Restoring Old Villas: Options To Work With

Often a family home has a rich past with many happy memories that you are not ready to lose. Or you just bought a house which is quite old but you do not want to bring it down to pave way for a new one. Or maybe you simply do not want to move from your existing house but you want to modernise it. No matter your reason for wanting to keep an old home old homes are unique with their own unique charm. Different architectural designs, different finishes plus a dash of history make them completely different from the cookie-cutter commonality of many newly built houses. One of the best ways you could get to keep all this is by opting to restore your old villa.

Home restoration serves as a better way of making difference but keeping everything the same way it was. Most old homes are highly distinctive. Their architectural, how spaces are used and even the technology used in them (which was unique in their time) make them invaluable masterpieces that cannot easily be brought down. Restoration usually involves the replacement of old, worn out or broken down parts with newer ones. But there are often more basic yet ultimately much more significant issues which need to be addressed before the surface restoration work can be put on show. These can include:

• In-depth assessment of and reinforcing of existing foundations

• Plumbing and

• Replacing old electrical systems

• Heating and ventilation systems

Once these have been taken into account then you can consider the more visual aspects like creating open spaces, renovating the kitchen, installing a new bathroom, adding an extra bedroom, incorporating a new deck and many more ideas.

However, when it comes to the restoration of any old home you need to realise of their fragility. There are some parts of such homes that when messed with could utterly destroy the entire structure. For instance, is it better to repair and renovate old wooden windows than it would be to opt to replace them? New windows might be metal framed which may not look as good as the original wooden ones. On the other hand, you could have replica wooden windows so you retain the appearance of the old windows but have new wood in their place. Alternatively, you may have the original windows repaired and upgraded as part of the renovation work.

To easily yet effectively restore an old home, here are some options you could opt to work with to make the best of your endeavor:

Use colour to change perspective and bring life

When looking to restore an old home and are quite sprung up on cash, one of the best options would be to use color to bring in some pizzazz. The right choice of colours will give new life to any room and at very little additional cost.

Add more space instead of bringing down the whole building

In some cases, most owners of old home are looking for extra space. As young children become teenagers, they will want to have their own bedroom rather than sharing as they may have done when they were toddlers. If this is your situation you could always opt to add some extra square feet by one of two ways.

You can have an extension built or you can have a restoration builder incorporate an already existing building into the home. Whichever option you pick, there will be a considerable amount of work involved from the planning and consent stage through to finding a suitable builder and then surviving the mayhem that goes with big restoration projects.

Leave most of the home’s history intact

For the sake of your home returning its splendour as an antique, it is important that you strive to keep as much of its history as you possibly can intact. Old styled cabinets, floors, ceilings and fireplaces will usually tell a great story about any home and will give it a touch of class, especially when given a touch of modern fittings. It is almost impossible to say that everything in a home can be restored considering forces of nature that wreak havoc on them; however, the elements which can be salvaged should be restored where possible.

Hire a professional

While you could opt for the DIY kind of restoration for your old home, it is best if you hired villa restoration specialists to handle the task. Doing it yourself could serve you quite well if you are looking for small repairs or restorations like repainting the home, repairing broken plumbing and such. However, for a full scale, in depth restoration of an entire home, hiring professionals is the advisable thing to do as they have the skill, the manpower, the knowledge and the equipment required to get the job done.

If you do own an old home, it would be better restoring rather than tearing it down. On the one hand you get to save its heritage and history while at the same time saving yourself a ton of cash that you would have otherwise spent tearing it down and constructing another.

If you are looking for Auckland villa restoration specialists, Repair & Restore Ltd have a great reputation for tastefully restoring old villas and homes and that rare breed of reliable building company.

Www.repairandrestore.co.nz for more details.