Do you dislike your other rooms now?

16 years ago

When I posted a couple pics of my living room (to answer the question "whats on the other side of that?") I saw them next to my kitchen pictures I started thinking wow that looks bad/dated etc. Now that the kitchen and dining look so good the rest of the house looks bad! Dang it, I was afraid this would happen.

Anyone else have the same feelings when their kitchen was done?

Its depressing! Mine finances need a lot of "time off" from remodeling before they are to a level I can feel comfortable upgrading something else. On the bright side I keep telling myself "the kitchen is the most expensive and you got that one done - its only easier from here".

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Comments (27)

cocontom
16 years ago
Not the ones we did right before the kitchen...

Seriously though, we're redoing the bathroom next and the basement after that. But the basement is just new flooring, paint and building a bar.
cat_mom
16 years ago
I'll just leave it at a simpe YES without going into details!
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My opinion on pot fillers. If the pot is too heavy to carry to the stove when the water is cold, I sure don't want to carry it to the sink when the water is boiling. For the effort/cost I don't need one. YMMV, though. I wish I had run my layout by gardenweb members for feedback. I wish I would have thought about a pull out cutting board. I haven't had one for about 30 years and had adapted. Would really like to have one again. The matt white Formica shows every speck of everything! Good, because I can wipe it off right away. Bad because if I haven't wiped it off right away everyone can see it. I live on a gravel road. I rarely use my a/c. Windows are open all the time. The FX stuff I originally planned might have been a better choice. Maybe next time. I do like the look of the white, though. I really hate my upper diagonals but I also hate the blind corner cabs. The more complicated pull down/out doesn't appeal to me. Problem still not solved. I don't like what I have but I don't like the other choices. I thought and thought about this and only came up with the three "I wishes", so all in all, my kitchen turned out pretty good. I am more than delighted to have the peninsula gone and every time I think about my new kitchen I suspect my face has the orgasm expression.
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lightlystarched
16 years ago
MM - your kitchen is so perfect it makes up for any shortfall in the other rooms!

I know what you mean, though. As part of our remodel we got a new window and 2 new doors. The other windows and doors look shabby now. I really need to strip and repaint them all but I have no energy for it. Maybe next year.
holligator
16 years ago
Oh, yes! Some need just a little tweaking, but others need some big changes. The good news is that DH is so pleased with how the kitchen turned out, he's not nearly as reluctant to move on to the other projects around the house. Luckily, none of the other projects is nearly as big as the kitchen.
igloochic
16 years ago
LMAO MM...just step away from the computer...grab a glass of wine and sit in the dining room and be quiet! These thoughts could cost you a great deal of money!! Step away!!! STEP AWAY (but give me a couple of days...I've been working your windows but DS is very sick so I haven't had time to get them finished...you might like them...) :oP

Now for a reality bite that might help...I'm doing my entire house. The kitchen is probably half of the budget so yes it's the biggest, but if you do it all...it's A LOT more money. Take it slowly if you can get away with it. Second to kitchens baths are big money grabbers. If yours are ok...meaning minor cosmetic stuff...well then maybe you can move ahead a bit...but gad it's freaking expensive to try to bring your entire house up to one level (and yours is HIGH darlinge) all at once!!!
muscat
16 years ago
yep. definitely, and it is super annoying, but luckily I have a small house, and my remodel was fairly modest, so the rest of the house is only somewhat behind....but I'm NOT doing anything about it for about a year, except working on the yard. Sweat equity.
mysterymachine
Original Author
16 years ago
LOL, its all SOOOO much worse becuase we are in that remodel tour end of next month. I need to go look at some "before" pictures with the popcorn ceiling, the early 80s glass ball lights etc and I'll feel better.

My DW has been telling me everything is dated for years, deep down inside I knew it - I just didn't want to talk about it becuase talking about it leads to spending money. So far I've just been pushing things off until they break. The kitchen was to the point that one drawer fell down into the one below it - so it had to be upgraded.

Over the weekend while looking at spice racks and other organizers I casually mentioned to my DW that looking at our photos online made me realize our other rooms aren't very nice. And, NO JOKE, she started dancing a little jig right there in the store and saying loud enough for all to hear "Say it, Say "You were right"!! Oh that feels good, say it again!".. everyone in line was laughing. I laughed it up a little with her and then promptly disappeared pretending to check out some closet organization kits. :)

Actually right now I am gonna follow igloos advice, only it will be vodka mixed with whatever juice I can find and sitting at the penninsula staring at the granite. It has some strange hypnotic powers over me like catnip for cats or something....
brutuses
16 years ago
mysterymachine. funny you should ask that question. When I'm watching those designers like Candice Olsen decorating a room in someone's home I'm wondering, what is the rest of the house going to look like in comparison?

Igloochic, it took us 10 years to remodel our entire house that we live in now. I'm talking inside and out. When we purchased it all the original stuff was still in it. I'm talking 30 year old carpet and vinyl tile, a garage turned into a den with a plywood floor that was on 2 x 4's, and all the original fixtures and appliances. We even had to replace the outlets because they had them all wired backwards and a couple of them caught fire!!

If you take it slowly it will eventually all come together. Funny thing is, once you're finished, it's just a short time later you're thinking, I need to do this again. LOL

A friend of mine didn't do a thing to improve her home over the 35 years she lived in the house and recently when she tried to sell it she couldn't find any takers after having in on the market for 1 year. The house was very clean and in working order, but very dated. People can't forget that if they ever plan to sell they definitely need to make updates.

We were just getting ready to redo this one again when we decided instead to build our dream home. However, before we put it on the market we'll have completed the remodel and the new owners will be coming into a much nicer house than we did 20 years ago.
raehelen
16 years ago
Totally!

We had planned a whole house renovation, started with the laundry room, had to tear out ceilings and walls from the basement to access wiring (which was completely redone) for kitchen, tore down fireplace and wall in Living room, most of the upstairs has been repainted, ALL the windows have been replaced. And after tearing down two walls in the Master Bedroom, we've now decided maybe we should do that addition, so we've stopped work there, which delays the laying of the hardwood in the rest of the upstairs, so we're living with plywood subfloors (new, but splattered with paint), and of course the front entry opens right into the kitchen, so it has to 'match' the quality, but if we Do do the addition in the MBR, probably can't afford the planned addition to the front entry. So, now while cutting and painting all the wood returns and casings and sills for 20 new windows, we're thinking we may as well start on demo and replacement of the first of the three bathrooms we're redoing... After doing the kitchen, bathrooms now will be done at a different level than originally planned (Of course now that I've discovered GW, my standards have changed!)Didn't know that I really needed a Toto toilet that also acts as a bidet (DH hasn't been informed yet :>) While sleeping in DS's room (cuz MBR is gutted), am noticing musty smell, dang, was thinking that that room and DD's might be the two we wouldn't have to touch, now am thinking they may need to be gutted...

Figure we'll have a brand new house eventually, oh yeah and new roof and new furnace + adding a heat pump are also on the near horizon!
deegw
16 years ago
Bwahhh, ha, ha, ha (she says in a maniacal way). New flooring and paint in the laundry room, new paint and upholstery in the dining room, new paint and flooring in kid's bath, a master bath waiting to be gutted and I haaaaate my family room couch but that is a Pandora's box that I am not ready to open. Does that answer your question?
susan4664
16 years ago
OMG, talk about opening a Pandora's box! My kitchen redo ended up turning into a (unexpected) 1/2 house redo. We live in Florida and for the past 15 years our house has been Florida-like. The family room had "blush" colored sofas, white washed wall unit and tables, Palm tree beach painting on the wall, etc.

We did the kitchen in traditional warm tones and once it was complete, I could barely look at my pinkish sofas. We HAD to replace them, but figured we could live with the white-washed furniture for a while.

Well, a week after the new brown sofas were delivered, the 12 year old floor model projection TV died on us. We replaced it with a flat screen and guess what - the wall unit no longer worked. Soooo, we had to replace the wall unit, then of course the end table and coffee table had to go. Once they were replaced with traditional wood furniture, out went the lamp, beach scene wall painting and curtains.

This was all totally unexpected, but I am so happy in my new surroundings!
cpang74
16 years ago
YES! We replaced our family room furniture just months before the kitchen project and did wood working on the fireplace in the family room and moldings in the dining room-but in the process of buying accessories and window treatments for the kitchen we also got them for the dining room, Family room and formal living rooms-as well as redoing our guest room. Now I think the guest room looks better then the master-and we have started the process of looking at magazine for the master bath redo...we have plans to do it, do built ins in the basement, hire a garage organizer, put new cabinets in the laundry room and do a SMALL redo in the kids bathroom-did I mention we have only lived in our house for 3 years-it's only 6 years old-and it all started with I want granite counters? Now we have completly redone the kitchen and all of this has followed.....
c9pilot
16 years ago
What other rooms?
debo_2006
16 years ago
The family room next to the kitchen blends quite well even though it was remodeled a few years ago. The colors and style flow very nicely. However, the dining room is another story. We're in the process of remodeling that now. We widened the door opening so it mingles better with the kitchen. And for the first time in 15 years, we intend to make it a real dining room with tables and chairs (used to be a junk room, then a den). I plan on keeping it simple.

Next will be the living room which just needs paint, new flooring material (we plan to get rid of the carpet), and a few pieces of updated furniture.

Yes, it's like opening a can of worm with a remodel. You can't just stop at one room...at least we can't.
Gina_W
16 years ago
Another Bwa-ha-ha! from me. YES! The rest of the house looked like crap after the beautiful kitchen was done. We did the master bath at the same time, then a year later we did the other 2 bathrooms, the unfinished basement, added a half wall to the dining room, did some flooring, etc. Now we need to replace some old furniture and hire a decorator and turn the now finished basement into a movie room. Ka-ching! Ka-ching! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!

(Is the straightjacket for me?)
igloochic
16 years ago
I understand the pressure of the "home tour" because I agreed to a magazine shoot (actually two of them...one kitchen, one "home"). All of a sudden you start looking at the closets and nooks and crannies....and you realize...that's not gonna photograph well!

I told myself that because of the shots I was getting great discounts so it was worth it, but really...those discounts are going into decorating items pretty quickly.

My home was decorated previously by a HORRIFIC decorator (Original owner). I have wallpaper boarder in one room, which on it's own is ugly, but given that it's actually splashed across the walls like a lightening bolt, verses being in it's place at the top of the ceiling, really grabs your eyes and says...KNOCK DOWN THOSE WALLS!!! Then there was the sponge painting...BADLY done, and of course done in five shades of pink. And the pink was used everywhere. If you think orange oak looks bad...try it next to peptobismal pink...with an accent wall of hot pink and pepto.

And people wonder why I want to plaster every surface I can find LOL
beatrix_in_canada
16 years ago
No. I think our house is finally becoming the dream house we always knew it to be.

We did some renos when we bought it several years ago. But knew that redoing kitchen and bathrooms would be a major expense and waited for that till we were ready. We did the kitchen last year together with a total renewal of 3 bathrooms and the family room. After that the basement, in which we lived for most of the year during the reno, looked awful. What do you expect in a space with a 34 year old carpet that housed a temp kitchen? so we redid that space right after the kitchen was done.

Now our house feels as finished as any house would be. Meaning: there'll be always things to do, that's just a fact of life in a house that's more than a few years old. But nothing that major anymore. Yes, the guest room could really need some work but we don't have to look at it every day ;-) Oh, and the fourth bathroom in the basement needs a new toilet and new flooring. But again, we don't use that one very often.
User
16 years ago
ABSOLUTELY!!!

And I'm with you on having to recover from this remodel before undertaking any other projects.

The good thing? I've been spending time at the Decorating Forum to try to get ideas on how to spruce up the other areas with just paint and decorating. Those people are super talented and soon I will start posting some of those areas that I would really prefer not to show but.....

I really need the help.
november
16 years ago
Bahahahaha...I'm already laying the groundwork for doing our master bathroom.
sarschlos_remodeler
16 years ago
When we moved in in October, we discovered that none of the outlets were grounded. So we replaced every outlet. Once the PO's furnishings were removed we discovered that their dog was, well, gross. So we replaced the carpet.

The living room started like this. See, the PO had glued these huge, horrendous mirrors to the front of the fireplace. So I had the mirrors taken down. The drywall needed repair, and it looked weird anyway, so I decided to see if there was anything interesting behind the drywall (like pretty brick, for instance), so I took a hammer to the center of the drywall. Then I realized that there was a draft coming in -- fireplace chimney needs new flashing and there are some spots that need new mortar. So, I called a contractor to come give me an estimate to redo the fireplace. Once I redo the fireplace, the sectional sofa that is facing away from the fireplace is really going to bug, and those very traditional baseboards in my MCM split level right next to my new limestone and beam mantel fireplace just won't work. And my traditional entertainment center will look a bit off. Oh, and don't get me started on the unsafe and generally ugly painted wrought iron railing off of the catwalk. Have an excuse to change that now that I've caught my 1 yr old climbing through the bars to slide down the sofa. :-) Did I mention the giant single-pane windows that make that room as warm as a tent on a winter night? Or the entry that is just off of the living room with its door hanging at a slant with a gap about 1/4" from the jamb?

Then there's the family room...don't get me started on the family room...

Oh yeah. In the meantime, I haven't even gotten the design drawings for the kitchen yet. LOL.

First things first -- I have to have an associate architect draw the house and elevations before I can get the drawings for the wall removal and the new glass wall to the yard. And then there's the structural engineer. Does that crack in the ceiling look odd? Maybe the footings need to be shored up while we're at it. Is that wiring fabric encased? What do you mean I need to upgrade the circuit box to 200 amps? What's a "dedicated circuit?"

The water heater is where? Oh, carp.

What's with the shower head in the guest bath? Were the POs tiny people? Gotta move that up so mum doesn't have to croutch to wash her hair.

...
User
16 years ago
My DH bought our 1890 home w/o me ever seeing it. He got a wild hair while I was living in FL with my folks and nursing my Dad. He had visions of us moving both parents up here to live with us. He sold our other house in 2 weeks. It was our first home ever and we had been in it from 1979 til 2002.

Now here we were with an historic home and no knowledge at all of how to DIY and no ideas at all of how many were going to be living here or what we needed to do. Factor in that I was still in Fl and had my head and hands and heart full.

My Dad died in June 2002 and we moved Momma in with us to the new "old " house. We started renovating that Nov 2002. The house was 2700 sq ft in the downstairs but only 2 BR and 2 1/2 baths. We decided to have the attic space , which was accessed via a pull down stair , converted to living space. Luckily our neighbor and friend is a contractor and had done 13 of these conversions in this neighborhood of historic homes. He started in Nov and finished in March 2003. Just as DS1 and DIL decided to move in too. We had added 1300 sq ft upstairs. They moved in up there . We had him also gut and renovate Momma's BR and bath too. We had the stairwell painted since it was all newly created to access the new upstairs. Then we had the back hall and the DR painted and had 2 old windows in the DR reworked so they opened and the built in china cab restored. Then we STOPPED.

We had that son and DIL move out. Then Momma passed away in 2004. During that time DS2 moved home 2x and DD moved home 1x.

More to follow . I have to go with DH to DS1's house and let him and DIL cook for us....yeah. They are still repaying the debt !! LOL. c
kitchenkelly
16 years ago
When I did my kitchen I did a few "might as well do this too." So now my whole first level looks good.

I think it would be great to do the basement and second level but I need a break. I am still not over the whole PITA remodel disruption thing yet. I had a carpet guy here a few weeks ago to put on a staircase runner and had flashbacks.

Give me another year and I will tackle a different level.
pbrisjar
16 years ago
Well, we knew going into this remodel that it was going to be more than just the kitchen. That was just the first step.
3katz4me
16 years ago
I was really concerned about that since my house was about 32 years old when we did the kitchen - and no other part of it has had any serious work done to it. I did paint my living room and dining room and had my wood floors refinished. I also changed some light fixtures and replaced the doors on the entry closet. I have a screen porch adjacent to the kitchen that has carpet - replaced that. All of these things pretty minor compared to the kitchen - but I felt good about the whole "package" after that. After saving up for a couple years I got a new front door and replaced some other exterior doors & windows - as much for function as appearance.

I now have a 35 year old bathroom that is wearing out - it's had minor facelift work in the 16 years we've lived here but it's now to the point it needs a major overhaul. Small like our kitchen was and needs to be made as efficient as possible - plus replace all the stuff that's falling apart.
polie
16 years ago
I would love to renovate other areas of my place, but I want to save to have the money in the bank first. The last thing I need is to begin a big renovation and get laid off or something.
User
16 years ago
I'm home again. I forgot that we also closed off a door that opened to the street from our MBR . And added 2 windows to match all the existing 6ft x3ft windows in the MBR.

We decided to start again in Spring 2005. We wanted to do the kitchen and the MB bath. We added the sunroom to that as it was adjacent to the kitchen. Also spruced up the morning room and the living room. Added a brick terrace off the sunroom and reconfigured the pool entrance by Momma's rooms in the back hall. So we have done everything now in this house. No plaster left unturned , if you will. We have 4000 sq ft and are all by ourselves , at the moment. DD has called and is on her way back from SLC for "goooood". Been there before. WIll need to maybe start a thread on returning kids...boomerangs. c
Buehl
16 years ago
*groan* Boy can I empathize! When our kitchen & DR are done, the rest of the house is definitely going to look like the poor relations! We had originally planned on redoing the floor for the entire first floor (tile in kitchen/PR/Foyer, wood everywhere else) but when we got the 10K estimate for the wood floors alone....cut! So, new carpet in FR, maybe wood in DR, and we'll see about the LR & Den (no change?)

We want to put in a mudroom...to maybe save the carpet in the FR since that's where family comes in from outside...but we can't afford it right now.

And then there's the FR TV & stereo equipment...sitting pretty much in the open. We need some cabinets there as well...

And the bathrooms, especially the MBA where the vinyl is coming up in front of the shower & tub and there appears to be a crack b/w the ceiling and wall in one corner...

It never ends!!!!

However, due to everything I've seen & learned here...we plan to start DIYing most of it...so we may be able to start sooner rather than later....

Wait a minute, I almost forgot, DS starts HS in the fall and that means COLLEGE in 4 years!!!! Maybe the rest of the house is going to have to wait...

*sigh* I hope a coat of paint works wonders!

Do you dislike your other rooms now?

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