With fall upon us and winter on the horizon, you need to make sure your home and yard are ready. Taking care of maintenance items around your home now will prevent major issues down the road. Best of all, most projects are simple enough to DIY, even with little or no experience. So, if you want to get your home in top shape, make sure you read through these simple tips from The Electric Connection.
Get Help From Pros for Major Projects and Repairs
Knowing how to DIY home maintenance jobs can save homeowners a lot of time and money. For the projects you’re not completely comfortable completing, however, it’s best to hire a pro to help you out.
Professional services are also great resources for taking care of those tasks you just don’t want to do on your own or feel uncomfortable handling yourself, like electrical work. For example, a deep cleaning can take up most of your weekend, and you need to be sure to get all those often-missed areas, like the tops of cabinets and your baseboards. If you want to save yourself some time, you can use a maid service to take care of the cleaning so you can spend your time on more pleasant tasks.
Pick Up Some New Tools
You can’t complete your work without the right tools, so why not renew your toolbox with a few essentials that will make those home maintenance tasks easier? A quality cordless drill, like this one from Black & Decker, is always a must for DIY-focused homeowners and can help out with projects all around your home. You can use a cordless drill as a handy screwdriver, to sand wood surfaces, and of course, to drill holes of all sizes in all sorts of materials.
Feeling handy and want to give your outdoor areas a bit of a makeover? You can put your new drill to work on some of these DIY patio projects that you can complete in no time. Add some custom seating or build a beautiful potting bench to make your updates more comfortable. Consider also installing a decorative windmill ceiling fan on your covered porch.
An all-purpose drill is a good tool to keep around your home, but if you’re new to DIY maintenance, make sure you have these essentials in your toolkit as well.
Plan Out Your DIY Maintenance and Refresh Projects
You’ve got the pros taking care of some heavy lifting and some new tools to help you take care of the rest. Now, you just need to figure out which maintenance projects you need to DIY first. Start with a tour around your home so you can check your gutters for any damages and ensure your roof is still in good shape ahead of winter storms. If you spot any leaves or debris in those areas, you will want to get out your ladder and clean them up. This is also a good time to check out the weather-stripping around your doors and windows.
Also take a look at your exterior paint. Freshening up any trouble areas will give your home an immediate facelift (which is especially important if you plan on putting your home on the market any time soon). Minor spots can be DIYed, but turn to a pro if there are large areas that need a new coat of paint.
After you’ve taken care of projects inside and outside your home, move on to your yard and garden so you can make sure your trees, grass, and plants are in good health and will fare well through the fall and winter months.
For your home’s interior, look at upgrades you can make to your kitchen. Add a new wall-mounted range hood to pair with new appliances, or spend some time repainting and refacing your cabinets. Kitchen upgrades always get noticed.
Keep in mind that when it comes to improvement projects, especially any that contribute to your home’s value or that are in relation to a home-based business, it’s important to take before and after photos, and to keep receipts. This information will come in handy when the time comes to reappraise your home and when tax season rolls around and you’re looking for extra deductions.
Now is a great time to refresh your home, especially when you can DIY to check those tasks off your to-do lists. Using pros can help make good use of your time and budget too. Either way, you can get your home ready for anything the seasons throw your way.
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