When we first bought our home from my parent's way back in 2001 we were inundated with all the things that needed fixed with the house.  It started out being a vacation home.  There were times when no one lived in it and some times wen my parent's rented it out to someone who did not take care of what they were doing to the house.  It was lived in for a short time by my daughter and I could not afford to bring it up to date.  We left and then came back to it some 5 years after.and no one resided it it for those years.  It had gone down hill quickly in those years.

We were glad to have it though and we wanted to renovate it and bring up all the electric and plumbing up to code.  Since living in the house many years ago there were no real building codes and they got away with lots of unsafe practices.  We found out the hard way all the new codes and also how shady some contractors were.  We have learned all about renovating a house, bringing it up to code and living it in at the same time. 

In this we also learned how and what things make a home more valuable.  We have done extensive work on this house for the last 7 years.  For the purpose of this article though I will only go into adding value to your house with outdoor modifications and updating.  Some things have already been done and you can see the pictures.  Some things are yet to be done and there will be other articles coming with those changes.  Now living in the house and making these improvements over time doesn't give us the ability to see all the changes in the same way as someone who sees the beginning and then the end results.  This you will be able to see.  I cannot because I have lived in the house during the whole process.  It's funny how that works that way.

Finally finishing all the huge undertakings of remodeling the inside of our castle, we added a lot of value to the house already. Enough so that we could get a loan to do the outside which needed many repairs and upgrades too. Since we originally had a wrap around deck and the shady contractor accidentally (I bet on purpose) knocked the corner part of the deck off we had to make due with a front and back deck. He did not fix his mistakes or accidents and then he just walked off the job.  You can see all that on my other article So You Want To Hire A Contractor

We are finding lots of creative ways of adding value to our castle. We are in the process of getting the decks rebuild or fixed so they meet code and add value to the house as well.

The front deck was dis-assembled and a brand new deck put on. This adds value to the house because it adds more living space, even outdoor living space is good.

You can view the pictures of how they took it off and the problem we encountered do so on the pictures at the right.

Moving the ramp from the side of the house  to the other corner of the deck brough an inviting feel to the house.  This adds value to a house as well.

After this is finished and the Back Deck brought up to code as well these are some of the things that we will be doing to add even more value to our Castle:

When all is done we will be painting our Castle Hunter Green and the Trim a light brown or tan.

We will be adding vinyl soffits to the exposed rafters, which adds value to the house and also keeps out the elements.

After the painting is done we will be planting flowers and plants around our castle. This always bring up the value in a house. Some of the plants we will be adding are Mock Orange. It has a very light Orange smells and the thorns should keep out anyone who decides to break in from that direction.

Preventing burglars is a good way to add value to a house and get more value for your buck when it comes to Home Owners Insurance. Also adding a burglar system reduces your Home Owners Insurance too. We have one of those systems in place too,

Adding value to your castle can be fun and energy efficient and save money in the long run. Like the saying goes, "A Little Goes A Long Way."

 Through all this we finally found a good company that will do everything.  The will use the material you have or will get material for you.  They work right up to the last minute and do a really great job.  They also have built things for us that meet or exceed building codes in our area.  They are very ethical people and they are :

The Handyman Connection.  Type in the zip code near you and the site will pull up what they have in your area.  It is a franchise.  If there is none in your area then you can contact them and see about getting your own franchise started in your area.