From room makeovers to gutter cleaning, your present can be time and expertise

If you’re stumped about holiday gifts, you can take a cue from a home-improvement project that changed Phyllis Leach’s life.

The Kansas City, Mo., woman returned home one day to find her screened porch was no longer a dumping ground for old magazines and the lawn mower.

Now it’s an attractive space where she drinks her coffee, reads her newspaper and plays with her beagle, Cooper.

“I cherish it,” says Leach, a lawyer for Hallmark. “I’ve never received a gift like this and probably never will again. It went beyond any gift I’ve ever heard of. It was such a random act of kindness.”

Leach’s friends Dan Needham and Bill Damico were behind her screened-porch surprise. They snuck in to rebuild and redecorate the room last year while Leach was on a weeklong vacation.

“Sharing your time and your talents is better than buying a gift because it makes much more of a lasting impression,” said Needham, a Kansas City florist who owns Needham Floral with his wife, Mary, in Brookside. Damico is a Kansas City handyman and woodworker who makes furniture and toys.

Of course, not everyone has the expertise to tackle a home-improvement project for their nearest and dearest. But there are other methods. For example, Nicole Gaulden received an interior design consultation as a gift from her mother.

“I was having a hard time about how to use my furniture,” said Gaulden, a high school teacher. “My house has wide open rooms.”

So the designer helped her arrange furniture and develop an action plan for new pieces. Gaulden was pleased with the results and bought a similar consultation for a friend to help her choose paint colors.

“It’s a type of gift so many people wouldn’t spend money on for themselves,” she said. “But it’s a gift they would enjoy.”

Leach’s friends knew a pretty screened porch would be a perfect gift for her. Needham and Damico didn’t think Leach’s disheveled screened porch signified neglectful housekeeping or bad taste. The interior of her 1920s Tudor Revival home is typically tidy and charming with its cottage-style decor.

But the porch did reflect Leach’s busy lifestyle. It was a catch-all room where she stored bags of newspapers, magazines and catalogs that she wanted to read later.

She inherited the previous homeowner’s decor: green Astroturf swathed the floor and gray paint covered the walls. The light fixture hanging from the ceiling featured a kitschy mountain scene. The old door and screens were falling apart, and the paint was peeling.

Needham borrowed the popular design-on-the-sly concept from television shows. He ripped out the green turf and screens. Damico rebuilt the door, put beadboard on the ceiling and installed new aluminum screening. They painted the walls white and the concrete floor gray.

The project could have been expensive, but it cost about $100 for materials. Needham used an existing rattan rug from his basement and palm and ivy plants from his store.

Damico built a coffee table and refreshed one of Leach’s wicker chairs by painting it white. He also rescued a wicker planter and chair from bulk trash and repainted them. A new ceiling fan that Needham installed was the priciest item.

“Phyllis didn’t need more stuff (as a gift),” Mary Needham said. “She needed work done, and she’s so busy, she might never have gotten to it. I think it’s important that single people who don’t have family in town have a surrogate family to help them do the things that need to be done.”

Home-improvement gift ideas

A screened porch makeover is a home-improvement gift on a grand scale. There are other things you can do:

Color: Get a paint store gift certificate for someone who is sick of white walls. And help paint the walls.

Maintenance: Give handmade coupons that are good for free snow shoveling, lawn mowing, hedge trimming and gutter cleaning.

Organization: Help someone get rid of clutter by sorting stuff for a garage sale or to sell on eBay. Or give a gift certificate for a professional organizer to lead the way.

If you’re planning to do a surprise room makeover …

… Let neighbors know. You don’t want to be mistaken for a burglar.

… Don’t do anything outrageous. Covering walls in peat moss is shock entertainment, not something that will make someone happy.

… Budget enough time and money. A small-scale redo is better than cutting corners on a big project.