tallguy
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Post by tallguy on Aug 18, 2012 6:49:40 GMT -5
This is a very timely thread for me. I've actually been planning to do some things and I've got the $50,000 sitting waiting. My problem is that I've never been one to spend much just for me, or to replace or re-do something that is "good enough." I should replace some of the fascias under the roofline, and I'd like to re-do two bathrooms. I could put in new carpeting, but I bought a carpet cleaner and feel like I should use that everywhere first. And I could do new paint, but I've always done that myself....
The other wants I did when I was married. Sun room (enclosed deck) with hot tub, pool table, big TV.... Nothing else I want badly enough to justify spending the money for just me, so I'll probably wait a while and see if I bring anyone else into the house first.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2012 9:03:27 GMT -5
You guys are way too practical.
The answer is always secret room with a bookcase for a door.
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Peace77
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Post by Peace77 on Aug 18, 2012 9:06:58 GMT -5
I forgot: I want a solar powered attic fan.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2012 10:34:06 GMT -5
"The answer is always secret room with a bookcase for a door. " Cool! I really wanted one of those as a kid. I think I read too many Nancy Drew books.
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Gardening Grandma
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Post by Gardening Grandma on Aug 18, 2012 11:03:12 GMT -5
I was a Nancy Drew fan too!!
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lurkyloo
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“Time means nothing now,” said Toad. “It is just the thing that happens between snacks.”
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Post by lurkyloo on Aug 18, 2012 12:36:26 GMT -5
Dammit sarah! We have 50K allotted for getting back to 20% if we refinance...but now I totally want a secret room with a bookcase door instead (It's not even impractical either; we REALLY need a new bookcase ) Let's see, 50K to blow: frankly what I really want is an interior designer to come in and tell us how to make our living room look like grownups live here. I'd also like to swap out finishes in the hall bath because I really hate the tile and totally redesign the master bath. The former should be relatively cheap; the latter is going to be more involved...sometimes "built to last" just means "really hard to remove dated 80s style". Anything leftover I'd rip out and resod the lawn, and put in a nice patio setup. Some/most of these things we're going to do anyway but it'd be really nice to hand off the jobs to someone else and get it done all at once. Oh, and my real dream: remove the upper half of the wall that separates the kitchen from the living room so I can watch TV while I cook. I kinda doubt we'll ever get to that.
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jeffreymo
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Post by jeffreymo on Aug 18, 2012 12:37:33 GMT -5
Remodel our 2.5 baths, granite for kitchen counter, replace our carpet, redo the drywall in a few spots, smoothe out the popcorn ceilings, repaint the entire house. I'd only recoup maybe 20 of the 50k on the listing price. If I really did have 50k, I'd bring it to the table when we sold because we're underwater on our mortgage.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2012 13:53:56 GMT -5
If there was an extra $50,000 to spend on my house I would start with landscaping. We just got a bid for $30k to do a large part of it, including boulder retaining walls and a flagstone patio off of our walkout master bedroom. Next I would replace the carpet in the family room with hardwood floors ($2500 if we do it ourselves). We also want to replace the fireplace in the family room with a high efficiency model that can heat the whole house ($8000).
That leaves enough to do replace the carpet in my son's room that the dog chewed up when she was accidentally locked in his room for a few hours and for granite counters in my kitchen and bar. I could finally get rid of that awful tile/grout combination that is a complete PITA to clean!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2012 18:17:27 GMT -5
Outside living stuff - gazebo, slate patio, terraced garden with water plumbed over for the tomatoes! New lawn & someone to maintain it. There, I think I spent that pretty quick!
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milee
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Post by milee on Aug 18, 2012 18:32:14 GMT -5
You guys are way too practical. The answer is always secret room with a bookcase for a door. At the industrial park where we first set up our manufacturing business in Tempe, none of us could figure out what one of the neighboring businesses did. They had a weird logo that looked like the radioactive symbol and a nondescript name. After weeks of talk and making bets, I couldn't stand it any more and walked on over... It was a very awkward, nerdy guy that made custom secret entrances for rooms in high end houses. He showed me some of the projects he was working on - one was a fireplace that would swing completely open to reveal a hidden room and to signal the door to open, you had to place chess pieces in a certain way on a chess board. Another was a staircase that opened into a secret passage, don't remember how that was opened. Anyway, he was very cool, like a mad scientist.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2012 20:23:25 GMT -5
"one was a fireplace that would swing completely open to reveal a hidden room and to signal the door to open, you had to place chess pieces in a certain way on a chess board. " Way, way cool!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2012 8:23:54 GMT -5
Something tells me that was more than $50,000, but I totally want it.
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milee
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Post by milee on Aug 19, 2012 8:38:23 GMT -5
I think this was the guy, but he's obviously gotten some help with his logo and company name. hiddenpassageway.com/contact/#!/gallery/ From a 2006 NY Times article: Steven Humble is the owner and chief engineer of Creative Home Engineering, a two-year-old business in Tempe, Ariz., that specializes in mechanized doors that conceal rooms or safes. He echoed others in the business in saying that his customers are evenly split between those who plan to use their hidden rooms for security (either to hide valuables or to hide themselves in an emergency) and those who just think they are “really cool.” His company has built about 25 customized doors, bookcases, safes and assorted pieces, for new and remodeled homes, including a fireplace with a rear wall that swings open to reveal a room beyond, for a house in Arkansas. Prices run from about $5,000 to $25,000. Last month Mr. Humble installed a pair of hidden doors in a house in a town north of Sioux Falls, S.D., for ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” “Whether it’s for home security or people’s images of living like James Bond, it seems to be something people respond to,” he said.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2012 10:39:51 GMT -5
Thanks for the link Milee, very cool!
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Gardening Grandma
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Post by Gardening Grandma on Aug 19, 2012 12:21:31 GMT -5
Reminds me of a house I went to a party to back in the 70's. Really well off people often had bomb shelters in their basement. (Goes back to the cold war days).
This home owner had sunk a two car train and converted it into a deluxe apartment - all below ground and completely hidden.... It was very cool.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2012 15:25:40 GMT -5
Library room is so pre-2010..
I'd pay for 1/2 my landscaping.
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kimber45
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Post by kimber45 on Aug 20, 2012 10:58:22 GMT -5
With 50k, i'd hire someone to come in and redo our kitchen and both bathrooms instead of doing it ourselves. I would still probably have money left over though, so I think I would have our concrete steps torn out and replaced with decking.
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dividend
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It's 5:00 somewhere.
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Post by dividend on Aug 20, 2012 12:27:57 GMT -5
I'd add a second bathroom on the second floor, where the bedrooms are. Then replace all the old, poorly insulated, oddly sized windows with nice new triple glass ones that open and close easy. Or, I'd turn my backyard into a sophisticated obstacle course so that DBF could train to be on American Ninja Warrior, complete with full sized warped wall and water pits. I mean, you can't be entirely practical with "found" money, right?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 20, 2012 21:33:23 GMT -5
I would replace both of my bathrooms and put down hardwood floors.
The master bath bathroom has to be replaced. I am just waiting for the $$$ to fall from the sky. A couple of years ago, the marble-like covering for one of the studs bowed. We removed it and found some rotted wood. The handyguy replaced it, but I suspect there is further damage. But to find it, the whole shower will have to be removed and replaced. It's a small bathroom and I don't want to change the floorplan (well, I do but wouldn't because of the cost) so that should be about $15,000. The other bathroom has a bathtub. I wonder, too, about it because there is some discoloration on the vinyl that makes me think water has leaked. So let's put another $15,000 there.
I want hardwoods (or at least Pergo) so that's $5,000 to $10,000. The other $10,000 would probably go to overage in the budget.
But if I could, I would also remove the loft over the dining room. Everyone always oohs and ahs, but they don't realize how useless it is. It is accessed through what is little more than a built-in ladder. To put furniture up there, you would have to push a box up the stairs or carry it up in pieces. The ceiling forms a sharp triangle so there is only one point in the room that is high enough to stand up. We put a Christmas tree up there, but that's about all it is good for. It isn't even good storage because it is so open that people's eyes would be drawn to boxes or whatever.
The living room is a simple A-frame and that should have been extended. I know they didn't do it primarily to be able to hang a dining room fixture. But they hung a fixture in the living room. It could have been done.
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Post by Steady As She Goes on Aug 22, 2012 18:49:08 GMT -5
Go Solar. Finish Zero Scaping (or close to it) the back yard. Insulate the rest of the house. Finish the patio and install the pergola.
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Post by mox on Aug 22, 2012 19:04:26 GMT -5
New roof and furnace...replace garage doors. Carpet in a few rooms. Otherwise, it is in really good, updated shape. Roof and furnace have no issues, but could use replacing with extra money... Now that poochie is gone, new carpet in two main rooms...I'd have change left over.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2012 18:44:44 GMT -5
I'd redo the kitchen (which is nearly 30 years old) and repaint the LR / DR area (cathedral ceiling, so it's not cheap). I'd probably redo the third and last bathroom (also vintage 1984). And I'd replace the carpeting in our bedroom. Everything else has already been done or redone.
I would probably have about 15K left over.
I wish!!!
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