There’s something very exciting about viewing new potential homes to buy as it gives you the chance to imagine you and your family making memories there. It also allows you to scope out where you would put the furniture you own and allow you to make a decision based on size and practicality. However, because there are so many things going through our heads it’s easy to forget to look out for certain things when you’re home hunting. Here’s what to look for when viewing properties to buy.

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Signs of damp

First and foremost, one of the most common reasons that a home is on the market is because of damp that has accrued around the place. Unfortunately for first time buyers, it’s easy to cover up with a lick of paint. There are signs that you can look out for though so that you don’t end up regretting the decision you’ve made. Here are some of the signs:

• A musty smell around the place that isn’t caused by pets or smokers.
• Visible decay on the walls and wooden fixtures
• Bubbling of wallpaper
• Paint that’s chipping off or eroding away
• Damp walls
• Dark patches, often in the top corners of the walls

Remember to look out for damp so that you don’t end up discovering it a few months down the line and having to spend more than you’d bargained for fixing the issue. If you’re fond of the home you could ask the sellers to fix the problem before you agree to a sale.

Practical additions

Rather than just concentrating on bad things, here are a few things to look out for which could be of a great practical use to you and your family:

• Air conditioning units
• Ceiling fans – look here to find out more.
• Solar panels
• Underfloor heating
• Tinted windows
• Hardwood flooring
• Storage space

All of these things can be a great asset to any home, so be sure to make a note of any that you spot when viewing potential homes.

Condition of the windows and doors

One major thing that many people tend to forget about is the condition of the windows and doors on each property. Some homes around the world still have fragile windows that are prone to let breezes in. The same goes for doors too, so make sure that the homes you’re viewing have up to date double glazed windows so that you don’t find yourself shivering and spending way more than intended on your energy bills. This could also be something that you negotiate with the sellers before buying if you’re keen on a particular property. Having a good set of windows and doors means that your energy bills can keep on the lower side and that you will also be safer than single pane windows.

Put these three ideas onto a list for things to check when you’re viewing homes and before long you will land yourself the home of your dreams! Good luck with the move!

Our homes are our so very important to us. We raise our children in them, and use the space to express our personalities, our hobbies and interests. Our homes are an extension of ourselves in these respects. However, we often concentrate our homemaking efforts to the inside of our homes, after all, that is where we spend most of our time, but we need to also apply that love and care and attention to the external areas too. Here are 5 ways to take care of the outside spaces.

Stucco and Cladding

Depending on the design of your home, the most visible areas are the walls and the roof, and using stucco or cladding is one way to make a big difference. You can disguise unattractive brickwork or mismatched brickwork from previous renovations, or even just to add interest to the external walls of your home. By applying stucco or adding cladding to your walls will also provide another layer of external insulation to your home and protect them from the elements.

• Stucco

A new coating of stucco will tie the whole house together and give it a polished finish. New stucco needs to be applied over a firm layer, so ensure that you rectify any area of loose or damaged materials. You also need to ensure that the new stucco allows your home to breathe to lessen the risk of damp developing in your home. You should use a recommended and professional builder to do the work for you; you do not want to invest in your home and see the stucco cracking after a short period of time. Choose a pigmented stucco so that maintenance requirements are kept to a minimum.

• Cladding

You can choose from a variety of techniques to clad your home, and you need to consider the pros and cons of each, but pay particular attention to the maintenance required for each one. For example, natural timber cladding is very popular, but you will be required to oil it to maintain its color and protect its durability. There are collections of stone cladding, composite timber cladding, and even fiber cement products to choose from.

You do not need to clad your whole house, you can just wall texture to add interest to an aspect or area to create the look that you want. Rendering and cladding work well together to update the outside of your home.

Porch

The addition of a porch to your house can immediately give great character to an otherwise uninspired and featureless façade. Your porch’s design should complement the design of your house and be sympathetic to its architecture and proportion. Complement does not necessarily mean mirror; you can add a porch with a contrasting design, but it must be able to add aesthetic value to your home and blend in seamlessly with the rest of your house.

You need to consider how the porch will affect the natural light that currently flows through your front door, a well-designed porch may even allow for more. When thinking about the design of your porch, you must consider its functionality, whether it’s to provide protection to visitors from the weather, a space for you to relax in, or even just a place for to store your gumboots and wet coats.

Knock Knock

Your front door is the entrance to your home, and yet, we often find that we neglect its upkeep. Entry doors see a lot more traffic than internal doors, and they are open to the elements and any airborne pollution. You need to check what your door needs to have done to it to restore it to its former glory, for example, a wooden door will require more regular maintenance than metallic doors or those made of synthetic fibers. Your door may be outdated, need treating with a wood preservative and a lick of paint, or simply just need a good clean.

If you are repainting your door, use this as an opportunity to replace the hardware that adorns it. Changing your front door’s hardware is an inexpensive way to update your door. Before you purchase and install your door accessories, make sure that you have a good think about whether your choice of hardware is appropriate to the era of your home. Wrought iron door accessories are lovely, but do they really suit the style of your mid-century house?

Windows

When you are looking to improve the exterior of your home, great care needs to be taken, especially if you are hoping to enhance and retain the character of your home. Your windows are a key feature of your home’s exterior, and as such, they require regular maintenance.

Windows have to withstand a lot of abuse from the elements: ice cold temperatures in winter, and scorching sun and rising temperatures in summer. Over time, the weather will take its toll on the windows, and you need to check that they are still fit for the job. Using a flat-blade screwdriver, gently apply pressure to the wood. If it is soft, it is a sign of decay. You need to also keep an eye out for termite infestation damage (termite trails include powdery digested wood, feces, and eggs), so that you can treat the wood before any permanent damage to the structure of your house is caused. If your windows are damaged beyond repair, you will need to replace them. Damaged windows can lead to water being able to access wall cavities and even the foundations of your home, so it is a false economy to patch them with remedial works.

The first step towards your window replacements is to consider the needs of the window. Do they need to match existing windows elsewhere in the property? Do they need to be made from a particular material? You also need to consider the budget that you have to replace them as purchasing new windows is a big commitment, and one that you need to get right first time. Replacing the windows can dramatically improve the external appearance of your house, and provide you with the added benefit of making your home more energy efficient too!

Landscaping

Tending to your garden can take up a lot of time. If your current garden design requires more maintenance than you have time to give, consider what you can do to lessen the burden. Perhaps you have flower beds that constantly need weeding, or a pond that lies stagnant and is more of a breeding ground for mosquitos than a feature that you are proud of.

Create outdoor living space that you can use to entertain, a deck or patio provides a low maintenance solution to reducing grassy areas, but not at the expense of being able to enjoy the outdoors. You can keep your area green with pots of plants, and introduce screens with climbing plants to add further interest and give you privacy.

Introduce beds of mulch to your garden rather than turf grass. It will be one of the best investments that you make: the mulch breaks down and fertilizes your plants and prevents weeds from growing. Mulch is an inexpensive addition to your family; it requires no mowing or watering, and only needs topping up in spring.

Think about the plants that you have growing in your garden. Roses, for example, are high maintenance, and need year-round care. You can dig up these energy and time draining plants and replace them with less demanding options such as Lavender, Achillea, and Astilbe. You do not have to have a flowerless garden to be low maintenance, just selective with what you choose to grow.

Spruce up your fences and sheds by applying a treatment that has a stain that will enhance the rest of your garden. There are many options available on the market that can really add to your garden’s and property’s appeal. Choose a color that is best for your home’s design; a colonial or cottage style house would suit a crisp white, while a rustic home would benefit from an oak colored stain. Think about how the color will blend in with your neighborhood, your neighbors may consider that a bright yellow fence is more suited to a daycare center rather than a standard brown. If your garden is full of lush foliage, a green or neutral color will help your fence blend in with the surroundings.

By taking as much care of the outside of your home as you do the inside, you can add real value to your property. The value of increasing your home’s curb appeal does not have to be exclusively for prospective house buyers, you can benefit too from having a house that you are proud of from the minute you pull up your car on the driveway. You may not be wanting to sell it anytime soon, but by making the best of what you have, you will feel like you are coming home to a new house in any case.

Buying a house for the first time is a huge business. Not only have you spent time saving for a deposit and sacrificing where you can to afford it, you must now find the keys to unlock the doors of home ownership. It’s a huge responsibility and not only is it about more than looking round the pretty houses, but there are some mistakes that get made along the way that you must avoid to be successful.

Signing document for new home.

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Location, financing and even shopping for your new house have their challenges to overcome in ways that choosing carpets and interiors never do. Here is a list of five very common mistakes that first time homebuyers should go out of their way to avoid.

1. It’s more than just the mortgage. When you rent a house, you think about the monthly house cost in terms of your rent. When you buy, it’s more than the mortgage. Just because you can afford the monthly mortgage repayments doesn’t mean you can actually afford the house. You need to have contingency money for unexpected boiler replacements and property insurances. You should have the right home insurance in place so that you can make sure you are covered for things going wrong. Without this, you are leaving yourself open and vulnerable; something no first-time buyer should be.
2. Don’t get your hopes up. Always learn whether you are pre-approved for a mortgage first before you go and start looking. So many prospective homeowners are worried about leaving a footprint of search on their credit files, but without knowing what you could get, how can you begin to look at your home options? You’ll be able to make a practical home decision instead of an emotional one, which is worth its weight in gold.
3. Never go it alone. Where you can, seek the right advice. Get a solicitor, a mortgage advisor and solid advice before you even begin from a loan officer. You need to make sure you are able to buy a home, make repayments and still afford a good quality of life. Always get help and never be afraid to ask stupid questions: when it comes to homebuying, there are no stupid questions, only valuable answers.
4. Save for more than just the deposit. Always aim to save for a few thousand more than you need. Don’t add this to the down payment on the house, but use it for insurance and as an emergency fund. If you do this before you go ahead, you can be confidently comfortable.
5. Wait. Always wait to buy a new car, new furniture or any other big purchase until your house is completely yours. Lenders will always check your financial status between the purchase and the close of 30 days, to ensure nothing has changed like a lost job. If you go and splurge on a new financial commitment, you’ll end up looking frivolous with your money and unreliable as a buyer. Waiting thirty days won’t hurt!

These mistakes can all be easily avoided, meaning your new home purchase can go off without a hitch. Congratulations on your new homeowner status; enjoy your new house!

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How do you handle home jobs? A lot of people are going to immediately think of home maintenance tasks as an opportunity to prove their skills in DIY. But there are a few good reasons why doing it yourself isn’t always the best option. It could end up costing you more, ruin your home, diminish the value and even put your life in danger. Here are some of the best reasons why you might instead want to leave your next maintenance job to the pros.

It Costs How Much???

This is a question you might end up asking yourself once you start to look into a few DIY possibilities. Painting is a big one because you have to buy all the paint and don’t forget, you probably won’t get the right choice the first time. You’ll need to go back and find another colour until you find the one that you love for your walls. At that point, you could spend hundreds just trying to paint a single room. That might sound like an exaggeration but you would be surprised, and this is just one way DIY can be expensive. Another possibility is that your work is so shoddy that you need to pay for an expert to redo it anyway. A pro painting company with fix up your home for you and you won’t have to worry about additional costs.

It Seems To Have Made It Worse

There is every possibility that you could make your home worse with a poor maintenance jobs. If you have ever had a leak in your home, you’ll know it doesn’t take much to do more damage. You can twist the pipe the wrong way, and suddenly water is spewing out like no tomorrow. Within a couple of minutes, you’re ankle deep and reaching desperately for the phone to call a plumber. If you don’t want the possibility of finding yourself in this situation, call a plumber first.

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Nice House, not Very Well Maintained

This is probably the last thing you want buyers to think when it’s time to sell your home. But they will, particularly if you’ve spent a lot of time completing maintenance jobs with little skill or knowledge. Indeed, it’s true to say that to say that a poor maintenance job could easily limit your chances of getting a great offer on your home. You may not even be thinking about selling right now. But you should always have the idea at the back of your mind. It will encourage you to get an expert in when there’s work to be done on your home.

Are You Sure You Switched The Power Off?

Lastly, there’s every chance that you hurt yourself with even the simplest of DIY jobs. For instance, you probably know how to change a lightbulb. But how about more extensive electric rewiring? In cases like this, it’s easy to make a small slip up that will result in a nasty shock. You’ll probably learn your listen about amateur DIYing after that, but it’s best to avoid the trip to ER if possible.

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However similar the two words might be, you know that there is a very big difference between a house and a home. While a house is a place to rest your head and put your stuff, a home is a place that you actually want to be! It is a place you are proud of that you want to welcome friends and guests into.

That being said, just because you can define the difference doesn’t mean you know how to put that difference into practice.

It could be that you’ve just moved into a new place, and it is yet to give you that special feeling when you’re there. Or, perhaps you’ve lived in your house for a while now, and it’s lost some of its charm and sparkle.

Whichever the case may be, there are some pretty much foolproof ways to make your place feel more homely. This guide covers use of color, as well as an idea for surrounding yourself with memories of happy times. It also looks at showcasing parts of your personality, and a note on rule breaking! Keep on reading to find out more!

Don’t be afraid of colors

There is a plethora of advice out there telling homeowners and renters to steer well clear of color when decorating. It comes from a place of logic of course. If you are selling in the future, it could put buyers off, for instance. However, color can make all the difference if you think your home feels a tad cold and lacks personality! Hire the help of local painters so you get a professional finish.

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Surround yourself with happy memories

A particularly big problem when you first move into a new house is that it can feel like it is not your own. You can kind of feel like you must be staying with a friend, or even on holiday. Once the initial sheen of excitement was worn off, this can leave you feeling detached from the place emotionally. It is also common to feel homesick for your last house. After all, there is a great deal of joy and comfort of waking up in your own bed and home. Actively try, then, to fill this new place with joy and comfort. A way you can do this is to make a photograph wall. Don’t hide it away somewhere you hardly even pass. Put it somewhere you can take it in every day, and so can everyone else who lives in the house. Your entrance or hallway, or above your sofa, for example! This is also a great way to make your house feel more family friendly!

Showcase the things that make you you.

Perhaps you love to read and write, and have a huge collection of books that would be the first thing you’d save in a fire! Or maybe you have a musical instrument that is your pride and joy. Well, don’t have these things stored away in boxes or rarely used rooms. Have them out on display. This way you are displaying a little bit of your personality throughout the house!

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Know when to follow rules, and when to scrap them

There are so, so many rules out there about decorating and designing your home. Don’t let yourself feel restricted by them. If you like a rule, follow it. If you don’t, scrap it. It really is that simple. After all, this is your home to do what you wish with!