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WETCHESTER
HOME RENOVATION |
Quality siding, windows, decking, and
roofing add to your home’s value and appearance
Quality home renovation is one of the best investments you
can make to improve the curb appeal – and the resale value
– of your house in Westchester County. The professionals at
My Home Full Service Remodeling Specialists have years of experience
designing and installing thermal replacement windows, new siding,
high quality roofing, beautiful decking, and clean, fresh gutters
and downspouts to help clients with home remodeling. Along with
professional landscaping, these are proven and cost-effective ways
realtors recommend to maximize a home’s value. When you decide
to sell, a home that’s been well maintained and updated will
capture the interest of potential buyers far more easily than a
house that’s been allowed to run down.
Some factors that often encourage residents to stay in their present
suburban communities are the convenience of train service for commuters,
the desire to remain in a comfortable, friendly neighborhood, and
ties with friends and neighbors. And in today’s market, when
prices are stabilizing, it can be more sensible to stay and renovate,
or even add on, than to trade up.
Exterior remodeling adds value to Westchester
homes
Taking care of your Westchester home by investing in home remodeling
benefits you in several ways. First, as long as you live there,
the appearance of your home tells people something important about
your values – your self-respect, your desire to enjoy the
good opinion of neighbors, friends, and coworkers, and the importance
of providing a warm, welcoming environment for your family. Your
house says a lot about who you are.
Second, when it’s time to sell, whether for a job transfer,
trading up or scaling down, or making a life change like retirement
or divorce, what your house looks like on the outside can make all
the difference in the price you can command. First impressions count
– that’s what curb appeal is all about. If the exterior
of your home doesn’t appeal to them, most buyers won’t
even see the interior, no matter how wonderful.
Finally, the experienced professionals at My Home Full Service Remodeling
Specialists can help you ensure that the quality, style, and value
of your renovation project make your home exactly what you want
it to be.
Dee Roider, an Associate Broker with Century 21/Country Living in
Mt. Kisco, says that “people often won’t even get out
of the car” if a home lacks curb appeal. “It could be
painted the wrong color, the shrubbery or landscaping isn’t
well done or well maintained, or the sidewalk to the front door
is cracked. They’ll wonder what’s going on inside, if
the outside doesn’t look good.”
Siding and paint
Siding is the most immediately visible attribute of any house. Brick,
stone, or wood siding – that’s the first thing most
people notice. But in many newer homes, “wood” isn’t
wood; it’s vinyl, aluminum, or concrete siding like Hardiplank.
Replacing or covering original wood with new siding will immediately
update and improve the curb appeal of a traditional Westchester
home. High quality siding looks like wood, only better, and it has
the advantage of easy maintenance over a long lifetime. And, if
you prefer to keep the original wood, repainting is a proven way
to make your house feel new again.
“Unless it’s a Victorian, you want to stay with neutral
colors,” says Roider. For most homes, white or off-white,
beige, taupe, putty, or an unassuming pale brown or creamy yellow
look best and sell best. Westchester Victorians are often painted
richer, brighter colors – purple, lemon yellow, bright blue
or green – and they often have not just one but as many as
three contrasting colors for doors, shutters, and trim.
When you paint, make sure you do it properly. For most homeowners,
that means hiring a professional crew who will clean, pressure wash
if necessary, sand down and properly prepare the wood surfaces.
Otherwise you’ll find that new paint job fading, chipping,
cracking or peeling within a few short years. A wide variety of
siding and paint options are available at the new Mt. Kisco showroom
of My Home Full Service Remodeling Specialists.
Westchester Roofing Styles
A shabby roof can make even the nicest home unattractive. Grime,
mold and mildew, missing or mismatched shingles or broken tiles
all alert visitors and prospective buyers to potential problems.
As a rule of thumb, Roider says, “If you have a roof that’s
three layers thick, or if shingles are beginning to turn up, consider
replacing it.” Without a roof replacement, she says, you’ll
have to lower your sale price, because problems with the shingles
invariably suggest problems underneath.
A wide variety of shingles is available at My Home Full Service
Remodeling Specialists, both in color and quality. Roofing color
options range from pale gray to many shades of brown and green,
and warranties can cover 20, 30, 50 years or even the house’s
lifetime. What shingles to buy will depend on your house; most houses
are designed for standard composite shingling; others demand, or
would benefit from, clay Spanish tiles or slate. But pay attention
to what’s appropriate: no matter how much you want a slate
roof on your ’70s ranch, if your trusses aren’t reinforced
to support the weight of slate, then, as they say, “fuggedaboudit.”
Another factor to consider is the roof’s slope. Traditional
Colonial, Cape Cod, and Victorian homes are steeply sloped, designed
for heavy loads of snow to slide off easily. Unfortunately, that
means you can slide off easily, too. Roofing replacement simply
isn’t a job for do-it-yourselfers; My Home Full Service Remodeling
Specialists uses professional, insured roofers to do this skilled
work.
Decking for Westchester homes
Whether your lifestyle is formal or casual, quality decking is a
must-have for enjoying outdoor living at your Westchester home.
A well-designed deck is more than an exterior feature – it
adds an extra room to your house. Decking is also a valuable addition
to the resale value of your home; the Return on Investment on a
well designed and well maintained deck is consistently high.
Traditional decking, railings, and stairs offer the natural beauty
and feel of natural wood; they can easily be stained to complement
your home and outdoor environment. Composite decking, manufactured
from new and recycled materials, is environmentally friendly and
extremely long-lasting, virtually impervious to weather and easy
to maintain.
Raised decking over a sloping lawn increases your living space and
creates a convenient storage area for yard and garden equipment.
On a flat property, multi-level decking can surround a swimming
pool and provide separate areas for entertainment, children’s
play, and favorite activities like gardening. My Home Full Service
Remodeling Specialists are experts at designing and creating beautiful,
high quality decking for your Westchester home and your family’s
lifestyle.
Windows & doors
People also notice windows almost at first glance – how many
there are, what sizes, where they’re placed and how they’re
trimmed. If the eyes are the windows to the soul, do your windows
reveal the soul of your house? Is an attractive window treatment
visible from outside? Are windows gracious and friendly, nicely
painted and trimmed, or do they seem to shut the house off from
the street?
In Dee Roider’s experience as a Westchester real estate expert,
“Shutters and window boxes can make a real difference. They
can dress up even the plainest ranch house. And don’t forget
the front door,” she adds. “Change the door or paint
it” to make it look inviting. “Replace older metal storm
doors” – metal with a half screen that’s replaced
in the winter with glass – “with a beautiful screen
door. A traditional wooden screen door can make a real difference”
to your home’s curb appeal, Roider says, especially for a
Colonial, Victorian, or older ranch. Alternatively, a wrought-iron
and glass storm door works well with Cape Cods and some contemporary
houses.
When thinking about replacement windows, take note of the framing,
too. Are the frames and sills, both inside and out, solid? Do current
windows hang straight? If not, you’ll want My Home to replace
the framing as well as the windows themselves, and that often means
upgrading the insulation that surrounds them, too. Like everything
else in home renovation, thorough planning is the key to success,
because surprises that crop up once the work has begun cost you
money.
Westchester home maintenance includes renovation
Whether you’ve renovated recently or not, it’s essential
to maintain what you’ve got. Gutters need cleaning, mold has
to be checked and removed early, the chimney should be inspected
and swept on a regular schedule. Some jobs can be done by homeowners
in some circumstances; others, like chimney sweeping, are always
done by licensed professionals. In either case, don’t let
things get shabby; replacing shingles when they need it is far less
costly than waiting until the entire underlayment has deteriorated
– by which time you’ll probably have attic leaks to
deal with as well.
“A lot of exterior work is just standard maintenance,”
notes Dee Roider. Renovating a kitchen or bath has the highest return
on investment in the housing industry; replacing a roof or windows
might not have the same impact, but not doing so will seriously
lower the value of your home. If a roof or windows need replacing
when you put your house on the market, she warns, “You just
won’t get full price.”
Landscaping and fencing
Don’t forget about your landscaping, either. “Plantings
add so much to the front of the house,” says Roider, pointing
out that it has to be the right landscaping for the style of house.
“If it’s a Victorian, you want flower gardens with lots
of color; for a contemporary ranch or a Cape Cod, you’d use
more shrubbery and stone, maybe more mulch.”
Roider is also a fan of fencing, especially for privacy on small
lots or on streets with lots of traffic. Picket fences are very
popular and work well in traditional neighborhoods with Colonial
and Cape Cod-style houses, while higher fences that can both give
privacy and form a sound barrier “can make a world of difference”
in high-traffic areas. Ornamental wrought-iron fencing, incorporating
bunches of grapes, wisteria, or other vines, is very popular in
the deep South. Depending on the style of your home and the size
of the lot, it can work beautifully even in Westchester County.
“In Louisiana I saw fences that were all metal shaped like
stalks of corn,” Roider says.
Professional home remodeling
Hiring professionals from MyHome Full Service Remodeling Specialists
can make all the difference in realizing your dream, whether it’s
updating your home for yourself or maximizing your resale return
in the future. MyHome’s Mt. Kisco showroom serves clients
from throughout the Westchester County region. MyHome’s experienced
design experts and project planners can help you make the tricky
decisions about how comprehensive a job you should, or can, undertake;
the company’s licensed contractors can identify structural
problems that need to be addressed before starting work –
because it’s always far more expensive to fix them after the
work has begun.
Remember, even though love at first sight usually means finding
Mr. or Ms. Right, it applies equally well to homebuyers. Every realtor
has a story about clients seeing house after house in one neighborhood
after another and suddenly announcing, “This is the one!”
Invest in regular maintenance and ask the experienced professionals
at My Home Full Service Remodeling Specialists to help you in renovating
your home. They can help ensure that your house has all the curb
appeal it needs to beckon Mr. & Ms. Right to pop the question. |
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