Carrying Out Building Work Around Your Home

Renovating a dated and run down home is an excellent way to increase the value of the property and make it more comfortable and attractive. It's a great way to get a home that you love without the headache and expense of building a brand new home. As well as making the house more aesthetically pleasing, your renovation project should also focus on ways of modernising the house to suit your contemporary lifestyle. Here are three renovation elements that will help to bring your dated home into the modern age.

1. Add an ensuite

Before the last few decades, most homes were built with only one family bathroom. These days, an ensuite bathroom for the main bedroom is a virtually ubiquitous feature in recently built or newly built homes. Adding an ensuite will make your home more practical and will also ensure that it appeals to potential buyers if you decide to sell.

If space permits, an ensuite can be accommodated by partitioning off a small area of the main bedroom. If this isn't a feasible option, then a small extension might be in order. Although this is more expensive, it's a relatively minor extension project and is often worth the expense in order to gain a decent sized ensuite without losing floor space.

2. Reconfigure the living space

In older homes, the living space is generally made up of a series of separate rooms for the kitchen, dining room and living room. This is the opposite of the open plan, multi-purpose living spaces that are so popular in modern homes. Reconfiguring the layout of your living space will add make a modern home feel more contemporary, spacious and bright.

Generally, achieving this will entail the removal of one or more internal walls. Once the walls have been removed, then you can work with your new open floor space to find a new layout that makes the most of the new space and works well as a family living hub. Sometimes, you may need to rethink the location of your plumbing so that the kitchen can be placed in a superior location within the new space.

3. Connect with your outdoor living space

Another key element in modern home design is creating a flow from the inside of your home to your external living spaces. This may be an existing deck or patio or an entirely new structure that's a part of your overall renovation project.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to add external doors in replacement of older style windows. Bifold doors, French doors or sliding glass patio doors are the best choice for this. They provide a link between the indoor and outdoor areas with no visual barrier even when the doors are closed. They'll also introduce more of the much desired natural light into your home. For more information, contact a local building contractor.