Home improvement projects all around

Since the weather has warmed up a bit, we have been tackling all those home improvement projects we planned on doing last fall but never got around to before the cold hit. We had already purchased the materials and they were just taking up space in the garage. So we've been doing little things here and there as we have time, nothing major yet. Mainly it's stuff that has to be done before the damage is so bad that a professional must be called.

For example, we had a dented air duct coming from the unit outside. So the rain water would pool on the metal and it was slowly rusting away. So rather than wait until it rusted through and we would lose heat, my husband constructed a little roof to go over the ducts to channel the water away and thus prevent any future rust.

Another problem we had was with the local squirrel population trying to eat our house. I know it sounds funny, but I'm not kidding. They use siding material to build their nests, so they will chew pieces off the side of the house and use it for bedding. We had about three of these munched up areas around the house, so we patched it with an outdoor patching vinyl.

Next up? Probably refinishing the kitchen cabinets, since that is inexpensive and labor intensive. So we will get the satisfaction of doing a lot of work on the house, but don't have to spend a lot of money.