If you’re thinking about dipping into the do-it-yourself market, you certainly aren’t alone.
Many of our homes aren’t particularly outfitted for the strange times we find ourselves in now.
As a result, homeowners who have found themselves spending more time in their domiciles than ever before have turned to customizing their homes themselves.
About 68% of surveyed homeowners have found themselves completing more DIY projects than they did before the pandemic, with about 50% of them realizing they’ve picked up a new hobby they enjoy after the fact.
There’s something addictive about realizing that you have the ability to mold your home to your wishes, to picking up tools and searching for instructions on YouTube, finding that you’re able to do a contractor’s job yourself.
And the addiction is catching on, as 55% of surveyed homeowners plan on doing DIY work in the future.
1. Starting Small
Still, if you’re planning on doing your first post-pandemic DIY project, you might not want to start with tearing up the flooring in your living room and replacing it with tile or putting new shingles on your old, leaky roof.
There’s a learning curve that comes with DIY work, one that shouldn’t be underestimated: it may be best for you to start with a smaller, easier to remodel area like your bathroom.
Little projects like DIY toilet paper holders and repainting cabinets can be a great place to start off before testing your DIY mettle with more extensive remodels.
There are many reasons to remodel your bathroom, some of which we’ll address below:
- They tend to add value to your home. Mid-range bathroom remodels, which can vary in price depending on what amenities are installed, can add around 14,000 dollars to the value of your property on resale.
- Energy efficiency can save you money in the long run. Old pipes and fixtures that use and waste a ton of resources can cost you quite a bit in additional utility charges.
- Personal comfort and the image of luxury. Nothing says home-sweet-home quite like a luxurious bathroom with marble countertops, a jacuzzi, and other high-value amenities. Though it should be mentioned that luxurious amenities might be a challenge you take on later in your learning curve.
The key is to choose the right amenities to install. The below amenities represent easy-to-install DIY amenities that will increase the value of your bathroom.
2. Refinish Your Bathtub
Nothing is worse-looking in a bathroom than a tub riddled with cracks, stained some odd mixture of yellow, brown, and green.
Still, if the problem is cosmetic, fixing your tub may not be the time and money-intensive headache you likely expect it to be.
A good adage to stick to when remodeling any aspect of your home is “repair what you can, replace what you can’t.” As such, you may want to look into refinishing your tub rather than replacing it.
Refinishing is an easy, inexpensive process that you can do yourself, costing you (on average) somewhere between 30 and 150 bucks.
The process involves you painting on a hard epoxy coating over the surface of the tub, smoothing out any cracked pieces, and painting over any stains or blemishes.
3. Install a New Bathroom Vanity
One of the qualms you may have with your bathroom is the amount of storage space currently available: the existing shelving doesn’t cut it, and you need space for all of the hygiene and cosmetic implements you use on a daily basis.
You may want to look into installing a new vanity.
Bathroom vanities integrate with your existing sink and mirror setup, adding significantly to your available counter space and typically adding plenty of storage space below.
Moreover, bathroom vanities tend to be easy to install, with several Ikea models on the market allowing DIY options for homeowners to quickly and easily assemble their new vanities themselves.
With the Ikea models available, there’s a vanity for every shape and size of bathroom, so feel free to browse the available options and choose the one that’s right for you!
4. A New Throne
Finally, there’s the matter of the toilet.
Whether your current toilet has a functional issue, such as being too small for members of your family or stopping up frequently, or just cosmetic issues, like cracked lids and stained rims, you may want to consider investing in a new toilet.
Contrary to expectations, it’s actually easy to install a new toilet by yourself (once you get the new model into the bathroom, anyways, as they tend to be quite heavy).
Toilet installation requires minimal hookups and can be easily done via YouTube tutorial if needed.
If you’re looking to get into DIY remodeling, you may want to start with the bathroom, as this high-value location in the home represents a veritable playground of tutorial options. Build up the skills you need to work on bigger projects, and you’ll soon find that you’ll rarely need a contractor again.
