Making a house a home

After the cleaning and sprucing is complete, the next challenge is to move your belongings in and arrange them so that your new place feels like home. Some home buyers have a well-honed sense of style and a great eye for decor. They know before they even move in where each piece of furniture will go. Most homeowners, however, feel intimidated by the decorating process. If you like the way the sellers arranged their furniture, take photographs to use a guide for placing your own furniture when you move in.

FIRST-TIME TIP: Recently, sellers have been hiring decorators who specialize in staging for sale to help them get their homes ready to market. These decorators are usually available for hire on an hourly basis (for about $50 to $75 per hour). They work with the homeowner's belongings, sometimes adding accessories and furnishings the homeowner either buys separately or leases.

Home buyers can also hire stagers to help them arrange their furnishings in their new home. A good local real estate agent can recommend decorators who specialize in staging.

It's usually best to live in a home for awhile before undertaking major renovations. You'll learn a lot about your home and how you want to customize it to suit your needs by living in it.

Plan to make changes gradually and you'll enjoy the process of seeing your house transform into your home. Start with a relatively minor project that will yield positive results in a short period of time.

For example, perhaps your home lacks storage space and you need a place where you can work at home. Have a storage cabinet and desk unit designed and made to fit in a corner of a spare bedroom.

THE CLOSING: After you've had a chance to appreciate the results, move on to other, more complicated, projects.