Jazz Up Your Home with These Quick Holiday Improvements

With the holidays just around the corner, you might be thinking about ways to spruce up your home before guests come calling. Since it’s such a busy and expensive time of year, I’ve decided to put together a list of small improvements you can tackle in an hour or less for under $100. Let’s get started:

Front Door Facelift - Make a great first impression by giving your front door some holiday flair. A festive wreath, some planters adorned with mini Christmas trees, or some holly garland can go a long way in greeting your guests.

Light a Path - With people coming and going, it’s always a good idea to make sure your driveway and entryway are well lit to avoid slips and falls. I love solar powered lights which don’t add to the electricity bill and will keep the path properly and safely illuminated.

Set and Forget Fireplace - Everyone loves the glow of a fire, but not every homeowner wants to deal with keeping it up while entertaining guests. Replace the logs with a candelabra to give your living room an inviting glow without the maintenance.

Sparkling Floors - Give hardwood floors a holiday shine with a floor refresher. No one has time to refinish this time of year, but a simple water-based formula will fill in scratches and make hardwood look like new. Best of all, the product goes on with a microfiber mop and takes just an hour to dry.

Carpet Clean-up - If you have old stains on the carpet, now is the time to get rid of them. In a spray bottle, mix a teaspoon of concentrated cleaner such as OxyClean with two cups of water and cover with a damp rag. Use a medium heat iron to steam out the stains, but keep a close eye to avoid burning the carpet.

A Citrusy Sink - With the holidays approaching, the last thing you want is a stinky garbage disposal. Give it a quick freshen up by dropping a few white vinegar ice cubes and some citrus peels down the chute and leave it running for about a minute. This will clear up any old food particles and leave it smelling fresh.

Freshen Up After Fido - If you have a pet, chances are you’ve become used to the smell, but your guests may not be so comfortable. Give Fido’s bed, the carpets, or the furniture a liberal sprinkling of baking soda before vacuuming to get rid of both pet hair and odor.

Nicks and Nuts - Has your wood dining table seen better days? Believe it or not, you can use a shelled walnut to remove those unsightly scratches. Just rub the nut gently around the blemish and follow with a buffing wax to make it shine.

These are just a few of my favorite fixes, but I’d love to hear from you! What little home improvements do you want to tackle for the holidays? Share your ideas by sending me an email or connect with me on Facebook at facebook.com/odonnellbros.

Bob O’Donnell is the owner of O’Donnell Bros. Inc., a Bristol-based home improvement company established in 1975. Email your questions to info@odonnellbros.com with the subject line “Ask the Pro.” All questions may be considered for publication. To contact Bob for your remodeling needs, call O’Donnell Bros. Inc. at (860) 589-5155 or visit http://www.odonnellbros.com. Advice is for guidance only.

If You Only Do Three Things To Get Ready For Winter….

Since the weather has been pretty pleasant this autumn, lots of people have put off the household jobs that will help them prepare for winter. Are you one of them? If so, listen up. I hate the be the bearer of bad news, but in the very near future, we are going to begin to see the weather make a turn for the worse. So now is the time to get prepared. If you do nothing else, knock off these three simple jobs this weekend.

 

Clean those gutters. The leaves are finally falling, so it’s time to get rid of them and make way for the snow and ice. If you don’t remove debris from your gutters, it will prevent winter water from flowing off the roof and down away from the foundation. If water has nowhere to go, it will refreeze in your gutters and at the base of your roof, resulting in dangerous ice dams and potential leaks in your home. A gutter cleaning can be handled by a handy homeowner or a professional cleaner in just a few hours. I’ve been busy installing gutter guards all over town, which is a popular choice if you don’t like the idea of dealing with this job every autumn. Regardless of how you choose to tackle this task, you have to keep your gutters clean. The alternative is a potentially expensive bill for a roof replacement or to fix interior damage come spring.

 

Seal up the air holes. I get calls all winter long from people who are wondering why their house is so drafty. The cause can be many things but generally, the culprit is the lack of proper insulation in an attic. While insulation installation is an easy improvement with an excellent resale value, there are even simpler jobs you can complete yourself to keep warm this winter. First, install an insulated box to cover the hatchway that leads from your living space up into the attic. If you don’t have insulation, your attic will be freezing and all that cold air will be seeping into the house. A box made from heavy duty insulated foam board will do some of the work to block the airflow from the attic into your home, although it is just a temporary fix. Also, don’t forget to remove your air conditioning units from the windows. Many people leave them in all year long which makes it easy for cold air to flow right through the house. Finally, if you don’t use your fireplace during the winter, get that sealed too. Any passageways from the inside to the outside can act as wind tunnels when the frigid winter air comes calling.

 

Turn off outdoor faucets.  You won’t be watering the yard anymore this year so you have no reason to keep outdoor faucets on. People often forget and leave them on all year round which can lead to frozen pipes that can burst and leave you with a nasty plumbing bill. Drain all hoses and put them in the basement so they don’t get damaged and make sure any faucets or fixtures are in good condition and not leaking.

 

If you do just these three things this weekend, you’ll be in much better shape when the wicked weather finally decides to come our way. Plus it’s much more pleasant to get these jobs out of the way before the deep freeze sets in. Good luck and as always, don’t be afraid to reach out if you need help or advice.

 

Bob O’Donnell is the owner of O’Donnell Bros. Inc., a Bristol-based home improvement company established in 1975. Email your questions to info@odonnellbros.com with the subject line “Ask the Pro.” All questions may be considered for publication. To contact Bob for your remodeling needs, call O’Donnell Bros. Inc. at (860) 589-5155 or visit http://www.odonnellbros.com. Advice is for guidance only.

It’s Your Last Chance - Get Ready for the Leaves

Enjoy the gorgeous foliage while it lasts because before you know it, all those colorful leaves will be clogging up your gutters and covering your lawn. Yes, we all love the picturesque change of seasons, but the clean-up can be a killer. So this weekend, get your house prepped to make the job as easy as possible and save your lower back some pain and suffering.

In the winter months, gutters perform the very important function of carrying melted ice and snow away from the roof. They prevent ice dams and other wet weather issues that can cause leaks in your home. The problem is that if your gutters are clogged up with leaves, the water can’t properly drain, which means it will end up in one of three places. If it’s very cold, the water will freeze into dangerous, heavy icicles which can pull your whole gutter system down. If it’s warm enough for the ice to melt, it will end up seeping into your roof, causing leaks in your attic, ceilings or walls, or it will overflow over the gutters and pour down into the foundation, causing leaks in the basement. None of these scenarios are cheap to fix, but they are all entirely preventable.

If you get a lot of falling leaves on your property, I recommend having gutter shields installed on your home. Gutter shields can be made of metal mesh or plastic and can either work as a filter or a complete gutter cover. The type of guard you choose will depend on your home and needs, and installation can be done by a professional contractor in one day. For those of you who are handy around the house, you can even install them yourself -  provided you have safety equipment and feel comfortable on a roof. It’s important to note that if your gutters are very old or have been not been maintained properly, you may not be able to cover them.

If gutter shields aren’t an option for you, you can also get your gutters cleaned, which should be done at least four times per year.  Many homeowners tackle this job themselves, but it can be both difficult and dangerous. I suggest hiring a professional, who can not only clean the gutters but can also do a quick inspection to ensure your gutters are in good working order and ready for the winter. Whenever I do a gutter cleaning or gutter guard installation, I always look for leakage warning signs and report them back to the homeowner so they are aware of any potential problems before they happen.

Once your gutters are ready for the leaves, you can think about your yard. Raking is one of my least favorite jobs around the house, so I use my sit down mower to go around the yard, sucking up the leaves and chopping them up into mulch that we use in our garden. If you don’t mind doing the job manually, make sure you get a good ergonomic rake to protect your back and don’t fill your bags up to the point where you’re struggling to lift them. An autumn cleanup isn’t worth a trip to the emergency room.

Bob O’Donnell is the owner of O’Donnell Bros. Inc., a Bristol-based home improvement company established in 1975. To contact Bob for your remodeling needs, call O’Donnell Bros. Inc. at (860) 589-5155 or visit http://www.odonnellbros.com. Advice is for guidance only.