While exterior home improvements are popular prior to selling your home, you don't need to wait until you are in the real estate market to improve your home's appearance.
Exterior home improvements can be about more than just beauty - safety of your occupants and visitors may also be a concern as well as increased functionality and protecting your home's exterior from the elements.
Installing Driveway Lights: Driveway lights are fairly simple to install in general.
They can improve the appearance of your home at night, increase safety for those walking on your driveway, and help to deter thieves from your home.
Driveway lights come in many different styles including recessed lighting, post lighting, and ground level post type lighting.
The lights can be powered by solar energy or connected to your home electrical system usually through an outlet without requiring additional wiring.
Most driveway light systems just require placement in the ground and then are pretty much set and forget.
If you don't have solar lighting, you may also wish to install some type of timer system to automatically turn the lights on and off for you.
Fixed Outdoor Lighting: Updating the look of your home can also be achieved through changing out the lighting fixtures on the exterior of your home.
Most home decorators feel the exterior light fixtures should blend well with both the architecture and interior fixtures used in your home.
The fixtures themselves are pretty easy to replace using common tools found in the home.
Just make sure to cut any circuit breakers to the area before replacing the fixture to avoid any potential electrical shocks.
There is a wide variety of exterior lighting options available so you are sure to find the right style for your budget.
Use Retractable Awnings: Retractable awnings are fashionable once again.
They help protect your window frames, door frames, and deck from sun, water, and wind damage while updating the look of your home's exterior.
Awnings come in a variety of fabric and metal styles allowing the home owner to express their individuality through color and material choices.
Retractable awnings also provide added flexibility as you can choose when to have them up or down.
South facing windows are good to protect during sunnier days so that the carpet and furniture does not get sun-bleached, while on cloudier days you may choose to roll up the awning to add some extra light to the room.
Smaller awning systems are rather simple to install and come in a wide variety of sizes, so custom fitting is not usually required.
Deck awnings may require a few extra hands, however, depending on how large your area is.