I am remodeling my kitchen and the house is a 960 sq. ft. 1972 home in Canton, OH. The home was purchased for 75k and valued at 86.5k. I will be painting the cabinets white, replacing the handles (approx $200), getting a formica countertop w/sink (priced at Lowe’s for $1250, after 10% off for opening a charge card), tile floor (71cent tile, with $3 per sq. ft. installation from a friend of mine) approximately $600, new stainless steel refrigerator, dishwasher, over the stove microwave, and stove (priced at $2300, not installed). Please comment on whether you think it is worth putting $4k in a kitchen of a lower end home with only a 140 sq. ft. area. By the way, Canton, OH, is ranked as 4th or 5th cheapest places to live in the country. Houses on the street sell in the range of $65k – $100k (some homes are over 1,300 sq. ft. though).
I had to delete my previous question because after getting my first response I realize that how it was worded made me come off as a complete idiot and it was worded wrong. So, here I go again this time I’ll be more careful on how I word it. LMAO
I realize now after being in our home for almost 7yrs. that there’s things about the house that I would love to put on the home improvement list. I’d have an arms length of projects to take care of. Like so many others, it’s just not in the budget! What would you do with your home that you’ve been wanting to do for a long time but, unable to due so due to it not being within the budget?
This is my home improvement list:
Tear up all the carpeting and lay down flooring~ hard wood/tile
More counter space in the kitchen
repair some of the dents, bad patch job under the paint jobs from previous owners, tear down the wallpaper and paint.
New Windows~ the woodwork on our windows outside is horrible weather has beaten them up.
Better lawn- there’s so many rocks and the grass feels like sharp straw instead of a nice green full plush lawn that’s not patchy or rocky
New Window treatment down the road as we have a toddler so, as you can tell a lot of stuff would have to wait anyways until he’s older even if the money was there. LOL
Thanks everyone for sharing I appreciate it. I’m sure we’d all love to do some stuff around our homes if we just had the money. We’re a one person income so,things are definitely on a tight budget here!
We had my husbands brother in-law mud portions of our bathroom, replace a few drywall sheets behind the washer and dryer area, hang up a vanity light, add a wood sheet and lay thick vinyl tiles requiring grout. He also added trim throughout our bathroom, two bedrooms upstairs, and small path upstairs. He also moved our washer and dryer and hooked it back up. The floor in the bathroom alone took 2 hours.
What would you consider a fair price for labor? We supplied the materials. He made several trips, but he lives pretty close.
We hired a handyman off of Craigslist to do our closet for us. He did a good job and even called to see how it was holding up. We decided to pay him to do our floors. We gave him $2600 to lay laminate floors and tile. He layed the laminate but never returned to lay the tile or to finish the trim for the laminate. He has a key to our house and we have plenty of text messages from him stating that he promises he will be there to finish the tile. We also have the check that he cashed for the floors. We only had a oral contract. What can we do?
Buyers are weird. they would like to see an updated kitchen bathroom , basement etc. but will not pay full value of it.
So if you put $10,000 in it you probably going to get 5-6000 back
that means for the same comparable house with your . you might get 5-6000 dollars more.
So don’t go overboard.
on average plan to get about 50% back.
i show house part time .
Time after time i see buyer complaint about how old and not updated a house for sale is. but when offer a house with update . they try to play it down and will not pay extra . go figure !
my house has an high efficiency HVAC (16 seers) and extra insulation on the roof. i have hard time convincing buyer that those are good deal. rather than cosmetic update like tile kitchen counter.
a great super efficient HVAC and extra roof / attic insulation will pay back more . but buyers would not take it.
same with the finished basement. i put in 20K in it. could only get 15K out of it.
So i figure i just live and enjoy it. get my money worth .
so don’t go overboard . don’t go with crazy design. plan on 50% reurn . and enjoy the update first to get your money worth.
I did my kitchen remodel plans and order with Home Depot last fall. I stupidly paid for the whole thing up front, including install. The cabnets are sitting in the garage, but I am now dating a carpenter who wants to install them for me. I just want HD to give me the install portion back. I’ve paid for all there design services and cabnets and they’ve made interest on the money since Nov. Do I have the right to ask for just the install portion back ?
I am looking to remodel my kitchen cabinets, but need to know if I can do it realistically for 4000- dollars for materials only.
I just bought my first little 2/1 starter condo. The place is pretty nice and spacious for 868 SqFt. Its in a great neighborhood. The living room is nice and the bathroom is descen but the kitchen is like a cave from hell. The kitchen is a boxed in 10×10 slum, pretty much the same as it was the day they completed it in 1987. Orange/yellow linoleum, old dark cabinets, beat up appliances and one dim light in the center.
I have the money to put into remodeling the kitchen to be quite nice. New lighting, maple cabinets, granite countertops, stone floors and stainless steel appliances. Here in NorCal kitchens get the money on a resell. The dilemma is, do I want to sink that kind of money and effort into a place that will scare away “starter home buyers” or do I want to go for it and appeal to the higher end bachelor/bachelorette? Any suggestions?
The cabinets are 20 years old, light/med oak….no knobs, old hardware and what looks almost like contact paper on the sides. Tried to clean one section of one cabinet with a wood cleaner…and it’s now much lighter than the rest of the cabinets. The countertop is 80’s oak look – but I can live with that. My kitchen is painted white. My only remodelling experience is painting. Thanks, in advance, for advice.