|
| Saturday, December 03, 2005 |
| Working on my home improvement fund |
As I have mentioned before, I opened an HSBC savings account and am ear-marking the money saved in that account for home improvements.
I purchased my home in Spring of 2004 and moved in June 2004 after doing some initial work. Now that I have built my savings back up to a comfortable level (at least comfortable for me), I am turning my attention to what's next.
The list of projects I would like to tackle on the house are far too long. The home is definitely a "fixer-upper". After much thought, I decided to tackle the projects from outside/in. Now, I realize that is rather reverse logic. Most folks concentrate on the interior of the home first, then worry about the exterior. I feel that I should concentrate on the outside first because frankly more people see the outside than the inside and since most of the inside work is cosmetic in nature I feel that it can wait. If I can deal with the pink and black 50's bathroom and the peach and brown 80's kitchen then so be it. As long as everything functions on the inside I am ok with dealing with the visual assault.
The exterior of the home needs some real work. The most ambitious project I am hoping to tackle is adding a second driveway. The street that I live on does not allow parking (at all). My current driveway just fits two compact cars (one car can't open its passenger-side doors - since the car has to pull up against a wall for both cars to fit - it is that tight). This works fine since my tenant has one car and I have one car and both fit. The problem arises when I have workmen or deliveries. Currently they pull onto the sidewalk in front of the house and hope a cop does not ticket them. Anything over a 15 minute stop becomes a real nail bitter. Guests generally park in a public lot and walk across a park and then across the street to the house.
Having the second driveway which hopefully can fit two cars (need approval for that - otherwise will probably just fit one car) will double my existing parking and make life a bit easier now and should improve the value of the home if I ever sell it. Currently the area where the future driveway will be is a slope-y side yard which I visit only to mow. It has a retaining wall which runs along the sidewalk. This wall is cracked and needs to be replaced anyway. So the driveway will need to be excavated and new retaining walls put in. A big expensive job.
The next exterior home improvement I am hoping to tackle is my backyard. Currently my small backyard is not very good for entertaining. I am hoping to add more retaining walls (do we sense a theme?) to push back the slope and get more level grass area, add a deck, and put in plantings to help screen me from my neighbors and improve the overall outdoor experience.
Lastly, the exterior of the house needs to be painted.
Once the driveway is in, the landscape improved, and the house painted the curb appeal of this property should sky-rocket. More importantly I will gain that parking and enjoy the outdoor space a lot more.
I am now working on gathering realistic numbers on how much these projects should cost and hope to pay a good portion of them through savings. If I have to I can take out a home equity loan, but hope to avoid adding too much debt to my balance sheet. Before I purchased the home I thought about maintenance costs. Most people seems to concur that a homeowner should expect to pay between 1 - 2% of a homes value yearly for maintenance and upkeep. Since my home is currently valued at $400,000 that means I should expect to pay between $4,000 - $8,000 per year. Obviously some years you pay very little and other years you pay far more, but if it averages out to this yearly amount over the time you own the home then you are doing ok.
Hopefully I am on the right track with all of this - if I am making some big mistake or you think I should be approaching this differently please let me know - I value the comments! |
| posted by Boston Gal @ 3:42 PM *
* Subscribe to Boston Gal's Open Wallet |
Links to this post:
|
| 2 Comments: |
-
Be aware of the rising costs of construction materials (steel and concrete just to name a few). Despite the costs, I think an additional driveway is definitely a good idea.
-
I've heard that renovating the exterior of a home can cause it to be re-evaluated for property taxes, which wouldn't be too cool if it's true (government taking more of your money).
|
| |
| << Home |
| |
|
|
|
|
Be aware of the rising costs of construction materials (steel and concrete just to name a few). Despite the costs, I think an additional driveway is definitely a good idea.