finished basement

Three Ways to Celebrate National Family Fun Month with Highlight Homes

Highlight Homes Luxury Renovations
Three Ways to Celebrate National Family Fun Month with Highlight Homes

It’s true what they say… the family that plays together, stays together! In our everyday busy lives, it’s important to reserve some time to blow off steam and enjoy some good old-fashioned fun with the ones that we love. While we may make the time, we may not always have the dedicated space to enjoy family time beyond sharing a meal in the dining room or watching TV together in the family room. In the spirit of National Family Fun Month, Highlight Homes suggests three ways to CREATE the space where your family can make lasting memories and share countless good times together.

Let’s Take this Party Outside: Create a Family-Focused Outdoor Living Space – When you don’t have room for a family fun space INDOORS, you may have plenty of room to create a dedicated space OUTDOORS. Outdoor Living Space renovations continue to rein supreme in increasing your home’s curb appeal for prospective future homebuyers, but – more importantly – it can also increase the amount of time spent outside enjoying time with your family if designed properly. Is your family active? You may want to place an emphasis on recreation with the addition of a pool, playset, basketball court and/or trampoline. Does your family enjoy playing games? Landscaping surrounding a multi-purpose field for badminton, volleyball, cornhole and more is sure to see a lot of action. Do you have budding environmentalists in your family? A raised garden for planting their own fruits and veggies might make a great addition. Does food have a cohesive effect for your family? An outdoor kitchen and dining room where meals can be made and shared together might be ideal. And for when it’s time to wind down, a cozy seating area surrounding an outdoor hearth for roasting marshmallows and swapping stories will make this space one of your family’s favorite “rooms” of the house. Add a weather proof flat screen for football watching, tail-gating themed fun in the fall! The return on investment on the addition of a simple wood deck can be as high as 82.8%.

Room to Spread Out: Enhance Your Home’s Interior with a Room Addition – With a solid background in architecture and engineering, the team at Highlight Homes can assess your current layout and determine ways in which the flow can be improved. We can also create a seamless room addition that looks as though it was part of the original home design. A room addition can serve as a blank backdrop to become whatever you want it to be – depending on your family’s shared interests. From a craft or rec room to a home theater or game space, the possibilities are virtually endless. No room to increase your home’s footprint? Highlight Homes can “raise the roof”… literally. We can add a half or full floor above your existing home for a bonus room, additional bedroom, full bathroom and more. The addition of a new master suite and bathroom up there could pay off considerably when it comes time to sell – to the tune of a 55%+ return on investment.

Down to Earth: Finally Finish That Basement to Fit Your Family’s Fun Time – Another often overlooked option is to finish that basement that has served as a cobweb-infested storage space for far too long. It’s AMAZING what a little drywall, paint and carpet can do, but with the design talents of the Highlight Homes team on your side, you may find yourself wondering how your family ever lived without a finished basement in the past. This is another space that can serve as a blank backdrop to become anything you want it to be, and given the fact that it encompasses an entirely new floor of your home – it can serve a wide variety of purposes: playroom, media space, exercise room, party space for entertaining, sleepover headquarters – the list goes on and on! The return on investment for a finished basement is about 69%.

Highlight Homes can visit your home to determine which of the three options above might prove the best decision for expanding your home’s family FUN factor. To set an no-obligation consultation with a member of our team, call 678-873-9234, email us at info@highlighthomesga.com or fill out our convenient online contact form.  If you’d like to view our gallery for a peek inside past Highlight Homes’ projects, visit us at www.highlighthomesga.com.

Source: https://www.remodeling.hw.net/cost-vs-value/2018/ 

Room To Grow: Highlight Homes’ Guide to Home Additions

Highlight Homes Luxury Renovations
Room To Grow: Highlight Homes’ Guide to Home Additions

 

Modern families often face critical growth points – whether adding a baby or two, welcoming home a young adult after college graduation or inviting a parent to join the household. The option to move into a new home can be a daunting one for all involved – particularly if you love your current home, benefit from a great school system, have strong ties with your neighbors or share a fondness for the area as a whole. The great news is that many homes offer room to grow that you may not have previously considered. Through a reimagining of your current home, you could stay put while enjoying more spacious quarters in which to grow your family. Here are just a few that Highlight Homes suggests:

Finished Basement: Obviously, one of the easiest options is – in the event that your home is already equipped with a basement – to finish it to suit your needs. Adding a bedroom or two, plus a full bathroom and possibly even a full kitchen (a particularly great option for older parents) is like adding an entirely new floor to your home. Best of all, your parents or young adult child can enjoy the independence of having their own apartment with private entrance.

Room Addition: If a basement is not an option, it may be possible to add a room to your existing floor plan and potentially reconfigure some of the layout to make this addition seamless. The room addition could consist of a new secondary bedroom and full bath to accommodate an additional family member.

Floor Addition: Again, if a basement is not an option and a room addition would not provide you with enough space to accommodate the up-and-coming change to your living arrangements, all hope is not lost. Depending on an evaluation of your current home, a floor addition may be an option. This is particularly true of well-built ranch-style homes. Two story homes with an attic may offer an opportunity to finish a portion of that space to make it suitable for an additional secondary bedroom.

Separate Garage with In-Law Suite:  If you have a fair amount of land surrounding your home, you might want to consider a completely separate structure in which to house part of your growing family. An extremely viable option is to add a separate garage with an in-law suite built overhead. Not only will the garage accommodate additional cars that often come with multi-generational families, but the in-law suite can be customized to include a bedroom, storage, full bathroom and kitchen. Once again, this is an option that could provide your parents or young adult child with an ongoing sense of independence thanks to their own apartment with private entrance.

Highlight Homes welcomes the chance to explore all of the options listed above with you! We can evaluate your current home and determine which possibility might prove the best fit for both your family and your needs. To get started, simply call us at 678.873.9234, email us at info@highlighthomesga.com or fill out our convenient online contact form. To learn more about Highlight Homes and sneak a peek at some of our previous projects, please visit us at www.highlighthomesga.com.

Commemorate National Anti-Boredom Month with Highlight Homes

Highlight Homes Atlanta Custom Homes, Luxury Renovations
Commemorate National Anti-Boredom Month with Highlight Homes

cheers shutterstock_297917804While a luxury kitchen renovation, room addition or reimagined exterior could go a long way in transforming the appearance of your residence, remodeling projects geared at tackling its functionality could rekindle your love affair with the place your family calls home. The month of July is not only an occasion for celebrating our nation’s independence, it’s also National Anti-Boredom Month. When considering a renovation project from the angle of chasing away the dreaded echoes of “I’m bored,” that’s when the real fun begins!  Here are just a few renovation projects that could go a long way in battling boredom:

Home Theater:

A state-of-the-art media space with all the bells and whistles – made to look and feel like an actual theater – is an ideal fit for a family of movie buffs and sports fans. Imagine countless slumber parties hosted in this space, as well as tailgate parties for the day of the “big game.” If you have an avid gamer in your midst, you can ramp up this room’s functionality by adding video game components for hours of engaging play.

Finished Basement:

Whether your basement is already finished or has been left unfinished and used primarily for storage, it can be reimagined into a space that will likely become your family’s favorite go-to destination. For a family who loves to entertain, a bar with kitchen that opens to a spacious multi-functional room with pool table, sprawling sectional and big screen TV may prove the ideal answer. For the family who loves to host overnight guests, you can finish a couple of warm and welcoming guestrooms here with attached full baths and a gathering space at the center; and for the family who likes to stay fit, an expansive home gym may be the perfect addition. The possibilities are truly endless!

Outdoor Living Space:

HighlightHomes-ad-for-Atlanta-Home-Improvement-Magazine-Apr09-photo-300x199Holding its own as one of the hottest remodeling trends as more and more families opt to extend their home’s functionality to the Great Outdoors, a focus on an Outdoor Living Space is always a wise choice. Have someone in the family who fancies him or herself as an aspiring chef? An outdoor kitchen with counter for “live culinary performances and luxury dining space for sharing the fruits of your labor is a terrific use of your existing exterior space. Active families may prefer a pool with dedicated pool house, while families who like to kick back and relax may be better served by a covered space that comprises an outdoor hearth, weather-resistant flat screen TV and loads of cozy seating. An outdoor oasis with sprawling garden, koi pond, gazebo with pathways emanating out in all direction plus benches for reflecting might be the perfect escape at the end of a long day.

Atlanta-based Highlight Homes welcomes the opportunity to help you chase the boredom blues away! Celebrate National Anti-Boredom Month with us by booking a luxury home renovation with our talented team. We can design-and-build the ideal space to fit your family’s unique needs, wishes and collective personality. To get started, simply call us at 678-873-9234, email us at info@highlighthomesga.com or fill out our convenient online contact form and someone will be in touch with you shortly!  To learn more about Highlight Homes and view our online gallery of work, please visit www.highlighthomesga.com.

Top 17 “Bang for Your Buck” Renovations for 2017

Highlight Homes Luxury Renovations
Top 17 “Bang for Your Buck” Renovations for 2017

Plans and Tape Measure shutterstock_283662473 (lo res)Any professionally-executed renovation to your home calls for an investment on your part – of time, space and (of course) money. That’s why it’s important to know which renovations could potentially add value to your home – proving a good return on investment on all counts. Besides the “wants” like a dedicated man cave or luxury home theater, there are a number of renovations that have lasting value – a very good thing when it comes time for you to list your home with a real estate professional.  According to Remodeling Magazine’s Cost vs. Value Report, here are the Top 17 “Bang for Your Buck” Renovations for 2017 nationwide:

  1. Fiberglass Attic Insulation: ROI = more than 100% (meaning you can easily recoup your costs!)
  2. Steel Entry Door: ROI = 90.7%
  3. Manufactured Stone Veneer: ROI = 89.4% (an excellent way to upgrade the look of your home’s exterior!)
  4. Minor Kitchen Remodel ($20.8K or less): ROI = 80.2%
  5. Garage Door Replacement: ROI = 76.9%
  6. Siding Replacement: ROI = 76.4% (are you noticing the trend toward exterior upgrades?)
  7. Wood Deck Addition: ROI = 71.5%
  8. Second-Story Addition: ROI = 71.1% (an excellent ROI, particularly when you consider the fact that you just doubled your living space capacity. As a matter of fact, it’s trending up from last year’s ROI percentages
  9. Basement Remodel: ROI = 70% (been considering finally having that basement finished? That ROI should help do some convincing… again adding to your living space capacity and the overall enjoyment of your home!)
  10. Family Room Addition: ROI = 69.3% (an improvement over last year’s ROI percentages)
  11. Roofing Replacement: ROI = 68.8%
  12. Universal Design Bathroom: ROI = 68.4% (the term “universal design” refers to the incorporation of certain elements – such as wider wheelchair-friendly doorways, walk-in showers, grip bars in bathrooms and more – to make your home more universally accessible to people with/without disabilities and older adults.)
  13. Major Kitchen Remodel ($62K+): ROI = 65.3% (trending up from last year’s ROI percentages)
  14. Composite Deck Addition: ROI = 65.2% (an improvement over last year’s ROI percentages)
  15. Upscale Bathroom Remodel: ROI = 64.8% (is it time to update YOUR master bathroom? It’s amazing what a soaking tub, new shower, granite countertops, new flooring and a fresh coat of paint can do to help you reimagine this space into a tranquil room worthy of the name “restroom”.)
  16. Upscale Master Suite Addition: ROI = 64.8% (we mentioned this trend a couple of years back, but the addition of a second master suite – or expansion of your current master – continues to remain strong, particularly among families with multiple generations co-existing. This year’s ROI shows an improvement over 2016 numbers.)
  17. Backyard Patio: ROI = 54.9% (with three of the top 17 renovations falling into this category, can you detect a continuing trend towards outdoor living?)

As trusted experts in Atlanta luxury renovations since 2005, Highlight Homes welcomes the opportunity to help your incorporate any and all of the remodeling projects listed above to your home.  Contact us today for a no-cost, no-obligation consultation at 678-873-9234 or info@highlighthomesga.com To learn more about us and view the full list of services we offer – including custom home construction – please visit us at www.highlighthomesga.com.