If you were to remodel your house, or decorate... - what would you do?

CAMSMOM1 wrote: Well I'm so excited, we finally got our refinancing money in!!! So I really want to do somethings around the house.

I want to get some wood blinds, fix the fence, add a pantry, paint the inside of the house, new washer & dryer, buy some new living room furniture, and a new bedspread...and possibly a new mattress.

And if I could spend more, I would want to re-do our entire kitchen, new cabinets, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances. ( unfortunatly, we can't do the kitchen, but I wish we could. It looks like it's in the 60's, pink tile on the counters, old white cabinets)

So if you could redecorate or remodel your house, what would you do or fix?

NEWMOM05 replied: We just got turned down for our refinancing, but oh well.

My dream list if we had gotten it.

Redo the kitchen, Cabinets, marble counters. (our cabinets are made from particle board)

Make our masterbath have a roman tub and still be able to shower.

Replace the carpet. (Yes I know Kathryn will make a mess of it soon, but it's disgusting)

Landscape the front and back yard.

replace our fence

Can't think of what else.

Have fun. Be sure to take before and after pics if you decide to do any big projects.

Nina J replied: I would re do Emily's bathroom. When have our own bathroom, and then there is one for Emily, which will be baby # 2's aswell. It's not a nice bathroom for kids, it's not the right color. We put a new bath tub in there, but never got around to doing the whole room. New paint, nicer blinds, and possibly even different floor tiles and it would be great.

I'd also do the study, and make it a nicer environment. Some new paint, furniture, and curtains would make it look great.

I'm happy with the rest of the house, it took us a long time to make it just how we wanted it, and if we can get those 2 rooms done, it'd be great I'm hoping we will one day.

gr33n3y3z replied: We will gut the whole house to the shell and start over not sure when we will start the builder is on another job
It should have been done by now

Kirstenmumof3 replied: My DH and my dad have already started that project. I really don't have any say into what they are doing. All I said was that I wanted our bedroom to be painted a light purple (violet colour) and I wanted the hallways up and down to be painted sage green and they are painting it exotic grass. It will be interesting to see what the house looks like when I get back. Carpets have been ripped up, the stairs have been refinished, the hardwood floors are being sanded and stained. DH has bought a new dining room table and a new TV stand. We will have a lot to donate to the Canadian Mental Health Association.

C&K*s Mommie replied: I want to:

Have a professional come in to paint our kitchen cabinets. They are a dark brown stain right now, and I am tired of that. I would want something lighter like an ecru paint on them. New hardware too, with hidden hinges.

I would gut the bathrooms to the studs, putting up new drywall and such. I would love to expand the width of our first bathroom. I would also have a console vanity added, a clawfoot tub or simply a corner shower stand alone. Of course with all the trimmings to go into that.

White baseboards throughout the house, along with heavier doors added for the rooms and closets. New hardware throughout too.

I would also add a deck or a Florida room out back.

Kated replied: We just bought our first house and have only been in it about 3 months now. I deff would love to redo the Kitchen! Blah its horrible. The house is 80 years old. My husband has done the landscaping we tore out all the old dead bushes and put in new ones and a little dogwood tree. The inside isnt super bad but the kitchen needs lots of work and I would change all the ugly doors to nicer ones and deff we need to paint.

Kaitlin'smom replied: Well were are considering selling th house this year so here are things we need/want to do

paint all rooms that have not been done yet

new carpet in a few rooms

new faucet in the main bath room

new sink in our bathroom

new kitchen floor

fix the wood part of the fence

clean up flower beds

paint the shutters

I am not totaly sure what else atm its alll I can think of, but first we need to CLEAN out the rooms.

oh and I need to do something about the wall paper comming off in the kitcken

oy not sure if we will ever get it all done, but we will try and start soon

coasterqueen replied: Hmmm, what would I do?

I really want to add on another bedroom and a bigger playroom and maybe a bigger laundry room.

Dh would like another garage besides the one we already have.

I would hire an interior decorator to come in and do things a TON better than what I've done.

We want to ceramic tile the kitchen and two upstairs bathrooms but really don't want to do that til the kids are older.

I'd buy a new washer and dryer.

Definitely change up decor, bed linens, etc in the house.

Do a lot of outdoor maintenance to the house.

Landscape the yard. ALmost impossible to do right now with 3.5 acres and NO money to do it, lol.

Uh, I could go on, so I won't.

C&K*s Mommie replied: I would add that I would love, love, love to extend our bedroom to make it larger, and probably the rest of the house to match, into the backyard. But alas our sewer system is outside of our bedroom window/bathroom window a few paces, so any ideas of building out there would sink, literally. But I would love to have a larger bedroom if there was someway we could do that.

DVFlyer replied: I wouldn't refi to do anything unless it added the same or more $$ to the value of the house. Too many people are pulling money out of their houses to do things. Whether it be remodelling or buy toys, when it comes time to sell the house, they will wish they had the money.

It sure gives new meaning to the term "It's on the house".

luvmykids replied: We're renting right now but getting ready to build, but in our old house I would have wanted to update kitchen/bathrooms and pull out the carpet and put in wood floors.

Kitchens are a big deal when it comes time to sell, good place to spend the money!

jcc64 replied: I would level it and start all over.
This house is over 100 yrs old, with lots of character and charm, and also lots of leaks, crooked walls and bad plumbing. I love it b/c it's home, but man, what I wouldn't give for new construction with no maintenence involved.

MamaJAM replied: I would ADD ANOTHER BATHROOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One bathroom - seven people.....that line gets long sometimes!

CAMSMOM1 replied:

Well we really didn't have a choice, we had to refinace. It's a long story, but basically we owe my MIL/FIL $30,000 dollars for helping us get out of debt. We owed her 17,000 for my new car, and the rest for other bills we had. I now own my car, no car payments, we have no debt at all, and we actually saved money by her handling our finances, and paying off certain things. We are now debt free, have EXCELLENT credit, and we were able to have a little money ourselves. After the money we pulled out, we still have over $100,000 in equity in the home, so when we sell it, we'll still make great money on it. And we're putting $10,000 in the savings, for those months where money is tight, so we don't get behind again.

And we got a lower interest rate. Which is good. But I know what you mean, a lot of people take all the money out of their house, end up with a high payment, worse interest rate, and don't make money on their house when they sell it. Thank goodness that's not the case for us.

But I love all your ideas on redecorating/remodeling. It's given me some inspiration! Sounds like a lot of us want a new kitchen!

mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied:
I love old homes!

Anyway, for our current house, I would probably MOVE before I do any of this and keep it as a rental property, but if given the opportunity, with no budget, I would:

Update the kitchen with granite countertops, repaint, take down the awful wallpaper trim and possibly get new cabinets.

Install real hardwoods throughout the whole main level and possibly recarpet the bedrooms.

Expand the size of the master bedroom so that it's not just a room with a huge bed! And I would completely redo our master bath with ceramic tile instead of the vinyl stuff it currently has. Carpet in the bathroom will have to go too!

The kids bedrooms are fine, but I would probably tile their bathroom too.

I would paint the basement, add new blinds and possibly put in a bar/entertainment area. Built-in shelving would be great!

Yard: Needs a total facelift...so just being able to hire a professional landscaper would be a dream!

MyBrownEyedBoy replied: Remove the carpets upstairs and refinish the hardwood underneath. New furniture. New countertops and new sink in kitchen and bathrooms.

ashtonsmama replied: Awesome news, Ann! Glad the $$ finally came in!

We're pretty happy with our house, it's only about 3 years old, and it's still in perfect condition...so not much to change! Maybe a little more landscaping if we could, but right now our $$ situation isn't good at all...so maybe later! I'd also love to get Ashton a swingset/playground going in the backyard, maybe make the kids a garden some day...we'll see!

*Ahhhhhhh, dreams!*

Brias3 replied: Well, since we moved into the house last summer, we've actually done alot of the things that we wanted to in terms of changing/fixing but its been a slow process. I wanted the basement fully finished and so that's out of the way and enjoyable now, I had the ENTIRE house repainted (the whole thing was WALLPAPERED in completely ugly colors) and have also slowly been replacing things to extract the gold out of our house. I tell you, when we bought it, everything from knobs and handles to windows, light fixtures, mirrors and cabinets was GOLD- not my cup of tea at all. My next projects however are to finally put some nice outdoor furniture around the pool and work on the landscaping (it was pretty much ignored by the previous owners). Other than that, we actually just took the plunge on updating and decorating these past couple of months.

kimberley replied: my house... MOVE! lol cuz this place is too old and not worth fixing. but if it was, i'd think about paint, hardwoods, windows/blinds and landscaping.

Hillbilly Housewife replied: I would finish the unfinished section of the laundry room (in our new place)

I wuold upgrade the cabinets (they're natural wood - i hate that)

I would tear down the 1/2 bathroom in the master bedroom - or put up a wall between the 1/2 bathroom and full lbathroom - there is a wall, but there's a slding door that connects the 2...

I would update my couches, my fridge and stove (to stainless..lol) and my entertainment unit

update the kids furniture in their bedrooms

have a jacuzzi tub

landscaping

pool - not that there's room in the tiny backyard... lol


have built-in shelving in my bedroom for my massive collection of books... we packed it all up - it took 13 2ft cubic boxes, and myt mom took 6 baskets full of them at her house. (including kids books)

I'd have an interior decorator come in and do the paint colors, furniture etc... and do whatever he/she says

holley79 replied: Sounds like everything I want to do. LOL

Actually if I could remodel I would tear the whole thing down and pull an extreme makeover on the darn thing. First thing to go would be the stairs and I want a garden tub.