Remodelling Question

[bean29]

Yesterday there was an article on MSN's home page about remodelling costs. I am sure I read that you should finish any new rooms as close to the existing house as possible. We are in the process of finishing our basement. It has a partial exposure and a door so the square footage will count as living area when it is done. It is an Office with a closet (could easily be a bedroom) has a window, A storage room, a family room with a window and a door to the outside, a kitchen with a window, a full bathroom and a bedroom with nice size closet and a window.

DH has been working on it all for a few years, and now that he is close to finishing it, he is balking at staining the doors. Our upstairs has Oak woodwork and trim. DH wants to put painted woodwork and doors in the basement, but use wood cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom. I recently saw an upscale house like this and thought it would be OK, but after I read the MSN piece I am second guessing my decision.

So, do you think it will be ok to use painted doors and trim? (Basement will have 8 doors. It is about 1600 square feet.) We do not plan to rent it out.

As others have noted, we will never get 100% of what we put into it out of it at resale, but we do want it to look good. We are doing this for us - we plan to be here a long time.

Modified to change Remodel ling to Remodelling thanks for the help spell check, but I think my original was correct.

[hoops902]

" It has a partial exposure and a door so the square footage will count as living area when it is done."

Are you sure? There are generally more requirements than simply partial exposure and a door. Hate to see you do all that work only to find out it doesn't meet the requirements.

[Waffle]

Yes, I think it would be ok to have painted doors and trim. I've gone through Homerama tours and seen the main and upper floors with stained wood and the basements with painted. They looked good.

[qofcc]

I think it's ok and pretty common to have two different but complimentary trim styles in two different levels of the house. Many times people put a higher level of trim on the main floor in the public areas and use cheaper but complimentary trim in the upper & lower levels. You don't want to mix styles in rooms that are on the same floor or flow together. That being said, you should aim for a similar feel to the decor. You don't want the upstairs to be really traditional and the basement to be really modern or something like that.

[8 Bit WWBG]

If you are going to be there for a long time, you'll get your moneys worth out of the upgrade and can do what you want. Doors can be unhinged and replaced, and trim can be replaced easily as well. Its not like we are talking different styles of tiling or hardwood that would be a lot of trouble to rip up and change.

[Deleted]

I think it is perfectly normal to have different trim on different levels of the house. I think you can even change things up between rooms on a single level if you put some thought into the transition spaces.

The only tricky space will probably be at the top or bottom of the stairs where the trim changes. But as long as you have a doorway or logical visual break, you should be good to go.

[bean29]

Thanks for the feedback.

Hoops, the builder that built our house is doing similar upgrades in some of their models, it add $60,000 + to the value of the house. We will have more square footage and a larger kitchen/bar area. We expect it to cost us less than $30,000 when all is said and done. We pulled permits and all the plumbing and electric has been inspected and approved.

My decor will be similar upstairs and downstairs. Closet Maid Closets in the upstairs. Closet Maid (White) in the lower storage area, I am contemplating a Closet System from Lowes for the office because they have a variety of shallow drawers that would be good for storage of paper and other office products. I don't know if that one comes in white. I may do the closet system in a light cherry or a walnut color.

I lean to Modern decor, although I do own a few antiques that I am trying to decide if I should keep or get rid of.

I have a dresser that belonged to my Great Aunt that is dated from about 1900 by my Mom. I was seeking her permission to get rid of it, but when she told me how old it was, and that she knew it's history, I started to lean to keep it.

I also have my Grandmother's bedroom set (double bed, tall dresser, vanity and cedar chest). The cedar chest is in my bedroom and I will not get rid of it (I re-purposed it, it is a TV stand for our 42" TV.). The dresser and vanity are in my basement. Vanity needs refinishing the tall dresser really does too. It is Birdseye maple I think. I put it on craigslist once, and had lots of interest, but never got rid of it because I have no idea how to determine its value.

This was my Grandparent's bedroom set. I asked for the vanity - and got the complete set. If I refinish it, I would put it in the spare bedroom. It is a much higher quality than today's furniture dates to the Mid 1930's. I would not see it as not looking Modern, because lots of bedroom sets today have similar styling.

[Deleted]

I would keep the antique/vintage pieces if you like them. Combining modern and a few antiques can look quite good and is far more interesting than matchy-matchy sets of furniture that you're replacing every few years.

Besides who doesn't like a good story associated with a piece of furniture?

[bean29]

OK, well this is taking my thread in a different direction, but has anyone ever refinished Birdseye maple? Will it take a new finish OK?

My mom has had pieces dipped to remove the finish, but it was a dining room set, and it loosened up the glue. she ended up getting rid of it after 10 years or so, because the chairs were not stable. But the good news it that the dresser drawers on the bedroom set have those (tongue and groove?) corners.

[qofcc]

There's nothing wrong with mixing modern & vintage FURNITURE, what I meant was you should avoid mixing modern & traditional FIXTURES, things that are permanently attached to the house... cabinets, trim, door knobs, light fixtures, plumbing fixtures, etc.

[2kids10horses]

The more the "fit and finish" of the basement resembles the main living quarters of the house, the higher the perceived value. If the basement finish looks "added on" or looks like the homeowner did it himself, it will be less well perceived.

If you have stain grade stained molding upstairs, but put in paint grade molding downstairs, but then stain it... that would be worse than painting it.

To give you an example: My house has natural cherry floors. Not stained, but installed, sanded, then polyurathaned. They darkened over time. The master bedroom also had the cherry floors but the secondary bedrooms were carpeted. We decided to remove the carpet and install hardwood floors. The flooring people wanted to install prefinished cherry flooring. Problem is, it wouldn't match the existing. We insisted that they install unfinished flooring, sand it, and polyurathane it just like the existing hardwoods. (Yes, it was a pain dealing with the dust for a while.) But now, you would never have known the floors were not installed at the same time. The look "original".

One of my neighbors opted for the prefinished floors when they did the same thing. There's a "spacer" to connect the two types of flooring. Yes, they did install nice prefinished flooring, but it doesn't match, and it "cheapens" the look. Just sayin'.

[thyme4change]

what I meant was you should avoid mixing modern & traditional FIXTURES, things that are permanently attached to the house... cabinets, trim, door knobs, light fixtures, plumbing fixtures, etc.

I have broken every design rule in the book. I bet my house is a nightmare to someone with a keen, trained eye.

[bean29]

LOL, QofCC, I am the daughter of a retired electrician. He taught DH how to do everything electrical we need done in the house. Just about every member of the family helped him with side jobs, so changing out light fixtures is nothing to us. The builder installed our light fixtures, DH did not like them and changed them all out the next weekend. DH now feels they burn out too often and is ready to change them all out again.

I guess it is all relative to your experience. Someone else said changing out the woodwork and doors is easy, and I don't think DH and I view that as very easy. Plumbing fixture will be similar but I definitely plan to have the doors treated so the soap scum won't stick. And I want to get the toilet that is supposed to repel dust. It is a small price to pay on the chance that it will work. My DS works in a glass shop and she says the shower door treatment does work. You can't see that it is any different than the fixtures upstairs though.

[2kids10horses]

May I ask, what shower door treatment works?

Mine are heavily calcium water spotted, and I'd LOVE to know what would clean them off!

[qofcc]

Mine are heavily calcium water spotted, and I'd LOVE to know what would clean them off!

oil. When I sold Avon, one of the tips they taught was spray some skin-so-soft on the shower door each time to keep the water spots away. Baby oil from the dollar store works just as well. If you have build up, you'll have to do it every day for a few weeks, but then the stuff will soften & come off and you can just re-apply the oil once a week or when you clean.

[2kids10horses]

Baby oil? Ok, I'll give it a try!

[bean29]

Well, with the shower door, it is a treatment they put on the door before they install it. It is done by the manufacturer.

Home Depot does have a door that has this treatment on it. It is in one of their higher end lines of doors, but not extremely expensive. It has been a few years since I shopped for shower doors. In the glass shop DS works in she has samples/models to show how it works. The coating repels the soap scum from forming/sticking to the door. DS told me to buy it at Home Depot b/c her shop is really expensive.

My parents had a shower door from her shop though b/c they tend to be stronger and there was a concern that my Dad would fall against it and he and the door would come down together. Apparently that happens a lot with elderly people - the shop gets called out a lot to do emergency installs.

[Deleted]

Regularly treating calcium and other mineral build up with white vinegar will help. But if the build up has been there for years it may have permanently etched the material.

Good luck!

[debinwa]

Jul 8, 2011 9:46:58 GMT -5 bean29 said:

OK, well this is taking my thread in a different direction, but has anyone ever refinished Birdseye maple? Will it take a new finish OK?

My mom has had pieces dipped to remove the finish, but it was a dining room set, and it loosened up the glue. she ended up getting rid of it after 10 years or so, because the chairs were not stable. But the good news it that the dresser drawers on the bedroom set have those (tongue and groove?) corners.

Maple is easy to finish, but it does NOT take stain evenly. It gets very blotchy, so leave it it's natural color.