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This section offers useful links to a variety of websites associated with home-based pursuits.

Home Improvements

Even when the housing market is in a state of flux, the UK home improvement sector continues to flourish. In Britain, we are well aware of the fact that improving our homes can enhance our quality of life; home improvements can also add value to our properties.

Add Value to your Home

A number of recent British surveys suggest that creating extra living space in and around the home is probably the most effective way to add value to your home. Statistics also indicate that certain DIY projects are more likely to boost the saleability of your home. For example, a new kitchen, bathroom, conservatory, extra parking space / garage are all attractive additions that can help sell your house.

Gaining additional space by extending your home is also one of the best ways to make your home more pleasant to live in as well as more functional. Depending on the design of your existing home you could add extra space by building an extension or use existing space by converting a loft or garage into a living area. Alternatively, you could build a conservatory if space allows.

Quality of Life & the Home Environment

‘An Englishman’s home is his castle’; this old adage is certainly true in Britain today. ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ is another popular truism where UK home owners are concerned.

We Brits are highly competitive when it comes to our homes; we like to stamp our individuality on our homes and consequently spend much of our leisure time doing just that, (not to mention a sizeable chunk of our income). DIY is indeed big business in Britain.

Other Home Improvements

Major building projects are not the only way to improve your home environment. Something as simple as changing a colour scheme can have a major impact on the look of a property. Other types of refurbishment that can bring benefits include upgrading of kitchens and bathrooms and installing double glazing. One area that many people ignore, especially when they have lived in a property for a number of years, is the look of their garden. Judicious landscaping can transform a home’s setting and enable homeowners to enhance the setting of of their properties.

Gardening

Gardening is a favourite British pastime. Whether you want to grow flowers, fruit, vegetables or herbs, a well maintained garden is a real asset for any home. Before you start the hard physical work involved in creating your garden and deciding how the lawns and paths should fit in with the overall layout, you can download software to design a virtual garden. This is ideal when you are putting your garden plans together and trying to make the best use of available space.

Home Cooking

According to some commentators, home cooking in Britain is in danger of becoming extinct. Fast food, takeaways and TV snacks, etc. have all played a big part in encouraging a ‘grazing culture’ and a reluctance to sit round the table and participate in family meals. But a closer look at the culinary scene suggests that the demise of the art of home cooking has been exaggerated; rather, the concept of home cooking is changing and evolving. Britain today simply has a different approach to food preparation in the home.

Home Cooking Ingredients

The recent media drive to entice the British population back into the kitchen to explore the joys of home cooking using simple recipes, basic ingredients and ‘leftovers’ is making its mark in homes across Britain.

The choice of dishes being cooked from scratch in British homes is also being influenced by the changing availability of different international as well as local ingredients. The rise of the large supermarket chains, for instance, has changed the face of the British grocery trade. Even though supermarkets supply a wide variety of frozen foods and ‘ready meals’, they also offer a greater variety of ingredients for home cooking than were available from traditional British grocers in the past. However, the quality of some items supplied by UK supermarkets is arguably not as good as before. Cheap supermarket meat, in particular, tends to be of lower quality and often more expensive than home-produced meat from high quality, traditional local butchers.

Global Cooking Influences

The influence of foreign food, either as a result of travel or of eating out at ethnic restaurants in Britain, has also influenced what people cook at home. As a result, traditional British dishes such as steak and kidney pie and roast dinners are being cooked less frequently at home whereas homemade curries and pasta dishes are becoming increasing in popularity.