Like many homeowners, I know how daunting it can be to undertake significant alterations to make your home the best it can be. And it can be all too easy to think that only major and expensive changes can be transformative.
Since I moved in back in 2015, the most substantial changed I'd made was to replace the windows and upgrade the front door. But after living in the property for a few years, I decided to make a relatively simple structural change, that five years later, still feels like one of the best home improvement decisions I've made so far.
While there are some pointless home improvements that won't add value to your home, there are a loads of smaller changes that can help you renovate on a budget. For me, that was adding a new external doorway to the side of my house, and it's resulted in three key benefits that prove it was absolutely worth the money.
1. It helped the flow of my home
It may sound a bit odd for an external door to impact the flow of my home, but bear with me. I'd lived in the property for five years before I decided to add a new door, and in those five years, I found myself getting increasingly frustrated by the routes I'd have to take to take rubbish out to my waste and recycling bins, which are stored in a gated space at the side of my house (literally on the other side of the wall at the end of my kitchen diner).
I had two options — either carry the rubbish through the living room, into the hallway, out the front door and through a gate to the bins, or go through the back door (which is off a conservatory), across a patio (which can get very slippery in winter), cut across the lawn and then through another gate to drop off the rubbish. While this wasn't always a huge deal, it was miserable when it was dark, cold and wet, and I found myself putting off taking the rubbish out. After slipping on the grass and twisting my ankle on a jaunt to the bins, I decided enough was enough.
The new door means that I can nip straight out from the kitchen and not have to carry rubbish through the rest of the house. And I've not has a rubbish-related injury since. Result!
2. It helped bring more light into my dark kitchen
Adding a door with a small glazed panel brings in light that was previously blocked by a solid wall
Despite being an open plan space, my north facing kitchen diner can feel dark. And while I've replaced the dark wood floor and black worktops that were there when I moved in with lighter alternatives, there's nothing like boosting the amount of daylight in your home. After all, there are loads of benefits of natural light that can have a positive effect on your mind and body too.
When I added the new doorway (which was the starting point of my kitchen upgrade), I chose a door with a small window of textured glass, which doesn't sound like it'd do too much in terms of light ingress, but it's surprisingly effective at brightening up the room.
This is how much light that little glazed panel brings into the space. It reaches all the way through the kitchen diner space
3. It boosted my confidence to make more significant changes
Doing any kind of significant or structural work to your home can be daunting. And while I was comfortable with some light DIY and decorating, I'd never done a project like this before. I knew a builder, who was highly recommended by a friend of mine, who was more than happy to answer all of my questions and explained the specifics of the tasks in detail for me. So I decided to take the plunge.
I phoned my local planning authority to check that what I planned on doing was allowed under permitted development — my online research told me that it was, but it's always a good idea to double check. While I didn't need planning approval, Building Regulations were another matter.
I was worried I'd be left with a gaping hole in the wall overnight, but the builder worked in stages and the door was fitted by the end of day one
In my case, the creation of a new doorway was classed as a minor alteration, which meant I needed to submit a Building Notice to my local authority's Building Control department. I could do this online, including paying the £225 fee, and it was really straightforward. As part of that process, I arranged suitable times for a building control inspector to come and sign off. For my project, he needed to visit before we started so he could approve the steel beam we were planning on putting in. He came back again once it was complete to sign it all off. About two weeks after that final visit, I received a certificate that confirmed all was ok.
While the work was noisy and incredibly dusty (even with dust screens, like these from Amazon, put up), it was completed in two days.
This size project was the ideal way to cut my teeth, and as a result, I feel much less intimidated about making more alterations in the future.
Next on my list is a conservatory roof replacement. What's on your list of significant changes you want to make to your home? Let me know in the comments below.
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