If you haven't addressed the water problems from the past, they could re-occur and damage any new finish work that is done in those areas.If the water problem is solved, i've had good luck pulling all trims, lightly sanding the gloss off of the paneling, and mudding the grooves and meshing the seams similar to drywall finishing.After one coating the seams and grooves with joint compound, i skim coated the whole surface with one more coat of joint compound followed by another coat of topping compound.For a smooth wall finish you might need a third coat in places as well as touch up. Lightly sand,prime and paint.The shredded areas might need attention before skim coating depending on how severe the damage. Mesh tape can help in those areas as well to help reinforce and give the mud something to adhere to.It will resemble drywall when finished.

I currently have carpet throughout a three-level townhome and will be installing wood on all the floors. I plan on keeping carpet on the stairs and the two landings. So mine will have carpet flowing through all three floors. It seems that your situation is different. do you only have the one set of stairs? if so, I would spend the $ on wood treads to give it a uniform look. I have dogs and have concerns about their safety when running down the stairs and also about their damaging the wood treads. Wood floors in my neighborhood is an upgrade that less than half the homes have, so I'm hoping that potential buyers will be happy with the wood floors and if they want wood stairs, they can do the work.

i would run the wire to a box but leave it tagged as to where it goes and disconnected at both ends. then put a blank plate on it so that later you can easily add an outlet. while you are at it, put in boxes so that later you can add surround sound. speaker wire is fairly cheap, so go ahead and run them and terminate at a central place that you think you might put an AV system later. it is easier to do with teh walls open than later once they are closed up! i like what the builder of my house did in my den. there are several empty boxes in teh walls with a blank cover on them. each one has conduit goign up into the attic and already has a pull string in them. this gives me the option of moving my entertainment system around if i desire.

we used LVT as our walkout basement flooring. Finished on site hardwood everywhere else. I like that the LVT is everywhere in the basement including the bathroom floor. Lots of wet, sandy people coming into basement from lake. So far, so good. we used cork in our last house in the basement and even though it was warm, soft and luxurious..it didnt hold up. I think the LVT will hold up better.