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remodeling 1930's tudor

17 years ago

I just purchased (at auction) a 3200 square-foot Tudor home in a great neighborhood-for about 20% of what it will be worth after a sizeable amount of mostly cosmetic improvements. Most of the homes in the neighborhood are in tip-top shape and worth well over $350,000 (I got this for $67000 at auction-this is the Midwest, not California!) and this is in a sought-after older city neighborhood here.

Among other things, the ENTIRE house (and I mean entire-even the bathrooms and kitchen) was covered in 1970's snot-green shag carpeting! Under the carpet was PAINTED hardwood floors. It does have large baseboards and nice crown moldings, once I repaint the blue-green color this crazy old lady who owned it used.

Rather than refinish the floors, I was thinking that I might use 3/8" Solid Brazilian Cherry plank flooring, probably in 4" width from Launstein in the dining room, living room, and den, and possibly in other rooms too. On one hand, I don't want the house to look odd for the period in which it was built, but at the same time, I think with the painted tall baseboards and crown moldings (that I will repaint of course) the BC would look great, and hold up better than American Cherry, and be more "interesting" than oak. I want this place to be a nice mix of modern and classic. What does everyone here think?

The kitchen currently has plain, ugly metal cabinets and I'll probably replace those with cherry or hickory as well, just FYI, although I am working on the flooring first, before I move in completely.

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Comments (2)

joeschmoe80
Original Author
17 years ago
For curiosity's sake...here's some other items I'll have to address:

-Landscaping-the house was abandoned for 2 years and the entire yard (was) overgrown. I ran a mower over it but it needs a LOT of attention! Might shoot over to the Gardening forum for help there. First though I want to be able to live in it, then we'll worry about that!

-Furnace and Central A/C unit-both shot-being replaced as we speak (the heating/cooling guy is there right now while I'm at work)

-windows and doors-the windows are horribly insulated, and here I have a dilemma. Do I go with cheap, energy efficient white vinyl, and make sure I paint the trim to match, or spend three times as much on wood windows that are more suited to the period? I think I can get away with GOOD vinyl as long as I match the paint color of the trim well enough. While I will spend top dollar in some areas I would like to cut corners where I can. Exterior doors are rotting, I'd like to go with steel or fiberglass if I can make them look good with the decor. The photo below is the basic jist of what I would like the interior to look like.

-bathrooms - Two full and two half baths, one is so bad it looks like something out of a bad horror flick, the other three are usable but just need freshened up.

-exterior - needs a power wash and probably paint. That's a project I want to do before fall.

-basement - dry, but dirty. Looks like it was flooded at some point. Foundation is solid, but I do want to waterproof it to be safe.

-much more...but you get the drift!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1548716}}
lhf79
17 years ago
Curious as to what you have been doing with your new home? We, too, have purchased a tudor (1925)in need of repair.
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