How Nice?
So, I'm about to have my first fixer under contract and am wondering if you all could help me with some of the specifics as to how nice to fix it up?
It's an older house, about 60 years old, has hardwood floors and nice, large baseboards. The outside is great. The seller bought it and started fixing it up, but now they are relocating. The baseboards have a lot of dripping paint from a (probably many) shoddy paint job(s). Do I replace the baseboards & trim or do I scrape them off with a shaving tool? Also, how nice of cabinets do you put in the kitchen? The kitchen has to be completely redone. I am thinking lower end laminates that look nice & I think that will be good enough for the home/neighborhood.
Do I refinish the floors or cover them with carpet? My husband wants to cover all of the floors, but I suggested just the bedrooms.
The last concern of mine is the textured walls in the bathroom. They are very, very textured, to the point where if you scraped yourself on the wall, you would cause pain. Is there a way to get rid of this or do I need to replace the sheet rock?
Thanks for any advice! :-D
I uncovered some hardwood in the multi I'm currently rehabbing and I felt like I hit the jackpot! Refinishing hardwood is economical in the long term--compared to professionally cleaning/replacing carpet repeatedly. But whether or not I decide to refinish or recarpet would depend on how long I plan to keep the property, of course. Just my opinion.
As far as the trim goes, I'd just sand it and repaint it.
As far as the bath walls, can you just knock the texture down a bit? Unless you do it yourself, replacing the drywall probably won't be very cost effective, unless there's something wrong with what's in there (mold, rot, etc). And if you do it yourself, it's a very tedious and time-consuming and messy process if you're not very well practiced.
This is all assuming you're using it as a rental, of course!
As far as the cabinets, I've not had to go there (fortunately!) Although they're somewhat dated, all of my unit have solid wood cabinets. Some have needed a few good coats of paint to make them more marketable, others are ok as-is. Just be careful with laminates--if they're not really good cabinets, the laminates may chip/crack/peal and moisture will cause the particle board underneath to swell. That's a mess that even paint can't really hide!
Just my 2cents!
:-D
Everybodies opinions on what level you should rehab this property to are just guesses. You aren't done with your due dilligence yet. Before buying the place part of your job was to tour as many houses for sale close by it to see what the level of condition was and what they were selling for based on those conditions. At that point you could have made your offer based on knowing exactly what amount of money you would put into the house and what it would sell for based on the amount poured in.
Start looking at for sale homes close by and get a feel for the competition. If every house for sale has 6 different colors of carpet and are selling, and yours has 3 colors then leave the carpet alone. If you have 10 different colors of carpet, do something about it to bring it to the current competitions levels.