Bought a new property but it requires a lot of works to meet my living standard and style. Hired a contractor and finished everything in 7 weeks to turn this property into a positive cash flow. Total cost was less than 13k including labor and materials. Original estimate was 10k, but it was over a little bit. Still in the acceptable range though. Besides, the house looks awesome now. It is worth every penny to me.
Remodeling items list:
- Kitchen: Demolished everything, cut open dry walls and put new ones, rip off the old vinyl and put new cement boards so the tile laid on the top of it won't crack in the long run. Finally, installed the new cabinets and appliances.
- Master bathroom: Demolished everything, found a hidden unused space so we extended the shower space, replaced the fan on the ceiling for moisture removal, use cement and tile to make a new customized show pane, upgraded the shower system and plumbing, put new tiles for both floor and shower, and install the new vanity.
- Hallway bathroom: Similar to the master bathroom but larger scale. In addition, the tub-only bathroom was upgraded to tub+shower. In order to provide, we also cut open the wall so that a smaller dual-pane window can be installed for the shower. Tile was laid from the tub to the ceiling as well as on the floor and base board.
- Floor: Old carpet was completely removed, cleaned the floor thoroughly, and I install laminate floor in the whole house(2 living rooms and 3 bedrooms) except kitchen and two bathrooms(use tiles). Also put transition between tiles and wood floor.
- Paint: Inside out. First removed the old popcorn ceiling. Then applied one coat of primer. Painted two tones colors through out the interior of the whole house(including bathrooms). Outside is also two tone.
- Landscape: Gardener trimmed the whole front and backyard.
- Garage: Installed a new garage door opener.
- Misc: Installed some light fixtures, a ceiling fan, several blinds, as well as base shoe on the base board to cover the gap between the laminate floor and the wall.
Lesson learned:
- I can install laminate floor faster than before(I probably installed about 900~1,000 sq feets this time).
- Understand the key to install new cabinets properly.
- Have some basic knowledge about the installation of tile floor.
- Learned a lot of new home improvement tools and materials.
- Earned some cool and useful tools(Jaw Horse and MultiMaster) from DIY the floor myself.
Here are some photos of the whole remodeling process:
(Click on the photo to enlarge it and see the detail)
- Outside:
- Kitchen:
- Floor:
- Hallway Bathroom:
- Master bathroom:
