As a result of this year’s exceptionally mild winter, home remodeling has drastically increased early this spring. According to the National Association of Home Builders’ latest Remodeling Market Index, renovations have spiked five points since the end of last year—that’s the highest index reading since 2015!

Renovating a home can come with many homeowner benefits and opportunities. From complete design control to material discounts, the final product proves to be certainly worth the time and effort put into the planning and construction processes. Surprisingly, one of the most time consuming stages of the planning process may just be decoding the bewildering language in home blueprints. You see, blueprints and floor plans have their own sort of foreign language. Through various symbols, scribbles, and lines, architects lay out their vision for the home after renovations are complete—a vision that can sometimes get pretty confusing. But we’re here to teach you how to read any basic home blueprint or floor plan. 

With the busy spring home buying season quickly approaching, current homeowners throughout the country are preparing to sell, sell, sell. To lower the home’s time on the market and even increase chances of receiving an offer above asking price, many home sellers have considered various home renovations to make the house more appealing; however, gone are the days in which expensive kitchen and bathroom remodels provide the best return on investment. Instead, consider putting your resources towards one of the following: