EMPTY NESTERS: Upsides to downsizing

Joanna Tovia

Your kids have moved out, and you’ve traded in the family home for a smaller abode, one that’s closer to the action (or the beach). Along with the memories you’re leaving behind, about which you’ll have mixed feelings, your new home will bring with it changes to your lifestyle you may not anticipate. Prepare for this exciting next stage in your life by arming yourself with knowledge. If you know what may be coming, you’ll be better equipped to make the transition with ease.

Juliette Byrne

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You can see and hear your neighbors. Only once you move into a new house do you tend to discover the people you’re living next door to and how loud they are — something far more obvious if you have a wall in common or your backyards sit side by side. Upgrading the window treatments in your home may be necessary to increase privacy, and screening plants may be needed to make your backyard feel more like an oasis.

The upside: Get to know your neighbors, and you’ve taken the first step toward building a community in your new neighborhood. Old friends are gold, but making friends next door will enhance the everyday.

Get ideas for privacy screens

CG Design Studio

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Storage becomes your new best friend. The double vanity, expansive counter and plentiful storage you’ve taken for granted may well be things you miss about your old bathroom — and this could be one of the first rooms you renovate in your new home. In the meantime, rest assured that you’ll get used to having less surface space on which to rest your belongings, and accumulating bathroom clutter will no longer be an option.

The upside: Give yourself permission to acquire only products you love. You’ll have fewer of them, so it’s the perfect excuse to splurge.

mango design co

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It’s harder to have your own space. If you live with your partner, moving to a smaller abode means more time spent face to face. Retired empty nesters who’ve planned ahead do well to develop separate interests (to give each other space and things to talk about), as well as activities they like to do together (retirees who play together stay together).

The upside: You may have a smaller home and fewer opportunities for time on your own, but you’ll also have fewer rooms that need cleaning.

Twinkle and Whistle

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Your furniture may no longer work. Even if you’ve made careful measurements and found new homes for the furniture that clearly wasn’t going to fit in your new place, you may not realize until you move in that what you’ve brought just isn’t going to work. A light-filled room can highlight stains you hadn’t noticed, the color or style may be all wrong for the space, and the way you find yourself using a room may mean that your furniture feels like a mismatch. For example, you may find yourself watching TV in bed but reading in the living room, and would be far more comfortable with a reclining armchair than a formal couch.

The upside: You have the perfect excuse to go shopping for new furniture.

Read about 12 furniture combos for tight living rooms

Molly Wood Garden Design

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Your backyard shrinks, and your lifestyle changes along with it. Moving to a smaller home almost always means a smaller backyard, particularly if you’re moving from the suburbs to the city. If you’re used to lazing by the pool and know you’ll miss it, consider a hot tub or a swim spa instead.

The upside: Mowing the lawn will no longer be a time-consuming chore.

Outhouse Design

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Likewise, perhaps you’re used to a spacious back deck with room for lounging and dining. A compact backyard can still meet your needs for a restful outdoor escape and a place to entertain family and friends; you just have to be a bit clever about it. The owners have made the most of this rear courtyard with built-in seating and a barbecue.

Outhouse Design

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A pass-through window connects the inside and out, and effective use of the vertical wall space envelops the area in greenery.

The upside: A smaller garden allows you to actually enjoy gardening, rather than wearing yourself out trying to stay on top of it. Plant what you love.

Discover ways to create an inviting courtyard

Moneyhill Interiors

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Your compact kitchen changes the way you cook. When you have yards of counter space, banks of storage cabinets and a butler’s pantry, strutting your culinary skills is relatively easy. A smaller kitchen will require you to clean as you go, shop for ingredients more often, and pare back your serving dishes, glassware and kitchen gadgets. 

The upside: Embrace your downsized lifestyle and, if possible, eat out more often. Meet friends out for dinner instead of always having them over, and head out for impromptu visits to new or favorite restaurants, even if you’re on your own. Life is short; simplify the meals you do cook at home, focusing on using only the very best produce and ingredients.

Justin Loe Architects

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Rooms have to serve more than one purpose. Many empty nesters have the luxury of turning rooms their children once occupied into craft rooms, man caves, home offices and the like. Downsizers must readjust to multipurpose rooms and make do, particularly when hosting guests.

The upside: The accumulation of stuff is less tempting. You’ll buy only what you need or genuinely love, and it will become plain to see what you actually like doing versus what you might one day do. The artist you once imagined yourself becoming when you retired, for example, may rarely show up, but you may well find that the entertainer in you often wants to come out and play. Or vice versa.

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If your kitchen and laundry are now one, figuring out what to do with baskets of washing can become a challenge — separate laundries are prime dumping grounds for all manner of items, such as shoes that need cleaning and socks that are soaking in the sink. Doing smaller loads more often is the key to a successful kitchen-laundry combo.

The upside: Piles of laundry will become a thing of the past. Staying on top of washing, folding and ironing will become the norm. Reward yourself.

Michael Wickham Photography

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Guests make their presence felt. Larger homes often come with guest rooms for visiting kids and grandkids, but downsizing empty nesters will have to get creative to squeeze in more than one guest at a time. Bunk beds, wall beds, sofa beds and air mattresses are all options. It’s up to you how many guests you want to accommodate at once —and sometimes it will take a visit or two to see what will work.

The upside: If only a couple of family members can visit comfortably at once, quality time together is assured.

www.teambluesky.ca

15 TIPS BIG & SMALL TO INCREASE YOUR PROPERTY VALUE

ERIN EBERLIN

Low-Cost Tips to Increase Property Value

There are simple things any property owner can do which can boost the appeal of your property.

While these simple tips may not add tens of thousands of dollars to your property’s value, without doing them, you may not be able to realize the full potential value of your property. These fixes can be done without having to hire any outside help. Although they are low cost, they can make a huge difference in the way your property shows.

• Clean- Making sure your property is clean will have an immediate return on the value of your property. This includes both the outside and the inside. Garbage, dirt, and strange odors are not attractive features.
• Paint- You will be amazed by the difference a fresh coat of paint can make. It can revive and brighten a tired space. Neutral colors are universally appealing.
• Add Curb Appeal- A few strategically placed plants, a new mailbox, outdoor lights or shutters can make your property more inviting. Higher cost and potentially higher return projects include new siding, new walkways, or driveways and adding a deck.

• Change Fixtures- Changing out a door knob, light switch cover, cabinet handle or even a light fixture is an easy way to breathe new life into a space.
• Stage the Property- De-cluttering a space and giving each room a function can add value because many buyers lack imagination. Proper placement of furniture, the size of furniture, and amount of furniture is also key.

Moderate/High-Cost Tips to Increase Property Value

There are updates you can make to a property that can have an average to high cost depending on the extent of the renovation done and the materials chosen. These types of updates have the potential to add significant value to your property.

• Add Architectural Detail-You can give a boring room some character by adding a chair or crown molding to it.
• Change/Add Windows or Doors- This is a valuable addition. Not only does it improve the aesthetics of the home, it also can reduce noise inside the home, help lower heating bills and cooling bills and increase natural light inside the home. French doors that lead out to the backyard add elegance, open up the space, and allow more light to enter the property. Skylights can also help brighten up spaces that may be lacking windows or natural light. Properly positioning windows and doors can also help highlight a beautiful view that your property may have or minimize one that is not so desirable, such as a brick wall or a view right into your neighbor’s home.

• Change Flooring- Updating carpet or adding hardwood or tile adds value to a property.
• Reduce Noise- People want to feel like their home is an oasis. There are many ways to reduce noise such as adding insulation, installing double pane windows and doors, installing carpets and rugs to minimize footsteps and placing plants to further absorb noise.
• Update a Kitchen or Bath- This includes changing a portion of the room, but not an entire gut renovation. It could be changing the flooring or changing countertops. In the bathroom, you could switch out a toilet, sink or bathtub. In a kitchen, it could include buying new appliances.
• Gut Renovate a Kitchen or Bath- This would be a complete overhaul of the room. It can involve adding new cabinets, new countertops, new flooring, new lighting fixtures, new appliances, new sinks, new faucets, new cabinet handles, new tub, new shower, new toilet or even changing the layout of the room.
• Update Siding- There are many options for home siding and the best type will often depend on the climate and area where your property is located. It is an update that will improve the aesthetic look of your property and can help lower your utility bills.
• Create a More Functional Layout/Modernize Floor Plan- For example, it could be taking down a wall between a kitchen and living room. It could be rearranging a kitchen to create more usable space. It could be adding a bathroom to the master bedroom to create a suite. It could also be swapping the location of two rooms, such as an office and a dining room to create a better flow in the home. It could also be taking space away from one room to add it to another room, for example, taking some space from an oversized living room to create a pantry for the kitchen.
• Add More Square Footage- This does not only mean adding an addition to the property. It could also mean finishing an unfinished attic or a basement to add more living space to the property. It could also mean transforming an attached garage into additional living space.
• Gut Renovate a Property- Completely redoing a property by ripping it down to its studs and building it back up with a more modern design and materials can increase the value of a property, as long as you are able to sell the property for more than you owe on the property along with renovation and holding costs.

Do Not Over-Improve

While you want to improve your property and increase the value, you also want to be cautious so that you do not over-improve your property. You don’t want to spend an amount of money on a renovation where you will not see a return on your investment. For example, putting high-end Viking appliances in a home in a middle-class neighbourhood would be an over-improvement.

Before you renovate, do some research on your area to find out how much the property will be worth after the renovations, otherwise known as the After-Repair-Value or ARV. Once you properly gauge this new value, you can deduct the price you paid for the home and what you are left with is the maximum price you should spend for the renovation and any soft costs such as financing charges, closing costs, and holding costs if the property will sit vacant while the renovations occur.

www.teambluesky.ca

7 Tips on moving in with your Significant Other

Cody McComas/Flickr

If that drawer you were gifted at your significant other’s apartment has turned into half a dresser, and your toothbrush is now a permanent fixture in their medicine cabinet, it might be time to consider cohabitation. Moving in with a partner is a major relationship milestone, and both parties are likely to feel nervous in the weeks leading up to the big day.

To ease these tensions, it’s best to purge your belongings and get organized well before the U-Haul truck arrives. “I’ve been in this business for 13 years, and I am no longer surprised at how little in advance people plan for this sort of thing,” says Josh Cohen, the Founder and CEO of Junkluggers, 

If you’re about to make the leap into mutually agreed upon television shows and a never ending pile of laundry, follow these seven pieces of advice for a smooth move.

1. Take inventory of your belongings.

Photo: Laura D’Alessandro/Flickr

If you and your partner have been living on your own for some time, you’re likely to have duplicates of furniture and other housewares. “That’s where the battles begin,” warns Cohen. Make a list to determine which items you’re going to keep, considering factors such as size, quality and condition. Ask yourselves important questions like, “Is this couch going to fit through the doorframe?”, “In how many months will this particle board coffee table break in half?” and, “Where did this stain on your mattress come from?”

2. Decide what to keep, recycle, donate or toss.

Photo: Emily May/Flickr

Once you’ve selected the furniture, appliances and decor that you’ll have in your new apartment, it’s time to split up the remaining items into four piles. “If it lacks sentimental value, then you should get rid of it,” suggests Cohen. While it may be tempting to throw all of your significant other’s junk into a garbage bag, it’s best to donate and recycle as much as possible. “Tax write-offs are a big benefit of donating to charity, but you’ll also have peace of mind that your stuff isn’t headed for a landfill — it’s getting a new life,” says Cohen. It’s important to know what items can and cannot be recycled. “You can’t recycle finished wood which, unfortunately, is most of the wood out there,” says Cohen. Consult your city’s government website or browse this handy recycling guide if you’re still unsure.

3. Be willing to compromise.

Photo: Chloe Muro/Flickr

If you’re signing a lease together, chances are you’re going to be stuck with one another for six months to a year. Why sabotage your relationship before you even move in? If you absolutely must hold onto your treasured stamp collection, don’t give your SO grief about their taxidermy parakeet. And if you still can’t come to an agreement on which furniture items to keep “you can always get rid of both duplicates and opt to buy something new,” says Cohen.

4. Create a layout.

Photo: Denny Yu/Flickr

“Draw out the apartment floorplan and take note of the square footage of each room,” suggests Cohen. Have a game plan going into your move to ensure that the scale of your furniture is appropriate for the new space. If you’re not much of an artist, there are tons of free apps that will help you to decide on a layout before you get started with the heavy lifting.

5. Label absolutely everything.

Photo: Meathead Movers/Flickr

“When you’re packing up boxes, label them by room and write down a simple bullet list of all the items that are in the box,” says Cohen. This will save you from major headaches when it’s time to unpack. Numbering your boxes helps, too — that way you can make sure nothing was left behind. Cohen also suggests unpacking as a team, “You’ll both know where things are and can avoid yelling at eachother like, ‘Where did you put this?!’

6. Acknowledge that moving sucks.

Photo: Nicola Romagna/Flickr

“Before the big day, talk to your partner about the fact that moving is incredibly stressful,” says Cohen. A British study found that the majority of people find moving house to be more emotionally taxing than a breakup, divorce or starting a new job. “Agree to take things with a grain of salt and try to work together — hopefully you’ve hired good movers!” jokes Cohen.

7. Think of a storage unit as a last resort.

Photo: Meathead Movers/Flickr

We’ve seen enough episodes of Storage Wars to know that most people don’t take full advantage of their storage units. “If you’re at eachother’s throats and you’re really having trouble decluttering, then at least temporarily, I would consider storage space,” says Cohen. “One downfall I would warn people about is that we get a lot of calls to clear out storage units. Often people fill them up because they’re afraid to let go of things, but then they end up paying thousands of dollars in monthly fees to store belongings they don’t necessarily need.”

www.teambluesky.ca