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There is a lot of tragedy taking place all over the world at the moment. Millions of people are currently spending all their time at home, rather than risk their health due to coronavirus. And while this pandemic has certainly upturned a lot of our lives, it also presents us with an opportunity. Chances are you are looking for something to do with all those extra hours you now have at home. To fill up that time, consider tackling some home maintenance and home improvement projects. You’re stuck inside anyway, so you might as well improve your home while you’re there. Here are some guidelines you can follow to improve your home while quarantined and keep yourself safe in the process.
Decide What You Want to Upgrade
The first thing you’ll need to do is decide what you want to upgrade. All homeowners have that mental list of things they’d like to change around their homes if they ever had the time. Well, now is your time to start.
Write down some of the projects you’ve been meaning to get to, then pick one or two that you want to focus on during this time. Pick the ones that either need the most attention, will improve the value of your home, or that you’ll simply have fun doing.
Calculate the Cost
Once you have a few projects in mind, now it’s time to calculate what it’s going to cost you. You don’t want to go into a home improvement project blind as they have a way of costing more than you expect.
Financial times are uncertain, so you must figure out the financial aspect of your project before you begin.
Go through each stage of the project and add up the costs for things like materials and tools. If you’re doing the project yourself, which you likely are because of the virus, you don’t need to add in the cost of labor, which is a nice benefit.
Spend some time browsing around at different online suppliers and get a rough idea as to what it will cost you to complete your project. The more accurate your estimate, the happier you’ll be when the project is done.
For help, use a home renovation calculator.
Learn to Do It Yourself
Now that you know the costs, you must learn how to complete the project. Type the project you want to complete into a search engine and look for examples and guides from other people who have completed it.
This is a great way to learn what goes into the project and make sure you can handle it before you begin. Even if you’re relatively handy, it’s still a good idea to conduct some research into the project.
You should feel comfortable with each step of the project before you start buying anything. Otherwise, you may end up wasting money if you can’t complete the project.
Order Your Supplies and Tools
Thanks to the current health crisis, it’s not the best time to be walking around your local hardware and craft stores. You need to stay home as much as possible, which means you’ll need to order your supplies online.
Thankfully, this is pretty easy to do. Most major retailers will allow you to browse their inventory online then ship your order right to your home.
If you can, consider calling up your local small businesses and see if they have what you need. Placing an order over the phone with your local hardware store will let you support a local business, and they may even be able to make suggestions based on your project. If they don’t offer shipping options, most will bring your order out to your car, so you don’t need to go into the store.
Prepare for Future Projects
While there’s a lot of projects you can get done now, some of them may have to wait. However, even in this case, you can still use this time to prepare for your future projects. For example, you can order the supplies you need now while they are on sale, then have a professional complete the project a few months down the road. Companies like www.BoyarsCabinets.com are even allowing their customers to place a small deposit on their products now to receive savings, then have the installation done at a later point.
Use this time to plan out the projects you want to do in the future and look for ways that you can save some money. Then start saving up the money so that when the time comes, you can get your project done sooner rather than later.
There isn’t a lot that you can do from home, but home improvement projects are certainly one of them. So, use this time to your advantage and start thinking about all the ways you can improve your home while you’re stuck in quarantine.
Krystle Cook – the creator of Home Jobs by MOM – put her psychology degree on a shelf and dived into a pile of diapers and dishes instead. She is a wife and mother to two rambunctious boys, sweating it out in her Texas hometown. She loves cooking, DIY home projects, and family fun activities.
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This really is a good idea. And, I’ve been seeing TV commercials here in KY suggesting that you give house painters, etc., work by hiring them to do outside jobs, while you are inside. If you can afford it, definitely help out painters, construction guys, carpenters by hiring them to do outside jobs around your house.
We hired a painter to paint our garage door faux wood. It looks amazing!
Great tips, we are getting ready to start a remodeling project. This will come in handy as we do each room.
What will you be remodeling in your house?
Painting walls, changing the flooring, regular tasks. Then we are going to paint our kitchen cabinets and move the island around. We are still working on my Quilting room. He still needs to make the table and put up some of my tubs. I have so many tubs. We are changing the cabinets in the bathrooms, I would love a walk-in shower.
Wow, it sounds like you have a lot of Home Improvement projects going on right now. Your place will look brand-new when you are done
Going to fix around the roof and other gutter parts that were leaking, had to wait until it’s dry, almost there now.
Fixing your roof sounds like a great home improvement project!
Thank you for sharing this great information. My family is all still working and don’t have much down time. We do have some things that need to get done though
We’ve been able to work too, thankfully, but at home. This has meant my husband has been home more to finish up some of those home improvement projects he’s been slacking on. He does stuff on breaks and lunch.