Whether you want to make your house more attractive and comfortable for your family, or you want to add value for resale, remodeling projects big and small can bring out the best in your home.

You want to be sure that your home makes a good initial impression, and you also want it to be comfortable, beautiful, sturdy and safe for your family — a place you can be proud to call home. It’s amazing how a little elbow grease and ingenuity can make an enormous difference in the look and feel of a house. Power-washing the sidewalks, installing a new garage door, planting a hedge and putting furniture polish on a wooden front door or fireplace mantel — it all makes a tremendous difference. Even just resurfacing an old deck, painting a front porch or planting hedges can help your house look its best. You can do it by yourself, and it won’t cost that much.

Sometimes, though, bigger renovations are needed that require more money and skill. For example, you may want to re-tile an entire bathroom or rip out the green shag rug your parents installed in their living room sometime circa 1970. A pool is a great investment in your home — especially if you plan to sell it someday. Investing in a backyard patio, an outdoor kitchen or living space, a gazebo or pergola and a pool can turn up the “wow” in your home. Indoors, nothing enhances a home or ups the resale value more than a kitchen makeover and new appliances. Another great place to invest in your home is in a bathroom remodel. A friend of ours added a walk-in closet and his/her bathroom suite with a river pebble shower with multiple shower heads. Another friend put the same kind of shower in a bathroom of Italian white Carrera marble. Neither wanted to sell his home; these friends just wanted to enjoy their space and make it nice for their families. So whatever your reason, a remodel is a winning idea.

Sometimes, though, the changes required are less visible — you need to upgrade the wiring, level the foundation, install a new hot water heater or get larger air conditioning units that can really handle the Texas summer heat. Other times a big kitchen update is your dream, or you need to add a mother-in-law suite. In those cases, you’ll want to call a professional. While putting together San Antonio Woman’s At Home section over the years, we’ve worked with some of the area’s best and most dependable contractors and home service providers — experts who can help with any renovation, large or small. You’ll want to keep these pros on speed dial as you begin your next home improvement project. Together, you can get ready, get set and remodel in style.