Got a dishwasher after I bought my house and it is incredible.
Also got one of those fancy self-scooping litter boxes which is great.
Got my yard fenced in too after I broke my ankle/leg walking my dog and had to have surgery. Now I can just let the dogs out whenever and not have to worry about them running off or me breaking my bones.
Not my comment, but we have a Litter Robot 3 and we love it. Cats like it as the box is always clean, filter does a good job of keeping the smells down... And its easy to repair..
I'm hesitant with those because I have a gang of crafty raccoons hanging around. The 3 little shits cause so many problems and I don't wanna wake up to raccoons in my house.
Locking dog doors are available that are opened by a tag on the collar or by your dogs microchip if your dog is chipped. Racoons won't get in unless they steal your dogs' collar.