Let's Talk Remodeling

[PlutoLuvr]

Open up a Photobucket account.

It's free and it's so easy to use. All you have to do is click on the supplied link (it now copies it for you) for each picture, and paste it in your response by clicking ctrl + v at the same time.

Whoo-hoo!!! Got it!!! Thank you so much for sharing this great website!

DH needs to upload the "finished kitchen" pix from his camera so y'all can see the total before and after. We installed our knobs and pulls last night -- brushed nickel Mickey heads!!!

Like I said, hopefully tonight I'll share the total before and after.

http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u111/PlutoLuvr/

 

[shovan]

We are getting ready to redo our master bathroom. My DH is in a WC & we need to make it more accessible.

The first contractor we had come out gave us a price of $30,000!!!!! And this guys assistant acted just like the 4th duplicate in Mutiplicity! I thought at any minute he was going to ask "I want pizza, Steve."!!!! I can imagine having that guy in my house for a month!
The contractors ideas were horrible & ugly anyway. It would have looked like a hospital bathroom!

Since we can't fit a big shower & a nice tub, I'm thinking of a nice tiled big shower with the fancy jets. Maybe the frameless glass doors. With the floors and walls tiled. I have some pics, I'll post as soon as I can figure out how to get them here!

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

We are getting ready to redo our master bathroom. My DH is in a WC & we need to make it more accessible.

The first contractor we had come out gave us a price of $30,000!!!!! And this guys assistant acted just like the 4th duplicate in Mutiplicity! I thought at any minute he was going to ask "I want pizza, Steve."!!!! I can imagine having that guy in my house for a month!
The contractors ideas were horrible & ugly anyway. It would have looked like a hospital bathroom!

Since we can't fit a big shower & a nice tub, I'm thinking of a nice tiled big shower with the fancy jets. Maybe the frameless glass doors. With the floors and walls tiled. I have some pics, I'll post as soon as I can figure out how to get them here!

I'm contracting and designing my own. I hate the idea of paying someone to do what I think I can do.

I am having the who-does-what-before-that-person dilemma, right now though. Obviously I don't know what I'm doing 100%, but I'll get there.

 

[bengalbelle]

We're not remodeling yet, but we're likely facing a pretty big one in the near future. We're moving and all of the homes in the neighborhoods we want are 50+ years old. We're interested in 2 houses specifically. One would require just a kitchen and master suite renovation/addition, the other requires much more work, like knocking down walls and possibly adding on. It would also require the addition of a garage.

I'd love it if you'd all post pictures of your renovations. I'm trying to see the potential in these homes as we see them. It's hard sometimes

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

We're not remodeling yet, but we're likely facing a pretty big one in the near future. We're moving and all of the homes in the neighborhoods we want are 50+ years old. We're interested in 2 houses specifically. One would require just a kitchen and master suite renovation/addition, the other requires much more work, like knocking down walls and possibly adding on. It would also require the addition of a garage.

I'd love it if you'd all post pictures of your renovations. I'm trying to see the potential in these homes as we see them. It's hard sometimes

Check out this site: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/remodel/

This is the best website for anything to do with homes, that I've ever seen. This is the link for the remodeling section, but you can click the other links to get to the other boards as well.

It has an area where you can either view it as a message board by clicking on "discussion", or you can see photos by clicking on "gallery".

 

[shovan]

Here's a link to the bathroom, I have in mind. Just a little less ornate.

http://www.nkba.org/xconsumers/getfile.asp?id=90

This is the national kitchen and bathroom association site. They have a lot of photos for ideas. You can also get designers & contractors names in your area.

Am I There Yet, My DH has done the drawings for the layout of the room. We were hoping that a bathroom contractor would have more ideas. We had another guy come out, that we liked a lot, waiting to hear from hin on prices.

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

Here's a link to the bathroom, I have in mind. Just a little less ornate.

http://www.nkba.org/xconsumers/getfile.asp?id=90

This is the national kitchen and bathroom association site. They have a lot of photos for ideas. You can also get designers & contractors names in your area.

Am I There Yet, My DH has done the drawings for the layout of the room. We were hoping that a bathroom contractor would have more ideas. We had another guy come out, that we liked a lot, waiting to hear from hin on prices.

Very pretty!

My granite lady is coming out Friday morning and she's also a bathroom/kitchen designer. She and I work really well together. She knows that I want to do my own designing, but she's quick to offer suggestions.

She's the one that told me I should curve the granite on the ends of my island, to match the cathedral arch in my cabinets. That never even crossed my mind, and it made a world of difference.

I'm anxious to hear her opinions, and to get the price for the tile-work. I know that's going to be a killer.

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

Within two minutes of being on that site, I found this and have already emailed it to my cabinet guy!

http://www.nkba.org/xconsumers/getfile.asp?id=64

I love that detail where it curves in front of the bowl.

Thanks for that link!

 

[Chicago526]

Hello fellow remodelers!

DH and I are redoing our upstairs bathroom (doing the work ourselves). Bit of a pain having it riped up right now, if we have to 'go' in the middle of the night we have to trudge downstairs to use the 1st floor bath. And the 1st floor bath has 0 counter space (just a wall sink) so getting ready in the mornings isn't much fun either.

We are gutting the 2nd floor bath down to the studs and totally starting over. I wish I had pics uploaded, but I swear we had the ugliest bathroom ever! I wish we'd entered one of those ugly bath contests on HGTV, but I didnt' think of it until we'd already started demo.

Our old bath had a huge linen closet, a wall sink (with no counter space) and a very dinky metal shower stall that was about the same size as a coffin standing up! If you droped the soap, your butt would hit the shower wall when you bent over, space was that tight!

So, we are ripping out the linnen closet and putting a decent sized sink/vanity in its place (we don't really need a linen closet, we'll have enough storage in the vanity cabinet and a small cabinet over the toilet). This leaves room for a bigger shower on the other wall. We'll putting in a tile shower rather than a pre-fab one. We are also puting in a radiant heat underneth the new tile floor that we are also installing, DH thinks he can do it for about $150 or so (the radient heat, not the tile!). We are also looking at doing marble for the sink counter, it will depend on the prices we find and how we do on the rest of the budget. We are planing to spend around $5,000 total, hopefully less, but we'll see.

We're also putting in a fan vent (didn't have one before, it's a 60 year old house and that wasn't code then) and recessed(sp?) lighting. We have a steep pitched roof so we are also raising the celling height.

It's going to be a very nice bath when we're all done with it. Then we'll tackle redoing the downstairs bath, although that won't be as hard or as expensive, we are just updating it, not moving walls and ceilings!

 

[shovan]

Oooooohh that's pretty! I missed that one. I really like it. I just put it in my idea folder too! The way the bowl and vanity curve out, could also work for us!

The tile prices can't be much worse than the granite! Could it?!!!

Was that granite done in your kitchen? I looked at your house pics & don't see it.

 

[MerryPoppins]

We're getting ready to jump in. A guy is coming out tomorrow to give us a quote on replacind some sheet rock in DS's bedroom and our living room where we had leaks (before we replaced the roof).

Once that's done we plan to paint an area at a time. First area will be the dining room, living room and hall. We'll pull out all the furniture before we paint. Once painted, we'll rip out the carpet and lay tile in those areas (possibly adding the 1st bathroom).

When that is completed, we plan to do the bedrooms one at a time. (Pull out the furniture, paint, carpet up, tile, furniture back in) We've decided to leave the master bedroom and bath for the last of the project. They are on the back of the house and least often seen.

We've chosen the tile we want to use and DH talked to a guy who lays tile. He's coming out soon to take a look. I'm not sure we'll have him do the whole project. We might do the bedrooms ourselves. I just can't picture emptying our whole house at once - it sounds like a nightmare!

Have any of you done tile work yourselves?

 

[FroggyinArk]

I'm in Texas, not in Arkansas.

I May Not Speak to you Now




btw...you all need to move to arkansas, us starving contractors could use customers that actually will spend money,,


we are doing two rooms , faux suede paint complimintery color wainscoating and trim the week,, and thought the customer was gonnafaint when we told her 600 bucks......


prices here are way less than you guysare paying. we recentlydid a whole house remodel, materials and labor,, less than 20000... heres a link to the album, all the cabinets were designed by me,,, and built in place by me and my crew,
http://s79.photobucket.com/albums/j123/Honeydos_1999/kennedy remodel/

and yes the dishwasher is set at an angle in the corner of the room to make more accessable space, in this entire kitchen i left 4 inches of dead, or inaccessable cabinet space.
the big furniture looking cabinet box houses thee water heater,(in the living room) and was made to match a computer desk that will share the wall

 

[shovan]

Hello fellow remodelers!

DH and I are redoing our upstairs bathroom (doing the work ourselves). Bit of a pain having it riped up right now, if we have to 'go' in the middle of the night we have to trudge downstairs to use the 1st floor bath. And the 1st floor bath has 0 counter space (just a wall sink) so getting ready in the mornings isn't much fun either.

I'm sure not looking forward to that part of it!!!

btw...you all need to move to arkansas, us starving contractors could use customers that actually will spend money,,
prices here are way less than you guysare paying. we recentlydid a whole house remodel, materials and labor,, less than 20000... heres a link to the album, all the cabinets were designed by me,,, and built in place by me and my crew,

You want to come do some work in New Orleans? We are having a tough time finding anyone who wants to even fool with remodeling right now! Much less at a decent price! There is so much demolition & gutting work to be done, & they are making a killing!

 

[Galahad]

Aaaarrrrrgggg! Just found out our sink is delayed. So even if they get the rest done, we can't measure for the counter until we get the sink in. DW is not going to be happy! Who's idea was this anyway?

 

[Nancyg56]

btw...you all need to move to arkansas, us starving contractors could use customers that actually will spend money,,


we are doing two rooms , faux suede paint complimintery color wainscoating and trim the week,, and thought the customer was gonnafaint when we told her 600 bucks......


prices here are way less than you guysare paying. we recentlydid a whole house remodel, materials and labor,, less than 20000... heres a link to the album, all the cabinets were designed by me,,, and built in place by me and my crew,

If your guys are starving, come on up here, not only will I feed you I will PAY you! We had a huge (for us) renovation and remodel done in our kitchen/living area. It is really a great room, and DH still will not let me tell him how much the entire thing cost. We are still struggling with a furniture plan because our carpenter did not understand teh plans , but I am over that now.

Anyway, we need to do the basement and I am having flashbacks for the last remodel..........so if you are not busy, and if you can read plans........

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

I May Not Speak to you Now

It was between Arkansas and Kentucky, and since my mom is from Kentucky, Arkansas won.

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

We're getting ready to jump in. A guy is coming out tomorrow to give us a quote on replacind some sheet rock in DS's bedroom and our living room where we had leaks (before we replaced the roof).

Once that's done we plan to paint an area at a time. First area will be the dining room, living room and hall. We'll pull out all the furniture before we paint. Once painted, we'll rip out the carpet and lay tile in those areas (possibly adding the 1st bathroom).

When that is completed, we plan to do the bedrooms one at a time. (Pull out the furniture, paint, carpet up, tile, furniture back in) We've decided to leave the master bedroom and bath for the last of the project. They are on the back of the house and least often seen.

We've chosen the tile we want to use and DH talked to a guy who lays tile. He's coming out soon to take a look. I'm not sure we'll have him do the whole project. We might do the bedrooms ourselves. I just can't picture emptying our whole house at once - it sounds like a nightmare!

Have any of you done tile work yourselves?

I've laid ceramic tile before. It's really not that difficult. Preparing the area was what got me. It had old vinyl originally and we had a really hard time getting the surface smooth.

We didn't even attempt to lay the travertine, since it's so uneven in thickness.

 

[bengalbelle]

Am I There Yet, would you mind posting a picture of your kitchen? I know I've seen it before. I think you have the green wall color I'm looking for.

Thanks for the links. I'm sure I'll spend a lot of time there for the next few months.

I love all of the pictures posted. I'd enjoy looking at them even if we weren't considering a remodel! The Mickey head is really cool! I can't wait to see the afters!

 

[Crankyshank]

My house was built in 1940 and only had 2 previous owners so a lot of the stuff is original. Original bathroom. Original kitchen. Original cloth & tube wiring. We've got a lot of updating to do. We fenced in the yard and built a deck last year.
This year DH is rewiring the house and we'll have someone upgrade the box and ground it for us. $2500 just to upgrade the box. I was shocked.

We're going to throw up some drywall and flooring in our basement. We're doing it ourselves because there's no way I'm shelling out $20,000 when I can't legally declare it as added square footage (ceilings are 6 inches too short to legally finish it).
We're going to add a dormer to our upstairs and hopefully put in a 2nd bath.

Then we get to go with new kitchen cabinets and counters. And re-tile the bathroom. I'm afraid of that since it is original and there's no exhaust fan in the bathroom.

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

Am I There Yet, would you mind posting a picture of your kitchen? I know I've seen it before. I think you have the green wall color I'm looking for.

Thanks for the links. I'm sure I'll spend a lot of time there for the next few months.

I love all of the pictures posted. I'd enjoy looking at them even if we weren't considering a remodel! The Mickey head is really cool! I can't wait to see the afters!

Must not be me... I did recently post a picture somewhere, and did just re-paint my kitchen. It's more of a warm gold color, but may have looked like it had a green tint.

Here it is: