Quick home improvement projects to jump into spring

Tompkins Weekly Staff

 

Home improvement projects ramp up when the weather warms up, as homeowners channel the rejuvenating feelings of spring and tackle their home to-do lists. Large-scale renovations can greatly affect a home, but smaller projects can yield impressive results and be completed over the course of a single weekend.

There are so many easy, and quick indoor projects homeowners can tackle in a weekend. Create an accent wall. Painting a focal wall in a home can create a serious impact. The bonus is it will not take as long or require as many materials as painting an entire room. Accent walls frequently feature a bold color, so decide on placement and tackle this project in less than a day.

Install stair runners. Dress up hardwood stairs with decorative carpet runners. Runners come in elongated pieces of carpeting or individual pieces that can be placed on each step. If carpeting doesn’t fit with the home’s design, painting individual stair treads also can create visual appeal.

Dress up the entryway. An entryway is a guest’s first impression of a home. Many entryways can use a minor overhaul, both on the inside and on the outside.

 

Consider painting the front door a different color so it pops from the curb. Something bright that accents or compliments your house. Install a fun new mailbox or decorative house numbers. Even a new welcome mat can change the look of a house for the better. Inside, consider laying a new floor. Resilient vinyl tiles come in many different patterns and can mimic the look of wood, travertine or marble. Installing a floor can take a day or two.

In the kitchen, where the party always ends up anyway, think about installing a new faucet. Instantly improve a kitchen or a bathroom with new fixtures. New faucets can provide aesthetic appeal and low-flow faucets can help conserve water.

Update kitchen or bathroom hardware. Replacing hardware is a fast and easy project, but one that can have immediate impact. Swap out tired or outdated hardware for newer brushed metals and more impactful shapes and designs.

Create a gallery on the staircase. Gather and arrange all the framed photos, artwork or wall accents that you’ve been collecting over the years so that they ascend the wall of a staircase. This creates a designer touch and can dress up an often barren area of wall space, and finally show off all the art and pictures that otherwise would be gathering dust.

Add molding. Molding can add instant aesthetic appeal to a room. Molding is appropriate near the floor, at the top of walls where they meet the ceiling, or even mid-wall as a chair rail. Some homeowners like to create framed molding on walls in formal living spaces.

Install a fresh light fixture. Improve drab spaces with a little illumination. Better Homes & Gardens suggests replacing an existing fixture with something new and vibrant. If hanging a new fixture is not within one’s skill set, free-standing table or floor lamps also can cast a new glow on a familiar space.

While updating your lights, be sure to take the time to check on what powers them. Todd Bruer, Business Manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 241 here in Ithaca, moving into spring is when people should be thinking about their meter, and checking to see if any moisture has gotten in.
“That can cause all kinds of electrical problems,” Bruer said. “Usually the time you can see it is now.”

Checking your outside electrical cables for cracks or damage is also important, Bruer said, because that’s how water can get into the electrical panel. If water gets into the cables to the meter it could get into the main breaker and cause it to trip.

“It could definitely be a new panel, brand new electrical service” Bruer said of the expense that kind of damge could cost to a homeowner. “If it was damaged like that and it burned something out in that main panel and burns out the main breaker, you could change the main breaker or swap out the main panel but you’re still going to have the problem unless you change that cable.”

Bruer also suggested making sure that where your cables enter your house it is fully sealed up or homeowners could come back to find new house guests: squirrels.
Heading outside to the lawn, for homeowners with riding lawn mowers, now is the time to get them serviced. Gary Little, owner of Little’s Lawn Equipment in Newfield, said his business is already taking daily calls from customers that want their mowers picked up and taken care of before the grass really needs mowing.
“They have the same routine every year,” Little said. “Usually, we do most of them in the fall. If we can, we talk them into doing it in the fall. We tell them, the last time they turn the key to shut it off when they’re done mowing in the fall, call us to have it picked up and bring it in.”

Among the many things that Little’s business does when servicing a mower include: changing the oil, the air and fuel filters, the spark plugs, and change the transmission oil and filter if needed. The blades are sharpened, the deck is scraped, the cables are lubed, and everything with a grease fitting is greased. Then it’s power washed to spring perfection.

“We make sure it’s 100 percent ready so we don’t see it again until the next year,” Little said. “To the best of our ability.”

Little’s customers come first. If they bought it at Little’s they get priority over people looking to get mowers bought elsewhere serviced.

Although spring may only be here in name, it will soon be here in reality. Now is the time to set up your service inspection for a riding lawn mower.

“In a month from now, or three weeks even from now, they might want to call or it will be here for three weeks or four weeks and that’s no good for anybody,” Little said. “Don’t wait until April 15 to get your mower services because no matter if it’s me, Agway, Don’s Log-n-Chain, we’re all backed up.”

When spring is over, Little can also help his customers keep their mowers in tip-top shape by storing them at his business.

“We also do full storage in the winter for people,” Little said. “We service them and then we store them. They don’t go in my building unless they get full service. Then in the spring, they call us and we take them back.”

Spring cleaning time is here, so why not throw in a few quick home improvement projects while you’re at it?