have you ever remodeled your home?

[TabulaRasa]

Not a big fan of laminate flooring, here. When we bought our house, it had been redone with laminate in the upstairs hallway and one of the bedrooms, and we will ultimately probably end up redoing it.

[TwoByFour]

Originally Posted by 49erfan916

And if so, did you guys do it frugally? I want to remodel my house, mostly cosmetic, because i feel like some of my stuff is dated.

I want to:

get new porcelin tile floors
paint my kitchen cabinets white
get some new furniture
and convert my storage room into an office space.


Do you know any ways to cut costs?

We are serial remodelers. We never stop remodeling. Well, to be honest here, I am the instigator; I cannot blame DW. But it seems to have paid off - we came out very well with both the houses we remodeled.

The way to be frugal about it is DYI. It is a lot of work to tile but anyone can do it. But your first job will look pretty much like a beginner's attempt so the key is not do any project that has high visibility until you get some experience. We learned this the hard way. Learn on a laundry room, not a main room where guests will see it.

Painting is really, really easy. But it requires prep and it requires an eye to perfection. More patience than skill.

I would not convert a storage space to an office unless you have a good idea on design and ergonomics. The work is the easy part, a good design that considers efficient use of space and overall appeal is the hard part.

[ylisa7]

Originally Posted by TabulaRasa

Not a big fan of laminate flooring, here. When we bought our house, it had been redone with laminate in the upstairs hallway and one of the bedrooms, and we will ultimately probably end up redoing it.

I don't like laminate. Vinyl is much better and so easy to maintain and softer on your feet and legs.

[CGab]

As others have said try to do most of the work yourself, but flooring is tricky and can look really bad if you lay it wrong! We just finished our basement. My husband did everything except for mud and tapping the drywall and laying the carpet. A quarter of the basement we tiled and he did lay that. By him doing it himself it saved us HALF of what it would have cost! Of course you need to know what you're doing. Not everyone can do electrical and flooring, etc.


If you tile seal the grout ASAP! It's very hard to clean otherwise and grout can look real crappy, real quick!

[Icemodeled]

We have remodeled our first and second homes. Did 90% DIY. We were not comfortable doing tile, but I know people who have learned and done it. We laid laminate flooring - floating floor which turned out nice.

We painted our cabinets in our first home and used Rustoleum brand, it turned out amazing! Definitely recommend them. Just make sure to follow the instructions exactly.

Furniture, that was tough for us this last time. We constantly checked craigslist, facebook resells, thrift stores but never found anything at a good price so we did have to go to a furniture store but we did get the price down by asking for discounts. Always try, depending on the store they probably will come down. My husband worked as a salesman in a furniture store and they mark up the items so much, like 5x or more. Otherwise, just keep looking for deals and quality used furniture. We still are looking for a entertainment center and haven't been able to find one so plan to DIY it! Think it will turn out just as we want. Also, we are spray painting the tables we already have.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by ylisa7

I don't like laminate. Vinyl is much better and so easy to maintain and softer on your feet and legs.

Vinyl fan here. (no pets allowed in or near the house (farm dogs don't like being confined + they have plenty of barns / shops / sheds to hang around and Protect ))

There are many nice vinyl options in texture and pattern. I really prefer to 'cove' the vinyl (as in the 1940's -1960's). Curved up the wall ~ 100mm / 4 inches) VERY ez to clean / contain water and spills.

Laminate is a good choice in some applications, and it can be easier to install and have a nice firm surface. I don't find it suitable for renters, If it ever has extensive water damage (leaking appliance / pipe) it can ruin the whole floor (pressed wood backing). For your own home, and taking care to manage water, traffic, and care, it can be a nice and very inexpensive solution. It is really appropriate for a 'flip home' as it looks very nice. Be SURE to leave plenty of gaps at every edge, especially doorways, as it MUST float without constraint and moves a lot with humidity changes (inside and out).

I usually restrict Ceramic / slate / clay tile to entry, hallway, and bath, (I just don't like cold hard floors) in Cold weather climates. Pattern matching and variation is a skill, I was noticing some terrible tile jobs in commercial toilets / airports this weekend. It is PERMANENT, so do it correctly and with quality materials.

[nmnita]

Until we did our house 3 years ago all we had ever done was maintenance and things like paint, carpet, the usual. We did a major updating in 2014: we have new floors throughout, new windows, we had our screened in porch glassed in with insulation, heating and a/c. We did not replace our kitchen cabinets but we did get new counter tops, sink, range, dw and fridge, plus having the ceiling raised and new furniture in the living room and glassed in room. Did we go frugal? Not really, the money was an inheritance and we just had fun watching the house take shape. Where we did go frugal was the furniture. We did garage sales, thrift stores, consignment shops, on line, you name it. The only regret we have is our couch: we had wanted one with the double recliner. We got it, we hate it, it looks like you know what and now, we are thinking about replacing it. Saved money, but not really. Our glassed it room, which we call our Caribbean room is fantastic. I hope we will be able to do our bathrooms one of these days. We did replace the faucets, and the floors. We also put a railing up around our front porch