Painless Economization

Maintaining and furnishing a home is costly, yet there are ways to reduce expenses while increasing your home’s value. Investing in budget- and homebuyer-friendly features will improve your quality of life in your home and make it more appealing if you’re looking to sell.

Change Looks of a Room

Paint has long been considered the least expensive way to alter a room or spruce up one you’ve just moved into. But paint can do far more. It can also alter the mood, whether it’s applied to all four walls, just one or a ceiling, says James Charles, founder and CEO of DesignerAtHome.com.

What color to paint? Barb St. Amant, an agent with Harry Norman, REALTORS® in Atlanta says earth tones are hot. She also suggests taking down dated wallpaper and changing fixtures to antique bronze from brass, which are a bit dated.

“These all make a huge difference and instantly update a room,” she says.

Fan Out the Heat

Energy costs keep escalating in price and staying cool or warm without breaking the bank is a growing challenge.

Ceiling fans can lower the perceived temperature in a room by several degrees at less of an energy expense than increased air conditioning. In humid climates, many homeowners put a ceiling fan in every room, says Jeffrey Crane, president and CEO of Concept to Creation, a Gilbert, Ariz.-based construction consultancy.

A good ceiling fan can cost upward of $500 on the high end, but plan to spend around $150 to $200, he says.

Xeriscape with Groundcovers

Eliminating your grass in favor of a native groundcover that doesn’t require watering or mowing saves on water bills as well as personal energy, says Susan Meredith, an engineer and founder of HumanExcel, an Austin, Texas-based company that works to improve business efficiency, reduce waste and save energy.

For her own lawn, she selected horse herb groundcover. “It’s low enough and sturdy enough that the kids still play games on it, and it can be mowed but doesn’t really need to,” she says.

Meredith also suggests selecting xeriscape plants. If some require watering, group them according to their watering needs, she says. And she recommends using a rain barrel to catch water from roofs and gutters. Other ideas can be found in her forthcoming book, “Beyond Light Bulbs: Lighting the Way to Smarter Energy Management” (Emerald Book Co, 2008).

Spruce Up Walls with Millwork

For every $2,000 you invest in molding and millwork, you may gain $10,000 in increased home value, according to the Wood Moulding and Millwork Producers Association in Woodland, Calif. Shay Mitton, a residential contractor in Kennesaw, Ga., says they’re both a great bang for the buck both on the exterior and interior of a home.

“They add distinction and give the home buyer a feeling of a higher-end home,” he says. To add crown molding to a 15-by-20-foot living room may cost as little as $1,500 to $4,000, depending on how many pieces are involved, the design’s intricacy, type of wood and whether it’s paint- or stain-grade finish, Mitton says.

Go Granite: No Demolition Required

Granite remains an appealing countertop and backsplash material for kitchens and bathrooms — sometimes even an expected one. Some companies now offer an overlay alternative that can be installed on top of countertops.

“It required less than three hours for it to be installed,” says journalist Kat Carney, who used it in her Durham, N.C., home. She also repainted her wood cabinets rather than replaced them and installed new hardware.

“The room went from looking like an old, dated kitchen from the ’80s to a nice, bright kitchen” of the 21st century, she says.

Recirculate Your Water

Americans waste thousands of gallons of water waiting for water to get hot for showers, baths and cooking needs. Installing a hot-water-recirculation pump can save you more than 10,000 gallons a year. Such pumps can be purchased for about $200 at many home centers, says Fatima Mehdikarimi, who writes a consumer-shopping tip column and blog at TheShoppingQueen.com.

Quick ‘n’ Dirty Curb Appeal

Good landscaping can make a difference in whether a potential buyer wants to get out of a car and scout your interior or drive on to the next house, says salesperson Joe Russo, author of “Selling Your House/Condo in this Housing Emergency of 2008” (Outskirts, 2008).

The quickest and cheapest fixes are:

•Colorful flowers in beds along a walk or near a front door

•Nicely trimmed shrubs

•Clean tidy walks that don’t have weeds growing up between pavers or stones

•Ornamental trees that are fast-growing, such as a weeping willow. If you have extra time and funds, get windows washed before showings and open houses; also, paint a front door a neutral light color that won’t absorb heat. Be sure screen doors have no tears, and check that the door knocker and lock look well cared for, Russo says.