Home Repair/Remodel Thread

[GSUdawg521]

I don't miss that. Have now done 3 bathrooms in 2 houses and we did all the picking out and designing and comparing and whatnot. Floors, shower walls, shower floor, shower detail, pencil trim, grout colors, niche shelves, then go to the granite yard to pick a slab. Glad it's all behind us

[Noles20]

Originally Posted by GSUdawg521

I don't miss that. Have now done 3 bathrooms in 2 houses and we did all the picking out and designing and comparing and whatnot. Floors, shower walls, shower floor, shower detail, pencil trim, grout colors, niche shelves, then go to the granite yard to pick a slab. Glad it's all behind us

It's a first for me. I like it. I like watching house flipping shows so it's nice to get a chance to do it. The kitchen will be next. Probably this summer.

[smokew11]

i would love to redo our master

2 days after moving in to this house my former neighbor (a plumber) came over and we replaced the powder room toilet, vanity, all the fixtures, and then had it painted. total difference from the builder grade nonsense, but it was also less than $1000 all said and done since he only charged me beer and food

[GSUdawg521]

Originally Posted by Noles20

It's a first for me. I like it. I like watching house flipping shows so it's nice to get a chance to do it. The kitchen will be next. Probably this summer.

Enjoy it. The design and colors is always my wife's thing I let her run with it for the most part and then I give my opinion one way or the other. The master bath at the last house was fun though because we gutted it and knocked out the closets and basically designed a whole new space where the new closet ended up being where the tub and toilet were, new walls added, and I got to design the layout for all that.

We have one or two more bathrooms we'll want to do so I'll get to do it again. Next thing my wife wants to do is the floor on the first floor which will just be picking out one floor color. Then also the kitchen but that's just repainting the cabinets, and possibly a new counters.

[GSUdawg521]

Originally Posted by smokew11

i would love to redo our master

2 days after moving in to this house my former neighbor (a plumber) came over and we replaced the powder room toilet, vanity, all the fixtures, and then had it painted. total difference from the builder grade nonsense, but it was also less than $1000 all said and done since he only charged me beer and food

I made new toilets an early priority for powder and master, and we did the third in the kids bathroom when we redid it. Only original toilet is the basement. But yeah our powder room needs a redo. Tile goes all the way up to the ceiling and a shitty pedestal sink. The previous owners must've liked the mirror they had and took it with them, and the light fixture looked like it was transplanted from elsewhere because of the big hole in the tile that it doesn't cover. If it weren't for the floor to ceiling tile I'd have redone the room myself by now.

[smokew11]

yeah that tile situation sucks

we only did it right away because my old neighbor was a beast who worked for beer. When we lived at our old house, a few weeks after moving in we were having some drinks and I said I'd love to get a pwder room built in the finished basement. His wife goes "Oh, Keith can do it"...he was like "yeah sure". The guy literally built me an entire powder room from scratch in that house for $1200

[GSUdawg521]

That's a pretty sweet deal. I can usually count on my father in law to come help out for a decent sized project just for the cost of hosting them for a night or so. At the last house, we replaced the entire ceiling of the guest room after a roof leak. That was a bitch.

This year I had him come help me do a few little things like replace the door to the basement with one with glass, and I let him take on the job of replacing the basement bathroom vanity light, because it involved a little drywall patching which I hate

[smokew11]

now that we have this awesome lighting in the kitchen and bedroom I dont know how we lived without it!!

We want to get recessed lights in the living room now, so we're gonna have him come back after we get our tax return. Living room is obviously much harder, but he said he thinks he can pull up the carpet in the kids rooms and go through the subfloor, then lay the carpet back down...this would alleviate a ton of patching, painting, fixing crown molding, etc

[M. Steng]

So we have a few last big projects we absolutely need to take care of in the spring. I don’t think we’re going to quite get there with savings alone, so I’ve been trying to explore other options. Anyone ever do a cash out refinance? Seems like it would be a good way to spread out taking some of the equity out of our home over time. Also been looking into a HELOC and not really sure which one would be better. Having the cash on hand would be nice in case of emergencies, but drawing on the HELOC only as needed seems like a good route to just use it on a more intermittent basis.

[GSUdawg521]

My wife just went from banking to mortgages. She says of course it depends person to person and your best bet is to get with a professional. But in general, a HELOC is good to have as emergency. But if you're using the money and not paying it back like it sounds like you'd be using it for, the rates on a cash out refi are likely better right now.

[smokew11]

Originally Posted by M. Steng

So we have a few last big projects we absolutely need to take care of in the spring. I don’t think we’re going to quite get there with savings alone, so I’ve been trying to explore other options. Anyone ever do a cash out refinance? Seems like it would be a good way to spread out taking some of the equity out of our home over time. Also been looking into a HELOC and not really sure which one would be better. Having the cash on hand would be nice in case of emergencies, but drawing on the HELOC only as needed seems like a good route to just use it on a more intermittent basis.

depending on your situation you could also use a CC, if its short-term. for our patio roof i took out a chase slate card, it was 0%apr for 18 months. When thats up I'll transfer the balance to our credit union at a rate of 2.9%

[Noles20]

Had 2 contractors over this week to look at our bathroom. Waiting for the proposals. Both come with great recommendations from people I know well so just hoping that doesn't come with too outrageous of a price.

[smokew11]

Quality
Reliability
Price


I feel like with most contractors you only get 2 of these.

[Noles20]

Originally Posted by smokew11

Quality
Reliability
Price


I feel like with most contractors you only get 2 of these.

That makes sense.

[M. Steng]

After doing a good amount of research I think we'll try for a HELOC...we got denied last year for not having a sufficient equity balance but since we've upgraded the kitchen and deck, and with the housing market around here exploding the past year, I think we could reasonably expect our house to be worth like $50-60k more than it was when we refinanced our mortgage back in November 2019.

[smokew11]

^ not out of the realm of possibility. The other day was 2 years exactly since we bought our house. Our first refi netted us an extra $23k in equity, our 2nd refi netted us another $55k

[MDPrompter]

Originally Posted by smokew11

Quality
Reliability
Price


I feel like with most contractors you only get 2 of these.

I’m feel like you only get one

[smokew11]

our electrician was all 3. Dont think ive ever been happier with a contractor

[MDPrompter]

Phase 1 of bathroom remodel just about done.

Before picks

[MDPrompter]

After picks

[Noles20]

Originally Posted by mdmarvich

After picks

Looks great! What does the next phase include?

[MDPrompter]

Originally Posted by Noles20

Looks great! What does the next phase include?

Thanks!

Phase 2: Putting up shower/bath walls over the existing tile. Going to keep the tub as it is in great shape.

[smokew11]

yeah that look great

[prdstmnky36]

Love the backsplash!

[Foreverford05]

Great looking bathroom!

[MDPrompter]

Thanks all!

[MDPrompter]

Originally Posted by prdstmnky36

Love the backsplash!

I cheated on that...peel and stick FTW!

[Noles20]

Picked a contractor today. Looking forward to getting all the tile etc. picked out.

[DMBstandUP1984]

Got 3 quotes for our roof

5,500
6,500
7,500

Hmm

[Noles20]

Originally Posted by DMBstandUP1984

Got 3 quotes for our roof

5,500
6,500
7,500

Hmm

We had our roof done 15 years ago. Estimates were all over the place. We ended up going with a company that charged 7K. We had 2 estimates over 15k!!!