Posted by Leo T. Ly on November 3, 2017August 8, 2018
Before becoming a homeowner, I had absolutely no trades skill at all. I had never attended any trades skill schools, participated in any apprenticeship programs nor had I taken any DIY workshops. After becoming a homeowner, I had tackled and completed numerous DIY home renovation projects that saved me a bundle and increased the value of my properties by tens of thousands of dollars.
So how did I do it? Am I a naturally talented handyman? I would like to think so (this thought can really inflate my ego), but I am far from being the average handyman. The factors that allowed me to successfully completing all my DIY home renovation projects are quite simple. I always approach every project with a can-do attitude. I would do all my research and learn the skills that I need during the project. I often take my time and focus on the quality of my work rather than the pace.
Over the years, I had completed many projects ranging from very simple tasks to a full-blown major home makeover. In this post, I will share some of my money-saving DIY home renovation projects since I became a homeowner. Regardless of how simple or complicated the project was, the impact on my finance was quite meaningful. Many of these projects can be completed by any homeowner with very little trades skill required. Let’s take a look at the list.
10) Changing The Light Bulbs
If your current home or rental property is not using energy efficient light bulbs, then you are just wasting your money. Yes, the new energy-efficient light bulbs will cost you a few pretty pennies, but it’ll definitely be worth it. These energy efficient light bulbs use about 1/8 of the energy compared to the regular light bulbs and last up to ten years.
This project is simple and straightforward enough that it requires no trades skill at all. Over the lifetime of the light bulbs, you’ll more than recover the value of the light bulbs and will save a bundle. Plus, you are also doing the environment a huge favour.
So how many homeowners does it take to change a light bulb? Two. One to hold on to the stool or ladder, the light bulbs and turning the light switch and the other owner to change it. Safety first.
9) Painting
One of the simplest ways to increase the value of your home is to give it a fresh coat of paint. With painting, all you need to do is to find the right combination of neutral colours and to take your time. For the average house size of 1,700 square feet, it can cost you a couple of thousands of dollars in labour cost to hire professional painters. Doing this simple project can help you build more equity in your home.
8) Caulking And Grouting the Shower
Most of the caulking and grouting in your shower will wear down in about five years or so. If you want to protect your beautiful bathroom, you just have to remove the existing grout and caulking and apply a new layer. The cost of the material and tools will cost you less than a hundred dollars, but if you don’t maintain the shower, it can cost you thousands of dollars to renovate your bathroom down the road.
7) Changing Closet Doors
When I bought my first home, the master bedroom closet doors were a set of old and ugly brown laminate sliding doors. It was an eyesore. I went to Home Depot and bought a new set of sliding mirror doors that cost less than $100. After replacing the closet doors, it instantly made the room look bigger, more modern and my wife loved it because she could use the mirrors to match her outfits.
Once we saw the benefit, we started replacing all the closet doors in our home with sliding mirror doors. This little project instantly modernizes the whole house. The total cost was less than $500 and it only required a metal hand saw and a screwdriver. When we sold our home, we recovered every penny of the cost and a lot more.
6) Re-do Your Driveway’s Interlock
If you have an interlock driveway, over time it’ll become uneven due to your vehicle parking in a similar spot. When I bought my second house, the previous owner had been parking his truck in the same spot for more than 15 years and it created two eight inch deep tire tracks in the driveway. I used that as one of my negotiation factors to lower the purchase price.
After purchasing the house, I spent less than $500 to buy new gravels, sands, and tools to re-do my driveway’s interlock. All I had to do was remove the stones, filled the tire tracks, re-level the surface and re-lay the stones. To put this project into perspective, last year, my neighbour spent about $15,000 on his new driveway. He removed his old asphalt driveway and installed really nice interlock stones in his new driveway.
I was perfectly happy with having a leveled driveway with ugly stones to park my vehicles. The money that I saved, it afforded me a new 468 square feet wooden deck, a gazebo and BBQ grill on top of the deck, a new furnace and air conditioner set, and a lot more.
5) Building Storage Shelves
I don’t know if it’s me or just becoming a homeowner in general, the longer I own a home, the more junks I have. For my first home, it was just slightly larger than 1,000 square feet. So space was a luxury. I decided to install a metal shelve system on three of the walls in my garage to organize and de-clutter my home.
The shelving system costs about $1,200, but it more than paid for itself. I was able to store my snowboard gears, tennis equipment, ice skates, roller blades and all the stuff that I don’t use very often. These shelves created a lot of living space in our home. I liked it so much that I moved the shelving system to my second house. It was one of my best investments.
4) Changing Toilets
You must be thinking that I am nuts for telling the average person that she/he can change a toilet. No, I am not crazy and yes, the average person can change a toilet. With this easy Youtube video, the average person can really do it. Just follow the video step by step.
If you have a toilet that’s either using too much water per flush or it’s leaking water, you can change it and save yourself some money. Don’t let your money get flushed down the toilet (pun intended). Based on my experience of changing about half a dozen of toilets, it’s much easier if this is a two-person job.
3) Changing The Garage Door Opener
I never thought that I’ll be changing my garage door opener, but I had to shortly after purchasing my second home. If really sucks when it broke two weeks after you purchase the home, but what can you do? For my new garage door opener, it cost me about $100. When I tried to get an installation quote from the home improvement store that I bought the garage door opener, the estimate was almost twice the price of the item. No thank you.
To my surprise, it wasn’t very difficult. All I needed was a step ladder, a few screws and a screwdriver. If you have a power drill, it’ll make things easier. Once again, it’s just a little bit more challenging than changing a toilet.
2) Building A New Deck
For my first home, it came with a deck when I bought it. It was a great outdoor space and I loved spending time in my backyard. When I bought my second house, the backyard was a decent size and quite private. However, the only thing in the backyard was grass and I missed having a deck.
One day, while leisurely walking around the neighbourhood, we saw one of our neighbours was building a deck. So we talked to their contractor and invited the contractor to come over to our property to give us a quote. We wanted to build a deck about 300 square feet in our backyard and we got a wishy-washy estimate of about $12,000 to $15,000 from the contractor. We were not very happy with the quote so we postponed the decision to build the deck.
A year later, while I was on parental leave with the birth of my son, I somehow got bored. During my three weeks parental leave, I decided to build a deck from scratch. I did my research, watched a few Youtube videos from Lowes, purchased all the materials, hired a contractor to help me dig 10 post holes and I just built my deck.
In two weeks, with the help of my father-in-law and a couple of people on and off for a few hours, I built a 468 square feet (18’X26′) deck. The total material cost was about $6,000. I saved more than 50% of the total cost and got an extra 50% in outdoor living space. This was one of the best investment that I had ever made.
1) Building A New Kitchen
Many people think that building a kitchen is hard. Honestly, we just built my kitchen using Ikea’s easy to follow systems. We did a measurement of the kitchen dimension, noted the size and location windows, doors, power outlet and plumbing. We went to Ikea’s kitchen department and worked with their kitchen consultant to design our kitchen with their easy to use design tool.
The design took a few rounds of going back and forth, but it wasn’t too complicated. We ordered all the materials, got the blueprint and videos on how to build every part of the kitchen step by step. It took me and my then girlfriend a couple of weeks (we worked full-time) to complete. For a couple that had never used a drill, we completed it (and the kitchen is still in one piece after more than 12 years). The best part, we saved at least $10,000 in labour cost.
My Two Cents
If you are a homeowner, the best way to save money is to learn how to maintain and upgrade your home by finding easy DIY home renovation projects. Many projects around the home do not require superior trades skill nor powerful tools. Time, effort and a can-do attitude will help you tackle and complete most projects. If you haven’t tried yet, get started and let the saving begin.
So readers, what do you think of these money-saving DIY home renovation projects? Are you motivated to start any of these projects? Are there other money-saving DIY home renovation projects that you can share with this community?
