Looking to add curb appeal to your home? Trying to spruce it up for the spring & summer months? Want to fix it up to sell it? Want to improve your property value?
Are you also on a tight budget with little cash to spend on big renovations? Never fear! I suggest you start working with what you have and make small adjustments. This will save you money and be easier than large renovations!

Add a splash of color. Experts suggest adding this splash of color by painting your front door, adding colored trim pieces, or adding colored shutters to the outside of your house to add curb appeal. A contrasting or bright color is usually suggested.
For example, if your home is mostly one color on the outside, then pick one thing (front door, shutters, window trim, etc...) and paint it a brighter, contrasting color.
This contrasting color will draw visitors' eyes straight to the item and will make you seem very home improvement savvy!

Add items to the outside of your home. If you do not have shutters or window trim, or a modern front door, consider adding them to increase the value and esthetic appeal of your house. This will make your house look more finished and more well designed.

Remove items from the outside of your home. If you have an old, nasty-looking storm or screen door that has been eaten or scratched up by Fido, then remove it! Take that old yucky door off and show off your nice, newly painted front door! If paint is peeling, scrape it off and repaint it. If you have rusted gutters, downspouts, grates, or drains, scrape off the rust, re-finish them, or simply remove them and buy new ones. Something new & fresh will look so much better than something old, rusty, and worn-out.

Add landscaping! An ordinary house with great, beautiful landscaping would probably sell faster (and for a higher price) than an extraordinary house with shameful landscaping. People love beauty, and people love seeing beautifully designed and planted landscapes. When a potential buyer sees gorgeous landscaping, he knows that the owner spends lots of time caretaking for the plants, and the buyer wants to think that he could do such beautiful landscaping as well. Everyone wants to have the "prettiest front yard" on the street!
Install a stone path, a small pond or fountain, solar night lights up the walkway to the front door, plants for sun and shade, a bench, a swing, a lantern, and potted plants. Plants do not all have to be in the ground. Adding a large pot full of plants on either side of the front door would be an amazing focal point!
Landscaping is much more than simply flowers & plants. It does, however, center largely on growing plants. And remember, some plants need sun, some need shade. Plant flowers that will bloom out at different times, so your garden will always have color!
Also, a good landscaper knows that gardens needs all types of sizes, too. Plant some small trees, some large flowering plants, shrubs, viney creepers that will wrap themselves around a trellis or arbor, and ground covers that will spread across the ground. You need lots of color and shape to make a good landscaped area.

Re-organize and re-style! If you have paving stones that surround the base of a tree, or a rock wall that lines your driveway, and the stones or falling off or leaning, then it's time to fix it and re-organize it! Clear up the mess, fix the problems, re-align the stones, rocks, bricks, tiles (or whatever you're using!) and it will look so much better, not to mention it will perform better! And isn't that what we all want?

• Some of these ideas may be more costly than others
• I recommend shopping around, and shopping for clearances and bargains (just because something is on clearance, doesn't mean that it's broken or something is wrong with it. It may just be "last season".)
• Use your own ideas to create a beautiful home with increased value
• Most all of these ideas can be accomplished by almost any, untrained person, but if you feel you need professional help, then by all means, obtain it!