[angel_bayou]

We're in the process of purchasing another home and it'a a one owner that an elderly couple lived in that was built in 1985. We're planning to update it before we move in but I'm looking for cost saving ways to do it. We will do a lot of work ourselves to saveon cost. They have really light paneling on the walls and I HATE It! Any suggestions???

[joepegcamp]

We always buy homes that need updating. Always. We come out way ahead financially, even after dropping thousands upon thousands of dollars into renovations.

As with anything in life, you get what you pay for. For simple things, like your light paneling, paint can work wonders. (Be sure to use an oil-based primer first, then paint the color of your choice.)

We seek out builders' clearing houses for supplies and such. We purchased solid wood interior doors (they needed to be stained or painted) for about half of the fiberglass doors they sell at Lowe's. According to our appraiser, solid wood doors are worth more when it comes to selling than the fiberglass stuff. (I have no idea if that's true or not.)

Instead of wall-to-wall carpet, try using carpet tiles. You can get a custom look that's environmentally friendly. It's also cheaper than wall to wall. Not to mention that you can install the carpet tiles cheaper.

We also hire an interior designer for a consultation and design plan. We found one on-line who did everything virtually. We sent her room measurements and pictures, and she delivered an entire design plan with ideas on renovations. She also passed her designer discount along to us. The discount helped us buy our carpet tiles, hardwood floors and textiles.

We're closing on our third home in July and we'll take it room by room until the house is completed.

Good luck. And have fun! Turning your house into a home that is unique to you and your family is a wonderful experience.

[peregrinerose]

Originally Posted by angel_bayou

We're in the process of purchasing another home and it'a a one owner that an elderly couple lived in that was built in 1985. We're planning to update it before we move in but I'm looking for cost saving ways to do it. We will do a lot of work ourselves to saveon cost. They have really light paneling on the walls and I HATE It! Any suggestions???

My first house was a forclosure... everything in it was hot pink... the walls, the ceilings, the shag carpet that was rotting from animal excrement buildup. It was horrible, and the place stunk. The add-on was a lovely contrast with electric green shag and dark paneling, the exterior was dog poop brown aluminum siding.

I put about $25K into materials to fix it up, and sold it for a nearly $40 profit (even taking materials and purchase price into account!).

Do everything yourself, that saves a fortune. You can drywall instead of the paneling, but you can also buy a few buckets of Kilz and just paint the paneling (which is what I did in our add-on). Under the horrid shag carpet was hardwood floors, so we refinished those on our own, and they look great. We did the siding ourselves for 1/4 what the lowest estimate we got was ($1500 vs. $6000). We added a stone patio and fishpond, landscaped ourselves. Even knocked out a few walls, re-did the kitchen. I LOVE excuses to buy new power tools, and have a ball building things, so it really was a lot of fun. And profitable.

[dance_muffin]

When we moved into our present home; it had wall to wall light grey carpeting. With four kids and three dogs that carpeting wasn't staying!

After paying $$$$ for the installation of wood flooring in my dining room; my dh taught himself how to install it. He started in the Sun Room which is small. Got the video, supplies and tools. After countless runs back to home depot with questions, he got really good at it. He recruited two friends to help him with the bigger rooms. They learned how to put the floors down and he reciprocated when they decided to put them in their homes.

Half of your expense if labor. If you can save on that it is a big savings.

[LockStock]

If you get the Movers' Packet from the Post Office, it usually includes a 10% off coupon for Lowes or Home Depot. Could come in handy if you're making a big purchase. You can also look to get the Home Depot credit card, which usually offers another 10% off your purchase (and many times is no interest for 12 months).

[erinelway]

Are you planning to remove all the paneling? Truly, painting is the one way that I know of to get a HUGE change relatively cheaply. If you can start by at least removing the paneling before you move in then you can prep the walls for painting and actually paint while you are in there.

[angel_bayou]

I would like to remove all of the paneling but we're waiting to get estimates for sheetrock work since we definetely can not do this by ourselves. Someone suggested since the house is on a cement slab to just have a "mud" guy come out and float the paneling to make it look like sheetrock which he said would save tons of $$$ He said this would work in areas such as the bathroom since it's a smaller area. In the living room etc. he suggested pulling all the paneling and hanging sheet rock. Has anyone done this before that could offer some input?
I'm REALLY excited about getting to do some of the work ourselves because I LOVED it when I was able to pick out things and see it from start to finsih in our current house!

[joepegcamp]

Hanging sheet rock is easy. You'll need at two or three adults. A nail gun helps, too.

It's also time consuming. The taping and plastering of seams takes a long time--especially if it's humid outside.

Home Depot and Lowe's offers workshops on hanging sheetrock.

We had a limited budget in our first house, and had to pick and choose what we had to do ourselves and what we could hire out. We hired out the sheetrock because it saved us a ton of time. We could work on other areas while the sheet rock dude did his job.

[robandjulie]

Cosmetically: paint on the wall, light fixtures, faucets can all take things a long way and are easy to do yourself.

More substantial: replacing ugly floors. We ripped out a ton of carpeting and peel-and-stick tiles in our first home and found hardwood underneath and then refinished it all ourselves. We also put new subfloor and peel-and-stick tiles down in a small bathroom and replaced a cabinet, sink, and light fixture. Those were managable, but it was the only bathroom in the house so in retrospect it would have been nice to have a team do that in a day or so rather than living with that mess for three or more weeks!

[TerriBB]

We moved into a house that was 50 years old and was last updated in 1969...ala Brady Bunch.

We made a master list of all the things we wanted to do with each room. Of course, some things end up jumping ahead of the list; electrical issues were big with an older house. Windows and roof held well to the 10 year plan. I jumped the basement ahead, when the toys were spreading too far!

All of the rooms got a fresh coat of paint. The kids rooms had stencils/quotes from Dr. Seuss...so cheap and very effective. I also painted old furniture to match the rooms, like Pottery Barn. Cute knobs can make all of the drawer match. The livingroom/dining room are a neutral and I did a light stencil is cream/gold (2 piece stencil) - very simple!

We had awful yellow print counter-tops that were scratched. I painted the walls striped, to match our dishes and we lived with it for several years. As the appliances "died", we added GE Profile stainless...but it took several years. After living with it for 6 years, we had the tile pulled up and added bamboo floors, the wooden cabinets spray painted, (there are companies and auto shops that do this and ours look so crisp now!) had a few extra cabinets built, new lighting/electrical, new faucets/disposal and new black formica counter tops. All of these changes were about $12,000 with labor - I'm always the painter.

What type of paneling do you have? Is it library styled paneling or is it those sheets of 1/4" stuff that's shiney? We have knotty pine in two rooms of our house and when we painted it taupe, it was just beautiful. My mom put something on their shiney paneling that filled in the holes and used a natural grass wall paper over it - it's only on one wall, but it looks so cool! I'm surprised that you don't have a lot of floral wallpaper, that was VERY "in" in 1985.

We used FLOR carpet tiles in our basement. They're on-line and you can easily install yourselves. We did 1200' sq in a day. We had never done anything like this.

Curtain/drapes - we have HUGE windows. I used lots of simple sheers and just a few panels for color, knowing that the livingroom or family room will never be closed. I've gone more with the "toppers" for windows and made them myself. It's simple straight sewing. Sheets work great for curtains too!

Our family room had a jacuzzi bathtub in it (don't ask) we gave it to anyone who knew how to take it out. We had a tile layer come in, I painted the brick with a spray gun and hung a few pictures with broad mats/black frames...family photos printed on a b/w printer.

[angel_bayou]

Sounds like you guys did a great job Terri! The kitchen has horrendous floral wall paper!!! The rest of the house with the exception of the bathrooms has paneling and those have those really ancient tiles on the wall and half way up it's sheetrock! I can live with those for now because from what I hear it's a heck of a mess to knock out, but as soon as they start to fall out they go!!!
Oh and I think the paneling is the glossy kind. I was told to use joint compound that is used to float sheet rock to fill in all the cracks and by skimming the entire wall it will make it paintable and looks like sheetrock in the end! But it saves LOTS Of money so we're going to try it in one of the smaller areas and if all goes well we will leave it and if not we'll have to take our time and do one room at a time. Economy is too rocky for me to feel comfortable taking it out of the savings right now!

[joepegcamp]

About wallpaper: some of it is impossible to pull off walls. We always try a small spot and if it doesn't come off easily or will pull the plaster with it, then we go to Benjamin Moore and buy the primer that's made for wallpaper. We paint over the stuff.

Other DIY'ers cringe when I say this, but I pulled plaster off with wallpaper once and decided never ever again.

I once called a handyman service and paid for a couple hours of consultation. He told us what we could handle on our own, some of the potential problems, etc. It helped to know where we would possible screw up and what we could handle on our own easily.

[angel_bayou]

Thanks for the info Peggy!! I had no idea they even made a primer for wallpaper! I can't wait to get this project started, but I'm sure I'll be happy when it's done!! LOL!

[TerriBB]

Vanessa,
I didn't note that you need to become best friends with your small local hardware store and a paint store! Our paint store keeps all of our prior purchases in a data base and because the contractors hang out there in the morning, I'd often show up with a smile, a box of donuts and a list of questions! (What type of paint was needed for "insert item"...what cleans it up....what type of spackeling for real plaster walls...how much paint is needed for those darn walls...did you know that you can have your primer tinted to save on the expensive color...)

Don't worry too much about those tiles that go half-way up the wall. They are soooo hard to remove and you can decorate around them. My first apartment had brown/yellow tile ...blaaahh....so I found some blue background sunflower print and used blue towels. Sunflowers are brown/yellow! Painted 2 small frames from the dollar store and used 2 postcards of sunflowers. It worked.

Good luck!!!

[joepegcamp]

Wainscoating works wonders over tile. (Others call it bead board.) Cheap. Easy to cut. Easy to install. Nice trim at the top and bottom and the ugly tile is gone.