Check out this link. It's from the McCoy Pottery Collectors' Society. The experts would be best to help with your questions and seem quite willing. Would be interested in what they advise. Pottery certainly can be confusing especially with all the repos out there. HTH... Wings Here is a link that might be useful: McCoy Pottery

mdfacc - I doubt you could 5 competent contractors (let alone 5 contractors) to bid in the OPs neck of the woods... Install is typically like $2500. Cabinets are all over the place. I hate linear feet (it is just like cost per sq foot). A 2 door cabinet that is 36in will not cost $1200 but a 36 inch cabinet with 6 drawers might. You really need upper length and lower length, number of drawers, and on an on. 3 12in cabs is much more expensive than 36in cabs which also complicates the linear foot pricing. As you become more knowledgable, you learn what you like and how expensive it all is. Some typical upcharges - glazing 10%, painted cabs - 10%. Oh you like painted and glazed - 20% so your $400 a linear foot has become $480. A basic plywood 24 inch box with basic doors might cost $500 (or $250 a linear foot). But change it to FE/soft close drawers with dovetailed wood boxes, make it drawers instead of cabinets, paint, glaze and a more complicated door and you could easily be at $1200 for the same 2 feet from the same manufacturer. I've seen even higher end places strip the cabinets to get a decent linear foot price and you get what you pay for.... BTW - turns out my cabinet manufacturer went out of business so maybe it wasn't such a good deal since I will probably have to custom make any replacement doors.... My take home is that you can easily get by with $10k but you might be at $15k without trying very hard. $8k in appliances is a decent budget for what you are shooting for. I think the best bet with a builder is to negotiate a fixed profit amount and have final say on all contractors. Rebid anything you don't like - or come one here and see if we think it is reasonable. I can always send you some subs from Raleigh if your bids are outrageous... This model does require that you trust your GC not to rip you off with kickbacks. I think going from $125 a sq foot to $115 is a big chunk out of a GC's profits. I can't remember what your build size was but let's say for the sake of argument that he can build at $110. So at $125, he makes a decent amount, do you really think he'll be happy (or adequately compensated) at $115. You are not cutting 10%, you are cutting 66%.

Yes, part of the staging process is to depersonalize as well as declutter. I'm a regular watcher of HGTV and some of my favorite shows there were The Stagers (liked that hyper guy, Matthew), and Sabrina Soto's GET IT SOLD. They say, you want the potential buyer to see themselves living there, not YOUR family. I'm thinking in our case, we might wait until NEXT spring to put DH Massachusetts house on the market. We've exhausted ourselves working on two houses simultaneously.

Thanks for all your responses. We looked at it again with older, wiser folks ;) and there were some issues that they pointed out. Issues that we don't want to tackle. Also, I decided that if I would ever do a renovation to an older home, it should be on an older home with some sort of character or charm. There's really no point in dumping money into this particular home. There's no architectural charm whatsoever. One thing that I was "right" about, however, is that renovations in areas such as this can be profitable since the homes range from 250K to over a million. With that being said though, I was NOT looking to profit. I just want to be in a good location in a house that I like. The example given by an agent is if the land alone will sell for 250K - 290K, then the land with a 2300 sf house all updated nicely can sell for well over 400K. Baton Rouge doesn't follow the usual "rules" in certain locations. Another example, sort of, is there's a mid century modern house that I really want (husband doesn't like it) for 525K, but they purchased it 6 months ago for 319K, and haven't done a thing to it. Agent expects it to sell for 375-400K according to comps, but wouldn't be surprised if they got closer to what they are asking due to location. Someone may come along and buy it for what they are asking then drive up the price per square foot in the neighborhood. This seems to be a trend over here. Location really talks since the city is running out of IN CITY property. @ Artichokey, yes we have large life insurance policies on both of us etc etc. My husband is an insurance nut. He gets it on EVERYTHING. It's annoying, really. Also, if anything ever happened to my husband and I needed to go back to work, I could and would. KickyMarcia, we took a tour of the house you posted, but the pool is an issue and there were a lot of things that I would want to update and or change. I'm the problem. I'm too picky. So, we will just wait until the right house comes up. Livewireoak, public schools in Baton Rouge are a mess right now. It's a political debate not suitable for here. But trust me, they're nothing like the schools in Tennessee. Either way, we LOVE the Catholic school they are currently attending. It's a great school, Church, and Community that makes the drive just something I have to do. Hopefully, however, we will find a home soon that gets us closer to the school. In the meantime, NancyinMich, I will check out those coolers. :) Again, thanks for all of your opinions and advice! Take care!