What's a modest home upgrade with a high return on quality of life?

[thecatumbrella]

Starting this thread from a selfish place; I will potentially implement any and all good ideas in my own home. Also trying to keep in mind that not everyone owns their home, so rental-friendly ideas are appreciated.

A few of my favorite upgrades:
- putting the bath fan on a timer switch
- slow-close toilet seats
- solar motion-sensing lights in the bulkhead area (just leave the bulkhead doors open to recharge)

Oh, and SnackMeat has a fun home improvement thread going right now, as well.

 

[ChickenChick46]

One of the small things I've done that I love is put smart bulbs in my lamps around the house. I have 3, currently. One in the living room that comes on just before dark and goes off right after we go to bed (yes, I'm on a strict bedtime schedule like a child or I'll get grumpy, lol), one in the hall, and one in the upstairs landing. Both of those are for our kids to safely navigate the stairs after dark if they need to come down for anything. The bulbs connect to an app on my phone and I can adjust the time routines whenever I need to, as well as the brightness of each bulb.

 

[thecatumbrella]

One of the small things I've done that I love is put smart bulbs in my lamps around the house. I have 3, currently. One in the living room that comes on just before dark and goes off right after we go to bed (yes, I'm on a strict bedtime schedule like a child or I'll get grumpy, lol), one in the hall, and one in the upstairs landing. Both of those are for our kids to safely navigate the stairs after dark if they need to come down for anything. The bulbs connect to an app on my phone and I can adjust the time routines whenever I need to, as well as the brightness of each bulb.

That's a good one! We use smart bulbs in the brooder area with a nighttime schedule for "sunset". There's a severe lack of natural light in this house, so smart bulbs help bridge the gap.

 

[ChickenChick46]

That's a good one! We use smart bulbs in the brooder area with a nighttime schedule for "sunset". There's a severe lack of natural light in this house, so smart bulbs help bridge the gap.

That's a great idea! Our last home had that same severe lack of natural light. And lack of closets. When we looked at this house, I pointed out windows, closets, and outlets. Our realtor probably thought I was nuts.

 

[Evadig]

For our place, some storage. The two upstairs bedrooms are literally rectangles, without closets or shelving.

There’s no air conditioning upstairs, either.

I would definitely put in a Franklin stove or fireplace and an old fashioned well pump. We’re prone to power outages that last up to several hours. It would be nice to have heat (in the winter) and some fresh water.

There’s other things but I can’t think of them right now; I’ll update later!

Edit: I’d add sconces in prominent areas (like on the stairwell) and have matches nearby so we can also have some light during these outages. They like to happen in the evening…

 

[thecatumbrella]

For our place, some storage. The two upstairs bedrooms are literally rectangles, without closets or shelving.

There’s no air conditioning upstairs, either.

I would definitely put in a Franklin stove or fireplace and an old fashioned well pump. We’re prone to power outages that last up to several hours. It would be nice to have heat (in the winter) and some fresh water.

There’s other things but I can’t think of them right now; I’ll update later!

Edit: I’d add sconces in prominent areas (like on the stairwell) and have matches nearby so we can also have some light during these outages. They like to happen in the evening…

I love the sconce idea!

 

[jxp]

When we switched the wall heaters and window air conditioners for a heat pump in our older house 2 years ago and a new roof all in the same month, I also changed out my turbine roof vent to a power vent that is triggered to come on with temperature. Where I live, there's much more wind in the cooler months and practically none in the heat of summer when you'd want the hot air drawn out of the attic.
Neither the roof nor the heat pump can be considered modest in cost but the vent was just around $150, the install of any new vent was already part of the cost of the roofing contract and my son is an electrician so the hookup was free. (I also saved several hundred on the install of the heat pump because my son did all of the electricity but it still wasn't cheap). Having the power vent is a great upgrade to our comfort and it adds to the life of our new h.p. which doesn't have to work as hard.