B-N Home Show Offers Remodeling Advice

BLOOMINGTON - The Homebuilder's Association Home Show wrapped up on Sunday, but not without giving homeowners plenty of advice.

Experts said Spring is a good time to freshen up your home and invest in upgrades that will help you in the long run.

If you want to improve your home for you to enjoy or to put it on the market, renovating two places will get you the most bang for your buck. Home Depot Employee Kelly Rawlings said, "Well kitchens and bathrooms, hands down. When you go to sell a home your kitchen and your bathroom are the two rooms that look very close to what they will look like when that person moves in."

She said the store has been swamped with customers looking for ways to remodel. She said there are plenty of options that you can do yourself at a low cost, and you don't have to compromise the quality. "Right now there are a lot of sales, a lot of ways to make a kitchen or a bathroom without spending a lot of money, and they have a lot of quality and resale value to it."

Rawlings said cabinets are an easy way to spruce up the kitchen and new flooring in the bathroom can get rid of an aged look. She said vinyl is a top trend. "We actually have seen a lot in the vinyl. There's new vinyl products that are a lot different than what you would think of tradition vinyl."

If your goal is to get your home off your hands, investing in energy efficiency is a way to quickly up the value. "It has a huge impact. The warranties almost always transfer to the next homeowner so that's a good way to say, 'hey move into this home and save a lot of money.'"

Home Depot offers several "do it yourself" workshops and many of them are free. The store also offers some free consultations. Those include attic insulation and radiant barriers, gutters and leaf protection, roofing, siding, and windows.