Top 5 Home Improvement Projects for Winter

When you spend too much time in your home, you are bound to find a home improvement project or two that can keep you busy. And that's usually what happens during the winter, when long hours inside give you time to wonder why you decided to paint the walls avocado green.

For Heydi Cribben and her boyfriend, Jesse (pictured left), who bought a fixer-upper in Minneapolis a little more than a year ago, there is always something that can be improved upon. Last winter's home improvement projects were new floors in the entryway and living room. This winter, Cribben says, "we have a lot of interior doors that need to be hung, and pocket doors that need to be replaced. It's those finishing touches that we're thinking about."

Spike Carlsen, former executive editor of Family Handyman magazine and the author of "Reader's Digest Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual" and, most recently, "A Splintered History of Wood," said it makes sense that people focus on interior home improvements during the winter.

"Especially right before the holidays, people want their houses to look their best," he said. "And any indoor project that doesn't require windows to be open or walls to be taken down are good ones to think about."

And while doors and floors fit that category, Carlsen does warn that "any door that's hung in the winter might be a bit of a tight fit in the summer," when humidity can expand the wood. "So you need to take some care with wood projects."

There are plenty of other home improvement projects that can keep you busy during the winter months. Here are Carlsen's top five suggestions for home improvement projects in winter: