Ahh, another sunny day with mild weather! Late summer into early fall is the perfect time of the year to begin on home improvement projects for many different reasons. The mild weather between hot summers and cold winters make indoor and outdoor home improvement projects easy to start and even easier to finish. The long sunny days of summer are nothing but memories but that doesn’t mean you have to stop improving your home.

For me, home improvement projects always ramp up during this time because I want to get the house ready for all the friends and family that will be visiting for my son’s birthday. And, besides, I have to do something with that extra hour I get from daylight savings time!

It’s a good time to put in some new trees in your yard, freshen up your flower beds by planting bulbs for next year or maybe even build up any retaining walls or stone walkways you may have. In another month or so it will be a good time to plant grass and you may want to pick up some fall lawn fertilizer now.

This is also a good time of the year to purchase home improvement materials because many big home stores start having their largest sales around this time. You might be able to pick up some great deals on left over summer furniture and even pool toys. Local gardening centers will be trying to sell off most of their plants in stock and will be preparing for the fall holidays. If you’re planning on having company visiting for the holidays then you’ll obviously also want to start freshening up your home’s interior with deals on furniture.

The fall is also a perfect time to hire independent contractors to work on your home because for most of them their busiest season is just ending. You’ll see lots of deals being offered by home improvement companies around this time of year in an effort to close out as many jobs as possible before the slow end of the year. Most contractors are especially interested in helping home owners because they know the winter months will be slow for them.

And though you might still be wearing shorts outside, a lot of the big box hardware stores are going to have pre-season sales on chipper vacs and snow blowers. I bought and reviewed my chipper vac a few years ago and I am still amazed at how much easier it is to pick up leaves now. Don’t have enough leaves to warrant a chipper vac? Then you can use your lawn mower to pick up leaves!

Of course, even if you just want to just sit back this fall, you might still want to get your house ready for winter. You can inspect your heating system, add to the insulation in your home and even clean out your chimney if you have one. You might want to think about getting your house ready for winter by checking to make sure your roof is in good condition and your doors are all properly sealed with weatherstripping. If you’re a do-it-yourself kind of home-owner then you’ll want to take advantage of the mild weather to take care of exterior projects like sprucing up the landscaping, caulking around your windows or even freshening up the paint on your house. You may have a lot to do when the leaves start falling – including raking or cleaning up leaves (here’s an easy way to bag leaves), cleaning out your gutters and decorating for Halloween and Christmas. There are always plenty of great ideas for home improvements in the fall!

Home improvement companies are still desperate for work and some are even helping you pay for their jobs through them. Hardware stores have lots of sales available now as their season is winding down. This autumn is looking like a good time to begin those home improvement projects from a financial perspective as well. Home equity loans are available at historically low interest rates and appear to be steady for now.

All in all, it’s a good time to start some of those fall home improvements!