Top 10 Home Improvement New Year's Resolutions for 2010

Most handy homeowners have a list of home improvement projects longer than their arm. It helps sometimes to narrow down the list to 10 essentials. Here is my list of 10 home improvement new year's resolutions.

1. Add insulation. I have added attic insulation and the walls are in good shape. Now it's time to tackle the crawl space. It's never fun to work in the crawl space, but years of energy savings and warmer floors underfoot will totally be worth the hassle. I have the project started. I just need to finish the crawl space walls. That should insulate the space and negate the need for insulation under each floorboard.

2. Finish weather-stripping the doors. Again, I worked on this last year. I added weather stripping around the front door, but there are still gaps and I can feel the cold air leaking in.

3. Finish caulking. Do you notice a theme? I want to finish weatherizing my house in time for next winter.

4. Baby-proof the house. With the first kid on the way, it's time to cover the outlets and make everything safe for little fingers and eyes.

5. Install a dual-flush toilet. These make a huge difference in water savings. Why have I put it off this long? I don't really know much about plumbing, but maybe it's time to take the plunge (pun intended).

6. Build shelving in the garage. My wife organized the garage and put up a pegboard with lots of pegs, but our next step is some new shelving to get all that stuff off the floor and maybe actually park a car in the garage.

7. Turn another piece of lawn into another xeriscape strip. This is an ongoing project, but I hope to eventually replace all the grass with water-wise landscaping.

8. Put solar pathway lighting on the approach to our house. This won't take much effort, except the effort to save up the money, then drive to the store and buy the solar lamps.

9. Finish mudding and patching drywall. We really want new colors in our house. Painting is fun and I am ready to go on that front. The problem is that I have to finish covering the little cracks and dips in the walls first - and every time I mud one crack, I see three more.

10. Paint. As I said, I'm looking forward to this project. I'm especially excited about the bright blue office, though I'm not sure if my wife will ever come into my office again.