain the temperature will improve it no end. Go for a simple worktop, like laminate, which is generally the cheapest, in a finish illusion of a high-cost design. Faux marble is very on trend right now, and faux wood is a classic that won’t date – just avoid any orangey tones. Can be very expensive, therefore if on a budget go for the summer house or shed idea instead.

Getting a disabled facilities grant if you live in rented accommodation

No matter where we live, access to green space makes a big difference to our happiness levels; we found we’re significantly unhappier without it. Even if we don’t have a garden or balcony, bringing some greenery into our homes will improve our overall well being. Our homes are happier when we invite people to share them with us. This increases our pride in our homes, as well as the emotional connection we feel with where we live. Both of these factors are important drivers of home happiness. We’ve found that taking the time to improve our homes has a positive impact on home happiness, regardless of whether we enjoy the process itself or not.

Reasonable and practical, given the age of your home and the condition it’s in. For example, if your home need serious repairs, it might not be practical to do the work you need. If your home is in need of repair, your landlord might have to do the repairs you need.

Stocks listed on overseas exchanges may be subject to additional dealing and exchange rate charges, administrative costs, withholding taxes and different accounting and reporting standards. They may have other tax implications, and may not provide the same, or any, regulatory protection. Exchange rate charges may adversely affect the value of shares in sterling terms, and you could lose money in sterling even if the stock price rises in the currency of origin. Any performance statistics that do not adjust for exchange rate changes are likely to result in an inaccurate portrayal of real returns for sterling-based investors. We spend so much time indoors that it’s worth fixing things up to make your house a home.