Guest Post - Top 5 Most Popular Home DIY Projects

There are many different kinds of DIY home improvement projects. Some are smaller, inexpensive weekend activities while others can cost thousands of dollars and take weeks to complete.

If you’re a homeowner, chances are you’re going to consider doing a project yourself at some point in the future. When you get the itch to improve your abode, here are five of the most popular DIY projects to consider.

Paint Your Home

The most iconic home improvement project has to be painting. Whether you’re giving the outside of your home a fresh coat of stain or you’re overhauling the interior with a menagerie of new colors, painting is an easy activity for homeowners to do themselves. 

Be warned, though; the process does get a bit involved. For one thing, painting can take a very long time. If you’re going to paint a large outdoor area, consider renting a paint sprayer or even buying a small one outright. Additionally, you’ll want to factor in time to choose the right color, test it beforehand, and clean up properly afterward.

When you’re finished painting, don’t forget to store your leftover paint in an easy-access Mason jar to keep it fresh and ready for any touch-up work you may have in the future, as well.

Replace Hardware

One of the quickest home improvement projects is replacing hardware. All that is required is choosing new hardware at the store and then going around your home with a screwdriver. Pop off old handles, attach new ones, and, hey presto, you’re all set.

New hardware is a quick and easy way to spruce up a space like your kitchen or bathroom with minimal effort. Be warned, though, quality hardware can be pricey — especially when you commit to buying 10 or 20 pieces at the same time.

Address Windows and Doors

Most homeowners are aware of basic window and door care. Things like cleaning windows and maintaining window wells are important aspects of home maintenance. 

If you’re looking for a more ambitious DIY project, though, you can take things with your windows and doors a step further. For instance, you can:

• Seal up leaks with caulk and weatherstripping.

• Hang barn wood doors in your home.

• Add or replace trim.

• Paint existing door and window trimming.

• Replace old or leaky windows with easy-to-install retrofit windows.

By tending to your windows and doors you can improve both the look and functionality of your home.

Add New Flooring

Flooring is another great DIY project. There are numerous options easy for homeowners to learn on their own. This includes things like:

• Using vinyl planking.

• Laying down bathroom tiles.

• Refinishing hardwood floors.

• Installing carpet.

Regardless of the specific kind of flooring, remember to carefully calculate the square footage of the space that you’re working in. Remember to order extra flooring as well.

Improve Storage

When home improvement is discussed, it typically invokes images of kitchen remodels and additions. However, sometimes the smallest, most effective remodels can be the most effective. 

Improving your home’s storage options is a great DIY remodeling option. It gives you more space to store temporarily unneeded items and can be a great way to improve your home’s organization. A few of the most common storage DIY remodels include:

• Adding a pantry in the kitchen.

• Installing an organizer into your closet.

• Adding a medicine cabinet or cabinetry in the bathroom.

• Putting up shelves in any area of the home.

Storage is the unsung hero of a quality living space. The fact that it’s also a popular and easy DIY home project makes it that much better.

Improving Your Home on Your Own

There are many popular improvements that you can make in your own home. Anything from lighting and hardware to flooring, painting, windows, and doors can make a huge difference in your home’s overall look and feel. 

So take a look at the list above, select something particularly relevant to your home, and then have fun setting your plans in motion. Before you know it, you’ll be relaxing in your fresh, new space.

Author Bio: Noah Rue is a freelance writer.

Guest Post - How to Get the Most Out of Time Tracking to Improve Your Productivity

Time tracking apps are an excellent, vital tool for anyone who works from home, especially if they’re self-employed. At the same time, they’re like any productivity software in that they’re only as effective as you make them. If you don’t know what you’re doing, they aren’t likely to be of much use. 

Working from home can get pretty rough, especially if you’re your own boss. The odd conference call and digital meeting aside, you don’t usually have a set schedule of any kind. 

This can lead to some incredibly bad habits: Working late. Cramming all your work in at odd hours of the day. Failing to take any time off, or hardly working at all. 

That’s one of the reasons I love time tracking apps. They introduce structure into your day-to-day. They allow you to more effectively block out your day into a collection of distinctive tasks, which helps you feel more accomplished and gives you a better idea of how much, how hard, and how frequently you work. 

But as noted by Quartz’s Corinne Purtill, this can be a double-edged sword. In an email reportedly sent to a time tracker’s customer support staff, she recounts how distracting and disruptive Toggl ended up being in the context of her workplace. She found herself unhappily dwelling on how much time she wasted on grunt work, and on how frequently she had to return to the app as a result of constantly switching between tasks and projects. 

The issue, Purtill acknowledges, is that time tracking doesn’t really mesh with how she approaches her workday. She used the app not because she felt motivated, but because she felt obligated. Because that’s just what you’re supposed to do when optimizing your productivity.

The thing is, the way you work is deeply personal. If you’re going to use any time tracking app, you need to consider how you’ll adapt it to your unique workflows. More importantly, you can’t just mindlessly track your hours - you need to manage them as well.

To that end, there are a few things you can do. 

• Consider what tasks or projects you most frequently work on during the day. It may be worthwhile creating premade categories for each. I’d also advise creating one for general work, as well, such as small jobs that don’t really fit anywhere else. 

• Go in with specific goals. Consider why you’re tracking your hours. Do you want to optimize how much time you spend on each project? Do you want a better work/life balance? Are you simply curious about how your day looks? 

• Prioritize and learn when to say no. Remember, not all tasks are created equal. Always take care of your most important, most time-sensitive jobs first. And more importantly, learn to recognize when you’re overwhelmed or when your attention needs to be directed elsewhere. In other words, learn how to set healthy boundaries where your workload is concerned. 

• Work to be less distracted. We are surrounded by distractions, and none of us are as good at multitasking as we’d like to think. The final and most important piece of advice is to be smart about where and how you direct your focus. Cut out as many unnecessary distractions from your workday as possible and you might be surprised at how much more you get done. 

Ironically, time tracking can end up being both distracting and time-consuming. But it doesn’t have to be. As long as you’re smart, focused, and strategic about it, it’s an incredible addition to just about any workday. 

Author Bio

About the Author: Brad Wayland is the Chief Strategy Officer at BlueCotton, a site with high-quality, easy-to-design custom t-shirts.

Guest Post - 5 Ways to Save Money When Buying Your Next Home

For most people, a home is the highest-value asset you’ll ever purchase. That can make the process pretty intimidating — after all, you’ll want to ensure that you’re getting a good deal, that the company you work with to finance the mortgage is honest, and that your home is likely to appreciate over time. 

There’s no simple method that works for everyone. However, there are plenty of tips and tricks that you can use to help make sure that you get the best deal possible when buying your next home. Below, you’ll find 5 of our favorite methods for saving money during the homebuying process. 

Check them out, and be sure to share with your friends to help them get the deals they deserve the next time they’re in the search for a mortgage. 

Start by saving for a down payment

Your down payment is the sum of money that you pay before you start making regular mortgage payments. Ideally, a down payment should be around 20% of the price of the home, but these days, many banks and lending agencies will allow you to make a down payment of less than that amount. 
While that may seem tempting, there are some good reasons to wait a while and ensure that you have the full 20% before committing to purchasing a home. Here are a few of the benefits:

• A bigger down payment often means a lower interest rate. Your interest rate is part of the cost of your mortgage, and by having a large down payment, you can often lower that rate — which means paying less over the long-term.

• A full 20% down payment also means you’ll likely avoid paying mortgage insurance. Private mortgage insurance (or PMI) is an amount you pay on top of your mortgage that helps your lender feel more secure if you have a low down payment. If your down payment is high, you can often avoid PMI.

• Sellers may be more willing to close at a lower price if they know they will be getting a larger amount up front. Having a full down payment is a huge help in the negotiating and haggling process (more on that in a later section). 

It’s frustrating: you want to purchase your home and move in right away, and the idea of waiting another year or two to grow your savings so you can hit 20% doesn’t sound great. But trust us, it’s worth the savings in the long run. 

Work on your credit score

The next way to save money is by having a solid credit score. If you don’t know, your credit score is basically big financial institutions’ way of measuring how trustworthy of a borrower you are. If you have a great track record of borrowing money and paying it back on time and in full, you’ll have an awesome score. If not, then your score might need some work. 

If you do find that your credit score is a little rough around the edges, don’t panic. There are always ways to repair your credit, like consolidating and repaying debts, for example. 

What does this have to do with buying a home? Well, the higher your credit score is, the lower your interest rate is likely to be. The strategy here is pretty similar to having a high down payment: basically, if you’re a trustworthy borrower, companies are more likely to let you borrow money at a lower rate. 

Always shop around for financing

home

If you’re new to homebuying, you might not realize that the first place you get a quote is not always the best place where you’re likely to find financing. While heading down to a trusted credit union or local bank is always a good idea, it’s still smart to get multiple quotes and compare rates from different agencies before signing anything. 

It’s always smart to have multiple options on-hand. Some places might offer low rates, but you might not realize that the rate isn’t fixed; they could hike it up after a couple of years. Other banks might have high closing costs or fees associated with their mortgages that you’d rather avoid. 

Plus, if you get a quote from one institution, then take that quote back to another one you’re more interested in working with, the second one might actually lower their rate to match the better quote. That brings us to the next strategy. 

Don’t be afraid to haggle

People get nervous about haggling — they think it’s rude, or that it may wind up with them getting a worse deal. While it’s important to be polite, it’s equally important that you make sure you get a fair deal, and often, haggling is an important part of that. 

As mentioned before, there are ways to make it easier. For instance, if you already have financing in-hand, and you’ve saved up for a full 20% down payment, the sellers may be willing to shave a few thousand (or even tens of thousands) off the asking price. 

The key is to offer, hear their counter-offer, assess whether you’re willing to take that, and then offer again. One risk that’s worth noting, however, is that if someone is willing to pay at or above asking price, you may lose out. Ultimately this will depend on how competitive the market you’re buying in might be.

Additionally, if the home needs work, you can always haggle on the cost of labor, having the seller pay the repair costs, etc. Don’t be afraid to haggle to get exactly what you want, within reason of course.

Invest in growth

Lastly, something many people might not realize is that one way to save money is to make money. How does that apply here? Think about it this way: if you purchase a house for a low price in an area where prices are falling, your equity will be low. It’s smarter to purchase a slightly pricier house in an area where housing costs are increasing, which will mean that, over time, your equity will increase too. 

The higher cost now ultimately means you’ll have more money in your pocket later on — which is the goal of savings, after all. Remember, before purchasing your next home, be sure to use these 5 tips and help lower the cost of your mortgage. 

Author Bio

Samantha Rupp holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. She is the managing editor for 365 Business Tips as well as runs a personal blog, Mixed Bits Media. She lives in San Diego, California and enjoys spending time on the beach, reading up on current industry trends, and traveling.

Interior Home Issues That Can Affect the Outside of Your House

Although the interior and exterior of your home are separate, they are also quite closely connected. This means that problems on the inside of your home can cause problems on your home's exterior and vice-versa. Since you likely spend more time on the inside of your home, it's important to be on the lookout for the following interior problems so that they can be contained before they can cause issues with your home's exterior.

Excess Weight

When you install new elements in your home, it's important to ensure that your home can handle the weight of those new elements. For example, if you're planning on installing a new jacuzzi tub in your bathroom or an aquarium in your living room, you need to make sure that the subfloor and supports can handle the extra weight of the water. If your home isn't strong enough to support this extra weight, you can discover significant cracking on the exterior of your home as it compresses under the excess weight.

Excess Humidity

If you find that you have too much moisture in your home, your problems could extend beyond your home's interior. In fact, this excess moisture could rise to your attic and remain there for quite some time. This could cause your roof sheathing to become soft to the point that the sheathing between the trusses begins to sag. When you utilize residential roofing services, make sure that they check the sheathing for proper structural integrity.

Poor Planning

Renovating your home can be a great way to increase its value and comfort. However, you must plan properly for any interior renovations to ensure that they don't ruin the exterior of your home. One big problem you might run across is the routing of new plumbing and electrical lines. If you don't have a good plan ahead of time, you may need to run these lines outside, which can significantly detract from your home's appearance. Plus, since the lines will be running through your exterior walls, it puts your home at an increased risk of water damage.

Poor HVAC Maintenance

Your HVAC system has components both inside and outside your home. You must take care of the interior components to ensure that the exterior components don't suffer. One important step you must take is to replace your system's air filter regularly. If you don't, your system may not be able to push enough air through, which can cause the refrigerant lines on the exterior of your home to freeze.

For the most part, it takes a while for interior problems to cause problems on the outside of your home. Therefore, if you're performing ongoing maintenance to your home, you should be able to catch any issues so that you're not left with a big mess. The upside is that ongoing maintenance can help improve your home's efficiency so that you can enjoy lower costs overall.