https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sat, 25 Apr 2026 19:26:56 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-369848 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:54:04 +0000 mrs. bird 369848@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>more slightly more redeeming pics. love the ceiling in the dining room! the outside could use some serious landscaping &amp; fall lawns aren't the most attractive things, but not totally awful! </p> [attach=2301/12/mcrr24.333x282.dawson.png] [attach=2301/12/mcrr25.377x286.ceiling.png] https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-369783 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:34:17 +0000 Shutterbug 369783@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrs. bird: the boxes themselves are veneered particle board, but the doors are all solid wood. We did do the tile ourselves - it's from Lowes (I think - maybe Home Depot) and it was super easy! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-369723 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:19:13 +0000 mrs. bird 369723@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Shutterbug: we do have some ikea furniture! DH isn't good with directions, but he's got the brut strength part &amp; as long as i help &amp; direct, we do okay with things =) your cabinets are gorgeous &amp; i'd never guess if they were from ikea! are ikea ones real wood? i've seen when some ppl try to cheap out on cabinets &amp; on the sides they have peeling veneer =/ no idea where those come from, but that's not good! did you do the tile yourself? i love that you have it extended all the way to the ceiling rather than just 18" or whatever 'standard' back splash height is. you've done a beautiful job!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-369511 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 11:14:39 +0000 Shutterbug 369511@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrs. bird: If you did Ikea cabinets, and installed them yourself, you're talking about maybe $3-5k, depending on the amount of cabinets. If you bought custom cabinets from HD or Lowes or something it would be more - maybe $8-10k? The countertop (for granite) is about $50-$80/sq ft installed, depending on the type of granite.</p> <p>A little more about Ikea - if you've ever put together a bookcase from Ikea, all of the cabinets are put together the exact same way, pretty much. And there's a 25 year warranty on them, so they're sturdier than you'd think. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-369327 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 10:26:37 +0000 mrs. bird 369327@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Shutterbug: wow!! Perfect! I love it! Just as an estimate, not your kitchen specifically, but just a general price range, how much would one expect to spend on renovating a kitchen, not including $$ on appliances, to go from an ugly one to a nice one like yours, not moving any water or anything crazy? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-369296 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 10:09:41 +0000 yoursilverlining 369296@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Shutterbug: WOW!!!!!!!! Amazing job! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-369287 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 10:05:37 +0000 autumnlove 369287@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Shutterbug: It looks great!!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-369257 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 09:52:48 +0000 Shutterbug 369257@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>here's a before and after (in progress) of our kitchen. You'd be surprised how easy some house renovations are if you're willing to put in the time (and watch a lot of HGTV, haha) </p> [attach=674/12/mcrio0.600x400.before.jpg] [attach=674/12/mcrio2.600x450.after.jpg] [attach=674/12/mcrio3.600x450.after-2.jpg] https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-369249 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 09:49:14 +0000 Shutterbug 369249@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrs. bird: go for it! We bought an "ugly" house in MA and in the past 5 years we've </p> <p>-knocked down a wall and walled up a door to turn a garage-adjacent storage room into a mud room attached to the rest of the house<br /> -tiled this new mud room, the downstairs bathroom and downstairs hallway (it was linoleum)<br /> -replaced wood paneling with drywall<br /> -made built-in bookcases in the downstairs family room<br /> -replaced the slider in the family room (with FIL help)<br /> -completely gutted our kitchen (put together and installed Ikea cabinets, installed new appliances, tiled the floor, backsplash tile)<br /> -walled up the back door and put in a slider where there was a window (with FIL help)<br /> -put in a new bay window where there was just wall before (FIL help)</p> <p>things we paid people to do (too big for us to handle)<br /> -refinished the hardwoods<br /> -granite countertops<br /> -knocking down a load-bearing wall to open the kitchen to the dining room and living room</p> <p>DH was moderately handy when we bought the house, but he'd never done any of those things before. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-369171 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 09:14:03 +0000 stiffaknee 369171@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our house was definitely a fixer-upper! I wish I could find the pictures...It had been a rental property for about 20 years and everything that had ever been done was half assed (pardon the language...but thats being nice!)</p> <p>I am super duper obsessed with real estate (I know what everyone in my neighborhood paid for their house-I'm constantly stalking my county tax assessor's website and MLS) and I personally would rather buy the cheapest house on the street and have to fix it up, than to buy a turnkey house. Reason being, there is nothing worse than loving a house, but hating the kitchen or bathroom and not being able to justify changing it (because its already been renovated). A fixer upper lets you make the house perfect for your family...plus your tastes will change after living in a house! I wanted so badly to take down a wall and open up our kitchen...now I'm glad I didn't because I would have lost valuable cabinet space (which is more important to me now with LO) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-369161 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 09:03:38 +0000 SugarplumsMom 369161@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>BTW, there was one house that broke my heart. It was so perfect, the paint, everything ... I fell in love! But soooo many others did too! The price sky-rocketed! We pass by the neighborhood it's in all the time and thank our lucky stars we ended up not living there! Because there isn't anything near it! We totally overlooked that then. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-369154 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 09:00:45 +0000 Mrs. Pickle 369154@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm definitely a fan of buying an ugly house and making it your own. That's exactly what my husband and I did. We've been in our house a year and it is no where near complete, making it pretty is taking a long time. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-369150 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 08:58:44 +0000 SugarplumsMom 369150@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrs. bird: I agree with pps: ugly = good investment. That's if there aren't any structural problems or anything broken. When we first bought our place, it was with the help of the women here (back then we were all on the 'wedding boards'). If it wasn't for the sound advice of you ladies, we wouldn't have gotten our place! (The nature of buying in our area is lightning quick so we had to make a decision ASAP!)</p> <p>The most valuable piece of advice I had gotten was about location. You can add on to a house, renovate it, etc, but you can't change where it is! In the end we were considering 2 houses: one in a great neighborhood, but it was dated. It was large for just 2 people, it had all the potential of a forever home. The other was smaller, but newer, with a gorgeous yard full of different kinds of magnolias in a not as convenient neighborhood.</p> <p>We picked the one in the neighborhood we liked and discovered the yard was also pretty damn nice (we bought it during winter and they never took summer pictures). We love our neighborhood. It's a sound old place, but there are still a lot of things we'd like to update. </p> <p>During the end of our house hunt, I would hope for ugly paint! Good luck hunting! :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-369107 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 08:28:16 +0000 autumnlove 369107@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrs. bird: It looks like there is lots of potential there! :-) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-369102 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 08:26:29 +0000 photojane 369102@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrs. bird: I think those things are totally workable! Having your tile reglazed (basically painted) is really affordable. They even sell kits to do it yourself at places like Home Depot. As far as the stickers... there are lots of ways to get those off. Google will give you a bunch of recommendations for removing stickers. A little elbow grease, sanding, and painting and they'll look like new rooms!</p> <p>PS: repainting and adding new hardware goes a long way in updating a kitchen! also, adding updated light fixtures is another way to freshen up a room on a budget. :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-369064 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 07:55:39 +0000 mrs. bird 369064@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@autumnlove: hahaha :D I seriously just LOLed! It looks like a weird urinal on it's side! You're brave to look into a fixer upper with LOs in the picture! :)</p> <p>These are what I mean. The other bedrooms have ugly paint, but this is the one with the super bad carpet &amp; paneling with Dora stickers. And this ugly bath &amp; kitchen. what's up with the stickers on the cabinets?!? </p> [attach=2301/12/mcrdb7.384x300.image.jpeg] [attach=2301/12/mcrdb8.384x300.image_1.jpeg] [attach=2301/12/mcrdba.384x300.image_2.jpeg] [attach=2301/12/mcrdbb.384x300.image_3.jpeg] https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-368892 Wed, 31 Oct 2012 01:22:26 +0000 autumnlove 368892@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I say go for a fixer upper if you have the time, patience and money to make the changes you want!! :-) We have an offer in for a fixer upper. It has good structure but needs a lot of cosmetic enhancements that we will need to tackle gradually. The seller updated two of the 3 bathrooms....this one needs some work: </p> [attach=1791/12/mcqv3a.488x596.image.jpeg] https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-368724 Tue, 30 Oct 2012 22:27:00 +0000 pinkcupcake 368724@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We didn't want to deal w/the hassle with a fixer upper so we bought new construction. If I had the time, money, and skills, though, I'd love to buy a cheaper, "uglier" home and fix it up so it totally reflects me. If you're up to the challenge, I say go for it! Sounds like a great opportunity :D </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-368716 Tue, 30 Oct 2012 22:22:30 +0000 shopaholic 368716@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm with @merryc and think "ugly is (can be) a good investment"! DH and I always awatch "Property Brothers" and wish there were places like that near us and we could get on the show! haha!</p> <p>Most of what you listed for this house seem mainly cosmetic/aesthetic, and those are THE BEST kind of ugly stuff I would want! If the # of rooms/bathrooms and square footage work for you, and the general layout, then all your "changes" would be minimal. It's when you want to start moving things around that it gets crazy! Also, changing things in the kitchen and the bathroom rack up the bill and are tough to do on your own!<br /> DH and I are not the DIY-type but we have changed all the floors and re-painted all rooms in both places we own by hiring contractors. I'm pretty good at price-shopping and this worked out for us.<br /> Back to your house in question:<br /> - Ugly paneling can easily be removed or painted over.<br /> - Ugly kitchen cabinets can also be re-painted, re-finished, etc, there's quite a lot of creative options out there!<br /> - Closet doors easily and cheaply replaced! My family has done this numerous times over the years in our own home &amp; rental properties.<br /> - Bad deck is something I'd have your uncle check out.<br /> hth! It took us about a year before we found the one for us in this home! But it's always good if you can keep an open mind so that you CAN see the "diamond in the rough"! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-368687 Tue, 30 Oct 2012 22:00:56 +0000 immabeetoo 368687@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrsbird well, we'll see once we go to sell it anyways :) but hopefully! we wandered around lowes last night for fun, we're excited to transform! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-368506 Tue, 30 Oct 2012 19:56:42 +0000 PurplePumps 368506@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think as long as it cosmetic, go for it! I'm from MA too, so I know what you mean about the market and cost of housing. Its like the only way to get into a decent area and not sell a kidney is to get a fixer upper. Keep in mind though that the start up cost for your first few project will probably be very high since you will have to invest in a lot of tools and stuff, but once you get going, it'll be well worth the cost and you'll learn so much about renos. We really enjoy doing things ourselves around the house - it's cheaper, you do it exactly how you want, and you get to live in and admire your great handiwork! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-368486 Tue, 30 Oct 2012 19:49:31 +0000 mrs. bird 368486@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@scg00387: wow! What a great investment you've made! Very true regarding neighborhood, lot size &amp; schools! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-368485 Tue, 30 Oct 2012 19:49:22 +0000 T.H.O.U. 368485@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our house needed updating. We put in hardwood floors and lots o wallpaper removal. It's been worth it so far but lots of money even for small projects. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-368480 Tue, 30 Oct 2012 19:47:23 +0000 Cole 368480@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We were able to find an awesome realtor with experience in renovating older homes and he was a great resource. Since you seem to have time on your side, see if you can look for a house someone started to rehab. </p> <p>We came across several where they basically got in over their head and wound up having to walk away so they went up for short sales or foreclosures. The good news was that a lot of the bigger work (electrical, plumbing, roof, windows) was done in a lot of these places. One just needed the windows to be installed (they had already been purchased) the floors had to be stained (they had been stripped) and that was it, the place was gorgeous! It is at least an option to consider! Good luck! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-368388 Tue, 30 Oct 2012 18:47:09 +0000 mrs. bird 368388@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@yoursilverlining: that's an excellent suggestion! My uncle owns a home inspection company, so I'm sure he'd be very helpful in this. </p> <p>@blackbird: If we could afford something more updated &amp; still a good size &amp; in a good area, we'd love to, but it's just not where we're at right now :/</p> <p>@dookie32: A pink bathroom?!? That is bad... This one just has ugly linoleum floors and bad light fixtures/hardware. </p> <p>@MerryC: 'ugly is a great investment', I love it :D I'm totally with you on the doing it over time as the budget allows. We can update as we go, but adding sq footage or needing to find a school outside the neighborhood is a big deal later on. </p> <p>@Mrs. J: We're def not up for structural issues! Broken is bad! : ) a good home inspector will be really important! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-368386 Tue, 30 Oct 2012 18:45:48 +0000 immabeetoo 368386@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think it depends on your attitude towards it all - we're first time homebuyers and specifically looked for basically what you're describing. We are both excited about renovating and figuring out what makes sense for us to do ourselves (painting, tiling) and what we'll be hiring someone for (reconfiguring the counter &amp; cabinet space, adding an egress window to create a 4th bedroom). We also have access to my father in law, who has experience working on stuff like that and built the house they're living in.</p> <p>Something we tried to be really conscious of was the neighborhood and what it could sustain price wise and talked with our realtor a lot about it. Another house we considered was equally dated but had no room/set up for an additional bedroom and bathroom, and was already at the top of the price range for the neighborhood. Any changes we wanted to make, even just for our ease of living and happiness, would have basically been wasted $ that we couldn't recoup.</p> <p>The house we're in the process of buying at 223k has neighboring houses of 350k+ so we think that if we're cautious and thoughtful, we'll be able to reap the profits of sweat equity. </p> <p>Hope that helps!</p> <p>ETA: my parents have moved a ton over the years due to my Dad's work and pounded into my head, you can't change the neighborhood, school district, or lot size. So to us, those were the top 3 things to consider - most anything else can be changed, whether it is by you or another buyer down the road :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-368326 Tue, 30 Oct 2012 17:56:12 +0000 yoursilverlining 368326@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>neither my husband and I are handy, and we don't want to spend time on home repairs....so we haven't really done much haha.</p> <p>When you get a fixer-upper inspected (or even just go for a tour), you could always hire a contractor to come along for the inspection and give you real-time cost estimates of what it would take to fix things; and to tell you what items you could probably do yourself, and what you would need to hire professionals for. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-368277 Tue, 30 Oct 2012 17:20:40 +0000 blackbird 368277@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Sounds like too much work to me :( </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-368244 Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:48:35 +0000 dookie32 368244@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our house wasn't a fixer upper but there were some things that the homeowners never updated that we replaced immediately. Both bathrooms were PINK (toilet, tubs, toilets) so that was top priority. We also had wood paneling in the family room that we got painted instead of removing. We tried doing some stuff ourselves to save money but wow- you really have no idea how hard some of this stuff is until you dive into it. I would say everything takes 2x as long to do and costs 2x as much as you think it's going to (unless you are married to someone who really knows what they are doing). It's good to get an idea of what it really costs to do some of the things you want to do because you might not have any idea how expensive it is. </p> <p>There is a ton of other stuff that I wish we had the time and/or money to do now. I got pregnant 2 months after we moved in so we didn't have a lot of time to focus on the house before we had to switch gears and start thinking about the baby. So I recommend getting as much done as you can before adding babies to the picture! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/buying-a-diamond-in-the-rough#post-368234 Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:38:51 +0000 twinmama 368234@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think ugly is a great investment :) Meaning, if it's a good place structurally, has a good lot, a good location, etc - all the things you can't change about a house - but just has a lot of livable cosmetic stuff to update, and the price is right, it's a good investment in my book. Things you can live with, and work on over time are very reasonable for a first time buyer - you just tackle a project at a time as you have the time and money. That's pretty much what my family always did growing up, and we always worked on house and yard projects as a family. I really enjoyed it, to be honest.</p> <p>You can pay to have things done or do them yourself. Say, if you want new floors in one room, you might just pay to have a pro do it. Til you buy extra scrap and all the tools, the cost probably equals. But if you want to re-floor the whole house, learn how to install it yourself. Things like laminate tile and other wood products can be really straightforward once you get the hang of it. </p>