7 DIY Renovation Projects to Tackle This Summer

With summer comes sunshine and the energy you need to complete renovation projects around your home.

Although some renovations are substantial and costly, you don’t have to start there. Many small DIY projects can have a big impact on the look and feel of your house. 

DIY renovation projects range from applying new paint to switching out hardware. Small updates can completely transform your home because details add up to create the complete impression of a space. Here are seven ways to update your home easily and inexpensively this summer. 

Paint Your Front Door

You’ve probably heard this tip before because it’s a good one. Repainting your front door should only take an afternoon and requires very little equipment. You’ll need a small can of paint, a reliable brush and some tape to protect glass panes. You should prime your door if you’re going to paint it a lighter shade. 

Black, gray and neutral beige are some of the most popular colors for front doors right now. However, the front door is also the perfect place for you to display a little personality with a bolder color. The door will be easy to repaint if you ever decide that it’s time for a more neutral tone.

Add Texture to Walls

An easy way to update your living space is with wainscotting or crown molding. These details add character and an elegant finish to any room. However, trim like wainscotting can be expensive because many people value it. Fortunately, there are several ways to avoid this expense while achieving the same look. 

The most inexpensive option is to combine wooden architectural elements with a can of white paint. You can measure and add trim and strips of wood to create a paneled feel that reaches about halfway up your walls. Then, tape off the top of the trim and paint everything white so that it looks like one piece. 

Replace Outdated Hardware

This DIY project is simple but will bring big results to your space. Home decor has moved away from polished brass finishes, instead favoring silver, antique or black finishes. Update your kitchen and bathroom spaces by switching out cabinet pulls and faucets for newer models. You can order inexpensive hardware online to reduce the cost. 

If your home has round doorknobs, consider switching those out for more modern lever handles. You can also replace stained light switch covers with fresh plates in neutral colors. Try to stick within a consistent color palette, but vary some of your hardware to avoid an overly matchy feel.

Plan Simple Landscaping

Many homeowners are overwhelmed with the prospect of landscaping. While it’s true that this can be complicated, it doesn’t have to be. The first step for improving your curb appeal is simply to clear the yard of debris and make sure the grass, bushes and trees are appropriately trimmed. 

Once your yard is clear, take a step back and consider the whole picture. What’s one thing you could do to improve the space? For many homeowners, adding grass seed makes the most sense. You could also define flower beds with a rock wall or turn a flat space into a fenced garden. In addition to looking nice, your landscaping should meet your outdoor needs. 

Update Indoor Lighting

Replacing light fixtures can have a huge impact on your home. For one thing, bringing more light to a space can improve your mood and energy while at home. Although natural sunlight is best, you can choose energy-efficient bulbs that replicate sunlight while saving you energy costs. 

If you don’t have a chandelier in your home, you should consider installing one. Chandeliers instantly elevate a space and bring a feeling of intentionality to your home. Make sure that you turn off your electricity before switching fixtures. If you’re uncomfortable working with electricity, you should hire a contractor for this job. 

Create Curtain Rods

For some reason, curtain rods can be very expensive. To avoid the cost of dressing all your windows, you can get creative and find cheaper options. For example, some homeowners use inexpensive pipe or electric conduit rods to hold their curtains up. You can paint these rods any color you need to match the space and buy separate finials to make them look finished. 

Home decorators who are more whimsical could consider using slim branches for curtain rods. Each of these rods will be unique and they’ll bring a touch of nature inside your home. You will probably be able to get them for free. However, do be wary of any insects you may bring inside with them. 

Repaint Faded Items

Paint is an easy solution for many home remodel projects. If an item needs to be refreshed but you don’t want to entirely replace it, you can probably paint it. Although it will take some elbow greases, putting on a fresh coat of paint can make items look as good as new for a fraction of the cost.

Before you repaint anything, it’s important to clean it thoroughly. Some examples of items you can repaint include walls, furniture, kitchen and bathroom cabinets, trim, fences and ceiling vents. Once you start repainting items in your home, you may find it difficult to stop. For the amount of money and time that painting takes, the results can be amazing. 

Simple Renovations This Summer

Renovating your home doesn’t have to be a month-long project involving a sledgehammer and drywall. You can update your home with simple changes that are quick and inexpensive but have a big impact on your space. Use this list to get started and refresh your home this summer season.

For more like this, visit Renovated.

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If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

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80% of People Move Over the Summer—Here Are 4 Tricks to Help Make It Stress-Free

Between April 1 and September 1, 80 percent of Americans move into a new space—from recent grads swapping dorms for their first apartment to those looking to make the most of the reliable weather.

If you’ve previously had to grapple with fitting all of your belongings into a handful of boxes, coliving company Common is here to help by partnering with professional organizer Caroline Solomon. Follow her dos and don’ts, and packing (and unpacking) all your necessities will be as pain-free as possible—even when that means narrowing down your mug collection.

Do: Declutter First, Pack Later

While going full Marie Kondo prior to a big move may feel like common sense, Solomon says decluttering in preparation for packing needs to go deeper than weeding out the items that don’t spark joy. “Put aside the part of your brain that holds onto those ‘just in case’ items, and focus on what you reach for on a daily, even monthly basis,” she explains. 

So while the immersion blender you bought for one soup recipe may seem to have a future of usefulness, if you haven’t pulled it out in three months, it may be time to part ways. “We can all stand to lose a few mugs along the way,” Solomon says, laughing.  

Don’t: Stuff It All In

It may be tempting to overload every box full to the brim, saving the amount of stuff you actually have to transport, but Solomon insists that technique is a recipe for disaster. “Limiting the categories will make unpacking that much easier,” she says. “It just means to not throw in extra books with the bath towels.”

For fragile items and kitchenware, use any extra space to add more protective padding. Solomon cuts down on waste by wrapping glassware and padding small appliances with hand towels and that day’s newspaper. 

Do: Set Aside a Priorities Box

Solomon suggests setting aside a box or two of things you’ll need right away—think: bedsheets, coffee maker, bath towels, and silverware. No one wants to finally chill out at the end of a long moving day only to realize that their beloved bathrobe is somewhere at the bottom of a pile of wardrobe boxes. 

To keep all of that cardboard organized, Solomon recommends color-coding each box’s label by room. “Our brain gets overloaded when writing down more than four categories,” she explains. “And then we just get kind of lazy; color allows for immediate recognition.” 

Don’t: Start Too Early

Whether it’s due to anxiety or excitement, a common gut reaction to signing a new lease or closing on your dream home is to start preparing right away. However, in order to maintain a high morale until the very end of this stressful time, Solomon recommends not starting to pack or organize until a maximum of three weeks out. “You have to be aware that you’re still living in your old place,” she says. “Even if your mind has moved on.” No one wants to live in a warehouse-like living room for months on end. The most difficult part of moving season should be parting ways with your college alumni coffee mug, not keeping up your routine while looking forward to your new digs. 

Get more tips like this on Domino.

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Pending home sales reach slowest pace in a decade

April marks sixth consecutive month of declines for contract signings.

Pending home sales continued spiraling downward in April, a 3.9% decrease from a month prior, resulting in an index reading of 99.3, according to data released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors.

In March the index’s reading was 103.7. An index of 100 is equal to the level of contract activity in 2001.

The decline marked the sixth consecutive month of decreases and the 11th consecutive month of year-over-year drops for the Pending Home Sales Index. According to NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun, it’s the slowest pace of contract signings in nearly a decade.

“The escalating mortgage rates have bumped up the cost of purchasing a home by more than 25% from a year ago, while steeper home prices are adding another 15% to that figure,” Yun said.

Yun expects existing home sales to fall by 9% in 2022 with home price appreciation leveling off to 5% by the end of the year.

“If mortgage rates stabilize roughly at the current level of 5.3% and job gains continue, home sales could also stabilize in the coming months,” Yun said. “Home sales in 2022 are expected to be down about 9%, and if mortgage rates climb to 6%, then the sales activity could fall by 15%. Home prices in the meantime appear in no danger of any meaningful decline. There is an ongoing housing shortage, and properly listed homes are still selling swiftly – generally seeing a contract signed within a month.”

All four major U.S. regions recorded year-over-year decreases in contract signings. The Northeast saw the largest drop at 14.3% to a reading of 74.8. Month over month, the South (119.0), the West (85.9) and the Northeast (74.8) saw decreases of 4.7%, 4.3% and 16.2%, respectively. The Midwest was the only region to record a monthly increase (6.6%), bringing its index to 100.7.

Get more like this on Real Trends.

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How Homeownership Changes You

It’s not just a financial commitment. It can alter people’s relationships to a community, a place, and even time.

​Growing up, Erin Nelson used to make fun of their dad for spending so much time looking out the window at what the neighbors were up to. “Now I’m that person,” Nelson, a 31-year-old who bought their first house a year ago in Portland, Oregon, told me. “I’m always peeking out the window … That’s like my new TV.” Nelson, who uses they/them pronouns, has realized that as a homeowner, their life is bound up with the people next door in a way it never has been before.

Buying a first house is, for those who can afford it, among the largest financial decisions someone makes in their life, and lately, the process has only gotten more stressful: During the pandemic, home prices have shot up, and shopping for a house has become intimidatingly competitive in many places. But even some winners of the competition have buyer’s remorse. In a recent survey from the real-estate site Zillow, roughly one-third of respondents reported regretting how much work or maintenance their home required, and roughly one-fifth concluded that they had paid too much.

Perhaps forgotten amid the bidding wars and the rush to lock in a mortgage as interest rates rise is the fact that this transaction has a way of changing people as well. In addition to buying an assemblage of wood, glass, and other materials and committing to a host of unfamiliar chores, homeowners are also buying a psychological grab bag of new stressors, time sucks, comforts, perks, and trivial fixations—such as the neighbors’ comings and goings. Homeownership can change your mental time horizon, your conception of your community, and your stakes in a physical place.

For starters, homeownership alters people’s relationship to the tangible stuff that makes up their house. “When I [rented] an apartment, I was like, ‘I’m hanging this photo on the wall. Whatever—not my wall!’” Maia Bittner, a 34-year-old in the Seattle area who works at a financial-technology company, told me. “Now I’m like, ‘Good God, I put every dollar I have into the down payment and this drywall is like a shrine.’”

Today’s new homeowners may even feel more of a desire to preserve and perfect their living space than previous generations. Logan Mohtashami, the lead analyst for the real-estate news site HousingWire, told me that buyers tend to hold on to their home for longer than they used to; the typical length of “tenure” was five to seven years from the mid-1980s to the mid-2000s, and is now, according to the real-estate site Redfin, about 13 years. “The psychology is that this is yours and you’re going to make it as good as possible because you’re in for a long time,” Mohtashami said. Bittner does not love the work that this requires, though. The stress of home maintenance—say, coordinating the repair of a leaky window—is less meaningful to her than the stress of her job, which she feels at least has the benefit of moving her career forward.

Committing to owning a house can also tie people more closely to a place. Nelson, who works for a tech start-up, told me that after moving frequently during childhood and hopping from rental to rental in their 20s, they find homeownership “very calming” at age 31. It has also led them to wonder, “Now that I’ve settled and claimed this little piece of land, what am I going to do to invest in my community?” One of Nelson’s answers has been to devote about 10 percent of their disposable income to local nonprofits.

Read more like this on The Atlantic.

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A Complete Guide to Shopping at Your Neighborhood Farmers’ Market

Nothing brings about the joys of warmer weather quite like a stroll around your local farmers’ market. With its abundance of fresh produce and new choices every week, it’s easy to get overwhelmed without a tour guide.

However, once you have your bearings, you can save yourself a few trips to the supermarket and swap your grocery store staples for farmer’s market finds. Some don’t even need to be cooked to make delicious, fresh meals.

Here's the bounty of produce options you’ll see at the market this season and unique ways to use them in your everyday meals.

Asparagus

Select: Colors can range from white to green to purple, but no matter what hue you choose, look for tightly closed tips and stalks with no sliminess or dryness. The roots should be green, not brown.

Store: Keep the stalks moist by wrapping them in a damp paper towel or standing upright in a few inches of water. Store in the fridge and wash just before eating.

Cook: Phyllo-Wrapped Asparagus with Prosciutto

Basil

Select: Look for leaves that show no signs of wilting. Colors vary from shades of green to purple.

Store: Store basil in a plastic bag in the refrigerator or in a vase with about 2 inches of water. You can also freeze the leaves to keep them fresh through the summer months.

Cook: Chicken Panang Casserole

Beets

Select: Whether you’re choosing golden, red, or striped, pick out bulbs that feel heavy for their size and have few surface cracks. If the greens are attached, they should be vibrant rather than wilted.

Store: Stored correctly, beets can have a shelf-life of up to 3 months. Remove the stems from the bulbs (but don’t throw out the greens, you can eat those too!) and keep the bulbs in a sealed plastic bag in your crisper drawer. Leave them unwashed until ready to use.

Cook: Hasselback Beets with Tangy Dill Sauce and Caraway

Blackberries

Select: Select plump, well-colored berries with hulls detached. If hulls are still intact, the berries were picked too early.

Store: Fresh blackberries are best stored in the refrigerator for up to a week. Choose a wide, shallow bowl to store berries, and cover with plastic wrap to keep them from drying out. Make sure to use them up before they go bad!

Cook: Blackberry Turnovers

Blueberries

Select: Pick plump, juicy berries with blooms that have no trace of mold or discoloration. Look for firm, uniformly sized berries with a deep color and no hulls or stems.

Store: If eating blueberries within 24 hours of picking, store them at room temperature; otherwise, keep them refrigerated in a sealed container up to 3 days. Wash right before eating to keep the berries fresher longer.

Cook: Blueberry-Sour Cream Muffins

Get the full list on myrecipes.com

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If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

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