1930s Tudor with terrible concrete hearth bench
OpenHomes Inc.
2 months ago
last modified: 2 months ago
Featured Answer
Sort by:Oldest
Comments (39)
jo mu
2 months agoRelated Discussions
Building on a Budget $150K or less
Comments (73)I am a huge fan of a fixer upper. I feel you get the most bang for your buck with one. If you are not a visual person and if you are the type to reject a house because it's dirty or the paint color is wrong, or you don't like the carpeting, then find someone with vision who can help you to "see" the possibilities. I have done that with three different places. Our first place back in 1987 had wall to wall mustard colored carpet, mustard walls, ceiling and trim. Underneath the floors were gorgeous hardwood floors. We painted, wallpapered, redid the kitchen, replaced the nob and tube in that house, had a gorgeous bungalow and sold it for a small profit during the recession in 1993. Our second house had half the house turned into a doctors office. We removed the doctor's suite of offices including his "lab", and created a wonderful family home, updated the appliances, updated the wiring, painted, papered, tiled, etc and sold for a profit during this last recession back in 2010. In fact ours was the only house to sell during a 6 month period in our neighborhood. 6 years ago, my new DH and I bought a condo in a good building in FL. The building was built in 1982 and everything in the condo was original! We (meaning I designed the changes and the GC did the work with his crew. I'm getting too old to do the work myself now, but did when I was young,) gutted the condo, redid everything including moving non load bearing walls and just sold it this past spring for a hefty profit. Here's a link to the condo listing. Here are a few pics of what the condo looked like originally. This was the original kitchen. I didn't move the appliances but updated them all and donated these and the kitchen to Habitat for Humanity.This was the original view looking from the kitchen to the dining room. I opened the wall up and made a walkway into the dining room instead of having to walk around the foyer. This is the view toward the front hallway and into the kitchen from the living room. This was the view from the living room to the dining room.This was the original guest bathroom. The red one in my redone pictures.And this was the master bedroom looking towards the closet and the bathroom. In my redone condo photos, it's where the chinese chair is. The closet blocked the balcony door.And this was the master bath originally. Yes you could sit down while brushing your teeth. And finally one more of the master bath. We switched the shower with the bathtub to open up the room. Funny thing is I walked into the condo and knew it was right and with some work could be perfect because the bones were there. The layout was good, the view fantastic and it met our needs at the time. My point being that with a little sweat equity if you're handy and some vision you can turn what Vanilla Ice calls a Dud into a Stud. And if things like the kitchen are workable such as the one in my picture above, you don't have to do it all right away. You can live with the kitchen as is, and update as you have the funds. We did that in both our houses....See MoreDesign around this, pink, part 2....
Comments (59)Okay...I'm just going to do a 'girly' kitchen with pink :) Jack and Michelle just bought this cute cottage, with quite the front garden. Michelle is planning to put lots of pink roses in the garden and would like to put some in the kitchen, too. From Pink kitchen The kitchen is not in bad shape...and they really can't afford a major remodel right now. Jack wants some kind of wood floors, but otherwise only asks that she not paint the cabinets pink. So, Michelle finds an inspiration kitchen (on Gardenweb) that she loves and knows it will look great with the wood floors. It's a bit fancy, but they don't have kids...and they have a separate family room, so Michelle wants this to be her 'girl space' for tea with friends. From Pink kitchen She finds a similar chandelier and decides to go with the antique brass hardware, like her inspiration picture. From Pink kitchen If they install the flooring themselves and paint the cabinets, the backsplash and marble should be affordable! So, Michelle's thinking of using roses on the backsplash. But not just any roses...finally she finds something she likes. From Pink kitchen They have a dining table from their previous house that they want to use in the kitchen and Michelle finds some chairs at an estate sale. They even came with the pillows. From Pink kitchen From Pink kitchen So, now for some more roses...maybe some wallpaper, not too different than those cute little pillows. From Pink kitchen And some pink crystal knobs for the cabinets...on sale, no less! From Pink kitchen Now, with her painted hutch, white table cloth and bouquet of roses...she's finally done :) From Pink kitchen...See MoreWood floors not fixable???
Comments (18)Mollie I like keeping up with all the questions you have as most are something I'm running into on my redo of an old 1920s home. My whole house has long length wall to wall pine floors and we are about to begin working in the kitchen which has been moved around so many times that there are some major problems with the pine floors. The rest of the house except for the kitchen has real nice salvageable floors. We thought about the tile route but were determined to find some pine flooring that matched the stuff all ready down and not have the problem with a change in height between the kitchen and the rest of the house. By the time you put down cement board and whatever else you might need plus the adhesive and then the tile---well pretty soon you'd need a ramp for the grandkids to get over it on their roller skates. We were lucky (if you can call it that) I was busting out a wall to get behind the upstairs toilet to replace our main cast iron vent pipe and I ran into our flooring on the wall. I know, I know what you're thinking --that's not flooring --that's your old wood walls with the tacked on gauze and wall paper. Well we have that on all the walls downstairs. All of our second story walls are the same as the floor. Just better as they've never been walked on. I guess the builder got a better deal on the flooring than on the wall boards which are 1 X 6 and the flooring is 3 and something inches. So look around for more pine. I still believe it would be better than tile "ONLY" because of the transition in floor heights. And by the way our old house has a claw foot tub in the upstairs bath. We haven't been able to use it because of the plumbing problems but I will climb in it this weekend and let you know how easy it is to get in and out....See MoreTwo other period bathrooms.
Comments (57)This is interesting to me because in my former and beloved house, the last thing I did was redo the bathroom. We just agonized and agonized over what to do, how to make it fit the style of the home and yet not cost an arm and a leg. Nothing great would have been lost if we had gutted the whole thing! Boy was it hard to find "period" tiles, particularly something affordable. The tub was an odd size, very difficult to find a replacement that would fit in the room. Just doing a shower would have probably been best, but I wanted a tub and that was the only bathroom space for a tub. My house was built in 1929 and it was a low-end row house. The tub was all that was left, although I know that underneath the beadboard wainscoting was probably the original ceramic tile. The house had a terrible update of a plastic tub surround and plumbing work-around to install a shower. The original bathtubs had no showers, because the half tub just was not designed to have a shower or shower curtain around it. Here was our dilemma, Every plumber and contractor we talked to said just tear the whole thing out and replumb the tub so the shower was against a real wall, like on the other side where the entrance door was. But we didn't want to spend that kind of money, so we tried to go with the original logic, somewhat. The fact that my SO and I are still together after that whole fiasco is some kind of miracle! But did order some nice repro shower fixtures that I found FINALLY after searching and searching. Plumbing it was a PITA, but the hardest thing was figuring out a tile pattern design that I liked and could afford. In the end, I didn't like it, but SO (who did all the installation) said that was all I was getting of the little colored tiles! We also had to have the tub reglazed. This was what was underneath the surround. Really high quality ceramic tiles by today's standards, and not terribly ugly, but ruined. SO used up one whole diamond bit just sawing it out tiny piece by piece, including the plaster and lathe behind it. Not sure if it was worth it in the end. It was less expensive than a total overhaul, but we weren't saving anything that unique or valuable at that point. The shower support had to be bent because the side of the tub was angled. The original tub didn't have a shower so it wasn't an issue. We figured the bend was better than trying to further jimmy-rig additional plumbing fixtures on the outside of the tub, since it wasn't set up for that either. It wasn't clawfoot tub, it was just rounded and sat flat on the floor. Probably would have been best to just tear it all out, but we wanted something minimally invasive to our lives. But tearing out all that ceramic tile sure was dusty! Oh, I forgot the best part, the nooks! Those were the absolute worst geometry problem ever, due to having to be where the studs would allow. This photo is pre tub caulking....See MorePatricia Colwell Consulting
2 months agokelli_ga
2 months agolast modified: 2 months agopalimpsest
2 months agolast modified: 2 months agoShadyWillowFarm
2 months agokelli_ga
2 months agopalimpsest
2 months agoHALLETT & Co.
2 months agorichfield95
2 months agolast modified: 2 months agojo mu
2 months agoBeverlyFLADeziner
2 months agorichfield95
2 months agopalimpsest
2 months agoBeverlyFLADeziner
2 months agopalimpsest
2 months agojo mu
2 months agoSigrid
2 months agoPaul F.
2 months agojo mu
2 months agotozmo1
2 months agopalimpsest
2 months agolast modified: 2 months agoJennz9b
2 months agolast modified: 2 months agodeegw
2 months agochinacatpeekin
2 months agokelli_ga
2 months agoOpenHomes Inc.
2 months agoPaul F.
2 months agolast modified: 2 months agoOpenHomes Inc.
2 months agolast modified: 2 months agojo mu
2 months agodeegw
2 months agoCrystal
2 months ago
Related Stories
ECLECTIC HOMESHouzz Tour: Rebooting a 1930s Bungalow in 3 Days
A design team mixes old and new to upgrade a computer science teacher's home in a flash
Full StoryHOUZZ TOURSNew Layout and More Light for a Family’s 1940s Ranch House
A Los Angeles designer reconfigures a midcentury home and refreshes its decor
Full StoryTRADITIONAL HOMESHouzz Tour: Tudor-Inspired Outside, Open and Contemporary Inside
A designer shows respect for a home’s historic St. Paul neighborhood with a fresh take on Tudor style
Full StoryGREEN BUILDINGHouzz Tour: See a Concrete House With a $0 Energy Bill
Passive House principles and universal design elements result in a home that’ll work efficiently for the long haul
Full StoryENTRYWAYSGet a Mudroom Floor That’s Strong and Beautiful Too
Learn the flooring materials that can handle splashes and splatters with ease and still keep their good looks
Full StoryLANDSCAPE DESIGNHow Brick Fits Into Today’s Gardens
Natural brick is often considered a traditional building material. Here’s how people are using it in contemporary gardens too
Full StoryKITCHEN DESIGNKitchen of the Week: Bright Addition for a Tudor-Style Home
An architect couple in Bend, Oregon, tie their new kitchen to their 1927 house with thoughtful details
Full StoryBATHROOM DESIGNHow to Settle on a Shower Bench
We help a Houzz user ask all the right questions for designing a stylish, practical and safe shower bench
Full StoryKITCHEN DESIGNKitchen of the Week: Barn Wood and a Better Layout in an 1800s Georgian
A detailed renovation creates a rustic and warm Pennsylvania kitchen with personality and great flow
Full StoryKITCHEN DESIGN11 Enduring Kitchen Ideas From the Industry’s Biggest Event
We visited the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show and found that many familiar kitchen features appear to be here to stay
Full Story
Kendrah