Ep 014 - DIY Home Remodeling Projects

Welcome to Be a Smarter Homeowner Podcast, where you'll discover strategies to save money, save time, and be better organized in managing your largest financial asset and biggest expense, your home. Your hosts, John Bodrozik and Beth Dodson, who are co-founders of HomeZada, have been supporting homeowners for over 20 years. They are here to share with you their tips and suggestions, as well as interviews with industry experts, with the goal of helping you become a smarter homeowner. Now, here's your hosts, Jon and Beth.

Welcome to another episode of Be a Smarter Homeowner podcast. May is Home Remodeling Month, and we're going to celebrate and talk about all the little things that homeowners can do themselves that don't cost a lot of money. Because we'd like to talk about home remodeling projects. Usually people talk about the big stuff, the kitchen remodels and the bathrooms, and those cost a lot of money and time and skills. But there's a whole bunch of little things that people could do on their own that don't cost as much money. So, Beth, how would you like to kick off our show today?

So I want to talk about the types of projects people can start. First of all, they are small, they are DIY, and they are cost effective. Which I think is really important. And remodeling doesn't have to be these big projects. A lot of people buy a home for the first time and they don't have the money to invest in these big projects, but there are things around their house that they can do. So I want to look at this in 2 phases. The first phase is outside projects and the second is inside projects. And so by starting off with outside, because that's where you generally come up to your door— Front.

Front yard.

Yep. Front yard, front door. We want to actually start talking about the outside from that perspective. And some of the simplest projects you can do outside has to do with landscaping. And a lot of that is keeping your grass really trimmed. If you've got any patchy areas, making sure that you reseed that or resod that depending on where you are in the country. And that will make the grass really look great. In fact, if you are Your grass is in need of fertilizing. That's also another great opportunity to really get that lush green grass. In addition to that, it's a little bit of a maintenance tip, but it's also important to the grass. It's making sure your irrigation, if you have irrigation, is working properly. And that's really important because that can really make your front yard shine. So taking a look at the grass is the first area. Then also taking a look at shrubs. And trees, making sure that they are trimmed so that they look really pretty and they don't look ragged can make a big difference into having people feel welcome and invited into your home. And it really does make your home shine.

So one thing to add to that, 'cause I know that you task me with these projects a lot, is pots and potted plants. And you love going to the pottery store locally here because you like all the different colored pots that you can get and the different sizes and the small pots and how you can arrange 2 to 3 pots together, small, medium, and large, and then the kinds of sort of flowers and shrubs that you can plant in those things, that becomes a great, you know, simple thing that a lot of people can do on their own.

It is. And so whether you like colored pots or whether you just want potted plants, and because you want flowers, and flowers in spring and summer really can brighten up and make a home feel cheery. And it's something that's really affordable. In fact, you can make it a project with your family every year, especially if you have annuals. And for those people who don't know, annuals are plants that grow one time during the year, but then they will die off and you'll have to replace them each year. And if you have annuals and you can make this a project with your family, you can actually choose to change out the colors of the flowers every year and have a great new look and feel to your front yard and possibly even your backyard. The additional thing that I would suggest for people, because I love paint, and we're gonna stay on paint on the outside for a little bit, but a front door. A front door is the biggest welcoming thing you can do when people are coming into your house. And a front door with a fresh coat of paint, either of the same color or shaking it up and adding a bright new color, whether it's red or blue or yellow.

Mm-hmm.

Or whatever the color may be, can really be exciting for people to come up and really understand that your house is the house they want to come visit with. And it also makes you feel good. And one of the things that we also talk about is hardware. So I'm a firm believer in if your hardware on your door is kind of yucky, I don't know how else to describe it. It's just old. It's burned out.

Yes. Washed out and kind of Exactly.

Or maybe rusted a little bit, maybe weathered. Replacing that hardware on your door can actually be really simple. It's a simple task that anyone can do. It's very cost-effective, and you can really brighten up and make your home door look really different. I think that's really important.

One project that I'd like to add that I'm pretty passionate about is what I call low voltage lighting.

Oh, that's a good one.

Right. And I kind of look at the— it's pretty great to do because one, it makes the aesthetics of your house at night just awesome because you can line your driveway or walkway up to your house, or you can shine a light on a cool tree that just creates a great effect. But it also has a security, you know, safety aspect to it, right? Oftentimes we take our, you know, garbage cans down at night and maybe it's already dark. And if your low voltage lighting comes on, It's going to help you, you know, from a security perspective. If you have outdoor cameras, you know, the lights, lights things up. It's just a great thing that a lot of people can do on their own. You can string them together yourself or there's not a lot of new low voltage lighting that's kind of like standalone. They're almost like solar powered where you just basically stick it wherever you want, get some sun during the day and it kind of lights up at night. So I really am a huge fan of low voltage lighting.

Yeah.

You know, and you speak of lighting from an aesthetic perspective, but also from a safety and security perspective. I also want to take a look at projects like alarms or cameras that you can put in. Security systems are sometimes, in today's day and age, something that you can actually invest in yourself and, and install yourself. There are still systems that you can hire professionals to do, but if you want something quick and capable, you can add your own security systems, which is really simple and It also can give you peace of mind. So I'm a big firm believer in that.

Yeah, putting a video camera at the— on your front door, maybe at your garage door, uh, back, back door. It's pretty easy to install those things, pretty cheap as well, um, connected to your phone. Uh, it's really a great thing to add to the house.

You know, you brought up another good point when it comes to security. Um, let's talk about keypads on garage doors. And then also keypads on front doors. So keypads are simple to install on garage doors, and that's for someone who may be out and about. And I know you like to run around the neighborhood. You use the keypad to come in through the garage, but the garage can stay closed while you are out running, but you have that keypad to let yourself in. I know some other friends of mine choose to use keypads on their front doors Because they don't want to potentially lose keys.

Yeah, it's both a convenience thing and a safety thing, right? It's the, you know, how do I get into my house if your garage door doesn't work, right? And you don't have your keys because you're always going in and out of the garage door. So having the keypad is great. And then it's, yeah, it's, you know, security aspect of getting in and out. It's a great thing to add. Maybe a segue I know you want to talk about is the backyard. Yes, right, because that's such a huge area of our lives now. More people are spending time at home. It's, it's, it's your kids and your dogs and your entertainment and your friends. Where do you want to go with the backyard?

Yeah, so I want to go to a couple different places. So the first thing is, well, we've talked about maintenance and making sure things are safety-oriented. So repairing and making sure stones are in place. You know, I have this project top of mind right now because I have some beautiful Stonework and stepwork in my home, but I need to make sure that these pavers are safe. So I just want to take a quick trip around my yard to make sure all of them are safe by getting some glue and replacing them. But I want to make sure that those steps are sealed in place so that no one gets injured when I have my parties.

Yes. So it's basically you're saying that there's a lot because we spend so much time in our backyards. Making sure that the things are there are safe for the visitors, kids, dogs, etc., and is clean because let's face it, it's exposed to the weather and the elements.

Yes.

And if we don't pressure wash these things, if we don't paint certain things, then those things start to deteriorate much quicker. And a lot of the DIY projects is just literally keeping what you have in place. Looking good and looking fresh. Because if you ignore it for year after year after year, it doesn't look so good anymore.

Yes, and a good example of that is if you've got decking, you need to seal it. It's traditional wood decking, you need to seal it. I believe some of the polyurethane type decking doesn't require that, or maybe it does, just from aesthetics perspectives. But all of these things can be either considered maintenance or DIY projects. It's up to you. But making sure that decking is sealed will help it retain its lifespan, but also really make the home look beautiful. And when you have a home that looks beautiful, you wanna spend more time in your backyard.

Absolutely. And if your yard's big enough, people, some people are, you know, trying to explore the whole gardening thing. So you might create a section of your yard, either go with the raised kind of box where you sort of beds, or you do raised beds. Other people wanna do it in the natural, soil that's there, create a little garden area. Some people like to garden with, you know, fruits and vegetables. Some people like to garden because they want the flowers there or other kinds of things. So that gardening is such a great sort of DIY thing that a lot of people can just sort of explore on their own. And it's just a great way to get outdoors and invest in your backyard.

It is. And it's also one of these— gardening is also one of these tasks that becomes a really great hobby for you. So A hobby that you can do weekly when you're outside, even with your family, and it's a healthy hobby because you get to reap the rewards of a fruit and vegetable garden, is really exciting for a family to understand how things are made and produced and grow. So, it's super exciting and also another opportunity to invest in your backyard.

So, the gardening turns into, should you be cooking with all these fresh fruits and vegetables? And, I know my father loves his tomato plants. And he's— and he, and he plants so many tomato plants that he does a lot of cooking his own tomato sauce, but he turns it into a social thing. He walks around to his neighbors and it gives him an excuse to go talk to his neighbors and give his neighbors some of his tomatoes, right? So it's like a DIY project turns into social community building, which is kind of cool.

That's correct, which is really great to get to know your neighbors. Now we're going to move inside. the house, because there's a lot of DIY projects that you can do inside the house, and, um, they can vary. Most of them are decorative, but let's just go down some of this list. I'm a firm believer in the money rooms, the bathrooms and the kitchens, and a lot of the things you can do in money rooms yourself that is really affordable is changing out faucets and changing out hardware. That's really simple, and it can make A complete look and feel difference in your kitchen and your bathroom.

Yeah. And the hardware on the cabinets also, you know, I think people can do a paint job on their cabinets too.

Yes, they can.

I mean, it's pretty easy to paint an existing set of cabinets and that gives it a fresh look. And it's significantly cheaper than trying to rip out all those cabinets and install new ones. That becomes quite a big task. But just painting them and sort of keeping them in terms of colors that are going to freshen and brighten up your kitchen is a huge thing.

Or bathroom.

Or bathroom that people can do.

Exactly. And so I'm like I said, the money rooms, but I'm also a big proponent too of in bathrooms you generally have mirrors. So you may have mirrors that you can pull off the wall and replace. A mirror can actually change The look and feel of a bathroom. Same thing with lighting. Lighting can be very simple to replace. It doesn't have to be super complicated. I also am a firm believer, check all your light bulbs, make sure they're all working in your house. But lighting can make a big difference in your bathrooms if you're trying to get ready in the morning and also in your kitchens. And I think that's really exciting.

I think another category is what I call organizational projects.

Yes.

Right. It's the, I've got clutter in my life. I've got clutter in closets or spare bedrooms or in a pantry. And the DIY projects can be a little bit of both, right? It can be like a simple, I'm just going to go buy an organizing unit, like a piece of furniture.

Or I'm going to build it.

Or I'm going to build it myself inside. You know, it depends on whether you want to do the built-in or sort of buying. But a lot of the projects that can help make your life sort of more smoother is taking the time to create these sort of organizational things that tend to be closets and pantries and those kinds of things.

Yes, and making sure decluttering is really important because it also changes the mindset of somebody. When you have a clutter-free environment, you have a more productive environment. And these are studies that have been done elsewhere. And you can also realize that some of the things you have in your home, you may not need anymore, which also becomes really exciting. So some ways to do that are by using baskets and investing in organizing equipment. In pantries, in closets. It's also creating shelving. You can easily change a wall and add some shelving to it or build your own organizing shelf. Maybe it's a 4-story shelf that you— 4-story, excuse me, 4-level shelf. 4-level shelf. 4 stories. 4-level shelf.

You need a 4-story for your closet.

I probably do. But 4-story shelf that you could build yourself to put books, to put trinkets, to put your memories on. And it doesn't really cost a lot. It can take some time, but it doesn't really cost a lot.

How about a different segment of DIY projects? Because we were focusing a lot on what I— the structure of the house. How about the sort of decorative type stuff and/or furniture type projects?

Oh yeah.

I know you're a big proponent of kind of like refreshing rooms that way. Any ideas or suggestions there?

Yeah, I am. So the first thing I talked about was shelving. So like floating shelves on a wall, they can be something that you can add yourself. One of the things I talked about with bathrooms is mirrors. So most people don't know this, you can add a mirror to a wall and it makes the room look bigger. So that's really interesting. And you can do that in a couple of ways. You can just buy a mirror and hang it, or you can add mirror component and you can add trim around the mirror to make it look as if it's framed. That's also pretty cool. I also talk about molding in a home. So whether it's baseboard, wainscoting to change a room, you can see a little bit of it behind us, chair rail, that can actually change the look and feel of a room.

Are you a fan of wallpaper?

I am a fan of wallpaper, as you can see behind us. I am. I don't use wallpaper in all the rooms. I have done wallpapering myself before in a bathroom. It is easier, especially with the way they make wallpaper today. But I would read the directions and make sure you're using the right components before you get started because you don't want to destroy your walls.

How about redecorating a room? Curtains, pillows, etc.?

That's really easy. Yes, you can do that. You can change out throw pillows on any sofa or bed. You can add your own simple draperies that you buy at a local store. You can do that very easily. One of the things that I would also consider is— a friend of mine does this because she's just amazing— but taking an old piece of furniture that you found either in an antique store or it's been passed down generation to generation, and you refurnish it and you refinish it. So what you're going to strip it down. And then you're going to reseal it and re either paint it or seal it with a stain, and that piece of furniture looks brand new again. But it's this piece of furniture that you're recycling and you're repurposing, and it's amazing, absolutely amazing. And a friend of mine, she does this on a regular basis, and every time I go into her house and there is a piece of furniture that's being refinished, it's always the standout piece of furniture in the room because it's so unique as well.

Yeah, one category of project that's kind of on the borderline of, you know, may cost you a little bit of money, but it's definitely some things that people have learned to do on their own is what I call replacing the flooring in a room by yourself. Yeah. And it tends to be tile flooring, right? You might just have really old tile, ugly tile, or you know, some sort of linoleum or other sort of stuff. It's pretty easy to go on YouTube and other sites if you've never done it yourself to figure out how to sort of replace that tile yourself. That becomes another way to kind of freshen up a room to be able to do that on yourself, to do that yourself as well. Any other sort of exciting interior projects that you can think about?

Yes. One other thing, because I said this earlier, I'm a proponent of paint. I love paint. And so, and I love living in color. Pink.

Yes.

Living in color. I love it. And so, I'm of the firm belief that paint your house whatever color you want, inside, outside, have a good time with it, and enjoy the colors that are in the spectrum. One of the other things that we have, and we have a tip on our blog, it's using painter's tape to create new designs to walls. You know, a friend of mine back east— yes, I have all these friends that do all these wild, crazy, wonderful things with home— they used painter's tape to create stripes on a wall for a baby's room. Amazing. And it was pristine and perfect and beautiful. Now, you do have to take some time because you want to make sure that the line stays straight and there's no paint that's going to seep into the stripes. But it was absolutely amazing how they did this, and simply by using painter's tape and taking their time.

Cool.

Can I try that sometime?

No. So, um, no, that's not an option. Um, but one of the things that I'm also going to say is, um, for those people who have pets out there, because this is also fun.

Yes.

Um, if you've got pets, you can add a doggy door. You know, John, you've done that before.

Yes, I have.

Yeah, you've added a doggy door before. You can add a doggy door as a project and get it done in a weekend. You can also create your own customizable dog or pet beds out of old furniture or out of wood. And so you can have a lot of fun with indoor projects to make sure that your home really shines and it's personalized to you.

Yeah, I guess maybe when you think about all these indoor projects, I think about it maybe 2 ways. One is it's just lifestyle, right? You want to freshen up and you want to, you know, freshen up the house and you want to, you know, improve your lifestyle and enjoy your home more. And so a lot of that— there is the process of actually doing the project can be enjoyable as well. And then there's the end result of like, I see my work every day when I'm in the kitchen and I see the new hardware and it just makes you happy and puts a smile on your face. Then there's the maybe getting ready to sell my house.

Sure.

And so there is the other aspect of why you might want to do some of these DIY things. which is you may be just thinking about it's time to sell. And before you decide to sell, you don't want to have this huge list of things to do. You want to kind of already be doing those things along the way so that if you ever do make that decision, there's kind of less of those things to do. And hopefully you can pick those projects that kind of give you the best of both worlds. One is that it'll help you improve your lifestyle, put a smile on your face every day, but in a marginal way, kind of increase the value of your home as well.

No, I agree with you. And a lot of these, these projects we just described to you, for instance, like decluttering and restaining a deck, painting a front door, those types of projects can absolutely add more value to a home because they show the homeowner who's going to be buying your home that you cared about the home.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, that's the first thing. Some of the other things that you're going to do around your house, maybe adding a mirror, Maybe adding shelving to the walls or what have you. They are definitely for your own personal aesthetics, but even adding hardware and new faucets, they can make a room look updated. Painting cabinets in a kitchen or a bathroom can make the room look updated, and that could be beneficial for increasing the value of your home as well.

I have a random question for you.

Yes.

Do you enjoy walking through home improvement stores, and does it give you ideas?

Me personally, I do like it. Um, I do like getting some ideas, but I look at, um, stores that have decorative type things as fun ways to get ideas versus walking through my traditional home improvement store and I need to go get a GFI, which I just did. I need to go buy pliers or You know, tape or glue, right? That doesn't give me ideas all the time. It tells me all the maintenance tasks I need to do.

Yep.

So, which is also important, by the way.

Do you get ideas from your friend's house?

Yes, I get ideas from friend's house. I get ideas from what I see on TV. I get ideas on information that, that gets posted. I get ideas on random things as well. It could be something as simple as I see a purse in a store that has some really eclectic pattern because it's custom made. And I saw this recently in a store in Florida that, that gives you inspiration on, oh, a room could really pop with this type of color scheme or this type of design scheme.

Yep.

And so I get inspiration a lot of different places.

Do you track the budget of these things or is it more sort of, you know, negligible budget because a lot of it is just do it yourself and, you know, a few bucks here or there for some plants?

So I'm a little anal. I track the budgets on everything, everything. So anytime I make an investment into my home, whether it's a maintenance task, whether it's a big giant remodel project, or whether it's decorations, I actually track that in my home budget.

Okay. What other projects have we— have you done maybe in your past that you— we haven't shared today or any other closeout items?

One of the other projects that I did in my home in Maryland was I added my own pavers to a patio. And it was really easy because I just had to, um—

Level the ground.

Level the ground.

Yep.

Put down the pavers, and then I actually sprinkled stones or sand in between the pavers to hold them in place.

Mm-hmm.

Um, in this particular case, I didn't need a set of boards around the pavers. Um, because it was really a small, small, tiny area, but it was well worth it because this is, um, one of the other benefits of having a little project, a decorative project like this that I did on my own. I have— I had a dog who— a big dog who would always come in through that door and it was always muddy there.

Mm-hmm.

And so these pavers made it way more effective in my cleaning process As well, so the benefits of some of these design projects and these DIY projects are that they can actually help with cleaning in the onset and the maintenance staff afterwards as well. And that's exciting.

Yeah, one thing that that I like that you kind of encouraged me to do is organize the garage. Yes, it's the install the little pegboards. So that you have a consistent place where all your little tools are, as opposed to just them lying around like I used to.

Um, you gotta hunt through drawers. You don't want to do that.

Hunt through drawers to find things. And, uh, you know, you could even, um, you know, maybe install a cabinet or 2, or, um, buy one of those organizing units to store all of your bigger, like, shovels and rakes. Yes, those, those, that sort of thing.

That's a big project.

Just those simple little things of organizing the garage. becomes a huge, you know, sort of value saver in terms of time efficiency, and it makes your garage look good as opposed to just stuff everywhere.

Yes, I like things to look good, organized, efficient.

All right, uh, I don't know, do you have anything else to share, or do you want to close this out today?

I think a lot of things that most people, um, don't also realize is when they're trying to get their house ready for sale, or they want to throw an event, a party, That usually is a driver to perform these types of tasks. And now that we're coming back to everything, throw yourself a party and then you might wanna get involved in all these tasks. So May's remodeling month. So you do these in May and then in June and July you have some parties.

So maybe you set the time to do a party and then that'll force you to do all the stuff that you wanna do to show off your house.

Yes, why not?

Yeah, absolutely. Combine those things. It's kinda like garden turns into cooking. Throwing a party turns into doing all these little projects.

Exactly.

Gives you motivation.

It totally gives you motivation. It's amazing.

All right.

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