Can this be done?

[treefolk]

We are looking to buy a house. It was built in 1900, but 5 years ago was gutted and re-done into a cookie cutter new home (carpet, plain drywall, plain windows, cheap, cheap) BUT it is in a great location for us and long story short, we already sold our house and are searching for ahouse in a 4 block radius from work/school ONLY (we want to be in lazy walking distance)

So my question......can I un-redo this house or put some old charachter back into it on a low budget? Any website suggestions for ideas? It seems they ripped out most of the original house, so I don't think it is a matter of just pulling up carpet. Anyone turn a new house funky?

[MissMommyNiceNice]

Ha! You should see what the drunk trading spaces junkies did to my 120 year old house! Everyone else on the block has hardwood floors, pocket doors, crown molding, etc, etc. Not me. We have stick on tiles that look like wood over the hardwood floors. We have a moseleum of a first floor (my living room is 28 x 12 with 8.5 foot ceilings!). We have wood panelling in the office (back room 2nd floor) and it was in the bathroom until I gutted and redid it. The third floor is painted neon flourescent red & pink. You get the picture! Oh, and my bedroom was black, white, & baby poop green! :Puke

Needless to say, yes, it can be done, but slowly! Find your local salvage business. We have 2 in my area. When people do remodelling & such, they can take their stuff there and it is recycled for rehab projects. Mantles, stain glass windows, old window panes, cornices, heating grates, cabinets, doors, claw foot tubs, sink fixtures, etc, etc, etc.

Slow, but worth it. Of course, there's only so much we can do! I painted the first floor a nice warm color instead of the cool color to make the rooms seem smaller and less cold. The bathroom is very nice, but not at all hsitoric. We did do some neat touches, like using old bricks from the old sidewalk for bottom trim.

Proceed slowly, pick what's most important to you. Like us, it was only about a week before I venetian plastered the bedroom! We couldn't sleep. Bathroom was next. It was painted flat grey with a coral colored wall closet that looked like a barn! What were they thinking?! Then, the first floor paint. We hope to do soemthing with the floors & kitchen within the next 2 years, when we get enough equity for an improvement loan...

Good luck!

[caeden&connersmom]

Moulding! THat is the easiest way to add character to a cookie cutter home. Nice deep crown moulding, chair rails and substantial baseboards. WHat a difference it makes.

[Rebecca]

Sure you can! what style is your home? Depending on the period and its architecture, you can do lots of stuff. Wainscotting for a cottagy home, fancier chair rail moulding for a formal dining room, hardwood flooring can be restored, drywall can be painted.... You can eventually have a corner hutch painted to match your woodwork to look like a built-in if that's appropriate for your home... definitely possible!

[treefolk]

Good ideas! We are letting the house sit on the market for awhile. They have it way over priced and it just went up for sale a few days ago. Too $$$$$ for doing much of anything for us. It was just way too much to "re-un-do". EVERY room would have at least had to have new flooring, then add on all those little touches. But I will keep the ideas in mind as we look. We are also thinking of going the other way and buying an auction house cheap and building it up.

There is a house we keep going back to, that we LOVE, but it is literally right on the railroad and 2 houses down from a bar. As lovely as the house is (and we wouldn't have to do a thing, not even paint) I put it out of our list because of the noise......any comments????

[Ambrose]

Originally Posted by treefolk

Good ideas! We are letting the house sit on the market for awhile. They have it way over priced and it just went up for sale a few days ago. Too $$$$$ for doing much of anything for us. It was just way too much to "re-un-do". EVERY room would have at least had to have new flooring, then add on all those little touches. But I will keep the ideas in mind as we look. We are also thinking of going the other way and buying an auction house cheap and building it up.

There is a house we keep going back to, that we LOVE, but it is literally right on the railroad and 2 houses down from a bar. As lovely as the house is (and we wouldn't have to do a thing, not even paint) I put it out of our list because of the noise......any comments????

Do NOT live near a railroad unless you have any idea when trains typically come by. We've lived near two--- it was NOT fun. The first place was by the police station AND a railroad so we would hear trains at 4AM, 7AM-9AM, periodically through the day and then at bar rush we'd always hear the cops. :

The second one wasn't as bad- they only had maybe 2 or three trains a day one at around 6AM, and 2 others between 3-5PM. It was still nerve wracking hearing the dang thing at 6AM when it woke me up. :

[aussiemum]

I lived about 20 meters from the main train line out of Manchester, England (10 lines, I think) for a year. It was noisy but okay because it was really too cold to open the windows anyway, even in summer. But you still always knew when the first morning train to London left as the sound drowned out the radio for a minute or so.

I now live next to a fairly busy road. And I will never, ever buy a house near an even somewhat busy road again. It is a major source of frustration to me. Ime, renovation mistakes are more easily corrected. Good luck!

[treefolk]

We lived on a major road once too....never again. The lure of this lovely house (and a bit of desperation to find a place to live) just has me thinking every once in awhile.

This train comes about 6x during a 24 hr. period....mostly at night! Funny, the bar actually bothers me more than the train though. It's a biker bar and as much as we love motorcycles...combine the start up of it and screaming drunk folks at 2 am and I would be pissed! Forgot to add...this house is also riverfront of a BIG river that tends to flood - you actually are required to have flood insurance, and the river flooded 6 feet onto this street 2x in the past 20 years! Oddly enough a lot of people move to our town for this street because of the historic riverfront homes dating back to the 1740's! (it really is lovely!)

[MomToKandE]

I'd worry about the bar and the water more than the train. My dh is a huge train junkie... he'd probably pay extra for a house that was right by train tracks!