You may think you have all the time in the world to make repairs to your home, but your property has other ideas.

After my wife and I bought our first house five years ago, we began building a subconscious triage list of issues and potential repairs and started addressing them as best we could. We honestly thought that portions of our house and surrounding property would sit around in suspended animation as we dithered with garden beds, insulation, and myriad other projects that now seem incidental at best.

During the next five years, we’d learn the merits of preemptive planning. When a wind storm felled a 110-year-old pignut hickory tree, we became quickly acquainted with arborists, preventative maintenance, and tools like pruning poles and wood chippers. When a a firewood rack nearly fell through our front porch, we learned the value of selecting the right wood and framing for the job. When our water pump seized not once, but three times, we learned that asking for a professional opinion during a small job (like winterization) is better than asking for it before a big job (like a complete pump replacement).

The biggest takeaway from all of these misadventures is that it isn’t just cheaper to address small problems before they become big ones, it’s often inexpensive to address small problems period. I looked back on my own checklist and came up with a few projects where the bill was not only lower than I thought it would’ve been, but low enough to make me wish I’d called someone in sooner.

Tree Pruning

When we first moved to our house, we inherited two legacy trees. One was a 110-year-old pignut hickory and the other was a 125-year-old black walnut. When a windstorm took down the first, we avoided a nearly $900 removal fee, but spent days with chainsaws, hacksaws, a wood chipper and a log splitter cutting apart a gnarled, knotted, dense mass of a tree.

My father-in-law had much of the equipment that we didn’t, but rental charges would’ve brought us to at least half the removal price. We did have to spring for a $230 excavator rental to get rid of the stump, but sprung for $200 tree pruning for the remaining black walnut tree in the years that followed. With each tree right near our garage, and the hickory fortunate enough to fall away from that building, we likely should have addressed pruning far earlier than we did.

Gutter Cleaning

We have a two-story home that dates back to the early 1850s, which means it has an extremely steep roof on its second story and questionable roofs over some of its entrances. I can get the lower gutters and about 20% of the high gutters fairly easily. It’s the 80% of those highest gutters that have irked me for years.

As the folks at HomeAdvisor point out, the average cost of gutter cleaning nationwide is $150, but that can range from $70 for a smaller job to $335 for a mansion-sized property. Ours was slightly less than the average, but well worth it after a series of unusually snowy and icy Oregon winters threatened to pull gutters clean off of the house.

Driveway Repair

We have a gravel driveway that wasn’t in peak condition when we arrived and was replete with ruts and pits before we finally addressed it. Installing a new driveway would’ve cost us thousands, but repairing a gravel driveway costs roughly $40 a ton for 3/4-inch minus — thick gravel with loose fill that settles into gaps left by potholes.

Combined with the $60 rental of a plate compactor, the entire job will cost us less than $400, which is significantly less than the nearly $1,500 cost of having it completely redone. An asphalt driveway, meanwhile, costs about $2 to 2.50 per square foot to repair but $3 to $4 per square foot to replace.

Well Pump

If your house uses well water or you have an irrigation system that runs on well water, it helps to have a float and cutoff switch installed for the months when the well gets low. It also pays to blow out your lines and winterize your pump before things get too cold.

Before we learned any of this, we overheated two well pumps and had a third crack after its remaining water froze. Each replacement was roughly $250 apiece, while winterization cost nothing (just removing bolts and draining the pump) and the float and switch installation cost roughly $180.

Septic Tanks

As soon as we were told that we were moving into a house with a septic tank, we made plans to have it emptied. We didn’t mind the previous owners leaving behind items like curtains, furniture, and appliances, but having their remnants in our septic tank just made me uneasy. We had a crew come in during the spring and empty it for about $275. While that isn’t insignificant, it’s a cost you incur every 10 years and is far less than the $1,551 average cost of repairing a septic system that’s been pushed beyond its limits.

Insulation

In our house’s more than 150 years of existence, insulation seems to have been a nominal concern. There was some old yellow batting in the floor of the attic, but not much beyond that. The first winter’s natural gas bills for heat were substantial, with even the 12-month flat rate exceeding $190 a month.

Landscaping

We have laurel bushes and invasive blackberry ringing our property, but the laurel bushes on one side of the house had grown halfway across the yard. We realized in other parts of the yard and in our garden that, if left unchecked, hedges and blackberry would simply consume everything in their path. That said, these laurel bushes and blackberry were about to consume and outbuilding an reach their way toward the house.

We called in a landscaping crew and, $500 later, we had reclaimed much of the yard and given the goats a bunch of laurel and blackberry to munch on. If the previous owners had simply pruned a bit each year, however, that same hedge could’ve been either pruned by professionals for far less or trimmed by the owners for free.

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Dawn dish soap and a roll of Bounty paper towels. That way, if you’re limited to just a few rooms for several days, you can still pull together some basic meals and a hot cup of coffee.

Covering all your floors and furniture with bed sheets might protect them from light dust, but what about spills and heavier debris? To keep furniture and floors clean and damage free during renovation work, cover them with thick plastic sheets. Laying cardboard beneath the plastic will keep hard flooring safe from cracks, scratches and dents, too.

Renovation work can quickly fill your home with dust, grime and debris. After the job is complete, carefully remove all plastic sheeting from furniture and floors. Clean hard floors with a Swiffer WetJet, an all-in-one mopping system with a cleaning solution that loosens dirt and lifts it off the floor. Use Swiffer 360 Dusters to trap and lock dirt that has settled on baseboards, fan blades and blinds. As a finishing touch, spray Febreze AIR in your newly renovated space to fill it with a fresh, clean scent and eliminate odors.

click to read more of business that have turned up, with such gutter cleaning as their core service. You simply have to reveal them your structure, pay them a small cost, and leave it to them to thoroughly clean your gutters: with all the attendant advantages attached to routine and comprehensive gutter clean-up.

Check This Out this by running up a garden pipe into the down pipeline from the bottom and pack a rag around the hose pipe and open the water complete blast. This need to loosen the blockage, which can then stream out. If it does not work attempt a plumbings snake or simply remove the down pipe and clean by poking a broom deal with from the bottom. A complimentary flowing gutter is the key to years of water damage totally free living.

If all the above seem like tough work then simply hire a professional business to do all the tough work for you. That method at least your gutter and roof clean-up jobs will get done plus they’ll most likely conserve you money and time in the long run.

The gutter is the part of a structure’s roof structure that is accountable for collecting rain water, and dealing with such water is a method that does not result in a damage of the structure. Without gutters, structures would have much shorter lives, as water falling upon them (and without ‘anywhere else to go’) would wind up soaking into them, with the long term result of caused structural weak point. This is not a theoretical situation. Some daring souls have actually been known to opt to do away with gutters in their buildings, perhaps as a part of their project cost-cutting measures. The results are inevitably disastrous: even in the parts of the world that are not offered to much rain. What tends to happen, when a house lacks a gutter is that (as alluded earlier) rainwater falling on it seeps into it, often leading to what is typically described as the ‘decomposing of your house.’

It generally begins off as a visual issue, (thanks to the unseemly appearance that such leaked rainwater inevitably has). Unless checked, with the installation of some gutter, the issue typically evolves into a structural problem, one that has been understood to trigger otherwise structurally sound structures to collapse.

Just having a gutter on a structure’s roofing is not sufficient insurance against the issues associated with the absence of such a gutter. As it turns out, gutters are prone to get clogged up – with dirt that gets cleaned down together with the rainwater that such gutter is supposed to provide a drain to. Little bits of cement and sand falling off the building’s structure end up in the gutter, obstructing it too. At the end of the day, then, the gutter has actually to be cleaned, to get rid of this accumulated ‘dirt.’ Otherwise, one risks winding up with a gutter that cannot serve its primary function, of being a rainwater drain structure.

From the above, it is obvious that the benefits of routine gutter clean-up can never be over-emphasized. Without such routine gutter clean-up, we are likely to wind up with a circumstance where rainwater, finding barriers in its path, overflows and ends up messing up the walls of the building (initially ruining them, and in the long run potentially triggering structural weaknesses). And this not to say anything of that such overflowing water (as a result of un-cleaned, and for that reason blocked gutters) can wreck havoc on the residents of the building in concern, as it is likely to manifest as leakages in the walls! At least, such leaking water might make the building exceptionally cold to the occupants. At worst, it might result in damages in property inside the structure, or God forbid, short circuits in the structure’s electrical wiring, possibly leading to fire mishaps.

Put another way then, the advantages of regular gutter cleanup consist of an increment in the life of the building in concern, while possibly also making it a more comfortable place to live or operate in.

If gutter cleanup feels like excessive work, you will be thankful to learn that there are variety of companies that have come up, with such gutter clean-up as their core organisation. You just need to show them your structure, pay them a small charge, and leave it to them to completely clean your gutters: with all the attendant benefits connected to regular and comprehensive gutter cleanup.

Whether you’ve built a home or you are renting, you can make your home inviting to make it an enjoyable place to be. When your home is attractive, you, your friends and other family members love spending time together creating memorable moments. These simple home improvement tips will make your home more welcoming.

Improve the look of your front door and the entryway

Your front door and the entryway into your home are the first things that your visitors will see. You can make your home attractive by adding welcome signs, add a potted plant on your front door and maybe add fun art or lighting on your door. The main aim of doing this is for your visitors to have a good first impression depending on your preferences. In case you need to make changes on your door, you can consider having ace contemporary composite front doors because they are not only attractive but also stylish. Alternatively, you can try other design tricks that pulls the eyes of your visitors. For instance, you can paint the far wall from your front door with a bold accent color to make it attractive and welcoming.

Getting to your seating arrangement and around your furniture should be easy

Most visitors feel comfortable when they can move freely in your home. As a rule of thumb, accessing where the comfy seats are, bathroom, kitchen and other areas should be made easy. Therefore, your seats should be arranged in such a way that your visitors can be able to traverse comfortably. If you have children, they will most likely leave their toys on the floor or on the couch. It is your responsibility to ensure that there are no toys on the sofas to make your visitors comfortable. In addition, declutter your floor to avoid tripping your visitors.

Have soft textiles

Although you may have different preferences, having soft textiles in your home is quite comforting. The main objective here is to make visitors comfortable and feel at home. Hence, consider buying plush rugs, deep furniture, soft ottomans and benches as well as floor pillows. In most cases, your guests will not tell you when they don’t feel comfortable, especially if you are not very close. However, when they are comfortable and at ease, they will tell by their behaviors.

Personalize some of your furniture

In case you’ve bought your furniture from popular and recognizable retailers, it is advisable to personalize some of the furniture to make your home have a different feeling. Personalizing your furniture is also a way of showing how responsible, creative and concerned making your home look beautiful.

Have a good smell in the house

If you don’t like having sprays in your home, you may use fragrant plants to improve the smell in your home. You should not have any odors in your home because they could ruin the mood. Bad smells may result if you don’t clean your upholstery and carpet flooring regularly, you don’t do dishes well or if your bathroom is not regularly tidied. Make sure you clean your house in advance to determine whether there are any odors before your visitors arrive.

Have a few plants in your house

Houseplants make a home look beautiful. There are numerous houseplants you can have depending on the size of your living room and your preference. Therefore, consider all the options and have a few houseplants in your home.

Clean and arrange your house

No one likes being in a dirty place. Your visitors will find it hard staying in a dirty place with food remains, stacks of books and magazines on the table and on the floor, etc. Ensure that your living room and your bathroom is uncluttered before the guests arrive.

It is evident that you can give your guests a warm welcome by altering a few things in your home. Normally, the little things matter a lot, therefore, focus on changing the little things because they make all the difference. Finally, although these home improvement tips make your home look better, some of the choices are mainly determined by your preference and budget.

The post House Hacks: Simple home improvement tips appeared first on Handyman tips.

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