It’s always exciting when you’ve been searching for a new place to live and you finally discover the home that is just right for you. There’s a feeling of elation, a moment when all feels right in the world as you step across the threshold of the house that you’ve been dreaming of. You begin to imagine what life will be like there, and if you have a family the kids quickly start picking out their new rooms. Home is comfort to us, and gives us our special, safe place in the world.
As time goes on, we often find new projects that we’d like to do around our home. Many times, there are small fixes but sometimes we start thinking about remodeling or adding to our homestead. This has been especially true during the pandemic, as where we live became our office space and a school classroom too. With this triple purpose use of our square footage, many dwellings were suddenly too cramped to handle everything that was going on. Homeowners began to map out projects that could add newly needed space and functionality to their house.
How to Finance Your Home Improvements
If you are going to take on some extensive remodeling projects, the first thing you’ll need to figure out is how to pay for everything. While simple upgrades or new touches are fairly inexpensive, adding square footage can cost a lot more. You’ll want to make sure you have your financing in place, so you can get exactly what you want. One of the best ways to pay for major home upgrades is to take out a loan from a private lender. With personal loans, you can get the money you need right away and then you can pay the project costs off over time. If you apply and get approved ahead of time, you’ll have the comfort of knowing that all the funding is set before you hire your contractors.
Adding Square Footage for a Home Office
Before the pandemic, the vast majority of employees had to fight their way through traffic and commute to the office every day. Most companies and bosses frowned upon the idea of working from home. Now, with social distancing and isolation the norm, many employers have policies requiring their staff to do their work from home. Grabbing space at the kitchen table or in the corner of a room might work for a week or so, but in the long run it’s simply not acceptable.
If you want to add space to your cramped layout, you might consider shopping for an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU). Many communities now have zoning that allows you to add an ADU, or small secondary unit, to your back yard. With this addition, you’ll have a stand-alone building to use as an office each day. When the pandemic ends and you resume working at your office, you’ll be able to earn extra income by renting the ADU to a tenant.
Creating Multi-Purpose Space in Your House
With schooling taking place via Zoom these days, many parents have had to wrestle with kids trying to learn in their cluttered bedrooms. Having to sit at a small desk in a cramped room is certainly no way to learn. It’s far better to design a comfortable environment for learning, living and sleeping.
One of the ways you can accommodate the multiple demands is to redesign the space around built-ins. Instead of a bed that takes up most of the floor area, install a Murphy bed and desk combination. In the morning, you can raise the bed and store it in the wall. From there, you can use the built-in desk for remote learning and for homework too. If you replace open shelves with custom cabinets, you can improve the storage space and keep the clutter in the room to a minimum.
