Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Home Renovations

I’ve recently been doing some renovations to my home in an attempt to increase its value before I sell later this year. I’ve budgeted $2000 to complete my “home makeover” and I’ll be doing all the work myself. I’ve done some reading on which areas of the house provide the most bang for your buck and as the literature suggests I’ll be concentrating most of my efforts on the kitchen and bathrooms but will be spending some time and money on the rest of the house as well. Here is a list of what I plan on doing:

1. Paint dated cabinets in the kitchen
2. Move and replace handles in kitchen
3. Remove wallpaper in kitchen
4. Replace kitchen counter tops
5. Tile a kitchen backsplash
6. Replace damaged trim around door in 3 rooms(dog scratched up)
7. Replace bathroom vanity, sink, faucet, mirror and
8. Stain back deck
9. Clean garage
10. Re-insulate garage door
11. Paint from deck
12. Paint entire interior of the house

67 comments:

  1. Seems pretty ambitious to do all that on $2000! Doing it yourself should save you a boatload of money though, things like painting are particularly expensive as a bucket of paint is only $20 but having a professional paint an average size room is around $200.

    Good luck with your renovations.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks good. Your list of kitchen tasks look like almost the same things I did to the kitchen of my old house - and it worked quite well.

    One suggestion - don't skimp on the primer & paint for the cabinets - get the expensive primer, do a good job sanding (I rented a belt sander) and use oil paint not latex. I know they have latex paint for cabinets but I didn't think it was as good as the oil paint. I used the latex stuff on my wife's house later on.

    As for the estimate - I think $2k is reasonable as long as you don't go overboard on anything.

    ReplyDelete
  3. chuck,
    I'm a pretty frugal shopper most of the changes I want to do will be fairly cheap. The only worry I have is the kitchen counter tops breaking the bank.

    fourpillars,
    thanks for the suggestion on the paint. My current cabinet doors are oak and I plan on using self priming Melamine paint on them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Painting and deck improvement will have highest ROI in my opinion. Insulate Garage door -- who cares.

    ReplyDelete
  5. g,

    The insulation on the garage door is all ripped up and looks like garabage. I'll probably be able to get the insulation for next to nothing so I figured why not. If I had to pay full freight I'd agree with you though.

    ReplyDelete
  6. My two cents:

    It's really important to use good paint if you want it to look good and be easier to apply. Behr (Satin) is a great paint if you care about it looking and feeling really good.

    Kitchen and bathroom hardware is a really inexpensive way to make a difference in the look, so is a tile backsplash. Caulk along where the counter meets the bottom tiles with silicone or else the grout will chip away...I failed to do that...

    Consdier switching out old outlets and face plates for new one...inexpensive and makes rooms look newer (very easy to wire in)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Kitchen counter tops aren't too pricey assuming you are going with formica. When you start getting into the various stones it can add up quickly.

    ReplyDelete
  8. From my experience as well as extensive reading on the subject, Kitchen, Bathroom and Master Bedroom are the most important parts of the house (in the order given).
    1 thing that I wanted to add that can be done for practically no cost, is staging. Depersonalize and de-clutter your house (as hard as that may be) and you will definitely see the benefits. I have done it, and it has worked. Buying a house is a very emotional purchase and wherever there is emotion there is irrationality. Take advantage of it.

    Good luck.

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