Maintaning Your Home

Greener Homes

Canadian’s are Adopting the Greener Homes Grant

Home Improvement, Maintaning Your Home / /
The Federal Government’s Greener Homes Grant

Have you been thinking about making improvements to your home? Right now might be the best time to do it. The Greener Homes Grant has been introduced recently and is becoming very popular amongst Canadians and for a good reason. “The federal government’s Canada Greener Homes Grant is proving wildly popular after coming online less than a month ago.” The grant has $2.6 million to work with and is targeting 700,000 homes across the country over the next 7 years. 

It will provide Canadians with up to $5,000 in order to help make energy-efficient retrofits. The retrofits will need to follow the EnerGuide standards. Jordan MacDonald, who is the president of a building performance consulting company in Atlantic Canada, stated “We’ve had a huge uptake since the program started. We have a team of energy advisors in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. We were providing a similar service before the Greener Homes program, but we’ve seen a tenfold increase since the government launched it and we’re in the midst of increasing our staffing.”

Upgrades That are Covered

When it comes to what’s covered in the upgrades, they are included in a building envelope. This building envelope includes; installation, air sealing, replacing windows and doors with energy-efficient units, and air or ground source hear pumps. This will not only reduce costs but also helps to contribute to combating climate change. 

The grant will also cover renewable energy such as photovoltaic panelling, which will regenerate electricity. In some cases this will even be feb back into the grid. These incentives are put in places to encourage us all to help make our planet a better place and why not start with your home. Making upgrades to your home also helps to add value when you’re ready to sell. 

The Minister of Natural Resources, Seamus O’Regan said in a recent interview that “we worked with Statistics Canada on the model of the program—we think it’s about 110,000 direct and indirect local jobs in their communities. We’re also taking into account the recruitment, training and mentoring of up 2,000 EnerGuide energy advisors.”

Improve Your Home and Increase the Value 

It’s true that making improvements to your home can increase the value. You’re helping to improve the value and in this case also the environment. When we talk about what we can do to help the planet we sometimes wonder how we can do more, this is a great place to start. 

O’Regan also said that “any time you improve your home, one would think it increases the value, but you’re also going to see an increase in the literacy of this. People want to be able to do something to combat climate change, which seems so insurmountable that there is an appetite out there amongst Canadians to do their part. The only way this will work, aside from the fact that we’re talking about 1.5 megatons of greenhouse gas reductions beginning in 2027—that is sizeable—but in order for change to be expandable, I think people need to benefit from it and save money. This is not just about lowering emissions and creating good jobs, it’s also about lowering Canadians’ energy bills and that’s how it will be sustainable.”

There’s never been a better time than right now to make these improvements and then when you’re ready to list. I’m always here if you ever have questions about when it’s a good time to list and how we can work together to get the process started.  

Contact Lori and Team Today 

Have questions? You can contact Lori VanDinther and her team today if you’re interested in buying or selling your home. If you’re interested in learning what your home is worth, try our free home evaluation. 

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Home Renovations

Home Renovations

Home Improvement, Maintaning Your Home / /

Home renovations are a great first step when preparing for your home to be listed. Home renovations can include anything from simple and easy improvements to full on more expensive details. Today we want to talk about things you can do yourself and it’ll help improve your ROI.

If you have lived in your home for a long time, it might be hard to see what really needs to be done. There might be a wall colour that you’re so used to that you might not realize that it needs an refreshment, a fresh coat of paint. That’s really how simple these home improvements can be. Today we’ll talk about paint, doors and hardware and countertops.

Painting Your House

It’s time to pick out some paint colours and get creative. If you’re considering painting the outside of your home, it would be best to consult a professional, as it can be dangerous, leave that to the pros. For the inside of your home, you can use a professional or do it yourself. All you need to do is pick out some colours and choose the rooms that need to have a refresh.

Painting can really go a long way and it’s not the most complicated ways to improve a room. When you’re putting your home on the market, try hiring a professional to come and do the job for you. They can often help you select the palette and they can seal trim and repair minor damage. It might not be the most glamorous renovation but it will help the room feel like new again. Now let’s talk about door and hardware.

Doors and Hardware

When it comes to investing in new interior doors and hardware and replacing the front door, you will see an improvement. I mean, how could you not? The doors and hardware can be updated to something more modern if you’re living in an older home. The new hardware doesn’t have to just apply to door, it can also apply to kitchen cabinets and bathroom cabinets too.

If you have the budget for it, take an inventory of all the hardware around your home and see what can be updated. Also consider adding a nice quality lockset, baseboards, crown moulding and wainscoting. They’re all good examples of inexpensive improvements that can offer immediate appeal to your home, inside and out. Lastly, we’ll discuss countertops and see what can be done.

Countertops

Sometimes all it can take in a kitchen is some new countertops to give the room life again. Consider a quality stone such as granite or quartz. There are also less inexpensive countertop solutions that you can find at your local hardware store, such as Home Depot, and they have professionals that will make you have it installed the right way. There are so many choices and so many ways to add little improvements to your home and get it ready to be listed.

Contact Lori VanDinther

If you have any questions about what other tips there are about curb appeal, we will be happy to help! 

Make sure you contact Lori VanDinther and her team today if you’re interested in buying or selling your home. If you’re interested in learning what your home is worth, try our free home evaluation.

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Time For Spring Cleaning

It’s Spring Cleaning Time

Maintaning Your Home / /
Spring Cleaning

It’s time for spring cleaning. And this is the best time to start, let’s take this time to clean and organize our homes. There’s so much you can do to make you’re home feel fresh and bright. And that’s such a wonderful feeling.

Time To De-Clutter

Spring cleaning often means that it’s time to de-clutter and by doing this, organize our homes. This is our chance to go through drawers, closets and cupboards. We can go through all our clothes and pick out the ones we no longer wear and donate them if we can. Now it’s time to dust the house, wipe down counters, vacuum and get your house to shine.

Walls and Windows

This is a good time to wash your walls. How often do we actually wipe down our walls and baseboards? Take some soapy warm water and give them a good wipe down. Not all dust settles on the floor and other surfaces. So it doesn’t hurt to take a cloth and wipe down your walls.

Windows always need a good scrub and if you haven’t during your last big house clean, do them next time. You should also consider removing screens and rinsing them off, if the weather is warm and you’re able to do this safely.

The Kitchen and Bathrooms

This is a big job depending on how many bathrooms you have. Let’s start with the kitchen. Deep cleaning your kitchen by wiping down cabinets and countertops. Then go through your pantry and fridge, removing old items and if you can wipe down the inside of the cabinets. And same goes for the fridge, take everything out, wipe down the shelves and throw out old items.

Your bathrooms needs some love as well. Let’s start by wiping down cupboards and countertops, just like we did in the kitchen. Remove everything and wipe out the cupboards and throw away old items. Next scrub that tub and/or shower. We really want to make your bathrooms shine, so let’s pay attention to detail.

If possible, take down the shower curtain and throw it in the washing machine. If it’s a shower curtain that can’t be washed, consider buying a new one. Finally, let’s go through all your makeup and toss expired items and items that you don’t use, we want to de-clutter.

The Living Room

When it comes to the living room you want to make sure that you wipe down all the surfaces, shelves, tables and don’t forget about behind your TV. Then vacuum everywhere, carpets and hardwood floors. De-clutter as much as you can, we’ve mentioned de-cluttering a lot in this blog. And that’s because when we live in a space for a long time, we tend to accumulate a lot of things.

It Feels Good To Clean

Keeping busy is good and helps to keep our minds busy. We can clean and make our home fresh and clean and that’s a good feeling. Let’s get organized and enjoy that sense of accomplishment that having a clean home. Start by making a list and going room by room of what you really want to get done.

Contact Lori VanDinther if you’re considering putting your home on the market or if you’ve been thinking about moving and want to learn more. There’s no better time then right now, happy cleaning.

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