Home renovation jobs you can do over the holidays

It’s somewhere around the summer holidays that people begin to notice all the things around their homes that need fixing.

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

Photo: Stocksy

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.

If you have wallpaper to remove, or there are little nicks or gouges in the wall, you will need to fix them first. Allow as much time for preparing the surfaces as for painting them. You will need to patch the imperfections, sand, clean then mask any areas you aren’t painting, around windows, door handles and ceilings, before you start the actual painting.

Typically prep and painting will take anywhere from 3 to 6 hours per room, but sometimes more. This includes prepping and painting the trims which can sometimes take longer than the walls.

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• Related: 5 DIY renovations you can do in a weekend

Landscaping

Photo: Stocksy

Fixing up an entertaining area or improving the street appeal of your property is an ideal holiday project.

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.

While it can be difficult to estimate the time frame of a landscaping job, I’d allow a small job to be done in a day. If there are pavers to lay or a lot of landscaping needed, you are looking at three or four days of solid work.

Door Handles

Replacing outdated door handles can do a lot to refresh the look and feel of a house. There are lots of videos on YouTube that will show you what handle to look for and how to put it together properly. Allow between $30 and $50 per set of handles.

A expert will usually take 20-40 minutes per door to install handles, so if it’s your first time, it will probably be double this – at least for the first few doors.

Timber floors

Photo: Stocksy

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.

Many of my clients have successfully tackled this job themselves. Take a look at a few YouTube videos first to make sure you know what you are doing, and test your skills in an area that is seen less often, like under a bed or in the office.

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

Photo: Luigi Rosselli Architects/ Houzz Australia

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.

The different styles of hooks can be confusing, so take photos of tracks, or take them into a curtain shop so the staff can help you work out what you need.

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

Retiling the kitchen splashback

Photo: Hommemaker

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.

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

Before you start, make sure you consider the knock-on effect so it doesn’t turn into a mountain of a job. For example, if your tiles sit behind the benchtops, it will become a much more complex task.

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.

Jane Eyles-Bennett is one of Australia’s leading home renovation and interior design experts. She is an award-winning interior designer with more than 25 years’ experience designing the interiors and exteriors of homes, specialising in kitchens, bathrooms and living spaces.

Contact Jane at jane@hotspaceconsultants.com or via her website.