What to Consider When Adding On

Additions can be a good way to get more functionality out of your home. Your addition might be an extra bedroom for your expanding family, a home office to provide you with a space to work from home, or even a sunroom or hobby area. Your add-on might even be a way to add more space to existing rooms, removing or extending walls to let your current kitchen, bedroom, or other area flow seamlessly into your new addition. There are just so many possibilities. Regardless of what you plan to use the room for, though, adding on to your house is a big undertaking and may be kind of a big investment as well. Even relatively small additions can be a big project, so it’s important that you know exactly what your plans will entail before you start work on expanding your home. To help with this, here are a few things to consider when making plans to add on to your home. Planning the Expansion Though you may have a good idea of where you want your addition to go, it’s important to spend some time actually planning it out. Consider details such as where the property line is located, whether there are any size or location restrictions based on state and local building codes, and whether there will be issues with the location of utilities or the slope of your property that could cause problems. Taking the time to rule out potential problems with your addition now will save you a lot of headaches down the road. Another thing to keep in mind is how well your addition will combine with your existing home. While you obviously have a good reason to want more square footage, if you just have an added room tacked awkwardly onto your home, it can have a major impact on your home’s overall value. A good addition will blend seamlessly into your existing home, matching the exterior and making it difficult to tell that an add-on was made down the road. Cost and Investment Depending on the sort of addition you want to make, the budget for your add-on can fall within a pretty wide range. It’s very important that you spend some time researching exactly what it will take to make your expansion plans a reality. The time of year, materials costs, and factors such as the size and types of materials you choose will all affect how much you’re going to have to spend. Taking the time to do a bit of research and consult with your contractor about the options available to you can end up making a big difference in the final cost of your expansion. This is important not just because of the immediate impact to your pocketbook, but also the overall difference that it makes on your home’s value. All the money that you put into your addition is an investment in your home, and you want to get the biggest return on that investment that you can. Making smart choices and not letting your budget balloon out of control will go a long way toward maximizing your home’s value in comparison to the cost of your add-on. It’s more work now, but you’ll be thanking yourself if you find yourself wanting to sell your home at some point down the road. Moving Forward With Your Addition Choosing the right contractor is one way that you can affect the overall cost of your addition and maximize the return on your investment. HomeKeepr can help you with this, matching you with contractors and other pros in your area based on real recommendations from people that you already know and trust. Best of all, creating a HomeKeepr account is free. Sign up for an account today and get started finding the right professional to make your expansion dreams come true without breaking the bank.  

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Carving Out Your Home Office Space

When COVID-19 emerged, a lot of employers realized the advantage of allowing at least some employees to work from home. Not only can it act as a benefit for employees, but it can also help to reduce the cost of stocking and maintaining a physical office space. As a result, the number of people working in home offices has increased significantly over the last few years. This trend will likely continue as well, since companies are realizing that many employees like a work-from-home option and are actively seeking out WFH positions. While there are definite advantages to this, it does bring up one potential problem: If your home wasn’t designed with a home office in mind, where are you going to put it? While some people solve this problem by just sticking a desk in the living room or bedroom, that isn’t exactly an elegant solution, and doesn’t afford you much privacy for work. If you need a new home office space, here are some suggestions that might help you find the room that works for you. Determining Your Home Office Needs In general, a home office may be kind of small in scope compared to what you might be used to in a corporate office setting. While you’ll certainly have some requirements that your office must meet, they aren’t going to be as elaborate as if you were planning out an office layout at the workplace. To figure out exactly what you need for your home office, start by making a list. Most likely you’ll need a computer and a desk, since the internet is usually what makes the “from home” part of work-from-home possible. You may also need a printer and printing supplies, even though a lot of your work will likely be submitted in digital format. From there it gets a bit more specific to you and the way that you work. Will you need sticky notes or a whiteboard to aid your productivity? Does your job require any sort of special equipment to perform? Do you have privacy requirements, either personal ones or legal ones (such as if you’re processing customer/patient data)? Make a list of everything that you’ll need your home office to provide. Consider Your Available Space Once you have a good idea of your home office needs, start looking at places in the home that might meet those requirements. It may mean converting a craft room, study, or den into an office, or rearranging furniture to make room for the desk to make those rooms into multi-purpose spaces. You may have to shuffle around a few different rooms to come up with the space that you want. Some people have even converted walk-in closets or pantries into home offices that are small but get the job done. Regardless of how you work things out, just make sure that the office area you choose fully meets your needs before you settle into it. You should also keep track of the square footage of your new home office for tax purposes, since you may be eligible for a tax break on your home office depending on where you live. Home Office Alternatives While the most common way that people create a home office is to shuffle things around and set up an office space within the home, there are other options available as well. If no space in your home meets your specific needs, you might consider hiring a contractor to build an addition that matches the specs of the home office that you want. Another option is to install a large shed or other outdoor building and convert it for home office use. Not only do these options give you the space that you need, but they may also help to better define the line between “work” and “personal time” at home. If you think that an addition or external office is right for you, HomeKeepr can help you find the pros that you need to make it happen. Contractors, electricians, external building installers, and more can be found on our app, ready to match with you and make your home office dreams come true. Creating a HomeKeepr account is free, so sign up today. It’s the first step toward the home office that you need and want!

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Is Your Home Ready for Climate Change?

With the planet growing increasingly warm, the climate is changing rapidly. It’s not just getting hotter, it’s also getting colder, and stormier, and drier, and more extreme in every dimension. As a homeowner, you’re going to have to make sure your house can keep up with all that nature is trying to throw at it, no matter where you live. Is your home ready? Here’s a short list to check. Do You Know Your Climate Risks? Before you can get your house ready for the weather, you need to know what risks you face. The normal weather hazards you grew up with may be changing dramatically as some areas get warmer and wetter. If you were once in an area that was prone to dramatic weather shifts, watch for even more dramatic weather, and keep track of the new challenges that seem to repeat. These are the hazards to prepare for. Long-term weather forecasting can help somewhat, but those models can’t always account for things like drought and wildfires. Insulate and Weatherproof Your Home No matter what kinds of climate shifts your area experiences, there’s absolutely a benefit to adding insulation and sealing the cracks in your home. Insulation works both ways: it keeps the warm in where it’s cool and it keeps the cool in where it’s warm. Sealing and weatherproofing further help you spend less on energy on extreme weather days and can help keep pests out of your home too. Consider a Household Generator When the weather gets dramatic, the true fragility of the power grid starts to show. Whether it’s an ice storm in January that pulls down branches and power lines, extreme heat that taxes the power grid so much that rolling blackouts are required to keep things going, or wildfires or hurricanes that temporarily, and unpredictably, cause power outages, a household generator can be a good solution. Because they run on propane or natural gas, you don’t need electricity to keep your house powered through the worst kinds of weather, just enough gas to run the motor and generate electricity for your home. Add Big Drains for Big Rains If you’re seeing more rain than usual, a quick and dirty solution can be adding a sump pump under your home or in your basement. Even if you never use it, having a sump pump and a drain to match will ensure that you’re not going to be underwater when torrential rains dump inches and inches of water on the ground. Sump pumps might be no match for dramatic flash flooding, but adding yard drains and ensuring that your yard is properly graded can help you move water away from your home faster, no matter how much is pouring from the sky. Protect From Wind and Flying Debris Tornadoes and hurricanes are terrifying, especially in areas that don’t normally see these kinds of wind events. If you’re starting to hear more about high winds in your area, it’s time to protect your home from flying debris. Although covering windows with plywood will work in a pinch, permanently installed storm shutters are even better. You can close them over your windows in no time, and reopen them when the threat has passed. A storm shelter can also be a good thing to have around if you’re in a storm-prone area. Although storm shutters are great to protect glass from flying debris, in case the roof comes off in a storm or a tree falls on your house, you still need to be somewhere safe. Storm shelters are great for homes without basements, especially where tornadoes and fast-moving but short-lasting, winds are a problem. Need Help Making These Changes? If you’re needing help getting your home ready for more extreme weather, it’s ok! Just ask your friendly HomeKeepr community for recommendations for all the best shutter installers, weatherproofers, tree trimmers, and generator experts in your area. They’ll be happy to help, and you’ll know you’re getting the very best team in your area.

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