Got an old bathroom?

Or worse, one that was “updated” but never quite finished?

This bathroom was one of those – a project that never quite made it to the finish line.

I’ll admit – this one is mine, a project I decided I HAD to do when I was pregnant with my youngest son who is now 5.

The Old Home and The Nesting Homeowner

It was one of the worst cases of nesting on record, or so the story book says.

Picture Texas in June-ish, and an avid DIY’er who was 7 months pregnant and HATED the downstairs bathroom. It was seriously ugly – wallpaper form the 1980s, a cultured marble sink, an old water-damaged cabinet and brown and gold sheet vinyl on the floor.

Oh, and ew, salmon-colored plastic knobs on the cabinet door and drawers.

Topping it off was a brass pendant fixture with a long, swagged metal chain.

Faux Finishing an Older Bathroom

I had recently taken a class in Faux Finishing from Lu Goodwin Mark, the owner of the Austin School of Faux Finishes.

Emboldened, I attacked my vintage-1982 home with gusto.

I ripped out the counter and cabinet, dragging the hacked-up pieces out to the front porch on my butt, which made the task easier on my old back and bulging belly.

I peeled off the wallpaper, and had it re-textured with a nice smooth finish on which to apply the new finish.

A tiling contractor removed the old vinyl flooring and prepared it for a new pebble-tile floor, found for the rock-bottom price of $10 per square foot on eBay (including FREE shipping!).

And no, no men other than the ones I paid to help me dared get anywhere *near* this project lest they get roped in and put to work at all hours of the day and night.

Applying the Final Touches on the Bathroom Remodeling

Once the floor was in and the walls were ready, I hand-troweled an expensive italian plaster on the walls, embedding layers of $50-per-quart metallic faux-finishing products between the layers. The final coat was a hand-rubbed metallic finish the left lovely pools of sparkly gold in the texture of the walls.

It was, in my humble opinion, a masterpiece.

It was a near-exact replica of the walls in the Opal Divine’s restaurant off South Congress in Austin. Except, of course, the restaurant had huge amounts of wall space and a bigger budget and the other decor to pull it off.

And, unfortunately, my little old bathroom had none of that.

Edge-Grain Mesquite

Soonly, though, I acquired a gorgeous piece of edge-grain mesquite and used it as a counter, luring my neighbors over to help me run it through the table saw in the driveway to cut it to just the right size.

A plumber installed a vessel sink – long before vessel sinks were so common – and burned through 5 DeWalt batteries cutting the hole for the drain because the mesquite was so unforgiving.

Another day, squatting on my haunches in the garage, I used my brand-new grinder to cut 2″ square pieces of slate tile to fit as a backsplash. Then lovingly finished them with grout that matched the pale yellow of the walls.

My faithful seamstress dis-assembled a Target shower curtain in red paisley and re-assembled it into an ultrasuede-edged shower curtain with 5-inch long fringe and matching shades for the bathroom and adjacent bedroom.

Texas Tuscan

With those custom-sewn pieces in place, my Texas-Tuscan Bathroom was complete!

And, oh, man oh man, was it UGLY.

So ugly, even my most faithful of friends couldn’t say anything nice. One did me the favor of taking the window treatments away, far far away, under the guise of giving them to a friend in need.

The rest just didn’t go near it, perhaps for fear that it would suck them into DIY-hell and make them do the same thing to their own bathroom that needed to be updated.

I used it whiile the baby was a newborn, then closed off that part of the house, since the space was really just more than we really needed as a family and I didn’t want to have to keep it clean.

Bad DIY Style Can Be Contagious

A few years later, I tried to “match” the adjacent bedroom to the colors, but not the style, and ended up with what one long-time friend dubbed “The Ronald McDonald Room”.

The curtains from that round had yellow gingham on the top, red ultrasuede on the bottom and a nice fat band of chocolate rick rack seperating the two.

And yes, I actually paid someone to make them for me.

They now hang at the top of another friend’s stairs, and look just marvelous with her red couch and less-busy decor.

Fixing the Badly-Updated Bathroom

Finally, the time came when this bathroom could no longer be ignored.

The venetian-plastered walls and mesquite counter and horribly-installed slate backsplash HAD TO GO. So did the old tile in the shower – tile that was in great shape but oh-so-vintage-1982.

The $2500-ish budget permitted for new texture on the walls, new paint, new good-quality porcelain tile in the shower, plumbing work, new faucets and a new mirror. It did not, however, cover the cost of the new granite counter, so I traded a bunch of camping gear and garage shelving in lieu of the $500-ish that the counter and sink woud have cost.

The current version of this bathroom draws you right in and makes you want hang out. Or, at least it makes my kids want to hang out since I have to keep chasing them out of the space.

The paint on the wall is Benjamin Moore “Tranquility” in Aura Matte. The granite backsplash is 6-inches tall – about 2-inches taller than typical backsplashes and meant we could avoid introducing new materials into the space. The river rock flooring still rocks – it is simply fabulous on the feet.

Everything in this space is now either brand-new, or new in the last 5 years, except for the tub which is original. The crown molding is timeless, so are the 2-panel smooth-skin doors and 5-inch baseboards, all painted in Benjamin Moore Satin Impervo oil in Cloud White – a gorgeously lustrous paint that dries silky smooth and durable.

If you’ve done something like I did – sometimes you have to just suck it up and re-do it. You’ll get back some usable space in your home, and can re-earn your reputation as the DIY style-maven for your neighborhood (or at least you can *think* you are!)

Are you planning to sell your Austin home soon, but need to replace outdated tile?

Consider the current trends before making your selections both for the style and color of the tile as well as the layout.

In some areas, and Austin is one of them, 12×12 tile in a straight-set pattern just looks dated, even if it’s brand-spanking new.

Larger tile (18×18, 20×12) has a more current look, especially if it’s set in a brick-pattern, or on the diagonal, or with a border (either inset, or as an actual border).

Rectangular Bathroom Tile

Rectangular tile, can look even fresher.

Check out what the better builders in your area are showcasing to see what they’re putting in model homes to entice more sophisticated buyers. Even if your budget is small, the way the tile is laid out can make a big difference in how current (or dated) the finished tile will look.

Check out the floor tile in the photo at right.

The timeline and budget for this update meant the tub and cabinet couldn’t be replaced, and the old window was, well, virtually unmovable without major expense.

This tile is 9×12, and laid out this way gave a super-simple tile job a much fresher look than could be had with straight-set 12×12 tile. The expense difference on the 110-ish square feet of tile was minimal. (Compared to the over-all cost of demolition, tile work, paint and plumbing.)

The tile in this bathroom is Torre Venato, porcelain, made in USA, and made from 30-54% recycled material. The paint on the walls is Benjamin Moore Aura Matte in the glorious blue-grey color “Eternity”. The Uba Tuba granite counter from Toluca Granite in Austin is 5 years old but look brand-new against the new tile.

Some tile contractors charge more for “special” layouts, so make sure you know if there is an upcharge for the layout you have in mind.

(The window ledge is the same black granite as the counter – typical 3-inch deep border tile was too shallow for the window sill.)

The tile and paint in this bathroom were selected by Chris Browarski of CCB Designs in Austin Texas. Chris works with Builders, Architects, Realtors and Home Owners to bring the most style value possible to projects ranging from simple (this bathroom) to complex (a fantastic farmhouse on the 25th annual AIA Tour).

Got an old house?

The kind with the flat-panel doors, probably in an old wood veneer that has seen better days?

Replacing them with moulded-panel, composite wood doors (not solid wood) isn’t difficult or expensive, as long as they are a standard size. Masonite interior doors are frequently the doors you see in typical Austin and Round Rock-area subdivision homes, at the large home improvement stores like Home Depot, and on many higher-end homes as well.

The doors for the Austin house in the photo were ordered from BMC West in Cedar Park, Texas.

For a 4-door set of hollow-core, bi-fold doors like these, you can expect to pay between $80 and $140 per set (of 4, which should include the hardware to hang them, plus the hinges for each pair), depending on the discount you or your contractor can negotiate. Both installation quotes for this home ran about $150 per set (based on 5 sets in the house, and other work being done on the same job by the same General Contractor), and that included painting.

Tips for Replacement Closet Doors

The Cost for Replacement Closet Doors

For the record, the closet doors in this house averaged about $260 per set (5 sets of 4, mostly 6-foot wide closet openings) and that included the doors, track, tax, delivery, installation and painting. The contractor wanted extra to drill the knob holes but ended up doing that for free.

The doors are made by Masonite, and are “Roman, 2-panel, hollow, smooth skin”.

They replaced old wooden louvered doors that were a total nightmare to try to clean and paint.
Fortunately, someone on Craig’s List hauled those all away for FREE for a special project they had in mind.

I’ve been called a paint snob in the past.

I used to think the name-callers had basis for their action, but then I looked up the definition of snob:

“A snob is someone who believes that some people are inherently inferior to him or her for any one of a variety of reasons, including real or supposed intellect,wealth, education, ancestry, taste, beauty, nationality, et cetera. Often, the form of snobbery reflects the snob’s personal attributes. For example, a common snobbery of the affluent is the belief that wealth is either the cause or result of superiority, or both.”

When it comes to paint, my preferences aren’t due to snobbery, they are due to experience.

House Painting: What We Need to Balance in Our Decisions

When we paint, we have to balance our objectives, with these as our chief concerns:

• The total cost of the job
• The time required
• The resulting quality, look and/or durability of the painted surfaces

Most people erroneously think that the cost of the paint is the primary cost of the job of painting.

In reality, the cost of the paint is often SMALL compared to the over-all cost of the job.

House Painting: Contractors’ Bids in Austin Texas

Let’s go over an actual example:

I’ve been painting my current home, and the one I just moved in to, over the last month. I bid out some of the work, and did some of it myself:

• For Contractor A, a typical bid for painting a single room (10×10 to 14×16) was $125 to $150 for labor, plus the cost of the paint unless I agreed that he could use his favorite contractor-grade (read: cheap) paint.
• Contractor B wanted $150 per coat of paint, but the cost of the paint was included (but again, the paint brand was his choice at that price).
• Contractor C bid $150 for labor, regardless of the number of coats required, with the cost of the paint as extra.

As would be expected, the more rooms I added to the bid, the lower the cost per space.

One even offered me “his guys” at an hourly rate because he didn’t have another job lined up for them and he needed to keep them busy on someone else’s nickel.

So, what does it cost to paint a room, with a painting contractor doing the work?

We might conclude that painting a room costs about $150, plus the cost of the paint. It might, however, cost $300 or more, and that additional cost being labor, not paint.

So how much does the actual paint cost? Depends on the paint, of course. And when determining the “cost of paint”, the cost per gallon is a poor measure of cost. One gallon of one brand of paint is not necessarily equal to a gallon of another brand of paint.

House Painting in Austin: Benjamin Moore

Personally, I only use Benjamin Moore.

This decision is based on years and years of painting houses (my own homes and the homes of friends and clients).

For both the home I am selling and the one I just moved in to, I used only Benjamin Moore’s Aura Matte on the walls.

Although this paint retails for about $62 per gallon, I think it is Worth. Every. Penny.

Here is why: when properly applied, it covers in a single coat. We covered a dark purple with a light blue-grey in a single coat. We covered a darker purple in a pale tan with a single coat. Same for a dark orange and a whole bunch of brightly colored stenciled flowers. This means a single gallon can paint a large bedroom – with leftover paint for later touch-ups. We even painted a wall in my daughter’s new room black in a single coat (and yes, the contractor lost the bet on that one).

We used the recommended rollers made specifically for use with the Benajmin Moore Aura paint, and we used high-quality angled brushes for cutting in. And, of course, we followed the manufacturer’s instructions since painting with Aura is NOT like painting with other paint.

Benjamin Moore recommends applying two coats to achieve maximum durability and color saturation. In spaces where I know the walls are going to get a lot of action (up the stairs, in the entry and kitchen), I apply a second coat. In space where the wall is really just going to be admired (one wall in a formal dining room in a home without pets, one coat will still get you fabulous color). When you want a second coat, it goes on fast and easy-peasy.

I buy my paint at Rooster’s Paint on Anderson Mill (78750).

The Contractors’ Bids

So, let’s go back to the contractors’ bids for painting a room. If you can paint a large bedroom with a single gallon of Aura at $62 per gallon, paint costs $62. If the labor cost of having the work done for you is $150, then the cost of painting that bedroom is $212 ($150 + $62).

If you use paint that requires two or more coats, unless you’re paying less than $30 a gallon, you’re not saving much money. You might actually end up spending MORE because you need to buy more paint to cover the same area. We’ve probably all had the experience of painting a wall over and over to try to get the color to cover and look good and never being completely satisfied. That happens with the cheap paint – it just doesn’t apply well, and you need to use A LOT of it.

If you hire Contractor B, and Contractor B uses a cheaper paint since he bid that into the overall cost of the job (and most of them will), you will end up paying for two coats at $150 a pop, or $300. Personally, I think this is NUTS.

That is a heck of a difference in the cost for getting a room painted.

The Cost of Painting When You DIY

Let’s talk a few more numbers for the cost of painting a house.

Let’s say you are going to paint it yourself. And you’re going to use cheap paint to make it cheaper. You figure you’ll use $20 a gallon paint, so you go buy a gallon . . . for $20 . . . plus a cheap paint brush and a cheap roller cover and roller trays and some thin plastic sheeting and some painter’s tape and and and. You get out the door having spent maybe $50 and only $20 of that was the actual paint.

You go home, and paint. And run out because the paint doesn’t cover well. You go buy another gallon . . . and another roller tray and another roller cover because the first one got dried and icky. If you’re lucky, parts of it came off in little strands and are stuck to your walls. Oh, and that cheap brush didn’t cut in well, so you’ve got paint on your trim. And the thin plastic sheeting ripped so you got a little paint on the carpet. Or, maybe a lot on the carpet.

Now you’re out TWICE the labor, an extra roller cover and an extra trip to the store. Now you’re out the original $50 plus another $25 to $30, for $75 to $80. If you are really lucky, you may end up rolling on three coats and still have an uneven finish.

You probably didn’t get it done in a day, either.

If you did, I’ll bet it doesn’t actually look that nice. Oh, and you’ve got a lot of touch-ups on the trim to take care of.

Painting Your House Yourself with Aura

Here is another option: you can save on the cost of painting your house yourself – IF you recognize up front that the cost of the paint is only one part of the overall cost of the job. The other costs are the supporting materials, and YOUR TIME. Your time is worth something!

Let’s go back to talking about Benjamin Moore Aura Matte finish paint. I LOVE THIS PAINT. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE.

My actual cost of painting a large bedroom in it is under $75.

When I paint a room, I buy ONE gallon of paint, ONE Aura-paint specialty roller and ONE paint tray for $0.75. If you think $75 is “expensive” for paint, you’re probably not factoring in the cost of all of the other things needed for the job.

And when that one room has been painted the effect of the paint is GLORIOUS. People walk in and walk right up the the walls and marvel at the paint – both the color and the finish. The depth of color, the complexity of the color and the quality of the finish is mesmerizing.

Supplies for Painting Your Home

• Years ago I bought a few high-quality drop cloths for $13 to $20 each, and have used them over and over and over. The cost of the drop cloths is less than the cost of plastic sheeting over time and more importantly – do YOU want to trust your carpet to easily-ripped plastic?
• I bought a high-quality angled brush for under $20 and keep it very clean.
• I don’t use painter’s tape – I learned how to control the brush for cutting in.
• I don’t need packages of “cheap” rollers because I only need one for the job. Cheap rollers aren’t so cheap if you need to use more than one or they break off little bits onto your walls.

In other words – just because individual products are cheap doesn’t mean the cost you less in the long run.

Sometimes the investment in good products can save you a bundle in both time and money.

Most of us know that the prep work is 90% of the job of painting. With Aura paint, this is even more true. Because this paint is different than other paints, the technique for applying it successfully is different:

• First, you cut in everywhere and let it dry
• Then you roll

Since it dries lightening-fast, by the time you’re done cutting in, you’re ready to roll. I can roll a big bedroom in 45 minutes, tops. If I inadvertently missed a few spots, I can hit them with the roller any which way and you won’t see the roller marks, brush strokes, nada.

The paint is thick and glorious, goes on super smooth with minimal re-rolling, minimal strokes, and minimal dripping.

Even better, this paint does NOT like to be brushed and re-brushed or rolled and re-rolled – it should be touched as few times as possible then left alone. Fewer required touches means less labor, so even a single coat takes less time and energy than other paints. I never see roller marks or brush marks when it has dried. (Although that can happen with cheap rollers or spreading it too thin when cutting in).

And again, if you want a second coat for maximum performance, it’ll go on in a flash.

Aura’s Impact on Paint Contractors

I hired painters to paint some rooms, painted some on my own, and had them work with me on other spaces. Once they learned how to cut in and roll with Aura, they started pushing their boss to use it on other jobs.

The boss, however, goes NUTS about the price whenever I bring it up.

We’ve gone round after round on the Aura debate. He loves his cheap paint! He loves it because 5-gallon drums are cheap! But . . . he needs a LOT of it to cover the same amount of wall space! We realized this big disconnet when determining how much paint to order for different parts of the job – he wanted 10 gallons of ceiling paint for the new place and I knew we needed 5 gallons MAX if we used the good stuff. He prevailed because it was ceilings and not walls. I tried to use the leftovers on a closet and was ready to drown myself in the 5-gallon bucket before I was done – it needed FOUR coats and still looked like crap!

We also figured this out when painting the crown in the new space. He wanted to use his cheap paint, but I bought two gallons of Aura Satin (since my favorite trim paint, Benjamin Moore Satin Impervo in oil was out of stock). We painted the crown in 1340 square feet of space with about a half-gallon!! That was a LOT of trim since it was in the closets, bathrooms and hallways as well as in the main rooms. ONE coat covered and the finish is sublime. Why put on a second coat on trim that will never be caressed by tiny, dirty hands?

Now the contractor is complaining that his guys are hammering him to buy Aura for other jobs. I pointed out that he can paint the same spaces in less than half the time – a huge labor savings, AND the resulting finish is gorgeous. I don’t think he’ll convert, but we’ll see.

The Bottom Line for Painting Your Home in Austin, Texas

• Cheap paint is not necessarily cheaper – it is only ONE part of the cost of a paint job
• Good paint is easier to work with, looks better and lasts longer
• Do your research before you paint – get multiple bids and ASK QUESTIONS before you hire your painting contractor or you might end up paying DOUBLE
• Invest in good materials and save yourself a lot of time, money and hassle.
• Whether you paint it yourself or hire it out, the more you know (from research of experience) the better your chances of having the job done right – the first time.

And if someone calls you a snob – just smile and move on because you know the difference.

The paint in these photos is Benjamin Moore: “Coastal Path” (beige), “Tranquility” (kitchen walls), “Fernwood Green” and “Frappe” (bedroom walls) and “Bleeker Beige” (kitchen cabinets). All of these colors were carefully coordinated by Designer Chris Browarski of CCB Designs in Austin Texas.

Don't let ratty plants and abandoned furniture ruin the first impressions of your home.

Make those seconds count.

Two Places Homes Buyers Will See Your Austin TX Home

Home buyers in Austin Texas will see your home in two ways:

Curb Appeal: 7 Tips for Lasting First Impressions

Close your eyes. Imagine you are pulling up to your home for the first time. What do you see?

These are the hot spots you need to hit to make first impressions count.

Curb Appeal is Home Staging for the Outside

Done right, the curb appeal for the outside of your home will work magic just like home staging does for the interior of a home: it makes buyers feel comfortable and more likely to stay a while and really take a good look around.

Can you spot the big-ticket repair items on this home? (No, it's not for sale - it's for illustation)

Get a good team, and work closely with them.

The Big 3 Mistakes for Austin Home Flippers

These three mistakes will kill the profitability of your flip.

What You Need to Know for Flipping for Profit in Austin

If you’re going to flip houses in Austin, keep this in mind:

Get Alison Shuman on Your Team

If you want to flip homes for a profit in Austin, you need a good agent. Give me a call – (512) 585-4758

Drought tolerant plants help keep water bills down and are more appealing to eco-consciousbuyers

Unless you count the value you get from using the upgrades.

Big-Ticket Upgrades, Low-Value Returns

Home upgrades are always a gamble.

Here are some updates that cost big bucks that you probably won’t get back:

• Extensive Landscaping, especially with water-hogging plants:

  Buyers like to see a nicely-maintained yard. Clean edging, and the absence of piles of junk and yard debris are a big plus when you go to sell your home. You might even get more people to come see your home if the landscaping is nicer than other properties.

  Unfortunately, if the landscaping has lots of fancy planting beds, stone-work, and high-maintenance plantings, you probably won’t get back the money you spent to put that all in. If the landscaping requires lots of water, especially when so much of Texas is in a stage 4 drought this summer (2011), you may lose buyers that don’t want to spend the time or the money to keep it up.

• A Swimming Pool

  A swimming pool can cost $30,000 to $150,000 and up to put in. If the home is on a small lot, it can eat up most of the back yard. Pools take time and money to maintain. Over time, they need more repairs, and the decking needs more maintenance.

  Buyers tend to fall in to two camps: those that really want one, and those that really don’t.

  Even if you sell to someone that is thrilled to have the pool, you will recover much less than you paid to have it installed.

• Upgrades That Are Too Fancy for the Area

  Many of the subdivisions surrounding Austin are full of homes that are similar to each other: similar in size, in upgrades and in style. If you go overboard and put in upgrades that are way fancier than the other homes in the area, you are not likely to see a return on your investment when you go to sell.
  
  An example: if most of the homes in your subdivision have laminate counters and you put in granite, your home might sell faster than the competition, but it won’t sell for much more than the competition. Even worse, the appraiser might not give any value on the appraisal for the upgrade, which means the appraisal might come in lower than the contract price, which means you might have to come down on your price to get it sold.

  If you want granite, and aren’t going to sell for a while, go ahead an put it in. Just remember that the value of the home update is the value to you and for your use, not for what you’ll get back when you go to sell.

Leave the Marble Tubs for the Mansions

Leave this big-ticket item for the masions

Most home owners who plan to put one in have one burning question:

Will I get my money back?

Here is the answer: No, you won’t.

You Pay, Others Benefit, But You Do, Too

When you put in a pool, it should be because you intend to use and enjoy the upgrade to your property.

When you go to sell it, you might recover a portion on your investment.

You will not make a killing. You will not even come close to making a killing.

The Principle of Substitution

Why you won’t see a nice return on your swimming pool investment comes down to one thing: the Principle of Substitution.

Here is a simple example:

Two houses, same developer, same age, same size, floor plan. Almost the exact same house, but on different lots in the same subdivision but one has a pool and the other doesn’t. Both houses are for sale.

The pool for House A is 5 years old and cost $35,000. House A is listed for sale for $235,000.

House B does not have a pool. House B is listed for sale for $200,000.

Here is why House A will not sell for $35,000 more than House B (the cost of the pool):

• The pool is 5 years old and doesn’t look new – and the equipment isn’t new either.
• Pool styles change over time.
• Someone who wanted a pool and has researched the price of pools of similar size and quality would realize they can put in a brand new pool for $35,000.

To make House A look like a better deal than House B, the owners of House A (the one with the pool) would need to drop their price to a level where the buyers feel like they are getting a deal – a house with a pool!

Unfortunately, the pool for House A might only add $15,000 to $20,000 in actual market value. It might be less, it might be more. It all depends on the area, and the competition for other houses with pools.

What To Do When You Go To Sell

You’ve put in a pool and you now need to sell your home.

It is important that your Listing Agent use other properties that have pools as the comparable sales when figuring out how to price your home.

Remember these points:

Or, if you go ahead and list your home at what seems like a reasonable price and don’t have an offer within a few weeks, you need to lower your price to be competitive with the other homes for sale, even if those homes don’t have swimming pools.

Have a room or a house you need to stage, and fast?

You must know two essential things:

Anything else you do will be a wasted effort if you don’t take of those first two things FIRST.

Room Staging After the Big Clean Out

After you’ve hauled away all the junk, you can get down to the business of staging the room.

You did haul it all away, didn’t you? If you’re selling, you’re moving – you’re going to either have to get rid of it now, or pack it up later!

Before you do the next staging steps, answer these questions:

• What is the purpose of the room? (Not what you used it for – what it should be used for). A Bedroom? A Dining Room? An Office?
• Does the room have “leftover” elements of it’s previous life – giant murals, ratty built-in bookcases that stored electronics equipment for a teenager, strange light fixtures for a hobby space?

Get rid of the stuff that doesn’t support the intended use of the space.

Remember – you’re not asking for people to like how you live, or to like your stuff, you want them to see how THEY will be living in the house when it is their new home!

Time to Stage the Room to Sell

Now, you know the function of the room, and all of the extra junk is gone.

If you skipped the first parts – go back and do them!

Here are the basic steps for room staging:

• Clean the carpet if it’s dirty, paint the walls if they are an odd color, dirty or both. If you don’t want to take the time to paint it, why do you think buyers will want to? Neither one of these takes as much time or money as you might think.
• Don’t skimp on the lighting. Poorly lit rooms are a real turn-off – they just look depressing. You can get inexpensive lamps at IKEA, Target or Wal-Mart, or a home improvement stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot.
• Don’t crowd the room with excess furniture and accessories – you don’t need to furnish the room, you need to suggest how someone might furnish the room. A nice clean bed and a single night stand with an attractive lamp can go a long way.
• Make sure the furniture is arranged to make the room look spacious. Don’t cram a big desk in a small room. Don’t put a large cabinet on a diagonal in the corner unless the room is really big and you’re trying to make it look cozier. Make sure people can walk around.
• Use furnishings and accessories that are as current as possible, but older stuff is okay if it is clean, in good-repair and goes with the period feel of a home. Send tattered furnishings off to Goodwill, or to storage while your home is on the market. Don’t pile it up in the garage!
• Add a few nice accessories – pops of color - a large vase of well-made fake flowers, a few candles on a desk, a beautiful basket with current magazines beside a comfortable chair.

Got A Whole House to Stage?

If you have more than one room to stage, the first two things become even more essential.

You have to get rid of the extra stuff - as much as you can – and deep-clean the home to maximize your chances of selling quickly and for a good price.

After that, room staging is the icing on the cake – the WOW that will keep buyers in your home longer and make them want to call it HOME.

What will it cost to fix this place?

Do you know the numbers you need to know?

6 Numbers You Must Know To Make a Profit Flipping

If you take the time to write out these numbers for houses at different price points and conditions (for example: poor – needs major work, moderate – some big items, mostly cosmetic, good – just paint and carpet), you’ll have a much better idea of which houses are going to be profitable.

Other Real Estate Investing Things to Think About

Houses in different neighborhoods might require different fit and finish to be competitive when you go to sell.

Replacing your old counters with granite?

Do you want your new granite counters to look this nice? I thought so!

5 Ways to Ruin – and Save – Your Granite Counter Replacement Project

Remember these points when you’re planning your project.

A little awareness and foresight can save you a lot of money and hassles later on.

• Don’t pick the cheapest fabricator – the companies that cut and polish the counter tops.

Many companies that sell granite counters sub out their “fab” work to subcontractors. Many of those subs are working off the books or under the table. Your friend might have gotten good, cheap counters but yours might be a mess. Even worse, you may incur liability as a homeowner if workers are hurt on your property during your project.

• Don’t let them do the final measurements before the old counters are removed, or before the new cabinets are locked down in position.

This is a sure-fire way to have counters installed that don’t fit, especially along the back where the walls aren’t likely to be straight and even. Make sure the old counters are off before final measurements are taken for your granite counters.

• If you pick a large-scale pattern, don’t buy a small slab.

If you pick a big pattern and chintz on the slab size, you better cross your fingers and hope the pattern still looks nice at the seams. The bigger the pattern on the slab, the harder it is to get the edges and seams to look nice.

Don’t cut corners here – make sure your slab is big enough, even if you have some left overs. Some companies are really good at laying out the pieces, and others . . . not so much.

• Don’t let them finish edges inside your house that could have been done at their shop.

All edges except what must be cut on-site should be done in a shop with the proper dust-handling systems. When edges are cut in your home or your garage, you will end up with a mess of dust and grit.

Some edges must be cut on-site (faucet holes, some sink holes), but most should be cut and polished before your counters are delivered for installation.

• Don’t insist on long runs without seams where the big pieces are connected by a small bridge, like behind the cook top or the kitchen sink.

Those skinny little bridges are likely to break during transport or when they carry it in. Although long runs look really nice, they are very hard to keep intact from the granite shop to your home. Any little bit of bouncing or twisting can snap the piece, even if they re-enforce it.

Save the project, save time – don’t cut corners unless you can afford to have the job done twice.

Some paint and accessories was all it took to make this dated fireplace look a little bit fresher and cleaner.

Paint Can Transform Your Ugly Fireplace

Sometimes you gotta start over – when the fireplace surround is so dated it drags down the room.

Sometimes, however, you can just paint the mantle and the surround, then accessorize with a few simple but striking things, and call it done – for about thirty bucks.

This one had decent limestone, acceptable in this area of older homes, but the mantle was vintage 1980s. The screen was bronze, and tarnished, if that is what the discoloration could be called.

What did we do to update this ugly fireplace?

• The mantle was sanded, primed and painted with an almost-white, good-quality paint.
• The screen was taken outside, cleaned of years of grime then spray painted with a matte black high-heat spray paint.
• We added a few current decorating pieces, and balanced them on the two sides.

I pre-viewed a FSBO (For Sale By Owner) recently.

The homeowner had done an impressive amount of work, but missed a something that will impact the price he can expect to receive for his property.

He nailed two of the three fundamental steps in getting his property ready to sell, but missing the third was a problem:

Does anyone want to see your stuff?

The Three Most Basic Tips for Getting Ready to Sell

The fundamental steps to get your home ready to sell are:

Home Selling Tip Number One: Clean it

A clean house is (preferably) a professionally cleaned one.

Buyers will forgive a dated house before they’ll forgive a dirty one. It makes them think: what else is wrong with this place?

• Clear out all of the clutter first, and make the house look bigger and more inviting.
• Get deep down into the cracks and crevices where all the years of dust and dings have collected.
• Baseboards, corners, cobwebs should all be crispy clean!
• No ick!
• Make it smell good, too!

Home Selling Tip Number Two: Fix it

Fixing it means just that: fix what’s broken and finish the almost-done projects.

• Again, clear out debris, clutter and anything that isn’t in the best working order.
• If it makes you tired thinking about how much work that is, imagine how your potential buyers will feel about having these items on their to-do list for a property they just paid a lot of money for!

Two Out of Three Was a Good Start But The Last One Was a Killer

Yeah he's cute but do you see how messed up that door is?

The owner had extensively replaced and/or repaired a long list of items, and had clearly taken a lot of care in the process. Even the driveway had fresh concrete!

Home Selling Tip Number Three: Present it For the Local Market

Presenting it for the local market, means understanding the local market.

That means knowing what has sold recently and what kind of condition those properties were in as well as what the typical local-area buyer is looking for.

As I looked around this property, I realized that the seller might not get the price he was hoping for, which he had primarily based on the selling price of the (very nicely updated) home next door, without a more detailed look at the local market.

What Mistakes Did the Seller Make That You Can Avoid?

The owner currently lived out of state and had just come back into town to get the home ready to sell.

• He selected finishes that may be typical for where he lives, but aren’t typical for where this house is.
• The new cabinets, carpet and flooring all looked dated, despite being brand new.
• He left in a seriously ugly, 1970s-style partial room divider between the family room and the eat-in kitchen when an open floor plan would have made the home seem more current.

The Impact of Not Knowing The Local Market

In an area where the typical buyer is younger and trendier, this house will probably sit for a while.

The premium price tag means a lot of buyers will skip it based on the amount of work they think it still needs.

I’ve seen the competition in the area, and have evaluated the characteristics of the properties that have sold quickly vs. the characteristics of the ones that haven’t.

Fit-and finish clearly matter if a seller wants top dollar.

Home Selling Tips: How to Save The Mistake

At this point, all of the new finishes were already selected and installed.

The best next course of action would be to:

Remember, you can’t fix a home’s location, but you can put it’s best foot forward:
Clean it, Fix it and Stage It, and sooner rather than later, someone new will be thrilled to call it HOME.

When I need my paint fix, which is quite frequent, I go visit him and his co-worker John, at the store on Anderson Mill in Northwest Austin. I’ve recently realized just how interesting these visits are – not only do I get to “talk shop” with them, I also get to live vicariously through the interior and exterior house painting and home remodeling of their other customers.

A typical visit goes like this:

I bring in my project du jour, chat with Dale and John while selecting paint colors, and then wait patiently (ok, not so patiently, if you know me) while they mix it up. Invariably, other customers come in, paint color strips, fabric or design magazine in hand, and start their paint color selection process.

And then the fun begin! When the customers start talking, I get to hear all about their home, the room(s) they are painting and sooner or later, their friends’ projects, their neighborhood and so on. LOVE IT!!!! This paint store is a treasure trove of ideas for choosing house paint colors and sells some of the best house paint available in the local market.

I love it when people decide to go with the good stuff- paint that will last long past when the homeowner decides to re-paint to a different color or style. It is no fun at all to have to re-paint a room just because the paint job didn’t perform as expected, which can happen if you choose house paint that doesn’t conform to the actual use requirements of the room or spaces being painted.

Which brings me to the premise of this post: all house paints are NOT the same!! The most frequent thing I hear with regards to paint in this line of business is that paint is paint is paint, and that as long as you can get a paint sample or paint color chip matched into the brand you want (frequently chosen primarily by price), you’re good to go. NO!

Paint quality runs the gamut from really really poor performance characteristics to really really good. For some paint jobs, like painting the inside of an outdoor shed that will be filled with gardening tools, knock yourself out with the cheap stuff. Ditto for kids’ projects that will outlast their interest regardless of the quality of the paint. I am also a huge fan of $5-a-can spray paint for painting things that would otherwise be destined for Goodwill or the Salvation Army: sometimes even cheap paint can extend the life of something that is nearing the end of its useful life (style-wise) in my home.

If you’re painting a space in your home where you really want the paint job to hold up to a lot of abuse, however, you really do need to go with a high-quality interior paint that performs how you need it to. For most interior and exterior paint house paint jobs, the cost of the paint pales in comparison to the cost of house painting services. Even if you paint your home yourself, the time (your own labor) and expense (painting supplies, in addition to the paint) you will incur can be extensive, depending on the size of the job. If you call in a professional painting company to give you an interior or exterior house painting estimate, ask them to break out the charges so you can see how much of the total cost of the job is labor and how much is the cost of the paint. You may be surprised. A house remodel I’m working on this week includes repainting the exterior of the house. Of the several thousand dollars in that line item of the bid from the contractor selected for the job, only $190 was for the actual paint! We upgraded to a better quality paint, from Hill Country Paint (Benjamin Moore), for a difference of less than $100 of the total cost of the job. The paint we selected will hold up much much better than the cheap contractor-grade paint that was part of the original bid.

You may ask, what are the characteristics of good paint vs not-so-good paint?

When Consumer Reports tests paint, they report on the following characteristics:

• Hiding (how well does each coat hide the paint underneath? How many coats are required?)
• Surface Smoothness (can you see roller marks when the paint is dry?)
• Staining (can the paint resist a greasy stain, like those chicken-wing eating kid hands in your home?)
• Scrubbing (does the paint hold up to an abrasive cleaner, or does it come off on the sponge or cloth?)
• Gloss Change (does the paint’s sheen, or gloss-level change after it has been cleaned? Do you see the marks?)
• Sticking (does the paint dry completely, or does it retain a little bit of tackiness?)
• Mildew (does the paint inhibit mildew growth? Does it have additives specifically formulated to enhance this characteristic?)
• Fading (does the paint fade over time when exposed to UV light, including sunlight?)
• Claimed VOC’s (mg per liter of Volatile Organize Compounds, the stinky stuff that hurts your brain and the environment, among other things)

An on-line subscription to Consumer Reports is money well-spent: the cost of the subscription ($25-ish) is far far less than the cost of even cheap paint to re-paint a room before its time, and you can look up all sorts of other products you’re going to be purchasing this year! Whoo-hoo!

A fantastic selection of publications on paint quality and paint characteristics can be had from the Paint Quality Institute’s Continuing Education Plublications page.

Personally, I only use Benjamin Moore in my own home. I have used Kelly Moore, Sherwin Williams, Behr and a bunch of others over the last 20 years and have just decided where my performance-to-price balance lies. Most of the interior paint in my home is the Regal Matte (highly scrubbable). As I cycle through and re-paint (for design changes, not because the paint failed), I now used the newer Benjamin Moore Aura paint whenever I can. The public opinion on this is split: some people hate it, some people love it. Personally, I think the folks in the former category probably didn’t use the right tools and/or didn’t follow the instructions: the application techniques are not the same as for other paints. Some folks are also dismayed by the price ($55/gallon). Why do I love it? The finished paint is GORGEOUS! There are a lot of excellent paints and paint companies out there, so do your research and pick the brand that YOU love!

Paint quality comes up even when picking products for other parts of a home remodeling project. I was at Toluca Granite (off North Lamar) this afternoon digging through remnants for some tables I’m going to have custom-made and was talking to myself about what color and kind of paint to use for the bases. Metallic? Gunmetal Grey? Black? What is best for metal? Can I do metallic-on-metal-with-a-sparkly-granite-top? The owner of Toluca Granite gave her two cents worth, and the paint conversation was off and running! She recently painted her new (old) house in a combination of Aura in the spaces were she was certain of the colors and in several colors of a less expensive Kelly Moore paint in the rooms where she is likely to re-paint soon, possibly even this summer. This was a win-win for her: a low-risk way for her to audition some colors without incurring substantial cost in the not-certain rooms while using a super-durable paint in the high-traffic main areas of her home.

This post is getting ridiculously long to not have any more photos, so I’ll sneak you a peek at my daughter’s room, painted last year in two fabulous colors of purple, in the Benjamin Moore Aura, matte finish:

[View with PicLens]

This room is a classic example of letting the paint do the work. We cleared out the room, hit it with a single coat of each color, touched up the few missed spots and called it done. The paint is absolutely opaque and you can’t see roller marks, brush marks, or any of the touch-ups. Because the bedding is almost all white, and the zebra throws are inexpensive (but oh, so smooth and silky) from Stein Mart, the paint is really what makes the room. I don’t think a lesser-quality paint could carry off this color and not look tacky.

So, now that you know that all paint is not the same, here is a fantastic source for further reading:

The Paint Quality Institute educates consumers, contractors and retailers on the advantages of using the highest quality paints and coatings. PQI has testing facilities in 14 different sites worldwide where paint formulations are subjected to real-life conditions and their performance monitored over time. The PQI Spring House in Pennsylvinia has 30,000 panels and over 120,000 paints on exposure!

If it seems like I’m promoting this one particular store (meaning Hill Country Paint, an Austin business of three stores, actually) store, you may be wondering, what’s in it for her (or, for me)?

Fair question, and I’m glad to share.

These past few weeks, I’ve been working closely with a client to get his house on the market. The work on the home is extensive and fantastic and is turning out really really well. Over the weekend, however, we hit what could have been a huge stumbling block: all of the old cans of paint that had been in the garage had been disposed of earlier, and the saved sample cans of the interior paint we had set aside for reference had mistakenly been disposed of as well. No one had a sample of the original trim paint – so we didn’t know the brand, color or sheen of the trim paint and we needed to paint some new sections of trim to match the original. I had a pretty good inkling it was Benjamin Moore paint because the owners had been under my influence 4 years earlier when they chose the original trim paint.

Without being certain, however, it was starting to look like all of the trim would have to be re-painted, to make sure it matched. This is a decent-sized house and it has a lot of trim, including crown moulding. Re-painting would have been a huge, expensive job and would have thrown the entire project off-schedule (as if the rain wasn’t already killing us!). I pulled two sections of door casing off two different areas of the house and spent two hours working with John at Hill Country Paint to match the paint. First he tested it to determine it was latex and not oil, then he opened can after can after can of different formulations and sheen until he found the match. After that, he incrementally adjusted the tint until he had a near perfect match to the original.

I took the piece of door casing that was half-and-half (half new, half old) to the General Contractor for the job and asked if it looked good to him. He studied it and asked if it was the old, or the new . . . and I said, “you tell me”! I am not kidding when I say that we studied it in different light at different angles and couldn’t tell which side was which! YAY! As a REALTOR, I am obligated to protect the best interests of my clients. In this case, knowing a bit more than average about paint saved my customer hundreds of dollars and a significant amount of time.

A few more images from my last visit to the store:

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If you live in Austin or the surrounding communities, and you’re considering re-painting all, or part of your house, drop by Hill Country Paint and chat with Dale Darveau, the Manager of the stores. Dale can help you pick the right paint quality formulation for your job as well as go over your paint color selections. If you have a favorite paint store and your own local Paint Guy (or Paint Gal), I’d love to hear about them! After all, when you customize your house, and that includes paint, you’re making your house your HOME.

Surely your home is more energy efficient than this one? If not, you need to jump on some of the 2011 Federal Tax Credits for energy efficiency upgrades!

The Texas Mail-in Appliance Rebate Program ended in March, but you can still get in on some of the Federal Tax Credits for certain upgrades.

We have another blazing hot Texas summer ahead of us. In addition to checking out these different programs listed below, make sure you also do the basic energy-efficiency things for your home – turn off lights, replace old bulbs with more efficient ones, and keep the A/C at a moderate setting and not at freezer-cold.

Federal Tax Credits for 2011 for Energy Efficiency

EnergyStar has prepared a nice summary page with detailed information about what credits are offered and how to qualify.

Be sure to read the fine print – these credits are worth pursuing but some are more complicated than others.

What is included in the Tax Credit?

If money seems to be escaping through drafty windows, doors, and skylights, this federal tax credit might make energy-efficient replacements more affordable. Does it feel like money is escaping through your home’s drafty windows, doors, and skylights? You might be able to keep at least some of that cash in your pocket by taking advantage of federal energy tax credits for retrofitting your house with qualified energy-efficient replacements. You can claim a tax credit of up to $1,500 for upgrading the windows, exterior doors, and skylights in your primary residence during 2009 and 2010.

The credit is based on 30% of the cost of materials, so a $5,000 purchase would max it out. But a tax credit alone isn’t reason enough to start calling contractors. Do a little homework first. The true value of replacing aging windows, doors, and skylights isn’t always an open-and-shut case.

Follow the 15-year rule for windows

A good rule of thumb for window replacement: Don’t bother if they’re less than 15 years old, says Jim Rooney, a home inspector in Annapolis, Md. The savings on your energy bills likely will be negligible since window technology hasn’t changed that radically and the integrity of your windows should still be intact. Shoddy installation or poor manufacturing may call for exceptions to the 15-year rule. Windows that are 20, 30, or more years old are prime candidates for replacement. Read More of this Article on Houselogic.com

It all began with a pan of smoking bacon grease.

A few weeks earlier, my soon-to-be ex had left a pan of bacon grease on a still-hot burner and in the ensuing chaos of the smoke-filled kitchen, the pan had caught on fire. The hot pan melted a part of the laminate counter near the stove and on this bright sunny day in June, with my soon-to-be ex in Pennsylvania for the summer, I stood contemplating the burn marks, and the attempted repair of the counter with a plastic paint (no, not by me).

My mind wandered between the messed-up counter and my job search, and scrolled through my to-do list for the day. What should I do today? I should get my career back on track after several years as a stay-at-home Mom. I should take some night-school classes to get current on a few topics. I should clean the garage. I should make a list of all the things that need to be fixed around the house and start fixing them.

And then I thought of a line from “Sex and the City” where Carrie wonders how much time women spend “should-ing all over ourselves”.

Should-ing All Over Ourselves
I realized I should do a lot of things that day, just like I’ve spent most of the days of my life doing the things I should do, whether I want to do them or not.

Instead, I ripped out the kitchen counters.

And so began another home remodeling project.

The Tale Behind the Tale

Let me give you some background.

My Northwest Austin kitchen was original – vintage 1982. Dark brown cabinets (but good quality), ivory laminate counters, and a seriously, seriously ugly vinyl floor. It was clean at best, but depressing at worst. In the summer of 2005, I needed to be surrounded by pretty, not ugly.

My kitchen remodel became a turning point, from doing what I should, to doing what I wanted, while still keeping in mind the needs of my family, and the realities of life and finances. Once upon a time I would have repaired the kitchen counter in the most practical of ways – by replacing it with another laminate and calling it done. Instead, I went FABULOUS, and re-did almost the entire kitchen.

By doing a lot of the work myself, and working hard on deals with vendors and tradesmen, I managed to get it done on a reasonable budget.

While working on the kitchen, I bonded with neighbors, sang a lot of songs at the top of my lungs, and learned a whole heck of a lot about the contrast between what looks easy on HGTV (all of it!) and what isn’t so easy when you’re doing it yourself at midnight and the caffeine is wearing off (most of it!).

Before: The Original Kitchen

Here are a few photos of the original kitchen:

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Taking the kitchen part, of course, was way easier than getting it back together. It would have helped if I had had a plan, but I didn’t. This was a spontaneous remodel. As a master planner of every little detail of everything I do (or anything anyone else does, for that matter), spontaneous is generally not part of my project vocabulary.

Some Times You Need a Plan, Sometimes You Don’t

Despite having no plan, I got lucky! So lucky!

A mom from my Girl Scout Troop gave me the name of a guy who had some guys who could come sand the cabinets and remove the rest of the counter (okay, it was a little harder than I had expected it to be, and the counter was integrated with the back splash, so that had to come out, too). After that, I kicked it into high gear – it was GAME ON!

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A salesman from a mesquite counter store called to say that a commercial customer had backed out of a big order, and would I be interested in some end-grain 2 ½” thick mesquite butcher block counters, at a discount? Why YES, I would! (So, he HAD taken me seriously when I said, “give me a call if you can ever offer a better price”!)

The mesquite salesman gave me the name of an iron guy who could make the required support structure for the counter, to keep it from cracking under pressure, of say, a small child jumping up and down on the overhanging part. Not that I have any that would do that – do you?

The iron guy, Peter Rehme, of Rehme Custom Ironwork dropped by to give me a quote.

After giving him the tour, and a run down of what I was hoping he could build, he said (I kid you not), “Alison, I have to be honest with you. I don’t do jobs this small”. After staring at him for a few moments while I considered my options, I countered with a proposal that got us both what we wanted: iron work for me, some return on his investment of time for him. Two days later, Peter and his brother showed up with the counter support, a pot rack (!!), some decorative curly brackets, a shelf for over the stove, and a support structure for the new downstairs master bathroom counter (technically, I hadn’t even taken out the old one, YET). I knew that asking for the pot rack was probably pushing my luck, but sometimes we need what we need and I knew I needed a pot rack.

Peter’s iron art evolves from basic iron bars and iron plate, not from catalog parts.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE his sense of style, and his work is top-quality. To be fair, now that I have seen quite a bit of his work, my job really was small potatoes, but I am grateful he was still willing to work me into his schedule. Keep him in mind for when you’re planning your own remodeling project – his website has a great gallery of work, including staircases, enormous gates, and lots of truly custom pieces.

The counter price, by the way, didn’t include templating (making it fit), delivery or installation. It turned into one BIG JOB to coordinate all of the elements involved to get it installed. I love how it looks but I’d think twice about putting in another one, unless ALL of the necessary services were included in the price – caveat emptor!

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The Design Center of Austin

One completely unexpected joy of this project was discovering the Austin School of Faux Finishes, in the Design Center of Austin, at old Penn Field off South Congress. The owner of the Austin School of Faux Finishes, artist Lu Goodwin Mark, has a fantastic sense of color and style. Lu teaches classes on the art of fine finishes, for walls, woodwork, cabinet and floors, some faux and some real. I promptly signed up for her classes on European Plasters, plus one on glazes (taught by local master artist Pat Strong) and one on SkimStone, a product that looks like venetian plaster for the floor. After years of classes in hard science (Chemistry!), taking one just for the pleasure of learning a decorative skill was really really rewarding.

If you haven’t visited the Design Center of Austin, take an afternoon and go see what some local businesses have to offer. The buildings at Penn Field house a kitchen remodeling showroom with fantastic upper-end cabinetry (ALNO), a modern lighting store (Alexander Marchant), one that sells really cool bathroom fixtures and another that sells high-end cabinet and door hardware, including some you won’t find elsewhere around town. The Design Center is also home to Vintage Material and Supply Company, which reclaims and sells vintage timber and lumber, including old-growth long leaf pine, sinker pine, sinker cypress, and native Texas timbers.

The Design Center of Austin is located on South Congress, West of 35 and North of 290:

View Larger Map

I must tell you, once I discovered the Design Center, my eyes opened WIDE. Actually, I think I started hyperventilating. This place will greatly expand what you recognize is possible when designing, or re-designing your own home or offices. You don’t have to go high-end with everything to end up with a gorgeous space, but a few high-end touches can really change the entire look and feel of a room.

Get Your Art On

If you’ve ever thought about taking some art classes, just DO IT. You’ll never know how good you might be at something until you try. You might make some new friends, too!

From my SkimStone class, I had the skills necessary to refinish my concrete floors. SkimStone is a hybridized portland cement and goes down in thin layers with a decorative finish trowel. The floors have to be exceptionally smooth and clean and you have to work fast, but the end result is worth the effort, and if you do the work yourself, it is very economical (under $1.00 a square foot, or even cheaper if you really plan your product usage well). Most of the first floor in my house is now covered with SkimStone, with 2″ metallic slate tile edging instead of quarter-round. It is cold in the winter, like tile, but it is durable and when you get tired of it, you can cover it up with tile, wood, vinyl or carpet without having to take it back out.

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A Really Big Sink

After the complications of getting the mesquite counter installed, I thought the rest of the remodel would be smooth sailing. I was wrong. The hardest part of the kitchen turned out to be getting the sink in place. A sink! I desperately wanted a farmhouse-style sink and in 2005, these weren’t as readily available as they are in 2009. I called all over, shopped the web and finally found one – a HUGE one – for half the going rate, freight from somewhere in the midwest included in the price! Whoo hoo!

Unfortunately, the sink didn’t arrive on the scheduled day, and with the granite counter guys scheduled to arrive the next morning, I was pulling my hair out. I finally got hold of the carrier, located the sink on a loading dock in San Antonio and talked them into staying open just a little bit late so I could come fetch. One kind friend signed up for the ride (wouldn’t you?) and we drove down to San Antonio. When we got there I asked the one worker left if he could just “throw it in the back” of my wagon for me and he just smiled like I was nuts. It took a forklift to get it into my car and we drove like a low-rider all the way home.

[View with PicLens]

[View with PicLens]

After: An Old Kitchen, Updated

And, here are the final shots of the kitchen. If I can get it cleaned up again this week, I’ll take a few more, from some of the original spots for comparison!

[View with PicLens]

[View with PicLens]

Folks walking their dogs stopped to chat and watch me paint cabinet doors in the driveway (for the kitchen, after a class on faux painting). Others wanted to know what I was cutting up with the table saw on a bright sunny day (a new bathroom counter, mesquite, locally milled). Other days, it was the tarps outside covered with spray-painted silver metallic boards (a luggage shelf for the garage) that captured someone’s attention.

A few days before I met Frank, however, the scene was a little more dramatic.

Let me tell you a little of the back story of my home, to help you catch up.

My house, purchased in 2004, was vintage 1983. Brown. Gold. Swag-chained globe lights. Dark trim, dark paneling. Flat white walls and a pool-table-bar-light gone wrong in the upstairs gameroom. Although the home had been meticulously maintained, it was U.G.L.Y.

One day, deep in the throes of my need for distraction from my pending divorce, I woke up and realized the downstairs half bath counter and sink had to GO. NOW. The counter was a dark cultured marble that had been painted (painted!) white. The paint was chipping, the doors were warped, the knobs were PLASTIC.

I ripped it out. All of it, including the toilet. Why stop when you’re having fun? The drywall guy working on the walls in the kitchen was wise – he ignored the noise coming from that end of the house, even though it took me an hour to smash the counter into pieces small enough to get through the doorway. The cabinet was a little too heavy to pick up all by myself, so I dragged it, inch by inch, out the front door and on to the porch. YAY!

A few days later, I had ordered a new sink and a new faucet and when they arrived, I got down to the business of installing them. How hard can it be, I thought? I’m reasonably intelligent, and I have a Plumbing Book With Pictures and Illustrations! The new faucet was a wall-mounted one, a commercial style, with a swing arm. Very cool. The sink was a GIGANTIC surgeons plaster sink, which I intended to put to use as both a utility sink, bathroom sink and occasional toddler bathtub.

Let me tell you – shoulda woulda coulda. I shoulda ordered a normal faucet. I woulda ordered a normal sink. I coulda hired the plumber right away. Instead, I did it myself, and when I went out to the street to turn the water to the house back on, I inadvertently left the shut-off valve for the pipes open and as I came back in to the house, I could see – and hear – water shooting out of the bathroom door, flooding the bathroom, the hallway and part of the adjacent bedroom.

30 minutes and 30 bath towels later, thanks to several neighbors, I had the water mopped up, fans running to dry the spaces and one huge plumbing lesson under my belt: make sure the shut-off valve is actually shut-off before turning on the water. To this day, I can imagine what Kelley (across the street) might have thought when I came running out of the house to turn the water back off, wild-eyed, wild-haired and soaked to the bone.

Because I am not one to back down from a challenge, the water to my house was off for two days. Two Days. I went back and forth to Lowe’s and Home Depot, because I just couldn’t get the valves properly attached to the pipes – no matter what, they leaked. Finally, in desperation, I called Frank The Plumber, and in about an hour, he had it all back together.

Now, why is this story supposed to be empowering?

Although this adventure wasn’t at the beginning of my single-homeowner journey, it marked a turning point for me. I didn’t get these valves in correctly, but I did manage to get the next ones on right, and the ones after that. I learned how to operate a plumbing blow-torch, and why that particular job should be left to a pro. I learned that I CAN do a lot of things myself, but that it’s okay to call for help when you need it. With Frank’s permission, I examined his toolbox, and then acquired a lot of the basic tools of the trade for my own tool box, and learned how to fix most of my run-of-the-mill plumbing issues, so that I am not dependent on someone who may-or-may not be around to fix something at 10pm on a weekend. Last year, I even installed my own pedestal sink while waiting for another plumber who could never manage to show up on time. I even did that one in heels and a skirt because I didn’t actually intend to put in the sink, but was just doing what I could after work, before the plumber arrived, and then realized I could do it all myself! YAY!

So if you’re ever wondering if you can do something, just remember, You Can Do It, Yes You Can!

Check out the photos!

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Resources:

The Austin School of Faux Finishes taught me how to do the SkimStone on the floor. The owner, Lu Goodwin Mark, is a great resource for all faux finishes, and real ones, too. The classes on plasters and glazes are very interesting and instructive.

The wall paint is Palladian Blue by Benjamin Moore. I patronize my local Benjamin Moore dealer, Hill Country Paint on Anderson Mill. Check out these other fabulous spaces that use Palladian Blue.

The Train Rack on the wall came from Restoration Hardware.

The faucet is from Chicago Faucets. Although I LOVE this faucet, I would never try to install one myself again – you really need a master plumber to get the spacing and anchoring right in the wall.