AAA House Manager Blog

Home improvement projects are not created equal. Some can have much more impact — and much higher return on investment (ROI) — on your home's value than others. Then there's the nightmare scenario: "improvements" that actually lower your valuation. We dig into those for you here. On the flip side, here are five projects with some real bang for your buck.

Decks are beautiful and functional, but they come with their share of risks and costs. The biggest: dry rot. While certain woods — redwood, mahogany, cypress, cedar, and pressure treated wood — are less likely to rot to begin with, anyone with a deck or aspirations to build one needs to be versed in the warning signs and mitigation strategies for dry rot. Here are your must-knows:

Between summertime gatherings of friends, and bored teenagers spending hours in front of the fridge looking for snacks, you may have noticed your kitchen getting more use than normal recently. Are things starting to look a little dated or dingy? Could the most popular room in the house use some freshening up? Luckily, there are some quick fixes and tricks that can make a big impact in very little time.

California is no stranger to earthquakes, but it seems we've been rocking and rolling more and more over the past several months. We don’t know when the next one will hit or how bad it will be, which is why it’s important to be prepared. And the best place to start is at home. So here are a few steps to help get you and your household properly prepared.

When it comes to home maintenance issues and prevention, there are no experts quite like our AAA House Managers. They’ve seen it all and fixed it all. We’ve been curious to know about the most common problems homeowners are facing and the possible pitfalls that can be avoided. So we sat down with one of our most experienced House Managers, Matthew, to ask him about what he's seeing out in the field and what advice he’d like us to pass along to you.

Home maintenance can be overwhelming. Believe us, we get it. At times it can feel like there's so much to keep an eye on around the house that you don’t know where (or when) to start. But you may be surprised to learn that the areas of your home with the biggest potential for issues can be thoroughly examined just once a year. That’s it! And most of the fixes are easy enough to do yourself. 

So get out your phone and set a reminder on your calendar to spend some time inspecting these key areas of your home.

Have you ever noticed how when you walk into a room, its colors can make you feel a certain way? It turns out that a room’s color has a profound influence on our moods and emotions. Color is more than just a visual experience; it can be psychological as well. 

Different colors evoke different responses. Warm colors are associated with feelings of comfort, excitement or even aggression, while cool colors can be calming and relaxing.

Below are some smart tips for how you can use the psychology of color to transform your home.

Bay Area residents know that living in such a beautiful region of the country comes with a cost. Housing is more pricey in the Bay Area than almost anywhere else in the United States. Remodeling costs are no different. It would hardly be an exaggeration to say they’re through the roof.

We’ll let you in on a little secret.

We may eat, sleep, and breathe home repairs and maintenance around here, but we’re not even crazy enough to attempt a Marie Kondo–style cleanup more than once a year. To keep your home running smoothly, however, there are certain maintenance tasks that you should perform regularly.

President Harry Truman famously said, “If you want a friend, get a dog.” That may be true, but it’s not always practical. Not everybody wants a dog. Not every living space tolerates members of the canine species. For those individuals—and for everybody else—we would suggest amending President Truman’s memorable advice to: