patrick.net

Here are the highlights: Built in 2002; 3300 square feet; 5 beds 3 full baths, stone floors downstairs (beautiful), wood floors upstairs (perfect), large backyard (for CA) with nice pavers, BBQ, and fire pit. Very attractive outside both front and back. With the exception of the floors, which are well above average, -- the rest has basic builder materials used inside (white tile countertops, narrow baseboards, wonky faux wood blinds, hollow doors, etc...). The house already has solar panels. There is nothing that's wrong with the house that requires immediate attention. I bought it as a short sale. The house is a perfect example of great bones and lots of potential, but it is definitely below the standard when it comes to improvements seen in other houses in the area. The house up the street sold for $1.2M just a few months ago. It's very similar to ours, but it is much more upgraded (except that it had carpet upstairs, which I hate). We paid $8xxK for basically the same house, however, ours has the original builder grade materials.

Assuming a person has a $75k budget, which improvements do you think would provide the most bang for the buck?

1) Bathrooms (3) have pretty basic materials with white tile countertops & showers, mildly worn cabinets, very worn shower glass. (There's a lot of hard water gunk in the frame. I installed a very nice water softening system, and I've tried to clean it, but Lime Away only goes so far.) Fans are inoperable.

2) Kitchen has mildly worn cabinets, tile countertops, and circa 2002 appliances. Everything works.

3) Window treatments are original faux wood blinds. I don't think any of them actually work right. Preference would be plantation shutters. Many, many windows throughout.

4) Mouldings -- the baseboards and door frames are very narrow. Prefer the bigger ones. We have very high ceilings throughout, so the house could handle it; also need to bring crowns into all the rooms and the entry area. A few windows need picture frames. Windows without them look unfinished to me.... AND we have this gorgeous curved window that would look spectacular with the right trim... AND it's weird that some windows have them and some don't.

5) Exterior painting -- This isn't urgent, but it's going to be time for this soon. Also, would add those exterior shutters to the little windows in the middle...

6) Heating/air conditioning system are circa 2002, but still working at the moment. (I hate this one! It's expensive and isn't fun at all.)

7) Built-in pergola in the back... Though the backyard is pretty nice, there isn't a shaded conversation area. Alternatively, we could build a balcony off the master, which would double as a shaded conversation area out back in addition to a balcony.

8) Built-in Jacuzzi in the back... I'm not really a fan of pools... Too much upkeep and I promised the dogs they could have the backyard... But the kids are asking for a body of water out back. (We have an HOA and several pools... The kids are hardly suffering.) The previous owners had apparently started the process of this, so I think the plumbing is already there.

9) Extending the pavers to the sides of the house. There currently is gravel at the sides.

10) Upgraded interior doors. It's nice to have doors that "thunk" when you close them.

11) New garage and front door. These are basic. Not bad. In good condition.... There are just much better looking ones out there.

12) New side gates (2). Some rust damage to both. Will probably become a problem soon.

13) Backyard wall. There's a 6.5-7 foot wall that separates us from the neighbors. It's white painted blocks. We either need to put in lots of plants that will conceal it, or something. One neighbor painted hers and another added some kind of stone facia. I actually have a quote on this one. My gardener said $500 to plant a fast growing, flowering hedge that would virtually hide the wall.

14) Sound system. This is another example of something that's already in place, but it's been allowed to fall by the wayside. I'm not sure what works and what doesn't. But I can see all the wiring is in place both inside and outside.

15) Converting the 5th bedroom into an open gathering space. It's right at the top of the stairs. Every other bedroom is pretty big. But this "bedroom" is kind of small for a bedroom. Currently, my son put in two lazyboys and uses it for his own personal game room. I'm thinking we could remove the closet, take the wall down to half height so you can see out onto the stairs, get rid of the door, and install built-ins to make the room an anything room. It could be a game room, study area, workout area....

I have no idea how much some of most of these items cost, but I'm pretty sure that my budget means I'm going to have to pick and choose. So, if you had to prioritize improvements, where would you start? I have no plans to sell, but you never know what happens in life, so I want to treat improvements like a business decision, as much as possible. In your experience, when you had to sell, on which improvements did you get your money back? I'd like to know going in, which ones I could expect to get my money back on and which ones I'm just doing for my own personal enjoyment (doors that go "thunk" might be something only I would appreciate). I've gone to a few open houses in the area to see what others have done to make sure that whatever I choose is in-line.

Am I better off finding a general contractor who can do it all? Or am I better off finding the "specialists" myself?

Here are some pictures to help you visualize. These are from before we bought the house, but they are mostly accurate.... Except we don't have a car lot going on in our driveway.