I'm in the wrong trade... bathroom remodel...

[Sigarms]

It's kinda a distant shot, but I think that kitchen looks just fine; those commercial acoustic dropped cielings..... that's a different story

My wife has really never liked the stoves, electric stove top, cabinets, floor, along with the dropped ceilings, believe me

We're just kind of frugal, and if something works, we'll stick with it LOL

You should have seen the wall paper that was there!

Oh, found a OLD video LOL

I completely forget about how much wall paper we had to remove. I mean some of the wall paper would make your eyes go crosseyed if you stared at it too long.

Different strokes for different folks.

 

[riptides]

Buy and old farmhouse that your SO insists on remodelling. I think I have seen it all.

Last quote for a bathroom in our Milk House way north of 35k. So far..doing it myself...about 6k in materials. That involved getting down to studs in the shower area.

 

[JasperFrank]

I don't disagree, but there is something to be said for a nice hot bath when you need one to soak.

In an area that the power goes out, often, you can fill the tub for toilet flushing water. This has saved us, about five times, over 24 years. I do love a good book, and a very, very hot bath. I can also set up the laptop, on battery, and watch movies.

 

[EddieWalker]

...

what changes would you recommend? Lay it on me, I'm all ears!

View attachment 919646

First, style and what people want varies all over the country. What sells here in East Texas, doesn't do well in West Texas, and so on.

In my opinion, the biggest issue is the ceiling. That just overwhelms the area. I can't imagine a buyer walking in there and not wanting to change it. The issue for them is if they are willing to do the work, or is it too much for them to deal with, and they walk away from buying the place? I know that just the wrong paint color on a wall, which is an easy thing to change, will cause some buyers to walk away. The ceiling is going to make selling your house more difficult.

Paint color should be neutral. White is probably the only color that doesn't scare buyers away. They never say that it's too much to change. It's just the opposite. White paint lets buyers think of colors that they can change it to that will make it their home. I'd wait until you are ready to sell, and paint after you remove all her stuff from the walls. Fill the holes, and paint the walls then.

I personally really like your tile floor. Since it's been there so long, it might be worth the money to have it professionally cleaned. You have to look at the grout lines and decide if they need it or not. Same thing with the entire house. Professionally cleaned floors will be noticed by the buyers. It always happens after I'm done with everything I'm doing in the house, and in my opinion, really makes everything look, feel and smell better in a home.

The goal is the offer a house that makes the buyers want to be there, and having it as clean as possible is a huge selling point.

I'm a wood guy, and I like wood stained cabinets. But if I wanted to get as much money as I could out of a house, I would paint those cabinets white. Sherwin Williams has a fairly new Latex paint called Emerald that is designed for cabinets. It sprays easy, it covers great, and it performs like oil based paint. I love everything about that paint. I still get jobs where they want oil, but if they don't want to spend the night in a hotel because of the smell of oil paint, I spray Emerald.

If you paint the cabinets, you will need new counters. From the picture, it looks like Corian to me. Nothing wrong with it, but it's not what buyers are wanting. In the last 20 years, I've only had one clients want Corian. She was very elderly, and very wealthy, and knew what she wanted. Two years later, she sold that house, built a new one, and installed granite.

If there is just one single product that changes the value of a house, it's granite in the kitchen. Nothing else provided anything close to the same impact on a potential buyer.

Appliances should be stainless. I'm not a fan of stainless, but everyone else is, and home buyers do not want to buy new appliances for a house.

Be careful on buying a new faucet. Gold is trying to make a comeback. To me, it's just a dull version of brass, but the trendy people are all buying it. Since you are trying to attract the highest number of buyers, to get the best price possible, I would match the faucet to the handles on the cabinets. If you go with chrome, stick with chrome. or stainless or brushed nickel. Just keep it all constant and nobody will be bothered by it when looking at it.

If you where keeping the house, or wanting to push things in fixing it up, the double ovens are not a thing anymore. I probably do a job where I take them out and rebuild the space for a single over and a microwave, or turn that area into shelving, or match the doors for storage and put a range in somewhere else. The challenge is figuring out where to move everything, and for selling the house, I'm not sure if it's worth the effort. In a perfect world, double ovens wouldn't be there.

Another thing to consider when getting close to selling is installing new toilets. A brand new toilet sends the signal that it's clean, fresh, and hasn't been used before.

One of the fun surprises that have happened with clients was that they couldn't find anything that they liked as much as their newly remodeled home, so they decided to stay there.

 

[ultrarunner]

First, style and what people want varies all over the country. What sells here in East Texas, doesn't do well in West Texas, and so on.

In my opinion, the biggest issue is the ceiling. That just overwhelms the area. I can't imagine a buyer walking in there and not wanting to change it. The issue for them is if they are willing to do the work, or is it too much for them to deal with, and they walk away from buying the place? I know that just the wrong paint color on a wall, which is an easy thing to change, will cause some buyers to walk away. The ceiling is going to make selling your house more difficult.

Paint color should be neutral. White is probably the only color that doesn't scare buyers away. They never say that it's too much to change. It's just the opposite. White paint lets buyers think of colors that they can change it to that will make it their home. I'd wait until you are ready to sell, and paint after you remove all her stuff from the walls. Fill the holes, and paint the walls then.

I personally really like your tile floor. Since it's been there so long, it might be worth the money to have it professionally cleaned. You have to look at the grout lines and decide if they need it or not. Same thing with the entire house. Professionally cleaned floors will be noticed by the buyers. It always happens after I'm done with everything I'm doing in the house, and in my opinion, really makes everything look, feel and smell better in a home.

The goal is the offer a house that makes the buyers want to be there, and having it as clean as possible is a huge selling point.

I'm a wood guy, and I like wood stained cabinets. But if I wanted to get as much money as I could out of a house, I would paint those cabinets white. Sherwin Williams has a fairly new Latex paint called Emerald that is designed for cabinets. It sprays easy, it covers great, and it performs like oil based paint. I love everything about that paint. I still get jobs where they want oil, but if they don't want to spend the night in a hotel because of the smell of oil paint, I spray Emerald.

If you paint the cabinets, you will need new counters. From the picture, it looks like Corian to me. Nothing wrong with it, but it's not what buyers are wanting. In the last 20 years, I've only had one clients want Corian. She was very elderly, and very wealthy, and knew what she wanted. Two years later, she sold that house, built a new one, and installed granite.

If there is just one single product that changes the value of a house, it's granite in the kitchen. Nothing else provided anything close to the same impact on a potential buyer.

Appliances should be stainless. I'm not a fan of stainless, but everyone else is, and home buyers do not want to buy new appliances for a house.

Be careful on buying a new faucet. Gold is trying to make a comeback. To me, it's just a dull version of brass, but the trendy people are all buying it. Since you are trying to attract the highest number of buyers, to get the best price possible, I would match the faucet to the handles on the cabinets. If you go with chrome, stick with chrome. or stainless or brushed nickel. Just keep it all constant and nobody will be bothered by it when looking at it.

If you where keeping the house, or wanting to push things in fixing it up, the double ovens are not a thing anymore. I probably do a job where I take them out and rebuild the space for a single over and a microwave, or turn that area into shelving, or match the doors for storage and put a range in somewhere else. The challenge is figuring out where to move everything, and for selling the house, I'm not sure if it's worth the effort. In a perfect world, double ovens wouldn't be there.

Another thing to consider when getting close to selling is installing new toilets. A brand new toilet sends the signal that it's clean, fresh, and hasn't been used before.

One of the fun surprises that have happened with clients was that they couldn't find anything that they liked as much as their newly remodeled home, so they decided to stay there.

All good points and I will have to look into Emerald.

I have lots of oil kitchens and baths in 1920’s Spanish style homes.

It’s a real problem when someone goes to the box store and repaints latex over and in short order it all peels.

 

[paulsharvey]

I'm going to look into this Emerald paint. Is it as durable as an oil based, when used on cabinets?

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm going to look into this Emerald paint. Is it as durable as an oil based, when used on cabinets?

I'm not sure what you mean by "durable" but I'm going to guess that you're asking if it holds up over time?

I've only been using it since the Shutdown, and you couldn't buy oil based paint anywhere. I was told it was better by the people at Sherwin Williams, and I needed to paint some cabinets, so I gave it a try. I know that it's held up very well in that house, and I've never had a complaint about it in any other house that I've used it.

One of the big negative things about enamel is that the pure white paint will turn yellow over time. With Emerald, this doesn't happen.

 

[paulsharvey]

The durability question is really, we aren't talking about a wall, a cabinet door is handled 20 times per day, and a normal gloss/semi gloss later just doesn't seem to hold up over a couple years.

 

[EddieWalker]

I can't speak on that. I don't have it in my house. I'm a stain guy. I'd never paint my own cabinets. And I have no idea how often my clients handle their cabinets. Some have had other jobs for me, so they where probably happy with what I did for them before. I just never looked that close at the cabinets when I was back in those homes. I sort of forget a job as soon as I get paid for it.

 

[ultrarunner]

Used a lot of oil over the years from quick dry to non yellowing to stipple gloss which finished like a car paint job and 44 years later looks great.

The last 10 or so years could only buy quarts of oil at Kelly-Moore and now no more Kelly More which leaves hardware store oil in quarts.

Conversion with oil primer base with latex top seems to be the way to go now...

 

[Sigarms]

Sincere thanks for the responses Eddie and PH on the ceiling tiles. Believe me, we know that is going to be a must in the kitchen to be replaced.

Earlier this year, we changed out about 128 ceiling tiles in the basement. Original tiles were those "acoustic holy tiles" type that you see in the kitchen. We went with the smooth "finished looked" type tiles, and honestly dislike them almost as much, because even though they're smooth, and we were hoping it would give us a more finished looked, it seems like once you touch them (even with gloves on) they get a slight smear on the finish side of the tile. Tried wiping them down to no avail. Perhaps if the basement had no exterior lighting it wouldn't stick out, but it is a walk out basement with large amount of window space on the exterior side, and when you walk downstairs during the day, the exterior lightly just makes any little scuff mark stick out like a sore thumb to us.

Perhaps if we didn't have to cut the tiles for lights or registers for the ductwork, but found it impossible not to put your hands on the tiles to do that work.

Funny enough, with the new ceiling tiles in the basement, go down when it's dark outside and only turn on the drop canned interior lighting, you see nothing per "scuff marks".

Honestly, just another reason why when we sell, we're just going to go with a single story house or at worst, one with a basement only.

HVAC system on the 3rd floor for the upstairs living sleeping areas, and HVAC systems in the basement for the basement and first floor means there are two levels of mechanicals instead of just one.

The guy who did our deck end of last year (which we really like) suggested finishing off the ceiling in the kitchen with new drop lights. I'd like to remove all the tiles though before we make that decision to see exactly what is everything above those tiles in the kitchen. I'd never do something like that in the basement because when I replaced that attic HVAC system, the line set was run down to the basement above the ceiling tiles out through the sidewall. I also had to remove all the dryer vent pipe about 10 years ago. Pain in the butt with ceiling tiles, but at least you had access to what you needed to do.

Wife originally pointed out the PVC type ceiling tiles and looked at them at Lowes, but needing 128 2'x4' ceiling tiles and the PVC type costing at least 3-5 times as much for the same size tile.

Eddie, I will most likely take your suggestion on painting the cabinets. My wife and I would NEVER think like that because it's something we'd never do ourselves, but one thing that will be done is the interior will be repainted entirely in a more neutral color, and in the grand scheme of things, you line of reasoning is making more sense to me.

Besides that, with a BUTTLOAD of dogs over two decades living in the house (particularly in our younger years when we fostered for the local humane society), everything needs to be repainted inside anyways LOL

 

[EddieWalker]

I did some work for a church that had ceiling tiles because of al the duct work above that area. This was for the Youth side of things, and they had me build them a stage for performances. Since all the duct work had to stay, and there was some exposed water lines and wiring, I just painted everything black. For that job, the paint just made the ceiling sort of disappear. It gave them four more feet of height, and once everything above was all the same color, you never even noticed it.

This wont work for your house. But I do believe their are other options then ceiling tiles for your kitchen. If you can, post pictures of it after you remove it and hopefully something will become obvious. In my opinion, that ceiling is going to hurt the sales prices of your home if you use ceiling tiles.

On an old Victorian type home here in Tyler, I had a client that wanted a room converted into a massive walk in closet. There was a list of issues that had been done over the years from different remodels. The ceiling was really bad, it had a bunch of molding that was coming apart, and the actually ceiling had been patched from water leaks so many times it had to be replaced. The ceiling was about ten feet up, but since this was just going to be a closet, we decided that it would be faster, cheaper, and probably look better, if I just built a new ceiling below the original one. I ran some joists across the room, installed sheetrock, and nobody could tell that it wasn't always like that.

How high off the floor is your current tile ceiling?

 

[3gunr]

i have been remodeling homes for over 40 yrs now and i am shocked at how material prices just keep going up and up, Yet people seem to have no problem paying 50 to 100 grand for a kitchen remodel or 15 to 20 for a bath , we demo a lot of old baths that are tile floor to ceiling over concrete and metal lathe , totally sucks and is expensive ,

 

[Sigarms]

How high off the floor is your current tile ceiling?

In the kitchen, 7.5'

When you come out to the living room from the kitchen, it's 8' at it's lowest point.

 

[dstig1]

tubs are going out of style but many people still insist on having one.

Wisconsin code requires there be at least one tub in a house. I know this as to get my CO, I had to have a functioning kitchen (sink, stove, oven, fridge) and one full bath (sink, toilet, tub with or without shower)

 

[ultrarunner]

Wisconsin code requires there be at least one tub in a house. I know this as to get my CO, I had to have a functioning kitchen (sink, stove, oven, fridge) and one full bath (sink, toilet, tub with or without shower)

Interesting how code differs all the way to no code.

I see homes more often with no tubs...

 

[quicksandfarmer]

When a company comes to you, they are running at least 20% overhead.

Margins can actually vary between service and install with HVAC, but your service department runs you way more overhead than install, but service should actually make you more margin.

I don't generally deal with homeowners, nor do I really want to. That said, the few times I've dealt with homeowners, I'm batting over 80% selling the job and funny enough, sometimes I am the highest priced quote they had.

That said, I know my market and my costs, and I know what I'm selling, and I know I need to make money. There are some companies out there that would be higher than myself who are only using service techs selling from a list price book that the "home office" (actually owned by a investment company) who are REALLY high in price.

Funny, I had a buddy from another contractor quote a job at 8k for a changeout, and he was making money. Problem is, the end user talked to two other companies who were owned by investment companies and the other 2 quotes came in at 13K and 15K, and since he was so much lower, the end user was afraid to use him. My buddy was kicking himself because he didn't come in higher LOL

Two of the biggest HVAC companies in my area are now owned by private equity, and by all accounts you really want nothing to do with them. It seems like an odd fit, but apparently it's something going on all over the country.

You should make sure that you're dealing with an owner-operated company. Private equity is bad for the customers, bad for the employees, only good for the investors.

 

[Sigarms]

You should make sure that you're dealing with an owner-operated company. Private equity is bad for the customers, bad for the employees, only good for the investors.

For most people, trying to find out if you HVAC company is owned by an investment company is pretty hard to do. Believe me, they buy the company name and "brand", and try to keep it exactly like it is.

A old HVAC company owner moved to Georgia 4 years ago and they (investment company) still have him and his wife on the company website pretending they still own the company.

The best advice I can give anyone when spending a large sum of money is get at least 3 quotes, compare those quotes, don't always go to the lowest quotes, but ask numerous questions from the quote to ensure your comparing apples to apples.

 

[Sigarms]

When it comes to tubs, after having my dad move in with us at age 86, if we build the home we'll die in, a must will be walk in tub / shower arrangement.

We waited until the last year and a half of his life to install one (at age 89) and there are so many more reasons why they are safer vs a shower or a tub with a shower IMO. My father also enjoyed the water jets in that tub for a long hot soak.

Thing is, when it comes to buying something for yourself and spending money for something that just "because your getting old", you'll never want to spend the money for yourself unless you can see the benefits first hand with your parents IMO.

 

[plowhog]

I see homes more often with no tubs...

That has also been my experience in California. Probably a consideration is the amount of water a tub can use. The tub I added when we built a new home was 77 gals.