Have you been missing spending time outdoors? Now that the warm season is back, you can resume doing more than that. However, the cold and snowy weather may have made your exterior dull, so now is the time to spruce it up to make sure that you and your guests enjoy every bit of it. Here are tips to help you revamp your home’s exterior:
1 – Rejuvenate Your Lawn
With extreme and uncontrollable cold weather conditions during winter, most plants tend to die off or not grow at all. Now that the snow is gone, you might also notice some bare patches on your lawn due to those adverse weather conditions.
If this happens to your plants, the spring season is the best time to revive them whichever way possible. Here’s how to do it:
- Rake – rake your lawn to remove debris, leaves, or dead grass for new growth. Doing this will ensure new seeds penetrate the soil seamlessly.
- Aerate – Soil can easily compact during the winter season or if there’s heavy traffic on your lawn. A lawn aerator will loosen the soil, which will open it up to allow unrestricted airflow, water, and nutrients.
- Fertilize – After aeration, it becomes easier to mix fertilizer with the soil, helping the grass absorb the grassroots nutrients easily. It also prepares your lawn for the summer heat.
- Add Post-Emergent Herbicide – Weeds will sprout quickly because the soil is well aerated. A pre-emergent herbicide will keep weeds off for at least three months, so you will have to reapply it at the start of the summer season. Using your hands or a weed puller as you apply herbicides, pull out the winter weeds as well.
- Reseed – First reseed the bare spots, then plant more seeds to the thinned-out grass.
Every healthy lawn must have a good foundation for it to flourish. Follow the same steps to revamp your flower or vegetable garden.
2 – Cleanup Your Compound
Despite having a revamped lawn, your home may still look the same if the other components surrounding it look untidy as well. Most homeowners are culprits of focusing on the interior and leaving out the exterior, especially the driveway, gutters, planters, windows, siding, doors, deck, outdoor furniture, and overgrown plants.
Doing a thorough cleanup of all these areas will help you identify anything that needs repairs. If these areas are ignored for long, they provide a favorable environment for mold growth, which eventually damages your home’s interior and could be dangerous for your family’s health. If you need to do this with a pressure washer, you don’t have to buy one as you can rent one from a local cleaning facility that rents them out.
3 – Repair Any Damages
We all have busy lives, but you cannot ignore damages for too long. Minor issues lead to more significant problems in your home and eventually become a safety hazard to your loved ones. They could also lead to you handling more expensive repairs in the future. These include missing roof shingles, cracked foundation, missing window screens, leaning fences, weak deck, cracked driveway and sidewalk, peeling paint, etc.
You can easily do some of these repairs like painting by yourself, but we highly recommend that you call in the specialists for each repair to do them in the right way. You can also combine both interior and exterior maintenance simultaneously. Doing this all at once saves time, and if the repairs involved are significant, you may be able to get a good discount.
4 – Revamp Your Entertainment Space
When the weather warms up, you’ll want to spend more of your time outdoors either by yourself, with family, or with friends. Therefore, you must give it a polished look to make it more enjoyable. Here are several ways to do it:
- Make Furniture Updates- Use bright but weather-resistant material that can survive any season
- Add colorful accessories like an outdoor rug or cushions to the furniture to make it attractive and comfortable
- Add a natural or artificial shade to the seating area either through tall plants or a structure like a pergola
- Have an outdoor kitchen with outdoor cooking equipment like a smoker or grill
- Have a firepit for the cold nights
5 – Have Outstanding Exterior Lighting
Now that you might be spending some nights out relaxing in your yard, you cannot ignore the essence of good lighting. You can extend the same effect of your indoor lighting to your exterior space. If you already have some in place, all it may need is a swap for brighter lighting.
There are many different lighting options that you can add to your home. A few of these include:
- Security lights- These are the brightest since they are designed for safety. The best bet for these is motion-sensing lighting which can mount across the entryways.
- String Lights- Best for the seating area for the best ambiance. Choose the LED type which is also weather resistant and can be solar-powered
- Lanterns- These are mainly portable and used for visual purposes. You can neatly arrange them on your lawn, porch, or seating area.
- Wall Lights can be placed in the entry areas, pool, or seating area. You wouldn’t want to miss some of these, especially when you host a party in your yard.
Anything with electrical motion can be dangerous, but in the hands of the experts, you’re assured of the best installation. In this case, dealing with an experienced electrician in Marblehead will ensure all the installation processes are handled professionally, and there’s a smooth flow of lighting throughout your compound.
6 – Increase the Privacy of Your Home
Even with all those upgrades in place, you won’t enjoy it comfortably if anyone who’s not part of your home can effortlessly look through and see everything going on in your compound. You have plenty of options, from using privacy screens, pergolas, simple curtains, or dividers to your seating space or partitioning your garden with clever planting methods.
All these are essential upgrades that will brighten up your spring season and make your home look better. Take a look at your home’s exterior, pinpoint areas that need immediate attention, and raise your home’s worth.
