Home renovation jobs you can do over the holidays

But that doesn’t mean you have to call in the professionals. Many projects are easy to DIY and just require a little time and elbow grease.

Tackling one or more of these projects will go a long way towards refreshing your home over the holidays.

Interior painting

Just about anyone is capable of this one. Assuming your surfaces only need a light prep and you are painting them yourself, you can expect the cost of paint to average out about $50-$100 per room.

You will also have the expense of rollers, brushes and masking tape, as well as sugar soap or whatever you decide to clean your walls with.

Fixing up an entertaining area or improving the street appeal of your property

On a budget? Simply transplant plants and cuttings that friends and family are happy to hand off. If you’ve got some money to spend, buy a range of plants and style your backyard accordingly. Allow around $800 for an average front yard; this will give you a pretty solid look.

Door Handles

Replacing outdated door handles can do a lot to refresh the look and feel of a house. Allow between $30 and $50 per set of handles.

Timber floors

If you’re a reasonably confident DIYer, you might want to have a go at redoing your timber floors. A quick sand and a new coat of clear varnish will have the floors looking brand new.

You can hire a floor sander for about $150-$200 a day. It should take you about three or four days to do the whole job.

Curtains

This is a relatively simple job and a great way to improve the aesthetics of your home. If you’ve already got tracks in place, then it’s just a case of replacing the curtains.

Ready-made curtains can cost as little as $50 a set and can be installed in a matter of hours.

Retiling the kitchen splashback

If you’re quite handy, you might want to have a go at updating the kitchen splashback by retiling it. However, this is one job where you’ll want to weigh up your experience level, and the type of tiles you are going to use, before you dive straight in. Some tiles are trickier to align and won’t look good if done by somebody who is not experienced.

YouTube is a great place to gather info, get tips and watch how the professionals do it.

Cost to DIY a new tile splash-back? Anywhere from $100-$500 for your materials (plus tools).

Refreshing surfaces

Simple tasks like water blasting driveways and cleaning gutters are jobs many homeowners can tackle. They are labour-intensive, but are not too expensive and can make a huge difference to the outside appeal of your home.

The only costs involved are your water blaster, which can be hired for about $100-$200 a day, and any chemicals that might be needed. A job like this will take you anywhere from half a day to a few days depending on how big and how dirty your property is.

Paint your entry door

One of the most impressive DIY renovations you can do is to paint your entry door and trim.

Bathroom renovation

You’ll be amazed by what a difference weekend renovations can make in the bathroom. If your shower is looking dingy, it won’t take long to clean the soap scum off the tiles and glass shower screen. Take a closer look and see if your tiles need re-grouting. You can tackle this job a stage at a time, but even if you regrout all your bathroom tiles, it shouldn’t take longer than a couple of days.

To help make the right finance decisions when renovating to create your dream home, seeking specialist help is a sensible idea.

A good first step is to talk to a local mortgage broker, like myself, who will be able to clarify your property goals and help you assess the nuts and bolts of the finance options most closely aligned with your needs and circumstances.

This may also be a good opportunity to shop around and compare your loan to the hundreds of others to see if there is one offering a better, well suited option. If you have had your loan for a number of years it may be possible that a new loan structure will result in savings meaning the new repayments may be very similar to your current repayments - even with any extra borrowings you may have taken out to cover the cost of your renovations – and you may be able to get a better deal on interest rates and fees.