Keeping a Home Improvement Diary
Mar 7, 2010 Home Improvement
When you own a home, the projects to maintain and improve its appearance are endless. Weekends turn into trips to the home improvement store. The satisfaction after a project well done fuels your desire to start the next project. There is always something to be done, even if you bought a brand new construction. Once the project is finished, all that planning and measuring, type of materials, and any research that you did, gets lost. That information may result valuable later, so why not keep it?
By keeping a home improvement diary, you can log important information on your projects. This diary can take the shape of a written journal, recorded video, PC journal, and step-by-step photographs of the project. You can also do a combination of all.
You can use a binder, a journal, a scrapbook type, an album, a photo box, or anything that you can think of. The important issue here is that you are able to organize it and can find the information easily when you need it.
A home improvement diary can help you in many ways. It can give you ideas for other future projects. It can track cost of materials and labor, and at the same time suggest other ways of saving money. By looking at what you did in the past, you can get ideas on how to do it better and/or cheaper. It can also help you keep records of expenses and improvements to your home to use when it is time to sell your home. It will help you price it, and it will help you with taxes.
What should you include in a home improvement diary? The answer varies – anything that you might need for reference later. Start by logging in the date of the project. You can include receipts of material purchase, model and serial number of any appliances, estimates, labor bills, description and samples of materials used, work plan, any important notes on research to do the project, contacts, references for projects, and any important reference to a particular gap or difficult point of the project. If you hire any workers or contractors, include their contact information and the type of work they did – as well as any disputes you may have had with them.
This could prove useful if any lawsuits arise later. Attach photographs of the difference phases of the project too. Organize your diary by room or area, for example, living room, dining room … Use a summary sheet in the front so you can log the most relevant information about the project for quick review. Use envelopes to save receipts and estimates, as well as bills – attach these envelopes.
These are some ideas that you can easy implement on your home improvement diary. Use your creativity according to what works best for you.
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