Don't overdo permanent, hard to undo "mods" if you don't plan on holding the property forever. A lot of first time homeowners make that mistake and find it hard to sell their house.
FYI, I flip at least 2-3 houses a season. This is speaking from almost 10 years of owning property and flipping dozens of houses.
For 99% of the people, I recommend saving as much of your money as possible in the beginning if you don't know what you want to do.
The very first thing other than to check for material defects in the home (e.g. frame/foundation, structure, roof, wiring, plumbing, etc.). You should have already checked these things when you first bought the home.
If not for whatever reason, you should do a home inspection for informative purposes.
Whatever is deficient shoud be fixed to bring the house up to code.
The very first "mod" I recommend you do is to bring the electricals up to code. I don't know your area or if your house is grandfathered in for exemption, but it's always good to bring your wiring up to code.
Most likely you'll have to upgrade your fusebox to a newer style breaker. You may also have to redo your grounding system.
While you do this, think hard about what kind of electrical accessories you will be adding to the house. It's really hard to go back later and run new circuits if you haven't made wiring provisions. Mostly since residential wiring is really hard to get to with wires buried behind walls and such.
The second thing would be to do the same with your plumbing. Whatever expansions you plan on doing later should be supported by the plumbing.
It really pays to take care of these things first so you don't spend a LOT of money later on.
Then you can start looking at upgrading the appliances like energy-efficient heat pump, water heater, washer/dryer, fridge, dishwasher, etc.
For most people I would say stop there. Whatever crazy cosmetic mods you want to do should be deferred until you have a good grasp on you financial situation, your area, your taste, etc.
If you want to add some value to your home then you can start looking at minor cosmetic ornamental changes to the bathroom and kitchen.
Most people should really spend like a year planning whatever mods they want to do. Then plan your supporting mods very carefully and make sure you have the proper permit to bring your house up to code.
The actual construction itself is the last thing you do. Most people make the mistake of doing the construction first and finding that they're not properly prepared for whatever reason and a small job turns into major big bucks.
If you have any specific questions I'd be glad to bounce ideas for you.
One other thought. I've seen a lot of very nice houses done up wrong because they didn't know or took shortcuts. You can't sell a house or even live in one that has code violation(s).
I've seen a lot of these houses under foreclosure because the owner doesn't have money to go back and fix the house to code after they took out a major home equity loan and have no money left.
Quote:
Originally Posted by exitspeed
I remodeled my entire home. I used the internet for a lot of things (building an arbor, making concrete countertops, etc) but I also have a lot of friends and family that are experienced in a lot of different things which helped a ton. we get a lot of inspiration from magazines and catalogs like Crate and Barrel, Martha Stewart, etc. Here's how it turned out.
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I really like the open floorplan, big driveway, offset garage, and the lot. Nice job.
It's nice that you can live in an area that can get you good value on your property.
Beats living in a metro area where everything is a major rat race to get a small parcel.