A recent survey showed that about two thirds of homeowners are thinking about renovating. While the most common renovations to a home are usually in the bathrooms, kitchens, and other shared living spaces, increasingly people are seeing the benefit of having remodeling less obvious places, like the garage or basement. If you’re thinking about what you could use that garage space for, or if a basement renovation is on your to-do list, read on for some ideas that might capture your imagination:
- Switch from an attached to a detached garage design for aesthetics, space, and safety. Since the 1960s, more and more American homes have been built with detached garages. And while they do have their advantages, replacing them with a detached garage design can do a lot for you. It makes your home seem less like a serious of giant garage doors at first glance and allows you to set the garage at an angle or even behind the house. A lot of space gets freed up for use as a patio or deck, and since 75% of us own smokers or grills, and 60% of us are grilling outdoors all the year round, doesn’t it sound nice to start dreaming on your cover patio design?
A detached garage can also be safer. For one thing, we store a lot of things in our garages that are fire hazards. We also tend to do work in there that creates odors and noise that it would be nice to keep away from the rest of the house. And since the doors leading from the house to the garage are rarely so well made and secure as doors leading in and out of the house directly, separating the garage from the house can make harder for thieves to get in. - You can add an extra living space, play area, or even workshop to a detached garage design. This has to be done carefully. If you’re actually turning your whole garage into a living space, there are a lot of downsides to that. But if you’re talking about simply adding a small apartment to a detached garage design, you could increase the value of your home, add space for play or work, or create an extra small apartment to rent out or put family in.
- The possibilities with basement renovation are nearly endless. If you’re looking at a dark, dank, and unfinished space, it can be hard to envision it becoming anything but a home for spiders or a place to store Christmas decorations for 11 months out of the year. But there are a lot of really cool things you can do with this space. If you like to entertain, turn it into a full bar space. If you want your kids bringing their friends home rather than disappearing to places unknown, try creating a space all their friends want to come to. A den or game area could do just that.
If you want to have extra living space for visiting family or that grumpy teen who wants her own room, you can create a loft-style space even in a basement. The basement can become a showcase room for your collections, a wine cellar, or an entertainment room for epic movie watching. - Don’t forget that a finished basement or new garage adds a lot of value to your home. Room addition cost is high, but reclaiming basement space can cost half as much to do. The average good basement remodel has an ROI of just over 70%. Not only are you getting more living space for your family, but you’re making your home a more attractive deal to a potential buyer.
If you’ve got home space that’s doing nothing, consider remodeling. Put that space to work for you!