When summer heat starts rolling in most people start barbecuing and relaxing with friends and family around the home. With a few touch-ups you can make your home the place to gather and relax. Warm temperatures and longer days give you more time for projects that will make your neighbours sit up and take notice!

Start With Color

Nothing is prettier than a home surrounded by natural color! One project that will bring more color into your yard is to put strategically placed flower boxes on your sills and deck railings. Flower boxes are available at your local home improvement store, already designed to fit over railings. A little potting soil and some bedding flowers will add a riot of color to your home for months to come.

Upgrade the Windows

Your old windows are tired looking at best, and you need more light in the kitchen. Explore adding a greenhouse window in the kitchen to catch more of the suna’s rays. The greenhouse window, bumped out from the profile of your wall, can also be a spot to grow herbs, flowers or even vegetables year-round. Installing these kinds of windows will be sure to make your home cozier. The neighbors will be green with envy as your new greenhouse window is installed, in addition to being energy efficient and lovely to look at.

Extend Living Area into the Backyard

A great weekend project can be creating a new deck made from paving stones, available at the local home improvement store. Clear grass from the space you choose, perhaps a twelve-by-twelve-foot area, fill with sand to level, and lay the stones snugly to create an area large enough for your grill and a patio table and outdoor sofa.

Feeling energetic? Create a fire pit just off the new patio area. It can easily be built from rounded block available in the same area of the home improvement store as the pavers used for your patio. Kids will love to roast marshmallows and builds mores around the fire pit on a long summer evening while the grownups talk.

Add an Awning

Many homes have a deck or patio that is under-utilized because it is situated in direct sun and is just too hot to use! Consider adding a retractable awning, either electric or manual, to create an outside room feel, protected from the sun or rain. The shade from the awning produces temperatures ten to twenty degrees cooler than in the sun, and is the perfect spot to watch the sun sink on the horizon.

Summer is a great time to upgrade your home and yard but upgrading doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming. Even simple changes can improve its curb appeal and make it someplace the whole family will enjoy. When the summer heat hits your town, you will be grateful that you made these upgrades to your home.