4 Creative Ways to Give Your Stairs a Makeover

Stairs can be a major focal point of the home. Not only do you see them every single day, if your staircase is right by an entrance, they’re one of the first things visitors see when they come over. After a while, they might start to look a bit worn out or maybe you’re just starting to get tired of the way they look. Most people don’t have the budget to completely knock out their existing staircase and build a new one, but there are plenty of ways you can give your stairs a whole new look.

A New Handrail

A new handrail is a great way to completely transform any staircase. The railing on your stairs can be a great accent for your home’s style. Wood rails have a very classic look and can be stained or painted to suit any color of decor. If your If your home has a more unique, offbeat style, check flea markets and antique shops to look for a salvaged vintage rail. For homes with a very modern edge, maybe a railing with a glass railguard would be just what you’re looking for.

A Fresh Coat of Paint

Paint can really do a lot to completely transform a space and a staircase is no exception. Black and white stairs are a popular choice for a very classic and refined look, but they’re also a opportunity to add color to your home. Is there a color that would look great as an accent color against the walls? If you really want to keep your options open, chalkboard paint is a popular choice for stair risers since it gives people the chance to have fun with their stairs. Or maybe you could paint a runner onto your stairs instead of using carpet. The possibilities are endless.

Wallpaper or Stencils

Your stairs certainly don’t have to be limited to being a solid color. Many homeowners use pieces of wallpaper on the risers of their stairs to add a vibrant pattern to the space in a way that isn’t overwhelming. Instead of using wallpaper for a strong pattern, you can also use a textured wallpaper to create a subtle but memorable appearance. This blog post from Amassing Cents shows an excellent use of textured wallpaper on stairs.

If you like the idea of having a pattern on your stair risers, but don’t like the idea of using wallpaper, see if you can find some stencils so you can create the same look using paint.

Molding and Wainscoting

Instead of changing the stairs themselves, why not consider changing the wall by the stairs? Applying things like wainscoting and molding the the wall add visual interest and create a more polished-looking architectural touch. If you’re thinking of putting your home on the market soon, those sorts of touches could really impress a person who’s considering buying your home.

How to Make Sliding Glass Doors More Secure

Sliding glass doors can make a beautiful addition to your home, letting in lots of natural light, creating a nice view of your yard, and giving you a convenient way for you to get to your deck or patio. However, just like any other type of door or window, sliding glass doors can pose a security risk.

Since so much of the door is glass, it’s easy for burglars to see what’s in your home and break through the glass if they want in. During the warmer months, many homeowners aren’t as good about keeping their sliding glass door locked since they’re frequently going in and out of the house. Plus, since sliding glass doors are often located in the back of homes, burglars like that they’re a less obvious way to get in. But the good news is that there are many different things you can do to make your sliding glass door more secure.

Extra Locks

Although sliding glass doors do come with locks, but they’re usually not very strong locks. For extra security, you should consider adding extra locks which attach both to the door itself and the frame of the door. Not only do these make the door harder to get open even while locked, the fact that these extra locks attach to both the frame and the door means it’s harder for a burglar to try lifting the door out of its tracks.

Security Rods

Security rods or dowels placed in the track of the door is another great way to make a sliding glass door more secure. These will make it hard for a burglar to fully open your door and are particularly effective if used together with stronger locks.

Window Films

The fact that so much of a doorwall is made out of glass will always be a vulnerability, but there are still things you can do to reduce the risk of a break in. If you’re looking to have your sliding glass door replaced, you can specifically look for an impact-resistant door. But if you want to boost the security of an existing door, apply shatter-resistant window films. These films are inexpensive, easy to apply, can be cut to any size, and they can be found at hardware and home improvement stores. If you want to make it harder for burglars to see inside your home, you might want to look for tinted window films to add privacy.

Security Sensors

A security sensor won’t stop a burglar from trying to force your sliding glass door open, but they will cause enough of a racket to hopefully make a burglar stop from going any further. Some sensors will only alert you if someone tries to open the door without permission, but there are also shatter alarms which alert you if someone tries breaking the glass. If you already have a home security system, the company you have your service through may offer this sort of coverage as options. But even if you don’t have a home security system, you can still buy standalone security and shatter sensors.

Tips for Saving Money on Homeowners Insurance

Buying a home is one of the biggest investments you’ll make in your life and it only makes sense to want to protect it. Homeowners insurance is an extremely important way of protecting your home, but you certainly don’t want to be spending more than you have to on it. If you feel like you’re paying too much for insurance, here are a few ways you can cut down on that expense.

Shop Around

Sometimes, taking the time to shop around can really pay off and looking for an insurance provider is one of those times. Each insurance provider has their own unique way of calculating premiums, so it’s entirely possible that one provider would quote you a higher price than another company would without making any changes to the amount of coverage you receive.  

Get Multiple Policies Through the Same Company

The concept of bundling to save money isn’t limited to phone, cable, and internet services. Many insurance providers offer multi-discount policies to customers who get both their home and auto insurance policies through them. According to Consumer Reports, these discounts can help cut your rates by up to 30%, so it’s definitely an option worth investigating.

Raise Your Deductible

A low deductible means you won’t have to pay as much out of pocket when you make a claim with your insurance company, but in turn, you’ll have higher insurance premiums. If you’re able to do so, raising your deductible will help you keep more money in your pocket, especially if you don’t make claims against your insurance very frequently.

Take Care of Your Roof

Your roof does a lot to protect your home from the elements, so it makes sense that insurance companies would be more willing to give homeowners a break on their premiums if they know their roofs are being taken care of. Repairing a roof or replacing it with a new impact-resistant roof will help give the insurance provider the peace of mind of knowing your home is less prone to weather damage.

Improve Your Home

Roof maintenance isn’t the only type of home improvement that can help you get a break on your insurance premium. Since old wiring and plumbing systems are more likely to cause damage to a home, replacing them can help bring down your insurance rates.

Boost Home Security

Insurance companies are always happy to see that a homeowner has taken steps to improve their home’s security. Whether you install stronger doors and locks or get a home security system, smoke detector, or motion-activated outdoor lighting, it all helps make your home safer and more secure. If you live in a gated community, make sure your insurance provider is aware of that fact since the gate offers an extra layer of security. Being a member of a homeowners association may also help you get a discount if the HOA includes a neighborhood watch.

Be Careful What You Insure

It’s important to make sure you have enough insurance coverage, but you also don’t want to be paying to cover things you don’t need to. Make sure you review your policy at least once a year to make sure it’s still relevant to your needs. For example, if you had special coverage to protect something that wasn’t covered by your standard homeowners insurance policy, but you no longer have that item, you’ll want to update your policy. Also, since it’s impossible to steal or damage the land your home sits on, including the value of the land in your policy will only raise your premiums. Instead, just get coverage for the costs to rebuild the structure of your home and any other structures on the property.

Improving Energy Efficiency With Window Treatments

Not all window treatments are created equally. At first, it may seem like a blind is a blind and a curtain is a curtain, but choosing the right kind of window treatment may help in making your vinyl replacement windows even more energy efficient. Why spend more on your heating and cooling costs when you can let your window treatments help you save some money? Here’s what you need to look for.

Awnings

For an excellent way to save money on your heating and cooling bills, think outside your home. Retractable exterior awnings are highly effective at preventing your home from being heated by the sun during the summer, but allow you to let that heat in during the winter. Energy.gov estimates that during the summer, window awnings can reduce solar heat gain by as much as 65 percent when placed on south-facing windows and by 77 percent on windows that face the west. Awnings made out of a lightly-colored material are more effective since they reflect sunlight and keep more heat out of your home.

Curtains

As far as indoor window treatments go, curtains are one of the best ways to control the amount of heat you get from the sun all year long. How well a curtain can control heat from the sun depends on the type of material it’s made out of, so you may want to consider changing your curtains throughout the year for best results. During the winter, look for curtains made out of a heavier fabric and hang them as closely to the window as possible to minimize heat loss. Make sure the curtains are long enough to hit the floor or window sill and, if possible, use velcro or magnetic strips to fasten the sides of curtains to the wall so that heat can’t escape through the sides.

During the warmer months of the year, use curtains that are lined with a white plastic backing to reflect heat from the sun and keep them closed during the day. Doing this can reduce solar heat by up to 33 percent!

Blinds

By design, blinds are better suited for keeping heat from the sun out during the summer than at keeping heat inside the house during the winter. The fact that they’re made out of slats simply means they’re not ideal for keeping heat inside the house. However, lightly-colored blinds made of a reflective material can reduce the amount of solar heat a home gets by about 45 percent when they’re fully lowered and the slats are closed.

Shades

Curtains and blinds are better options if you want more control over the amount of light that comes in through a window, but window shades can also help make your windows more energy efficient. Shades made of fabric, such as roman shades, add an extra layer of insulation on the window when they’re lowered. Honeycomb and cellular shades have a design which helps reduce heat transfer. There are also shades which are a reflective white on one side and black on the other side. Depending on which side the reflective white is facing, they can help keep heat out in the summer and heat in during the winter.

Getting Rid of Energy Vampires Around the House

Making your home more energy efficient is a multi-step process. You can do things like install vinyl replacement windows or add more insulation to reduce your heating and cooling bills, but you also need to look for ways to use electricity more efficiently. Getting in the habit of turning lights off when you leave the room and replacing old appliances with new Energy Star certified models are great ways to start, but sometimes, simply remembering to turn off electronics when you’re not using them isn’t enough to save energy.

We all have a lot of electronic devices in our homes, but a lot of people don’t realize they might be paying to power those devices when they aren’t actually being used. These sorts of devices, known as  “energy vampires,” use electricity simply by being plugged in or go into a low-power standby mode instead of fully being powered down. Even if an individual item doesn’t use much energy just by being plugged in, when you look around the house and count all the energy vampires you can find, the energy savings can really add up.

Phone chargers are by far one of the most common energy vampires people have in their homes. They get used so often that many people get in the habit of leaving them plugged in at all times. In fact, many homes have multiple chargers plugged in at any given time. Charging a phone doesn’t actually use much power, but keeping a charger plugged in all the time adds up, especially when you keep a few chargers plugged in.

Some of the biggest energy vampires include things like TVs, cable boxes/DVRs, DVD players, and video game systems. In some cases, TVs, DVD players, and video game systems don’t fully power down when they’re turned off. Instead, they enter a low-power standby mode so they can start up again more quickly. If something goes into a standby mode, check its settings to see if you can change it. You can also try keeping these sorts of things plugged into a power strip so you can easily turn off the power to all of them at once when they’re not being used. Cable boxes and DVRs aren’t as easy to simply unplug when they’re not in use since that will cause you to lose all your timers and settings. However, you might want to contact your cable provider to see if you can get a newer cable box/DVR since those are continually being improved to become more energy efficient.

Computers and accessories like printers can also be major energy vampires. If you’re used to leaving your computer on all the time, try to get in the habit of either shutting it down or putting it in sleep mode when you’re not using it. Energy.gov says that turning off a computer when you’re not using it can lower your energy bills by as much as $20. Power strips also work great in home office areas so you can turn off the power to you computer and all its accessories at once. One of the easiest ways to get rid of energy vampires is to just walk through your house and unplug anything that either doesn’t get used very often or doesn’t really need to be plugged in. Is your hair dryer still plugged in, even though you haven’t used it in a few days? Have a spare TV in a guest bedroom? Is the kitchen counter full of small appliances that only get used occasionally? Just unplug them all. You might be surprised by how many energy vampires might be lurking around the house.