QUESTION: What’s one upgrade you made to your home that ended up making a huge difference?
The Water Cooler – What’s One Upgrade You Made To Your Home That Ended Up Making A Huge Difference?
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Rain gutter screens!
They are well worth it.
Got ours from home depot 75 feet (3 foot pieces) for $70.00
.
Fat, far, cheaper than one on TV.
New HVAC
A redwood deck about 15 years ago, it’s still looking good and holding up strong.
I bought good quality lumber at Dolan’s on Monument.
two actually – double pane windows and taking attic insulation to R50 – huge difference in sound quality and heat retention in winter & better heat resistance in summer
I vacuumed! 😝
Attached greenhouse.
Built one on first house, in winter on a sunny day didn’t need to turn
on furnace. Circulated air from house out to greenhouse and back.
.
Summer was garden, winter was greenhouse gave us year round vegetables.
I put in a smart outlet since I could not install a switch for my deck lights. Now I have them though out the house. (I still feel Ray Bradbury may be right….ask me again on August 5, 2026….)
I highly recommend everyone gets a bidet. The cost to benefit is off the charts. They have really fancy ones with seat warmers, etc, but a basic one can run for about 30 dollars.
Swapped out older American dishwasher for newer Asian model. Replacement has more functions and is less noisy. Turns out she can cook and vacuum too. Waited way too long to make the change since everyone told me how expensive it would be to dispose of the old one. Totally worth it though.
I believe everything except the ‘less noisy’ part. I have….neighbors!
Gross and demeaning.
Does she Simonize your car?
new roof and just having a home in the first place. So unfortunate that the reality and American dream of being a homeowner is all but gone for the newer generation. So so sad
It is not all the way gone. Once Trump steps things up in CA, there should be a lot more housing to go around.
Putting a gas fireplace into our wood burning opening. It’s so nice to push a butt and have a fire going. BUT, it involved running a gas line the width of the house…so not at all inexpensive. As the late great Pee-wee Herman once said, “There’s always a big but”
A kegerator.
New roof with replaced skylights, added skylight that opens and more soffit vents and a ridge vent.
That’s easy for me…. Tankless Water Heater.
Best decision ever.
Fast hot water that does not get used up & go cold.
Does not waste gas keeping a tankful of water hot.
No sulfide odors.
For the first time in our lives, we have a front door. We’ve been rolling the dice for years hoping no one would walk in and make themselves at home…
Swapped out the wife for a girlfriend.
Home is so quiet now, no obnoxious nagging about mowing the lawn or washing dishes
Funny thing is, I now can afford a robot mower and a dishwasher
My house is now a home
A natural gas-powered generator.
Getting one of our bedrooms ready for our first child and then using it for the same purpose 4 more times.
There are a few we did and they all made a difference in a good way.
But I will say, the trenchless sewer was a good investment.
Many of our neighbors still have issues with clogger or broken sewer lines.
75 year old homes and 75 year old trees are not friendly to 75 year old clay sewer pipes.
A new wife. JK, I’m still married.
Actually a whole house fan. Relatively inexpensive to buy and have install. Pays for itself in about two years because you don’t need to run the AC as much. Great for removing odors.
This was the first thing I installed in each home that I have owned. The biggest downside is that they are noisy.
We have a whole house fan that was here when we moved in, but it is much too loud to use on a regular basis. But if we want to replace all the air in the house in just 37 seconds, all we have to do is open a few windows and flip the switch. And opening the windows first is an essential step.
Open a window or you will suck the soot out of your chimney.
It does bring back submarine memories of being at periscope depth with the diesel running. When a large enough wave hit the snorkel mast, the main induction would slam shut, and the diesel would create an instant vacuum in the boat, stretching everyone’s eardrums in the process.
We’ve made improvements as necessities, not upgrades, such as replacing a leaking roof and leaking windows. An upgrade we made that was not a necessity was changing our kitchen cabinets. They were well-made but we couldn’t utilize all the space in the back of them, so we had them transformed into pull-out drawers inside the cabinets. Holy cow, what a difference. We can now utilize every inch.
I totally agree regarding the pull-outs. In some of our cabinets, anything in the back, especially on the lower cabinets, may as well be on another planet. I made some pull-outs for one of our large cabinets and need to make more for some of the other cabinets.
Anything in the back being on another planet is exactly how it was. At least you have the know-how to make them yourself. Good for you. 🙂