Your home is your fortress, this pandemic. So you’ll have to do your best to improve upon it the best way you can.
The pandemic has left many people cooped up in their homes, waiting for it to blow over eventually. Slowly but surely, it is fading away. As vaccines are being distributed in many states, it’s only a matter of time before the virus is eradicated from our world. However, it’s still important to keep your home safe against the virus. This might require you to do some remodeling and renovation. Don’t worry; most of these are relatively simple, and you can do them in no time.
Build More Space
The Centers for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC) suggests that family members stay six feet apart in social locations like the living room. This is essentially important if you have family members who constantly go outside, whether for work or errands. This helps reduce the chance that one of you might get infected from the virus from an asymptomatic carrier. If you’re struggling to do this, then you’re going to need more space for your home.
One way to do this is to utilize your backyard if you have one. You can build a simple patio out there so that you have another social location for your family. This simple patio only needs you to use paving rocks.
If you want to design it personally, you’re going to need some access to some injection molding tools. Usually, these can be found in industrial manufacturing companies, so it can be tough to find them. However, you can always opt to buy pre-fabricated designs for your patio.
To build this simple patio, you’re going to need to measure its size first. Get a measuring tape and see how big you want it to be. If you want more space for your family to mingle, you can do that! Just make sure you don’t turn your entire backyard into a patio. After measuring, you can start excavating with your shovel. This doesn’t have to be too deep—just enough for your paving stones to fit.
Once you’ve unearthed the area, it’s time for you to set your paving stones. These paving stones come in various designs, so make sure to choose the right one meant for you. You can add cement in the spaces between the stones so that they can be much sturdier. Once you’ve done this, you’re technically done. You have to put some furniture atop your patio, and you have a new spacious social area in your home where everyone can practice social distancing.
Use an Open Floor Plan
Okay, if you don’t have enough space inside your home, then it’s time that you start opening some space yourself. This renovation is going to take some time and money if you plan for a contractor to help you with it, but it’s all going to be worth it.
An open floor plan is a floor plan that helps two rooms to join together to become one large room. This is done by removing partition walls and redecorating each room to accommodate for better foot traffic. Just from this description, it already sounds like a floor plan made for the pandemic, and rightfully so!
There are many advantages to an open floor plan, aside from giving you the space to practice social distancing. It can be beneficial for a big family because your foot traffic is better managed. It can provide ease of accessibility in homes. Lastly, this particular home plan makes your home look even more modernized.
To start this project by yourself, you’re going to need to identify which walls are partition walls and which walls are part of your home’s foundation. If some partition walls are part of your home’s foundation, then you’re going to need to build support beams as a substitute.
Most homes nowadays don’t use support beams, so you’ll have to make one yourself. It’s not that hard to build support beams, and if you want, you can buy some in a hardware store near you. But they can be a hassle to ship to your home. Once you’ve had the support beams installed, you can start removing the partition walls one by one. Be careful of electrical wiring that might have been embedded in those walls, alongside many other things.
In most cases, you’re going to need a contractor for this particular project. This is to ensure the safety of you and your home. You can only do this project by yourself if you know that your home primarily uses partition walls and not foundational walls. Just keep this in mind when doing an open floor plan.
Here are two convenient renovation plans that will make a difference in your home during the pandemic. They are also great renovation plans in general if you’re planning to open up some space in your home. So get started with these plans now!
