This is a tricky subject. With the exception of exterior doors, adding new doors to your home usually won’t make your house any more energy efficient. Indeed, adding new interior doors usually won’t make any difference, except for appearance. And there, they can make all the difference in the world.

Many older tract homes come with flat veneer interior doors. The veneer might be painted a color to match the walls, or it might be kept as a natural wood that’s been stained. Almost always they are hollow core, which means that interior of the door is empty, it has a frame and veneer on both sides with a few pieces of cardboard in between for support. It’s a hollow door. The molding around the door is also frequently only about an inch wide and is flat in appearance.

Exterior doors, particularly on the front, are more important, as they set the tone for the quality of the home. In many older homes, the front doors are simply a variety of the same door that was used inside, except that for security and fire safety, it’s almost always solid core, filled with wood or sometimes a cementlike material.

The front doors are portals to your home. If the portals have a rich look, then most visitors’ first impressions are that your home is richly outfitted. If they are plain looking, well, you can guess what the impression is going to be. It’s for this reason that many homeowner’s first upgrade in a home is to install new front doors.

Sliders are doors that typically lead to patios or garden areas to the side or rear of the home. The problem with these is that over the years, if they are wood, they might have rotted out due to regular exposure to moisture. If they are metal, they might bind and become difficult to move. Additionally, metal sliders often look old and tired.

What Are Your Options?

Most newer homes come with paneled doors that, though still composed of veneers and hollow cores, strike us a having a kind of classic beauty and modernity. These newer doors have a variety of panels extruded from the surface on both sides. They typically come in two-, four-, and six-panel varieties. And the surface can either be flat or simulated wood-grain. These doors are usually made of fiberglass.

When it comes to front doors, there’s almost no limit to the varieties available. You can, of course, use a door similar to those described for the inside, upraised panels with or without wood grain. Other varieties (all solid core) include:

Further, there are all sorts of hardware available for front doors. You can choose from the simplest to the most ornate.

Sliders are commonly made of vinyl frames. Be sure they use safety glass. The same conditions apply to them as to the new vinyl windows noted above.

Be aware, however, that vinyl sliders more than 6 feet wide can be very difficult to open and close.

Of course, you could opt for a variety of paneled sliders, which either are authentic (true panels of glass) or have a panel weave inserted between two panes of double-pane glass to give illusion of panels.

What Are the Typical Costs?
New interior doors are amazingly inexpensive. At building supply stores you can commonly find them as prehung (they’re set in their frame) for as little as $30 to $50 apiece. This includes a variety of paneled and wood grain doors. Ordered individually from custom manufacturers they run about twice that in price.

Of course, keep in mind that when installing new interior doors, you’ll have to remove the existing molding and replace it with new decorative molding. This can get expensive, but it will usually yield you a much finer looking doorway.

Replacing all the interior doors within a house, including putting on new molding and having it professionally done will typically cost between $1500 and $2000 for a standard 2000-square-foot house. Of course, the price can zoom up if you select expensive molding and fancier doors.

New front doors, although they also come prehung, must usually be professionally installed. The reason is that they must fit right within the frame to be weathertight, and they must be adequately attached to provide security for the home.

Often owners will opt for oak or another wood finish, many times with ornate glass embellishment. Complete the package with a polished gold, silver, or the new platinum look in hardware, and the entrance to your home can look truly elegant.

The doors themselves can cost anywhere from a minimal door of around $300, to a solid hardwood door costing $3000 to a more ornate set of double doors costing $6000 and up. Hardware for the door is typically an additional $100 or so, and expect to pay several hundred dollars to have a professional hang it.

Putting in new sliders depends on whether you use replacements or retrofits. Replacements run about $250 to $500 for a 6-foot or 8-foot door. Retrofits are roughly twice that price. Note that many professionals refuse to retrofit sliders, arguing that the retrofit process does not allow them to be sufficiently well attached.

What Are You Likely to Recoup?
While it’s hard to say, my own feeling is that if by adding new doors you change the feel of the home from one of an inexpensive tract house to that of a custom home, it can add thousands of dollars to the price, sometimes as much as the cost of all the doors.

Replacing all of your home’s doors, exterior and interior, can literally revolutionize your property’s appearance. Suddenly buyers can see value where they couldn’t see it before.

If you’re thinking of selling in the future and your home has old-fashioned doors, seriously consider upgrading them. It could make a big difference to buyers. (Of course, it could also make an enormous difference to your enjoyment of the home while you live there.)

Much thanks goes to frankhg for the awesome door photo.

Upgrading Your Home – New Doors is a post from: Cape Cod House Remodeling

As a new home owner who is tempted to pour money into home renovation, you should ask yourself an important financial question. Will your renovation really add value? Or, even in an up real estate market, am I just pouring money down a rat hole? The answer might surprise you.

In most cases, renovating your home will increase its value. But it may not increase it enough to warrant the renovation. In other words, it may not get you a dollar-for-dollar return. Rather, you might get 20 cents of added value for each dollar you invest. Strictly speaking in terms of making money, you might be better off investing in the stock market.

How Do I Evaluate What to Renovate?

The first step is to make the sometimes difficult separation between what renovation would make you personally feel good, and what renovation (if any) your home really needs. In other words, it’s important to divide it into two separate perspectives: personal and financial.

Most people have good instincts in choosing what to renovate. They just tend to go overboard and spend far too much.

When deciding to upgrade, most of us are swayed by what is currently popular in home decorating. Granite countertops, marble flooring, solid wood cabinets, wood-metal double-pane windows— the list is endless. You can upgrade your home easily spending $50,000 to $150,000 or more in just a few rooms!

These quality-renovated homes become showcases where you can entertain friends and enjoy the good life. However, my suggestion is that before pursuing any renovation, large or small, do a cost versus value analysis. How much will the work actually add to the value of the property? Does what you are going to do make financial sense?

Don’t renovate to the point of creating your personal white elephant. A “white elephant” in the real estate trade is a home that has been overbuilt for its neighborhood. The owners have put far more in than they can realistically hope to get out.

Do Renovations Really Add Value to Your House? is a post from: Cape Cod House Remodeling

Natural lighting is an important part of every home. However, many homes are poorly designed so that there are dark areas. These typically occur in hallways, but they can occur in any part of any room.

The worst examples of bad lighting typically occur in condominiums and co-ops. This is because these shared living units are often stacked with other units on their sides. This means that while a single-family home can have windows on all four sides, a typical condo/co-op only has windows on two sides, front and back. The other sides are actually the walls of adjoining units.

What Are Your Options?

There are a variety of skylight options available today. These include:

- Sealed skylights, they let in light, but no air.
- Opening skylights, they let in light and air.
- Tubular skylights, they let in light but do not allow you to see out.
- Self-installed skylights, Usually of vinyl or fiberglass construction.

Many skylights also come with some sort of shading device so that you can opt to close out the light if it gets too intense.

What Are the Typical Costs?

It’s important to understand that every home offers unique construction concerns with regard to skylights. Homes with tile roofs, for example, can be extremely costly to retrofit with skylights because many tiles are often broken in the installation.

Homes with tall attics, though unused, require framing in an area to transmit the light from the roof down through the attic to the ceiling, again an additional cost. You also will need to obtain a building permit and submit plans before having a skylight installed, and this will entail additional costs.

The cost of materials for a skylight vary depending on the quality of the product and its size. At the low end, a vinyl unit with plastic covering can cost less than $250. A glass unit that opens and closes and comes with a shade can easily cost $1000. Installation is extra.

Tubular units, which are nothing more than a glass ball at the top, a reflecting tube, and a diffuser at the bottom, are sometimes only available with professional installation and can cost anywhere from $300 to $900 per tube.

What Are You Likely to Recoup?

The amount you’re likely to recoup is impossible to nail down. On the one hand, if you ask 10 buyers how much more they are likely to pay for a home with a skylight, 9 would probably say, “Not a dime more.” (The 10th might come up with a figure of 50 bucks.)

On the other hand, the amount that added natural lighting will increase the perception of value in a house is likely to be significant. Homes with dark areas in rooms are simply not attractive and are likely to draw fewer and lower bids. Well-lit homes with natural light are more attractive and tend to draw better offers.

As with other optional upgrades, if you put it in, do it to please yourself. The long-term value added, if any, is simply a plus down the road.

Upgrading Your Home – New Skylights is a post from: Cape Cod House Remodeling

Here are 5 DIY projects to try your hand at, which include three headboard designs, flower planter recycle ideas and an easy way to revamp that old worn lampshade. Each project requires varying degrees of skill. Have fun!

The Upholstered Headboard

Simply cut a piece of board (mdf supawood will do) to the desired size (to cover the width of the bed, the height is up to you); pad the board with foam, and cover it with the fabric of your choice. Pull the fabric nice and tight and staple it onto the back of the board using a staple gun. Fix the board to the wall and there you have it, a good-looking headboard at the fraction of the cost of buying one! Design tips: You can either opt for a 1-piece oblong headboard, or you can vary the design by making two of three rows of equal-sized panels (like a checkerboard), achieving a more interesting and geometric touch. Choose fabrics that complement the colors of the room.

The Wall-hanging Headboard

The Framed Artwork Headboard

Framed artwork will undoubtedly add style and panache to any bedroom. You can either frame a single wall-art piece, or go for two equal-sized panels to be hung side by side above the bed. Use a thick, contemporary frame and paint it in colors that match the décor of the room, or reflect the color combinations of the artwork itself. Use either works that you have painted yourself, or buy inexpensive prints from your local poster shop. I have found that bold designs in basic color combinations that match the décor work best.

Recycled Planters

If you are interested in adding a unique and special touch to your garden, here are some fun ideas for re-cycled containers for your plants. Almost any container can be resurrected and given new life in the garden or patio as a plant container. One of my personal favorites is using an old wheelbarrow that has outlived its service, by simply repainting it and planting it with a colorful spray of flowers. Another great idea is to use old wicker baskets. These can be hung, or placed around the patio. Other household items that can be re-used in this way are old milk cans, jugs or even boots!

Recycling Old Lampshades

How many times have you looked at that worn old lampshade and thought that you should really do something about revamping it? Well, nows the time and here’s how: Simply cut the old shade cover away, leaving just the bare wire frame. Use a remnant of fabric or an old discarded curtain or tablecloth. Make a new cover for the shade by cutting your fabric to size. Do this by measuring the circumference of the top and bottom of the wire frame, and the height of the shade from top to bottom. Make a paper template using the measurements (your pattern should have a conical shape), and cut your fabric according to the pattern. Remember to leave enough fabric for the hems on the top, bottom and the sides. Sew the shade cover and thread elastic into the top and bottom hems. Simply pull the new cover over the existing wire frame until it fits snugly. And there you have it, a brand new lampshade!

5 Hot DIY Projects is a post from: Cape Cod House Remodeling