Do kitchen designers end up saving you money on a remodel?
Ryan Fehr
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
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Ryan Fehr
2 years agoWestCoast Hopeful
2 years agoRelated Discussions
How Do You Try To Save Money?
Comments (28)I do many of the things mentioned here. I am a proud thrifty person. When I married dh, I had quit my job due to an illness that kept me from being able to do it. He said I didn't have to work, and I told him I could make his pay stretch to exceed the amount that I was earning anyhow. He didn't believe me.... now he is amazed. I believe pennies add up to dollars. At first, he balked at some of my frugalness. He loved stopping at convenience stores, and grabbing things on the way to work. Now he gets a lunch that is the envy of his coworkers... they question what his cuisine of the day is, and drool... LOL He had trouble giving up eating out. But I keep my own homemade 'fast food' handy (like burger and fries, frozen homemade soups, etc), and on his trip home he will call and I give him the menu of the night.... let him order... and its ready when he gets here. Not every night, but a couple times a week. He is loving that now, he can eat supper in his sweat pants! I don't have to spoil him this way. However, its my way of staying frugal and keeping with his urge of 'what am I in the mood to eat tonight'. It works for us. Before we married, I watched him throw away food with bad spots in it. I just cringed! I use every little bit of everything... throwing away food is a huge no-no for me. 99% of our clothes are second hand from a thrift shop. I am very crafty, so I am always on the lookout for plain drab clothes that can be altered in some way and items I can rip up for the sewing notions off them. A plain t shirt embellished with lace insert made from an old lace curtain. A boxy blouse into a fitted with a few tucks sewn in. I keep my pantry and freezer full by ONLY buying what is on sale at my local store that week. If nothing 'grabs' me in the ad, I don't even shop. I am not brand loyal to many things. To me, name brand prices are silly, and I am just paying for the flashy ads. I never buy manufactured foods. Cheap or not. I can make the same thing cheaper, and know what ingredients are in it. Dh swears his health has improved due to my 'quality control' as he calls it. I keep my house cool in the winter, and warmer in the summer. I use power strips to shut off those appliances that pull electricity even when not in use. And unplug chargers when not in use. I use CFL bulbs in the lights that stay on for long periods of time. Shut off lights when no one is in the room. I bought an HE washer, which PAID FOR ITSELF in less than 6 months in the savings of water/sewer usage. Also, it is so gentle on clothes, your clothes last longer. I make my own laundry soap. I don't buy fancy cleaners. Ammonia, bleach and soap clean everything I need to clean. I WILL NOT run to the store for a craving. I see this with people around me. If it isn't in the house, we do without. I always do errands together while I am out. I use direct debit from my account for bills that I can. I mail other bills that are local, rather than deliver them in person. A stamp cost less than starting the vehicle and driving a block! I will walk to do some errands, on nice days. I use a tv antennae. I can use my internet connection to watch other shows. I cut the families hair, and my own. I know my hair better than a salon, and always have a nice style than they give me! Our two vehicles are over 15 years old, and well maintained. I try to repair anything that is broken, but if I can't, I do save any useful parts before discarding. It so handy to have a spring or a screw in the 'parts box' for another project. I always try to re-purpose things. Ruffled pillow shams have been valances, and chair back covers, as well as pretty pillow covers. I use olive oil for face cream. Cheap tearless baby shampoo to wash my face, and add table sugar to it when I want exfoliation. Vaseline for body lotion. I will take others cast off furniture. The only item I have bought new was our mattress. Paint or stain can make almost anything else 'match'. My decor is family photos and drawing from grandchildren, framed in thrift store frames or on bulletin boards, house plants and mirrors. My kitchen decor is the items I use to cook with. We have no debt. I am sure there is much more. Yes, cooking from scratch and sewing, etc seems to take a bit more time. Maybe not, since I save the time that I would have spent driving to and sitting in a restaurant, or walking through a mall! But I take caring for family as serious as if I clocked into a job every day. I see people give more effort to their employer, than their own home and family, and I wonder.... about their priorities. I got my 'reward' just recently. My dh told me I am an amazing woman. I took 'nothing', and made a beautiful home out it.......See MoreThe 12 things you should buy used to save money.
Comments (48)I'd disagree with: 1) Cars. We had two and I decided to go down to one. I've always made compromises on what we've bought, but I love cars. I SERIOUSLY love cars! I figured this is the last new car I will probably ever buy, so why should I compromise unnecessarily? I made my list of "must haves" and "nice but not a deal breaker". Then I spent over a year reading, researching, and test driving. Finally bought it in May 2017. Gifted the two old cars away, and have been driving with a grin on my face ever since. Love the advanced safety features and power. This car is a joy to drive on our travels. 2) Furniture. I agree, wouldn't buy a used mattress but no objection to used furniture. BUT, I have a small LR and needed some very specific, modular pieces that I could move around for flexible seating. So we bought a new loveseat and giant ottoman. All the used modulars I've seen are the huge '80's and '90's overstuffed monsters - that's what I was getting rid of! 3) Designer Jeans. Hate jeans, never wear them. 4) Tech gadgets. You must be kidding! I don't seek out "name" tech toys but it is false economy to buy most used tech. Our desktops are built by a local shop, top of the line. They last 15+ years as download devices. My current desktop works as our network server with a RAID array; not superfast any longer but fine for anything except HD graphic videos, which I don't care about. Our laptops and tablets are name brands. Especially for smaller/thinner devices, their batteries are usually sealed and don't have long life. You want good performance, you need to buy it new. Yes, you can get one of the old Kindles for almost nothing. But if you've ever read on a Paperwhite Kindle, you'll know why almost everyone who originally bought a Kindle, upgraded to the Paperwhite. It is Nirvana for readers. I have impaired vision; reading on a phone gives me a headache, LOL. 5) Swing sets. No kids, no issue. 6) Formal wear & wedding. Really? People still need these for anything except a prom? Weddings - well, maybe. One couple out of the last 15 weddings we've attended, did the formal thing. 7) Books & college textbooks. SOMETIMES this will save you money. These days of e-books - not always. 8) Kids bicycles. Again, no kids. 9) Musical instruments. I'm a listener, so streaming is the way to go. 10) Tools. No way. But my tools are just basic ones, used for light home maintenance. I am not going to buy somebody's used Black & Decker jigsaw. 11) Exercise equipment. Yes, you absolutely can save $$$ on Craigslist. Personally, I'm a believer in gardening and walking. 12) Homes. I'm 50-50 about this. Old or new, sooner or later you are going to have to spend on home maintenance. If new, you have (hopefully) a maintenance-free interim; but you have no real way of telling if or where your builder/contractor cut corners until something goes wrong. If old - in our area the number of older homes that are truly turnkey, fully remodeled, good-as-new-right-down-to-the-roofing-nails, is so infinitesimally small a proportion, as to be realistically non-existent. If you find one, be prepared for a bidding war. 30+ offers are common out here; many mid-priced homes needing moderate remodeling will often have pending offers before the agent can even get the listing onto the MLS. Much of the existing SFH stock where we live is aging and needs remodeling. We are not talking simple cosmetics here; this means sewer systems, wasteful gas space heaters or floor furnaces wrapped in asbestos, aluminum wiring, soggy basements, no insulation or bolted foundations. In a high-labor market, remodeling is a six-figure budget cost - and that amount, on top of an already high RE price, is out of reach for even prospective homeowners already making $150+K....See MoreHelp me save money on a remodel
Comments (12)Forty-three recessed fixtures? Are you putting them in every single room in the house? My late husband grew up in Bedford and I saw the house in which his family lived for 50 years listed for sale a year ago. I was aghast to see pot lights in the entrance hall, the large LR, the DR, the library. They were SO out of place in this lovely old house. It was a house for tables with lamps in the LR and library, and sconces and a chandelier in the DR and scones in the entrance hall I have no problem with pot lights in kitchens and baths - they work very well there, but not in these other rooms. There's a way to cut a BIG dollar amount out of your budget. One could buy some pretty special lamps for far less than that! I have a friend through my dog club whose husband is a contractor and she does the kitchen design. I was shocked at the "average" cost of a kitchen remodel in Westchester - no SubZero or fancy stoves - just "average" and she said they started at about $100,000. I remembered then why we don't live in Westchester County!...See MoreDid you save money buying your own plumbing fixtures?
Comments (54)Lauren, there could be a million scenarios to your situation and most will not do you any good. It all comes down to the person you dealing with and the practices how they run their business. You buying a home from a builder, you have a contract which probably includes listed items that come with the house. Any deviation from these items the builder can charge you anything he wants...and nobody can do anything about it... It's pretty much comes down to "take it or leave it". Most custom home builders that I know don't do that, it is all about the person you're dealing with and their reputation and in your case if they try to jack-up the price that much, this is not a very good practice. I will give you one example of a similar situation. A few months ago I was doing 3 basement designs and layouts for homeowners who purchased new homes in the same development of 13 homes...most homes still under construction, they the 1st-3 to move in. All 3 homeowners were telling me the same thing that its impossible to get anything from their builder. Anything they want to upgrade is quadrupled in price, i.e you want oak stairs $6k extra, you want crown molding 3k per room, etc Its beautiful close to 1m homes, and when I came to one of them the 2nd time, they had a contractor there building coffered ceilings, doing crown, trimming out a few openings, etc. Back to drop cloths, back to dust, back to painting, when everything could have been done long ago before the closing and the builder reputation wouldn't be diminished. Most of the homeowners who purchased this homes know each other, 8 of them out of 13 homes are friends and work in the same field, and the first 3 who moved in warned everyone else that builder is impossible to deal with and he won't budge on anything. That said, there is always a mark up on upgrades because it involves extra work and you endure extra expenses, but the mark-up is not to bankroll a homeowner, its reasonable and its priced in the way to be worth while for the homeowner and so they keep on smiling while they job moves along. We not living in the stone ages, today you give a price for something within a minute you can pull up the phone and look up the price online, and everyone knows that and every industry is trying to stay compatible with pricing or nobody would be buying anything from them... and I'm sure nobody wants to look like an idiot for giving unreasonable price. Now put all that all mambo jumbo aside, I wish you best of luck with your new home and I hope everything will go smooth and you end up with a well built home!...See MoreRyan Fehr
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