Remodeling

[calmloki]

Back in 1995 we bought our old neighbor's house after he died. He'd been here since the 20's and it needed everything. That suited us just fine and we spent the next 5 years making it what we wanted - lots of 1912 transom window doors from an old hotel, 8" wide baseboard molding from same, redone new old stock schoolhouse lights, a clawfoot tub with just the right slope to the back for the gal, recovered wide solid oak flooring from an old hospital, a $25 gas range that has the features we want... and all new plumbing supply and drain lines and electrical and furnace. We mixed old and new to suit ourselves and 19 years after finishing the cat5 network cabling and telephone prewiring I ran all over is pretty pointless and the bed in the master is on a different wall than planned. Everything else is just as we wish it to be.

 

[NW-Bound]

We are going to let the kids make the choice of remodeling the home or not to sell after we die.

My DIY solar power system in the backyard will scare them a lot more than the color of my walls.

 

[Snafu]

I bought my "forever home" about 15 years ago... the bones and the location were not to be passed by. I set up a "plan" for remodeling, and as I saved the $$, it was time to do a piece at a time. I love to cook and bake, so the kitchen took almost 5 years to plan - but it was NOT a want... it was a NEED! Some DIYer tried to make the cabinets - thin plywood, plastic (not glass) in any open cabinet doors (masking tape on the inside kept them together), and one tiny window which barely let you see the water view, 2+ layers of awful linoleum floor. As the years have passed, other pieces are getting done to make the house more comfortable, efficient, and more to my taste. I'll never recoup what I've put into it, but it was done to make it where I want to live. I can't imagine doing "update" after "update" - what a waste. Do it once and do it right.

 

[Katsmeow]

We spent $20k to have all the walls painted Agreeable Gray, hardwoods sanded and stained Dark Walnut and painted our beautiful cabinets Antique White. We had two offer the first weekend we put it back in the market. Wish I had listened to the realtor two years ago when she suggested we update.

Last year when we were getting ready to sell, we painted our walls a gray color and then painted every stained cabinet in the house white. We were asked to show the house shortly before we were going to list it (we were still finishing up the painting). The buyer walked in and immediately exclaimed about the pretty gray color and then loved the white cabinets. They made an offer that day and we ended up closing two weeks later. Then when we bought our "new" house 250 miles away, we found that the owners (who had been in the house less than 3 years -- job transfer was reason for sale) had painted the walls gray and the painted the stained cabinets white...

We bought a 35 year old house and we are about to do some major remodeling (gutting the master bath) and, yes, we will be putting in painted cabinets...

 

[Caskem]

Remodelling

Um, never...not unless it's needed. I just move.

 

[gwraigty]

Some friends just bought a house with gray walls and white kitchen cabinets. I've seen pics of this as a theme in many houses recently. It's not my taste. Paint is cheap to fix, but kitchen cabinets, not so much. I like the wood grained look myself. Unless a house was so perfect in every other way and I couldn't possibly find anything else similar, I wouldn't look at a house with white kitchen cabinets

I would only remodel for myself, not to attract potential buyers. So many diverse tastes out there.

 

[Ronstar]

Last year we got new white cabinets, painted the kitchen, breakfast nook, and powder room gray, and repainted the breakfast nook table and chairs a light gray. Painted the cherry stairs white and had a gray carpet runner put in. Put in marble backsplash - gray. Made a powder room cabinet and photo frame - gray. All new chrome door hardware. Luckily the hardwood floors I put in are not gray.

 

[RE2Boys]

I cringe when I hear of folks painting nicely stained wood. And sad to hear that the standards that folks now desire was a short time ago considered I sign of CHEAP construction though the builders wanted folks to think it was "upscale" You can put paint over crap wood and call it an improvement.

I love the look of natural grained wood and paid extra for stained trim in the house we built in the mid-1990s.

But you gotta do what you gotta do to sell!

 

[Bestwifeever]

My theory on white kitchens and gray walls (and we have a white kitchen ourselves, after our major remodel seven years ago, and painted our upstairs York Gray last year, a taupe-ish gray), is that they are easy to light and thus photograph well for ads, tv commercials, sitcoms, movies, so they became a subliminal thing just because we saw them all the time. Plus I imagine painted white cabinets might be original to really old houses, like my old small Victorian farmhouse, so imo they look good for our house. Gray and white go with everything so are attractive to potential buyers, but also make our colorful stuff pop.

Our major remodels in the house we've owned 41 years are a small addition 30 plus years ago, our kitchen seven years ago, and last year our bathroom. We are way behind the OP schedule!

 

[Music Lover]

I cringe when I hear of folks painting nicely stained wood. And sad to hear that the standards that folks now desire was a short time ago considered I sign of CHEAP construction though the builders wanted folks to think it was "upscale" You can put paint over crap wood and call it an improvement.

I love the look of natural grained wood and paid extra for stained trim in the house we built in the mid-1990s.

Trim finish is a matter of preference. To some, wood looks dated while others prefer wood over painted trim.

Some people think stainless steel appliances are better when it fact stainless is just another colour choice like white or avocado green.

Many people still want granite even though quartz is far better as a practical choice and often looks as good or better.

I'm sure that in 10 years many of the popular choices of today will be passé.

 

[Kwirk]

Kitchens with lots of stainless steel remind me of a morgue.

 

[NW-Bound]

Both my children's home have grey walls.

For us to repaint the walls to grey? Not that I think that it is a bad color, but I will do that right after I get rid of my double-breasted suits.

 

[calmloki]

We did a hard money loan on a new construction 4000+ foot home overlooking the Columbia river in Washington. Very lah di dah place with a huge (IMO) price tag. Black cabinets and accents throughout. Yuck (IMO). Hasn't sold yet and now the style is white cabinets? It's good sometimes to not be wildly influenced by other's pronouncements on current style. Other times my gal says I'm just lacking in social cues and empathy.

 

[RobbieB]

I don't like painted cabinets either but my wife does. I won that round -

 

[ncbill]

Kitchens with lots of stainless steel remind me of a morgue.

Grew up in a 1920s home with stainless steel everything in the kitchen...including the countertops & backsplash (molded so there was no seam between the two)

It now reminds me of the commercial kitchens I saw later in life.

 

[pb4uski]

I don't like painted cabinets either but my wife does. I won that round -

Same here on the first part but we split the decision.

Last year, our nice maple cabinets were showing thier age, particulalry the base cabinets that had some water staining... DW painted the base cabinets an attractive pastel green (similar to Russian in the pic below) and the wall cabinets are still matural maple as they were still in pretty good shape. It sounds odd and I was skeptical and bit my tongue, but the finished product actually looks pretty good.

The special paint was expensive though.. $75/gallon as I recall... but much less than new cabinets or cabinet refacing.

 

[NW-Bound]

My high-country boondocks home has hickory cabinets. Same with the doors. No way I am going to paint over them. Stained door trims and floor moldings.

Vaulted ceiling of 25' high is stained tongue-and-groove boards. Walls are drywall (one can actually have too much wood) in a light but warm taupe color (hard to describe).

Will not change a thing, ever.

PS. Up in that area, woodsy homes and cabins are the norm.

 

[Ronstar]

The white cabinet and gray wall look hasn't taken hold in the desert southwest. DW told our realtor to search for newer houses with white cabinets in the Phoenix northeast valley. The realtor showed us about 5 houses that met that criteria. I'vebeen following them on Zillow and they are not selling there very fast.

 

[pb4uski]

My high-country boondocks home has hickory cabinets. Same with the doors. No way I am going to paint over them. Stained door trims and floor moldings.

Vaulted ceiling of 25the cathedral ' high is stained tongue-and-groove boards. Walls are drywall (one can actually have too much wood) in a light but warm taupe color (hard to describe).

Will not change a thing, ever.

PS. Up in that area, woodsy homes and cabins are the norm.

The seasonal camp that we tore down was all T&G knotty pine on walls and ceilings... I really liked it... even the open know that was just above my head in the bedroom that I looked up to when lying in bed.

The rebuilt home is T&G knotty pine on the cathedral great room ceiling and flat 8' high bedroom ceiling and a gable end wall and side wall in the great room... one other side wall has a knotty pine chair-rail hight and drywall above and the one gable end is drywall but most of that gable end wall is kitchen cabinets and the entry door. Our drywall in the great room is close to the mint color in post#116 above.

 

[Moemg]

.I love wood ceilings . I think it adds interest.

 

[Scuba]

I’ve always loved white cabinets, long before they became trendy. When we did our remodel 4 years ago, we replaced the builder-installed white cabinets with high-end European high-gloss white cabinets that go all the way to the ceiling. I’m not a gray fan so we installed a pale aqua glass backsplash. I think it’s beautiful and definitely goes with our oceanfront location.

The only stained wood we have in our entire condo is the custom built maple furniture in our home office. We replaced our previous furniture as part of the remodel. YMMV

 

[JoeWras]

Any good internet sources for the latest trends in remodeling projects?

 

[sdtech]

We decided to stay in our house instead of move and have been remodeling for 6 months. We hired out the backsplash and countertop in the kitchen. Otherwise it's been just us (and my son to help lift things!)


A couple of before and after of kitchen and of an upper room we took out to make a new vaulted family room.