Whether your motivation is profit, comfort, beauty, or just keeping busy, it's good to know which DIY sweat equity projects offer the best return on investment (both time and money). Here is a list of our favorites, plus the best of the rest I could find online.
Tiling--bath, kitchen, entryway
We like tiling projects for 4 reasons: 1) Because they basically last forever, tile projects increase property value. 2) Because they're so labor intensive, we save a ton of money by doing it ourselves. 3) Old houses sometimes have a bad smell. Tiling seals out the old odors and doesn't permit new ones to sink in. 4) There's no special skill, tools, or permits required.
Here is what others have to say about the best sweat equity projects:
DIY Network has a whole series of TV shows for sweat equity. Each episode includes the improvement (or not) in the homeowner's bottom line after the project is finished.
CNN Money not only tells you which projects to do, they tell you how to do it--with pictures.
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