How to Increase Home Value: Tips From The Notebook

One of the main subplots of The Notebook revolves around Noah Calhoun renovating a home for Allie Hamilton. Noah’s family is poor, which means Allie’s rich family disapproves of her falling in love with him. To win her heart and show her how much he cares about her, he takes the Windsor Plantation and renovates it. How did he increase the home value? These four crucial tips helped make the house from The Notebook a home.

1. Focus on Structural Renovations

Structural renovations may not have been the focus of the movie, but they were definitely a focus at some point. Even just looking at the home, it’s easy to see that there are structural concerns, as the floors are uneven, the chimney seems crooked, and pieces of the home look desperately unstable. If you’re dealing with a home that has structural issues, you have to fix them, or you might not even legally be able to have someone live in it.

2. Create Uses for Each Room

Noah didn’t seem to specifically change the layout of the home too much, but what he did do is assign a meaning to each of the rooms. Where the home previously just had large rooms full of nothing, Noah created a dining room, a painting room, and a master bedroom. By creating uses for every room, he was able to infuse a lot of life into the rooms.

3. Don’t Be Afraid to Make Sweeping Changes

Even though Noah didn’t make a lot of changes to the layout of the house, one thing he did do is completely pull down the porch on the front of the house. This converted the home to have two-story columns in the front. That’s definitely a significant change, but Noah knew what he wanted the front of the home to look like and he made the change. This significant change adds a lot of depth and newness to the home.

4. Finish the Home Appropriately

Lastly, those finishing touches might not be crucial to a functioning home, but they definitely add a lot of value and appeal to the home. In the case of the Windsor Plantation, those finishing touches included a full coat of paint – white with blue shutters, just like Allie wanted – and landscaping all around the home. That paint and landscaping makes the house look significantly more inviting, which adds a lot of value to it.

Conclusion

As you can see from The Notebook, it’s completely possible to inject some life into a home. Even if the home is completely decrepit when you first start trying to help, you can bring it to life and make it look incredible. In the modern age, if you’re doing that, it’s probably because you’re looking to sell the house, not because you’re planning to live in it. However, no matter your end goal, renovating a house is definitely completely possible using these tips and tricks.