Spruce Up Your House on the Cheap

Are you a little bored with your house; or are you thinking of selling it, and you think it's a little drab? Here are a couple of inexpensive suggestions.

First curb appeal: Bright colorful flowers in the front yard. Paint the front door a bright color. Little better budget? Paint the front door, the trim, and the garage door an unexpected glossy color. Do you still have single pane windows? Are they corroded aluminum? If the toilets were installed before 1995, you might replace them. It's not that expensive, and the water savings may pay you back. What about the bathroom vanity? There are some slim new ones which will make the bathroom feel a bit larger. Hire some handy person to do the top dozen of those honey dos that you can do, but never quite get around to.

It's like a car. Do you find yourself walking up to a boring silver Prius, or an equally boring white pickup truck. Buy a colorful one, it puts a smile on your face. True story, I had a friend who was going to paint his Ranchero, brown. Are you kidding, brown?

I talked him into maroon. After all he had spent a lot of time sanding and priming, shouldn't the finished product be fun? So I hounded him until he relented. He took the prepared truck to Earl Schibe, for a 29.95 special. Did I just date myself? The truck came back beautiful. The best Earl Schibe job I had ever seen. All that prep work paid off. But it was Purple. He had a fit. Dave, what do you care it looks great. You were going to paint it brown. Well he took it back, he wanted maroon (my color suggestion) and he got it repainted, and he got orange peal. Sigh.