Fall Home Improvement and Maintenance Tips

With mild temperatures and sunny skies, now’s the perfect time to tackle your fall home improvement and maintenance projects before the days get shorter and snow begins to pile up. Check out these fall home improvement and maintenance tips to help get your home ready for everything Old Man Winter throws at us this year:

Update Your Look: Whether you’re updating a powder room, re-carpeting the first floor or gutting your kitchen, there’s still time to get your home improvement project finished for the holidays. Stop by your local home improvement store, carpet showroom or schedule an appointment with an interior designer this weekend to get the ball rolling.

Repair, Replace & Renew: Drafty conditions in your home can make it uncomfortable on cold winter nights and worse- cause unnecessary increases to your utility bills. Make necessary repairs to doors & windows now to help prevent heat from escaping later. A good caulk job can work miracles, while biding you time. And if that doesn’t help, it’s still not too late to make replacements.

After the last leaf has fallen, clean gutters & replace old, damaged downspouts and gutters to prevent ice jams. When replacing your gutters, consider purchasing ones with built in leaf guards to save you the time and hassle of cleaning next fall.

It’s never too early to get ready for spring by reseeding your lawn and sprucing up your landscaping with new shrubs, trees and a good aeration before the first hard freeze. When spring arrives, your lawn will be envied by the neighborhood.

A Splash of Color: Brighten up your surroundings by having one or several rooms painted before the winter doldrums arrive! With a vivid color palette ranging from ocean blues to vine-ripened fruit and everything in between your local paint store has something to help liven up your home for the holidays and soothe the winter blahs!

Bright Lights: Before you know it, it will be dark at 4 p.m.; you can help the pizza guy & Trick-or-Treaters out by illuminating your walkway and yard with low-voltage landscape lighting. And this curb-appeal addition provides an extra layer of security – which is always a plus.

Don’t Get Left Out in the Cold: Prevent bone-chilling showers and expensive service calls by having both your water heater and furnace professionally inspected before temperatures drop into the single digits – taking care of necessary repairs and/or replacements before price increases to accommodate high season.

If your home has a fireplace, have a professional like Lindeman Chimney Co. come out to inspect & clean it before firing it up on the first chilly night; especially if you’ve had your roof, furnace or other fuel burning appliances replaced.

You might also want to add a touch of the tropics to your home by having a whole-home humidifier installed. The moist air will help make your home more comfortable during the cold winter months, as well as save you money on moisturizer.

We’re Here to Help: Need help financing your fall home improvement and maintenance projects? DuPage Credit Union offers low-rate Home Equity Loans and Personal Loans to help with all of your projects – big or small. And, if you’re looking toward the future or considering selling, check out our Future Value Home Equity Loan. It’s a great solution for a long-term project to enhance your resale value.

Have other tips for updating and/or maintaining your home this fall? We’d love to see them, please share below: