2 DIY Home Improvements we do to Every House we Own

This link contains affiliate ads.

I am the first to admit that my husband and I have had LOTS of practice buying houses and moving into them. In the past five years of marriage we have lived in six different homes. One was a rental apartment, one was a rental house, and the other four houses were homes we have owned.

Over the years I have found there are two DIY home improvements we do to every house we own. We install a programmable thermostat and we install a key code front door. While I am the first to admit that I am frugal person, these two DIY home improvements have been worth their weight in gold.

Electricity is always a big expense no matter the size of your family. One of the things we have found is that we spend a lot of time out of the house. We both work full time and are usually gone 10 or more hours a day. By purchasing a nice, but cheap thermostat we are able to program the thermostat to be warmer while we are gone and then cooler at night.

When we purchase a thermostat, we always buy the one that has a setting for M-F and another for weekends. When we are home, it is important to us that we are comfortable. This is why we always purchase the same thermostat.

Below is the thermostat that we  buy for all of our homes. You can buy it at Home Depot (to pick up in-store) or online at Amazon.com. They are easy to install and my husband is able to it by himself.

There are a lot of different kinds of thermostats you can get including ones that you can control from your phone. We prefer this one because the price tag makes it affordable to leave with our tenants when we move on, and because it is easy to install and less likely to break.

2. Digital Key Locks

The second improvement we always do to all our houses is change the key locks to digital. Even thought I might have mentioned in the past that it was an unnecessary expense, I realized after having to break down a door because I locked myself out that it was totally worth it. We quickly realized that this was one of the best BEST ideas we’ve had and it’s paid for itself over and over.

We absolutely LOVE this picture above model. It comes in various colors so it matches all of our finishes. The beautify is there  are no key requirements and you can program up to five numbers on it. This makes it’s great for letting in a handyman, friends, cleaning ladies, and more!

We have used it for friends who have beat us to the house because we were delayed, given it to the handy man so he could get into the house to repair things, and to our awesome cat sitters who take care of our Princess when we are traveling.

What DIY Home Improvements can you not live without?