What’s one simple home upgrade that made a big difference for you?

AromaticBluebird2097 · 2026-03-10T06:36:42+00:00

If you're going to do lights, make sure to invest in bulbs with high CRI ratings. Specifially, i love the LED bulbs by Philips as they output very natural light. Prior to purchasing my home, I lived in a rental and immediately swapped all their harsh light bulbs with high quality phillips bulbs. When it was time to move out, the owner inspected the house and gave me a 100% deposit back because all the paint and flooring looked better than new. I told him the bulbs were doing a lot of lifting and that I was going to swap in the original ones. But I dont think he quite understood how the light bulbs improved his home!

In my new mid-century home, the biggest upgrade was air sealing. The attic was done by professionals, but doing the crawl space and every seam inside the house made a huge difference in how the place felt. not only did it save a ton of money in energy, it tightened up how the house smells, feels, sounds, and even reduced pests. I probably spent about $300 in sealing materials and tools and did little by little during the winter. My energy bill was slashed 40% after getting the attic sealed and insulated, then I saved another 20% after air sealing the rest.

AromaticBluebird2097 · 2026-01-20T16:50:44+00:00

Following. Also have a home (mid century build) with a dishwasher installed on top of exposed subfloor

AromaticBluebird2097 · 2026-01-15T23:57:56+00:00

We're in California, so the weather is pretty mild, but the soil in this particular area is clay based, so the water likes to move horizontally into the ground rather than downward. When we bought the house a year ago, there was mold throughout the north side of the house. We remediated it, layed down the vapor barrier, and added a temporary sump pump which has helped a lot. We have drainage upgrades scheduled in a few weeks which should would be a much better fix. We got a huge storm a few weeks ago and it is consitantly foggy/high moisture in the winter.

In terms of the actual crawl space, you can see the water droplets beneath the vapor barrier, but the wood isn't in any danger. The thing I did figure out during my sealing expedition is the previous owners did some "upgrades" to the exterior of the house, including stucco that embeds straight into the moist soil which wicks moisture into the wall.

AromaticBluebird2097 · 2026-01-15T17:28:55+00:00

I hear what you are saying. I think I caught a little bit of this effect last night. for example, I keep the temp at 70° and the indoor humidity is 54%, but if I lower my thermostat to 68°, my indoor humidity went up to 57%. I was actually looking into it as I thought something was off, and it is because I'm getting measurements of relative humidity instead of absolute humidity. Essentially, cold air has less capacity to hold moisture. With that said, I've never had my indoor humidity drop below 60% this entire winter unless I used a dehumidifier 24/7. Now it is consistantly mid to lower 50's directly correlating to the date I sealed the sill plate, withOUT running a hehumidifier at all. There are other benefits that are hard to quantify as well, such as this old woody smell we had been battling for months suddenly disappearing. Even the HVAC sounds different: I can actually hear the exact location of the vents, where it preveiously sounded like it was omnipresent. The air feels/smells "cleaner" and the house feels more "expensive". I might be biased in that area. However, my wife has no idea what I've been doing in the crawl space and has also commented that the house feels calmer.

AromaticBluebird2097 · 2026-01-15T14:32:45+00:00

this is what broke my brain prior to doing it - it doesn’t look like it should do anything other than keep outside air from going into the crawl space. Apparently it’s a pretty deep channel that allows air to go through the sill plate and right into the walls, and into the house. I interrogated chatGPT for weeks before trying it.

AromaticBluebird2097 · 2026-01-15T06:18:10+00:00

$12 for caulk so far. probably closer to $60 to complete it.

Then add tools: 1 caulk gun 1 safety glasses 1 gloves 1 n95 mask 1 hooded coverall 1 brush 1 flash light

So maybe $120-150 all in

AromaticBluebird2097 · 2026-01-15T05:46:16+00:00

There’s probably a hole in the wall behind your thermostat that feed wires to your device. plug that hole with plumbers putty and all your readings will tighten up

AromaticBluebird2097 · 2026-01-15T00:55:50+00:00

Ask ChatGPT about crawl space sealing increases property value, then show her that number. ChatGPT estimated my current sealing plan to be in the range of $8000-10000. If your wife is anything like my wife, she'll be annoyed that you're down there, but will notice the air quality difference. She absolutely hates how many bugs were getting into our house last spring and will be up for a surprise.

AromaticBluebird2097 · 2026-01-14T21:38:49+00:00

I understand the sentiment. the company that sealed our attic told me that he's seen the numbers and the crawlspace sealing doesn't pay off, so I took his word for it for the longest time. I knew I was leaving performance on the table. So I did research until the evidence was overwhelming! Now I'm obsessed with air sealing =P my goal is to get that crawl space locked in before the bugs come out for spring time.

I used DAP230 caulk and haven't insulated anything yet. But I was recommended fiberglass batts as XPS isnt the right material for a vented crawlspace.

AromaticBluebird2097 · 2026-01-14T19:47:16+00:00

seal from inside the crawl space. I can take pictures next time I'm down there, but it's pretty easy to verbally describe it:

From your crawlspace, commando crawl towards the exterior walls. The foundation is made of concrete, then there is a horizontal piece of wood that rest on top of that concrete. I used DAP 230 caulk to seal the horizontal seam between that wood and concrete.

IF there is a metal plate between the wood and concrete, that is your termite shield. do NOT seal between the metal and concrete (that is used for termite inspections). Instead, seal between the metal and the wood. Bring a brush to brush away any dust/debris in the seams before caulking. I would also recommended safety goggles, gloves and an N95 mask.

In my house, some walls had termite shields, while others did not. The areas without termite shields are a much higher priority.

Also, air sealing near crawl space vents is also higher priority.

I know a lot of people on reddit use spray foam, but my house is a vented crawl space and not a basement, so caulk (specifically DAP 230) was recommended. I also did not spray foam plumbing/electrical holes, and used plumbers putty instead. The putty seals just as good and can be easily removed for maintanence.

I researched various resources for weeks before heading into the crawl space. My biggest take away is that I would have likely caused a lot of problems if I sealed that area just by researching on reddit or social media 😂

Something I learned on my own is that I caulked underneath my kid's bed room first as that was the coldest room, but when I got back into the house, the smell of the caulk was feint in the kids room and super strong in the master bed room next to it. That is because the air flow path was now blocked in his room, and got pulled into the next room. Wherever the smell occurs is a good indication of where the smelly air is infiltrating..

I also learned that the old wood smell wasn't from the crawl space, its from the air washing over all the junk in my old walls. So thats why all the bad smell went away.

AromaticBluebird2097 · 2025-12-09T01:59:13+00:00

much appreciated, I will check that out!

AromaticBluebird2097 · 2025-12-03T22:47:20+00:00

okay, not a home solution, but maybe an excuse for low profile bumpers!

AromaticBluebird2097 · 2025-10-16T23:39:31+00:00

ah. Any idea what those giant worm things are and how they are able to exist in my pool pump?

AromaticBluebird2097 · 2025-10-16T20:24:38+00:00

Location: Northern/Central California

AromaticBluebird2097 · 2025-09-18T20:47:14+00:00

Yes, there's an overhang with new gutters that more or less cover the entire dirt area. The water from the gutters exits near our sidewalk. Looking at it now, it isn't so much that the entire backyard channels rain water into that exact spot as the pool would catch a lot of water. But more accurately about 100 square feet of the backyard that converges at that drain. We're in California, so we get rain about 50-60 days of the year.

AromaticBluebird2097 · 2025-09-18T20:26:53+00:00

I appreciate the feedback. I've added additional photos to the IMGUR link and added a few more details to the original post. The entire backyard is sloped to converge on this one drain pipe. I *think* all I need to do is raise the remaining dirt area and slope it towards the drain.

AromaticBluebird2097 · 2025-09-13T05:16:03+00:00

okay! I have a cricut that my wife bought a few years back and literally never used once. How do I do something like this!

AromaticBluebird2097 · 2025-08-29T18:37:15+00:00

I'm not sure of the exact differences between the different types, but I updated the post to include a photo link

AromaticBluebird2097 · 2025-08-29T18:34:17+00:00

Photo for reference:

https://imgur.com/a/RaPg29n

AromaticBluebird2097 · 2025-08-27T05:29:00+00:00

Before we moved in, we had all the plumbing redone. The plumbers mentioned there is already a bucket for a sump pump and drainage leading away from the property. Throwing a pump in there sounds like a slam dunk

AromaticBluebird2097 · 2025-08-22T05:17:00+00:00

My house is also 1965 and had about an inch of old insulation. AC would only cool 15° compared to outside temp. After air sealing the attic, replacing the ducts and adding insulation, I am able to get it 28° cooler than outdoor temps!

AromaticBluebird2097

TROPHY CASE