This may seem daft seeing as we have not long moved into our new home, but we’re already thinking of the best ways to improve it that will add value. Of course some of the improvements are things that we plan to do in the next few months, and will help improve our homes energy efficiency as well as our comfort. In turn these improvements will also make our home more attractive to buyers when (or if!) we decide to sell. This article on Age UK Mobility about home adaptations is worth reading for tips on adapting your from to be more accessible. So could I do to future proof our home, and make it more attractive to a wider group of people?
Accessible bathrooms , shower rooms and other areas
I was surprised how many walk in showers we saw instead of baths in the bathrooms on housing listings, especially newly renovated homes, not just ones that had elderly owners who may have needed them due to mobility factors. Thinking about it although I love having a bath if we complete a loft extension to gain a second bathroom a walk in shower is definitely something to consider for the main bathroom which is at the top of our stairs. It’s worth ensuring that any new stair cases have the ability to accommodate a stair lift – you can find more details and look at stairlifts prices.
Open Plan Living
Something that many people look for in a new home are open spaces. A kitchen-diner, a knocked through downstairs, maybe even extended with a conservatory addition. Open plan living is great for entertaining, and for raising young families too so that parents can still get on with their own tasks but keep an eye on toddlers at play. Our home currently has a living room and a dining room (which is used as an office/playroom) so we could introduce some open spaces either by knocking through these two rooms to make one, or doing a side return extension to expand the kitchen like Donna has, and add a dining table and sofa area with wider doors out to the garden. A less expensive option would be to put double doors between the two rooms to have the option to open them up, but still have two separate rooms if you needed them.
Low maintenance gardens
Some of the houses we viewed on Rightmove had such awful gardens, don’t get me wrong they had a lot of potential but some had waist high weeds and grass, falling down fences, rotting play equipment and all sorts! Of course nothing that a few weekends of hard work could fix but not ideal at all. The house we bought had a garden that needed work, but it was usable in the meantime, with flower beds, decking, a large shed and paving stones – best of all, no grass! The idea of mowing grass does not appeal to me and if we do decide to swap our paving we’ll be getting artificial grass as it is so easy to maintain, something that will be appealing to future buyers.
This is a collaborative post. Photo by Max Vakhtbovych from Pexels