Home remodeling: What’s old is new | Irvine Real Estate | Irvine Homes for Sale

Spending money on home improvement is not on the radar at a time when the economy continues to sputter and many homeowners heading into a new year feel lucky simply to have a roof over their heads.

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General contractor Josh Stevens built an arbor gate for a client who wanted rotting boards replaced in the fence around her Rohnert Park home.

CHRISTOPHER CHUNG / The Press Democrat

Home equity has vanished and along with it access to loans that in the recent past made it possible for many homeowners to re-do a funky bathroom or update a dowdy kitchen.

But even if you don’t dare dream about a makeover, you can make small and inexpensive improvements this year that will freshen the look of your home without moving walls or messing with costly infrastructure.

“It’s important for people to think of remodeling as baby steps,” said Josh Stevens, a remodeling contractor in Rohnert Park. “People right now are not necessarily looking at remodeling as spending 10 grand in four weeks on something big done in one shot. They’re having to think of remodeling as something piecemeal, a little re-tiling here, some window dressing there, and lots of paint.”

Stevens has spent the last couple of years doing virtually all small jobs and he’s even been remodeling his own home one project at a time.

“To me, the whole concept of affordable home improvement is all about refacing. It’s putting new skin on the skeleton,” he says. “You’re not reworking the innards. You’re not tearing down walls or doing anything structural. You’re dealing with things on the surface on a financial level you can handle.”

Stevens and another home improvement expert, Rod Wieldraayer, manager of Home Depot in Santa Rosa, offered some smart ideas for sprucing up your nest in 2010 for under $1,000.