10 Ways To Save Big Bucks When Sprucing Up Your Home
I recently did some research into remodeling my kitchen. The ballpark estimate for the work, which included moving a half bathroom and refitting all cabinets and appliances, was $100,000.
I can’t help thinking this is bordering on the absurd. Sure it could be done for that amount, and no doubt it would end up looking pretty darn fabulous. But in these straitened times, it’s become a point of pride, as well as a budgetary necessity, to score serious savings when doing up your home — whether ahead of a sale, or after you’ve just moved in.
There is always a way to make significant savings if you are prepared to do the research and know where to look. The made-over kitchen above, for example, cost just $6,000. (My Sweet Digs colleague Susan Brady will be interested to hear that, given that she is embarking on a kitchen remodel right about now.)
Sourcing used fittings, and fixing rather than buying everything new, tick environmental boxes too: why not help the planet as well as your bank balance?
Hat tip to Apartment Therapy and This Old House, therefore, for most of the ten tips below on how to work wonders on a budget:
- Perform prep work before the contractor performs the actual work — sweat equity pays.
- Buy cheaper products at places such as restaurant supply stores and Ikea, and then have them cut to size. (The granite countertops in the kitchen shown above are from Costco, for instance.)
- Avoid reaching for the credit card and ordering from high-end stores and peruse Craigslist and EBay instead. (The Bosch pro-style range in the kitchen above was bought on Craigslist for $700 and was still under warranty — it would have been $2,000 new.)
Buy embossed, paintable wallpaper (from as little as $10 a roll at Lowe’s) and use it as a faux tin ceiling (like the one pictured right) to hide cracks and unevenness.- Salvage items from dumpsters outside houses being demolished (after obtaining permission).
- Look for house-parts recycling centers in well-heeled zip codes. A growing number of them now stock gently used high-end appliances from the likes of Viking and Sub-Zero.
- Knock $500 or more off the $2,500 average installed price of a granite countertop simply by choosing a square edge instead of a much more expensive bullnose or other curved detail.
- Tap your contractor’s sources. When it comes to things like flooring, ask them if they have odds-and-ends stock left over from other jobs.
- Use the experts astutely. If your project is relatively small, you may not need the full services of an architect, for example. One design consultation may be enough to produce sketches you can hand to your contractor.
- Repair rather than replace: we live in a society used to built-in obsolescence (don’t get me started on I-Pods), but it needn’t be that way with your house or what’s in it. Fix and repaint the stucco rather than installing a whole new siding; a fresh lick of paint on a chest of drawers found at the flea market will cost a fraction of the cost of a spanking new one from Pottery Barn.
[Photo credits: Kitchen Jurgen Franck/This Old House; embossed ceiling Apartment Therapy.]
