The kitchen is the heart of the home and when it comes to getting the most bang for your home improvement buck not much tops the work you can do in the kitchen. Here are some of the things you can focus on (small and large) to improve your house value.
1. Kitchen cabinets - this is a biggie. It can be expensive, although if you do the work yourself it's much more cost effective. You can get stock cabinets or custom made ones. You could even just replace the doors or repaint them and it would still made a visual improvement.
2. Add a kitchen island - this one can be fun, but only if you have the space for it. If the middle of your kitchen isn't big enough, or the layout just doesn't lend itself to this, then you could also get a kitchen island cart and gain the additional storage and workspace without doing anything permanent.
3. New kitchen sink - your old one could have stains you don't even know are there because you just got used to that yucky color. You can take out your sink and put in a nice new one, stainless steel is the new rage.
4. Cabinet knobs - if you have almost no money but still have a burning desire to do something then consider replacing all your kitchen cabinet knobs. They run a buck or two each, and surprisingly can give you an amazing facelift. Change designs, colors, or both and watch the sometimes large transformation it gives you.
5. Kitchen faucets - sometimes this is necessary if you have a leak, but maybe you've always wanted a goose neck faucet, or you're tired of having two separate temperate knobs and want to get down to one. As long as it works well in conjunction with the holes in your sink do whatever you want. If you don't have enough holes, make some. If you'd end up with too many, try putting in a pullout wand in one of the holes.
6. New dishwasher - Ok, if you don't have one then you need to get one. They're wonderful. If you have one that's old, leaking or simply doesn't match the rest of your appliances you can get another one for $400 or so. The more expensive ones are quieter, do a better job of cleaning and have better rack designs.
By:Kristen Easton
