When it comes to determining whether a home improvement project is DIY-friendly, experts talk about the three Ts — time, tools and talent.

The pros at HomeAdvisor came up with five projects that could be good to tackle in the coming months.

A fresh paint job will give your home a fresh new look and feel. The tools list is fairly basic: brushes, rollers, drop cloths and paint. And while the actual painting isn't too difficult, a smooth, professional finish takes time, especially if your walls and ceilings are beat up and require extensive prep work. Move slowly through the project, completing one room at a time. Keep in mind that for an average 2,300-square-foot home, a professional painter will typically charge anywhere from $4,000 and $11,000.

You can save a few thousand dollars by putting down your own new floor. Compared with painting, the degree of difficulty is a bit higher, but certain flooring materials are more DIY-friendly than others. Vinyl and laminate are two easy-to-install options whose designs have become much better-looking in recent years. The installation still requires a lot of careful calculations and precision cutting for the patterns to be just right. It's a good idea to split the work over a few weekends. Besides being tedious, the work is tough on the knees and back, so you'll appreciate the time off between sessions.

Exterior lights along the driveway or front walk will make your home safer and more attractive. Landscape lighting used to be 120-volt, which definitely required professional installation. But most systems today are low-voltage. The most complicated step in the project is mounting the 120-volt transformer to your home's exterior. From there, simply run the low-voltage cable to various light fixtures around your property. If even that sounds too involved, you can hire a landscape lighting pro — or, go the ultra-simple route and pop some solar-powered landscape lights into the ground and be done with it.

The cost of a brand-new deck averages $7,500, while paying a pro to make repairs to an existing deck is around $1,500. For a few hundred dollars, you can breathe new life into a tired old deck. Some specialty tools are required, including a pump sprayer to apply the wood cleaner that will remove built-up dirt and grime. A long-handled sponge applicator will also help with the deck staining. The process is tedious. But in the end, you'll have a beautiful deck to spend long summer nights on.

As long as your cabinets are structurally sound — the boxes are square, the drawers open and close smoothly, and there are no peeling veneers — this project can make your kitchen look brand new. For the best results, remove the doors and drawers, rather than painting them in place. This makes the project more time-consuming, but it's the only way to properly prep the surface, including cleaning with a degreaser, lightly sanding the old paint, and applying a primer coat. As for the finish coat, go with a semi-gloss paint for enhanced stain-resistance and cleanability. Be sure to apply two coats, with a light sanding between coats. This will add another day or so to the length of the project, but it will ensure a lustrous, long-lasting finish.