Don't remodel your home.

At all.

If there's a problem, a little paint and duct tape should fix most things.

NOW you tell me!!
(finishing off redecorating the bedroom - I hate IKEA furniture)

Hehe. I take it you ran into some problems, or perhaps opened something that could not be ignored, once opened?

My next-door neighbor had a crack in his wood siding. (House is only 21 years old) Guys fixing it removed a small section of siding planning to replace it. In doing so, they exposed the wall and found that the house-wrap had failed or been installed incorrectly, and 20 years of water damage was in the wall. Now the $1200 repair is a $75,000 repair.

there's always worse....this place....

the plywood for the kitchen floor? 1/2 ply over the old hardwood (that's a crime right off there) guess what length nails they used?

SIX INCH. you can see them in the laundry room when you look between the floors.

and we go downhill from there rapidly....

the side deck? the boards they nailed down, you can see they put them down to long...and used a CHAINSAW to cut them down in place! (you can see the actual chainsaw blade shape in the side of the deck)

the plumbing? ye gods. downstairs I have a shower, that's plumbed into a sink, that's then plumbed into toilet, that's THEN plumbed into the city outline. Distance to the Stack? 2ft. just 2FT to the right is the stack where they could have plumbed in properly. not as if they could'nt since they were building the damn bathroom from scratch in the first place. 

upstairs, they did'nt have room for the baths Ubend. so they cut a hole in the floor and it's hanging in the ceiling of the laundry room.....

I have 1940's Knob and Tube wiring (inspected and safe in place at this time, (as per building code). any alterations tho and the lot has to come out...) , 1970's Aluminum  wiring and proper copper.

.........luckily I do like fixing things.....

I just move a lot; much less cost, and all the fruststration...;)

Frank, I know someone who really wanted to do IKEA.  Is there any particular reason you hate it?

Quote - Now the $1200 repair is a $75,000 repair.

Ouch.

Bill, my problem was more of a snowballing effect. Someone, ie not me, wanted a dishwasher.  There's 800 bucks.  Then there was a great deal on a new fridge.  2kish.  Oh look, we need cabinets for the dishwasher because I just had to wind up with the only house in north america that doesn't have kitchen cabinets.

Counter tops cost more (gotta save up for the granite I like, getting a pimp blank in the meantime).  Then I had to pull out the old counter tops and drill a screw out of my terraza floor (one more to drill out).  And of course there were some old bad patches in said floor I have to fix as well, might put in a small carpet later.  Pulled off the old vinal strip things and the gypism over the block walls went with them. 

When I pulled out the sink (getting a new sink and new faucet) it looks like there was a ton of old gypism damage that was painted over and a bunch of mold because the old sink countertop wasn't sealed right.  I've bleeched off the mold now I've got to patch the damage.

Had to get a new range hood because the old white one doesn't match our new stainless steel appliances.

The fridge came today and after a minor dent the delivery guys had to pop off my front door as there was an old center doorknob because the door was made in the 50s that I have no idea how to get off that made the dent (it's only decorative, I have a real doorknob as well) and I had to spend an hour on the phone to deal with the dent.  Plus I realized that when the last owner enclosed the front porch, he didn't put the door right in front of the front door so they are at an angle and I might have to remodel that later.

Tomorrow I have to call the city to haul away my old counter top (laminte over plywood) and some lumber and call the cabinet guy to change the plans because someone put the piping to the sink in a block wall in an odd place and I can't put the dishwasher where it was originally supposed to go.   And I have to call a plumber to deal with our hard water problem so I don't mess up the new dishwasher.

Plus I still have to paint.  The ceilings aren't white because smokers used to live here, so I got to paint that.  We couldn't agree on a single color in our first few visits so now I have to sponge on a three color deal.

Something tells me the other shoe still hasn't dropped.

Ouch! Sounds like a bad episode of Renovation Realities ;o).

Laurie

I was (mostly kidding) about hating IKEA - their stuff is a lot better put together than it used to be and the instructions are actually useful (which is nice)
So far I've put together 2 chests of drawers and a wardrobe (which was fun! NOT) and I have 2 more chests to go

 Aye-yi-yi, I can appreciate your duck tape humor.. 

:lol:

Just uninstall, then reinstall......oops, you're talking about the real world.

What the?
Does the "conform to" button not work?
Ah, I see, you are doing it the "dynamic" way........

Quote - I just move a lot; much less cost, and all the fruststration...;)

Sage advice. Owning a condo is the worst mistake I've ever made - second to smoking tobacco.

Quote - > Quote - I just move a lot; much less cost, and all the fruststration...;)

Sage advice. Owning a condo is the worst mistake I've ever made - second to smoking tobacco.

Couldn't agree more - with both ;o).

Laurie

Are we swapping house horror stories? Want to hear mine (if not skip to next post)

First, while the foundation is only 30 years old, many parts of the house is 50 years old. The original owners (who built the house themselves rather than having a contractor do it) tore down their old house  and saved parts to build the new one (6 years later)

Then we have no front door, only a back one. That's a fire violation. Half of the outlets are only 2 prongs and don't have any wires for grounding them. another violation. one outlet isn't hooked up to anything. another outlet has a wire going downstairs and is plugged into an outlet down there. I think that must be a violation too.

We have a window that we had to caulk closed because the rain was pouring into it. Several windows the frames are rotted. Most leak air like a siv

The basement door fell off and took some of the siding with it. The owners decided to only replace the siding on that side of the house so now the siding doesn't match. And the new door can only open half was because of the piping for the boiler is in the way.

Speaking of piping for the boiler. It exploded last week. (a joint not the whole boiler) so we ended up with water in the basement. It wasn't as bad as it sounds though because our basement leaks every time it rains anyhow so there's not a lot to get water damaged. And the joint had been leaking for 6 years and now it's finally fixed.

We have parquet flooring in most of our house and when it was laid they didn't leave any space for expansion so as it expanded, it buckled and then the owner put a bunch of nails into it, which just served to move the buckling. Now it buckles and has ugly nails in it.

The original owners didn't use a dryer so we have no dryer vent and the dryer vents into the basement which is a mess.

We have no heat in either of our bathrooms. (no they are not outhouses thank God)

And finally it hasn't caused a problem yet but I'm sure it's another code violation but the support for the i-beam was cut too short so there is a block of wood between the 2 propping it up.

The really sad thing is the owners either don't give a rat's ass or think everything is perfectly fine and they are my husband's parents.

I know the feeling.. Our house was built in 1936 we have put a new roof.. new shower tile.. I could keep going. We always do the work on our own (my husband and I), its so much cheaper.

And horror stories like these are part of the reason I've chosen never to buy a house, renting means the landlord has to fix everything that goes wrong.

Quote - And horror stories like these are part of the reason I've chosen never to buy a house, renting means the landlord has to fix everything that goes wrong

But getting him to actually DO it might be a bit of a chore in itself!  -especially if you paid in advance.
dph
PS: I thank G-d that I DO own my own apartment.

Quote - But getting him to actually DO it might be a bit of a chore in itself!  -especially if you paid in advance.
dph

You're not wrong there. My landlord is a complete nightmare. I could tell you so many things about the things he's utterly failed to do around here, but I won't because it's depressing. Maybe one day I'll write a book about it. In theory I could move, sadly the reality is I can't afford to :(

Well,  the other shoe dropped, sort of.

The cabinet guy got delayed so the cabinets will be installed next tuesday instead of tomorrow.  The big problem is the plumbing.  Originally we were going to have the dishwasher between the sink and the oven so we'd have a little extra work area during cooking.  However the plumbing in the kitchen isn't in the correct spot (is where the dishwasher was going to be) because whoever built or remodeled the kitchen screwed it up big time (like removing all the cabinets).  The kicker is where the plumbing needs to be an electrical outlet is so we'd have to call an electrician to move it so we'd have power for the dishwasher and garbage disposal.

So I am left with the following options:

1.  Switch the sink and the dishwasher and lose the workspace.
2.  Same as 1, but put a board over one side of the sink or set up a table next to the oven to use as a workspace (don't want to do this as it is pretty hokey).
3.  Switch the sink and the dishwasher and go to a smaller sink and off center it... but that might look odd to have a sink off-centered to the cabinet it is on.
4.  Call a plumber and electrican for estimates to move the plumbing and eletrical, which is going to cost us $40 just to have them come out... if it's too expensive go back to one of the other options.  Oh, if we don't do this option, the sink won't be lined up with the only window in the kitchen.

So the options I can easily afford aren't going to look right or have less functionality.  The option that is more expensive and could lead to new problems once that exterior block wall is knocked open, will look right.

The frugal, common sense part of me wants to go with one of the first three options: they aren't perfect, but there's already too much money committed to this kitchen and I don't think throwing money at every new problem is the answer.  The part of me that doesn't want to get yelled at or have people make nasty comments about my kitchen for going with the first 3 options says to go with option 4.

sigh

I feel so sorry for you. This stuff is a nightmare.

If it's any consolation, my attitude towards spending so much on kitchen remodeling was wrong, and when I changed my attitude, I felt a lot better about what I ended up doing.

Here's the crux of my attitude problem. I did not want to spend a lot of money on the kitchen - it seemed like such a waste. But I had the wrong metrics in my head. I started to think about how much time we spend in the kitchen. I spend more time in there than any other room and the experience of being there has a large influence on how I feel. Also, our kitchen is the center of the party when we have people over. Everybody hangs out in the kitchen, where the cook is cooking and the drinkers are making drinks. It's more important than the living room or dining room.

And yet, I was upset about spending a lot of money on it. But was it really a lot of money? Not really. Not compared to, say, what we spend on cars. In the last 10 years I've bought 6 cars. (2 for me, 3 for wife, 1 for daughter). In the last twenty years I bought 1 kitchen remodeling. The numbers were way out of whack. Considering how important the kitchen experience is, I was crazy to balk at the cost, considering it was only 1/20th what I spent on transportation.

So we went ahead and we did everything we could to make the kitchen exactly the way we wanted. What started out as just a new refrigerator turned into a four month project involving granite counter tops, new Italian designer sink and faucet, re-finished cabinets, marble tile backsplash, 3 new leather bar stools for the island, and all new stainless steel dishwasher, trash compactor, refrigerator, microwave, and a Bosch stove with gas cooktop and electric convection oven. The stove, which was really expensive, has made cooking an absolute joy, and looks fantastic.

I am now at 107,000 miles on my current car and not getting a new one because I blew through so much on the kitchen. But I'm waaaay happier than I would have been with a new car and a compromised kitchen.

Hang in there and my advice is pay yourself with a kitchen that makes you smile. You'll enjoy it for thousands of hours and you'll look forward to hosting.

When you're done, you'll love it.

The guy who T boned my wife's car at a junction paid for our new kitchen and it's lovely :)

Bill, thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences.  For you I can see that adding all that nice stuff is the right choice.  In fact it sounds pretty cool what you are doing.

However for me, I don't cook all that much... usually it's a pizza or the occasional sukiyaki, ramen, or whatever.  I don't host parties.  I'm going to need a new car eventually (mine is 20 years old) and I would like something new or only a little used.  I'm trying not to go into much debt (debt is bad, I don't even have a mortgage) or have to pay interest (which is worse).  The rest of my house needs work.  Finally there's always a part of me that wants to keep a little money freed up because I've got no clue what tomorrow will bring.

I'm not saying spending more money on the kitchen to is a bad thing, it's just that I've got a lot of things to make it harder to keep justifing the continual expenses... at least for now anyways.

EDIT: I've just had the following call:  "I just heard about easy water on the radio, let's look into that."

A little update, the cabinets were supposed to have gone in last friday and the electrical and plumbing were supposed to be done yesterday and today.  The cabinets are now supposedly going to be installed this friday, or a week late.  If I'm lucky, I'll have a working kitchen by Christmas.

Back in the day when I was married to the Former Mrs Therapy, we had a rewire, repointed brickwork, loft conversion, new kitchen, new heating system, new roof and garden landscaped at the same time.

That was about as much fun as sticking pins in my eyes. 

Oh, and new windows and doors.  How could I forget?  Silly me. 

Best wishes Winterclaw ;o). I got my fingers crossed...

Laurie

Thanks Laurie.  Well it isn't perfect but it's in.  There's some damage I have to repair and a few holes I gotta patch up but I managed to redo my kitchen in under a month.  I'll try to post some images once it's all fixed up.

Update: other shoe just dropped.

Last night I noticed it leaking under my bathroom tub even when I'm not bathing, now I've gotta clean it out and get the plumber back over here so I can turn back on the water main.  I was hoping it was just my toilet seal, but it doesn't look like that.  If I'm lucky this isn't too major or expensive.

:`(

Oh crap...lol.

Are ya sure you don't wanna raze the place and just start over? ;o).

On a more serious note, make sure you do something about the moisture that's now in the the floor. Black mold is a serious thing :o(. My ex-neighbor had some in his house and they gutted the place down to the bare studs AND made the family abandon everything in the house that couldn't be surface wiped - the mattresses, the kid's stuffed toys, clothes, etc. That, and you hear horror stories about the effects it's had on peoples' health.

Laurie

Yeah, I got up all the moisture I could, but there could still be some under the tub where I can't get to it or perhaps in the wall behind the tub.  I really hope I don't get black mold because of this.  That's one more problem that I don't need right now and I'm starting to feel drained with everything that has been going on in my life.

Now I'd like to rebuild my home from the ground up, however I don't have the 250k or so that it would take to do so and I don't want to be in debt for the next 30 years.