10 Remodeling Projects To Bring Value To Your Home

Top 10 projects

Here are Remodeling's top 10 projects. You'll notice that these are not ambitious, vanity jobs. All are projects that replace worn or aged home components, bring parts of the home up-to-date or add living space without expanding the home's footprint:

1. Replacing exterior siding with upscale fiber cement. Siding pays back a whopping 78%, on average, of the $13,461 average cost. The most cost-effective thing you can do to your home this year is to replace old siding with new, higher-end fiber cement.
2. Replacing an entry door with a midlevel 20-gauge steel door is an inexpensive upgrade at $1,238 on average, but it pays back 73% and greatly improves curb appeal.
3. A midrange attic bedroom remodel involves popping out a dormer for a 5-by-7-foot bathroom with shower, insulating and finishing the walls and ceiling, adding four windows, extending the heating and air conditioning and improving wiring and lighting. The payback is 72.5% on the $50,148 expenditure. More living space is being sought as adult children are driven back to their parents' homes by the shaky economy and as older parents join the households of their adult children. An attic remodel is the cheapest way to add space and a bathroom within the house. A basement remodel is the next most cost-efficient way to add living space, although code requirements for headroom and exterior doors make that project more complicated and more expensive
4. A midrange minor kitchen remodel paid back 72.1% of the $19,588 investment. Included are new laminate countertops and new sink, faucets and appliances. The floor is untouched and cabinets are kept in place but refaced with new hardware added. In today's tough times, kitchen and bath remodels are pale imitations of the lavish vanity projects from the housing boom. Most consumers are shunning the expensive spa baths and chef's kitchens that involve moving electrical services, plumbing and walls.
5. A midrange garage door replacement may not be high on many wish lists; it's one of those jobs that you do because it's needed. But it adds curb appeal and function, and it pays back 71.9%, on average, of the $1,512 average cost.
6. A high-end garage door replacement recoups almost as much: 71.1% of the $2,994 average cost.
7. A new wood deck earns back 70.1%, on average, of its $10,350 cost at resale this year.
8. New foam-backed vinyl siding replacement keeps the house warm and pays back 69.6% of its $14,274 average cost. The average project involves 1,250 square feet of siding, including trim.
9. New midrange replacement vinyl siding upgrades the look of the home and pays back 69.5% of the $11,729 average price.
10. Upscale vinyl replacement windows have a 69.1% payback on the $14,328 cost. The project involves replacing 10 double-hung 3-by-5 windows. The new windows are low-emissivity glass and are insulated with simulated wood-grain trim.

10 Ways To Make That Room Look Bigger

1. Removing Needless Things
You've got to leave some breathing room. Emptiness allows the eye to travel someplace and rest. Every space will feel bigger if you leave some things out.

2. Hang Curtains
Take the doors off doorways and closets and replace them with a curtain. Doors are a huge impediment to flow, and they take up space when they're open.

3. Arrange Closets And Make Sure They're Well Lit
Well-organized closets are essential. And if there's no lighting in there already, always install lights, closet is only 50 percent useful if you can't see in it.

 4. Let There Be Light
Have at least three points of light at eye level in each room and turn them on! By giving your eyes multiple focus points, lamps help expand a room visually, creating the illusion of more depth and space.

5. Use Rope Lighting
Buy LED rope lighting by the yard and put it anywhere in your closet at shoe level, as up-lighting on top of kitchen cabinets, and under cabinets for counter lighting.

6. Make a Mirror Image
Mirrors an old, neat trick help make any room feel more expansive, and they double the light.

7. Create Contrast With Color
Stain the floor dark, use light colors on walls, and paint the ceiling a lighter white. This helps the eye travel up the walls, giving a sense of more space.

8. Include Oversized Elements
Don't be afraid to go big. Someone with a small bedroom should build/buy a huge four-poster bed.Really kicks the room up a notch

9. Reach New Heights
Floor-to-ceiling curtains make walls seem taller and windows larger. Do this with your shower curtain, too, to create the impression of a big, luxurious shower.

10. Wash your windows!
The eyes stop at a dirty window, but the gaze travels out through clean glass.