The Lawhead Team would like to share the California Association of Realtor’s One Cool Thing on Home Improvements that actually pay you back.

The following information on home improvements is from CAR’s One Cool Thing.

Kitchen Remodel – You can expect to recoup 60-120% of your home improvements investment on a kitchen remodel, as long as you don’t go overboard. Never make your kitchen fancier than the rest of the house, or the neighborhood for that matter!

Bathroom Addition – If your home has only one bathroom, you can recoup a large chunk of your investment by adding another one. It is estimated you can recoup 80-130% of whatever you spend adding a bathroom.

Adding Square Footage – Home improvements where you add more square footage to your home with a new room can be an incredibly expensive project. However, you can typically recoup between 50% and 83% of your initial investment. Just make sure you keep your costs under control!

Deck Addition – If you make your deck and your backyard more appealing, your house will be more appealing to prospective buyers when you decide to sell. Homeowners can recoup 65%-90% of their home improvements investment by adding a deck.

Learn more about home improvements at One Cool Thing’s website.

Springtime is here and it is time to get your backyard looking its best!  Barbeques, horseshoes, and backyard parties are all a reason to get your backyard looking its best this season.

If you are a fish lover, and want to add some life to your backyard, you may want to think about getting a Koi Pond put in your back yard. While they are expensive, if you have the funds they look absolutely amazing, not only that, they can be customized to fit the entire look of your back yard.

Another great home improvement for your backyard, would be putting in a concrete area and building a fire pit. If you are someone that likes to cook on the grill, then this would be a great way to host parties and stuff.

One type of backyard home improvement for homes that are on the water are tiki huts. Tiki huts give your back yard a great tropical feel and it goes without saying that if you have a tiki hut, then you must have a bar there. If you want to take it a step further, you can install some outdoor HD televisions inside of your tiki hut.  However be mindful that these types of televisions are more expensive than normal ones, but they are made to withstand certain weather conditions, and the sea salt, if you happen to live on saltwater.

Of course you can also do the popular types of home improvements, such as building a shed, remodeling or installing a swimming pool, planting palm trees, building a playground, putting in a sand box, or anything that you heart desires.

If you have kids and want to get them into sports, and have the room, why not modify your backyard for the certain sport that they like. For instance putting in a basketball court is not as hard and expensive as one may think, with the right planning and budget, it can be done for a little over a thousand dollars, depending on many factors of course, as you may need to have a concrete truck show up at your home once you get the foundation in tact.

Another idea that you may want to consider is building a treehouse for your kids. If you kids are around the age that they are in Kindergarden they will absolutely love it. That is something that they will enjoy throughout the years probably all the way up to when they are in high school. The way you might have to go about getting a tree fort made would be to go through a professional handyman or carpenter that has lots of experience building structures, as tree forts are usually do not come out of the box with assembly instructions.

If you are feeling really frisky, you could even build a small guest house in your backyard.  These are just a couple of ideas that you could do for backyard home improvements, so let your imagination run wild, and see what you can come up with.