Whether or not you planned for a staycation this summer, you should consider the benefits that it can have for both you and your home. While your staycation may consist of relaxation and enjoying the beautiful outdoors, it’s also a great time to give your home a little TLC. For all the to-do lists you may have not quite completed or the projects you never had time to start, your staycation is the perfect opportunity to complete them. Zillow Porchlight has shared 5 home projects you can squeeze into your to-do list this summer.
Painting interior trim
While the weather is nice enough to air out paint fumes through open windows, breathe life into spaces that have grown stale with fresh color.
One way to get a whole-room update for a fraction of the effort: Zero in on the trim. Painting baseboards, chair rail, window trim, and crown molding in either complementary or contrasting tones to your walls really wakes up ordinary rooms and hallways.
Building a backyard fire pit
A landscaping addition that extends outdoor hours by offering light and heat well into the evening is one you won’t regret — especially when it’s too easy to skip.
Your backyard fire pit doesn’t have to be a large, lavish model picked from a catalog to be entertaining. In fact, you can assemble an attractive one in just a day from a kit with no-cut blocks from your home improvement store.
Resurfacing the concrete driveway
Concrete driveways are known for their durability, but years of use and exposure to the elements can leave them looking worse for all that wear.
If your driveway flakes or shows fine cracks, one sunny, 80-degree weekend spent resurfacing may help you avoid the cost and labor of completely replacing the hardscaping.
The most time-consuming part is the preparation, which includes a thorough pressure-washing and patching large cracks and holes.
Afterward, you’ll mix a resurfacing product to a semi-liquid form, apply with large squeegees, and then brush it for a consistent finish. Containing a polymer-based cement, a resurfacer forms a strong bond with the existing driveway and adds a layer of protection against future damage.
Just 24 hours later, you can pull cars back into your now like-new driveway.
Organizing the garage
If you can’t pull your car into the garage without bumping into lawn chairs and recycling bins, it’s time to create order out of chaos. Fortunately, these storage strategies take only a day to establish.
- Attach wall brackets to hold lawn tools and folding chairs.
- Install ceiling hooks to hang bicycles.
- Suspend shelves from above to store scrap project lumber and large plastic bins.
- Wherever there’s a blank wall, hang pegboard and a slew of hooks to sort out your small hand tools.
Replacing worn window screens
A soft breeze through the bedroom window can be most refreshing on a cool summer night — but not if mosquitoes buzz in with it. Confidently keep out unwanted insects without sealing yourself off from the best of summer weather by ensuring all windows, doors, and porches are free of ripped and sagging screens.
As long as the screen frames still in good shape, you can simply swap out worn or snagged mesh material. Remove the old rubber spline holding the screen in place, position new fiberglass screen fabric over the frame, and tuck a new rubber spline into the crevice using a special screen roller tool.
If you’re replacing screens on windows that face south or west, consider an upgrade while you’re at it: Choosing solar screen fabric filters out the sun’s rays, controlling heat and glare as well as providing UV protection.
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