Kitchen or bathroom?

[RockRanger]

After cleaning out the garage of a bunch of returns we have about $400 in Hope Depot giftcards. Trying to decide which route would be best to go on doing a few updates on the house. There are four areas that need attention:

Yard
Windows
Bathrooms
Kitchen

Right now I am not home enough to do much yard work and with what I want $400 might get an irrigation system in part of it. Duel pane windows are way more then I have so that is out. That leaves doing something with the kitchen and the bathrooms.

Lets start with the kitchen. Here is an idea of what the kitchen looks like. It is messy as the picture was when I was doing alot of work in the house before I moved in. The cabinets, floor, counters, and wall color are the same as the picture. Just not so dusty.







This is the picture of the fridge we have. We also have the matching dishwasher and range. The kitchen sink is fairly new as well so it can easily be reused as well.



Any ideas on ways to spruce it up for $400? I am thinking new laminate countertops but I am kind of stuck on what to do with door and drawer fronts. I do not see in the budget in the next 5 years a complete redo of the kitchen. I have a rockbuggy or two that need to be built first So any changes will be around for a while.


Now onto the bathrooms. Both of them are you typical small bathrooms. 30" vanity, toilet, and fiberglass bathunit. Here are pictures of the second bath. The master is the same except has a fiberglass shower instead of a tub. I already have new fausets and showervalves to install so if any changes are done here that is a few bucks i do not have spend. The toilets are new ones I installed and can easily be reused as well.





Any ideas? I am not sure how much I can do with $400 in one of the baths. If I put a tile shower in the master that will eat most of the budget before I even get shower doors. A new vanity alone as well would eat most of budget as well. Not really sure what I can do in the bathrooms for less than $1000.

I am very much design blind but give me a drawing and I can easily build it out.

[Tbars4]

...Are you home this weekend???...I can do drawings...

...And before you do mirrors in the bath, I can help find a couple new vanities ...

[RangerX]

A couple hundred bucks worth of paint can make a big change...

[Joe Dirt]

I was going to say refinish/paint the cabinets... Is the countertop chipping up? Because the color isn't too bad... Unless it's that chopping block woodgrain stuff...

[Stic-o]

our powder room that we redid was a little under a grand. It was well worth it because we easily increased the value of the hose more then that buy doing it. I plan for both the the other bathrooms costing about 2k a piece, and the kitchen about 5k or so.

I say go spend the $400 bucks on tools

[leebo]

I know I'm going to sound somewhat stupid on this one, but just how old if your house? I myself would keep an eye out this winter for a sale on insulation and redo it. You can deduct it up to 30% this year, and out west keeping the heat out in the summer is just as important as keeping the heat in during the winter in the east. I know it's not as exciting as a new kitchen or bath, but we spent about $300 last year and noticed a HUGE difference in the comfort of the house last winter. $400 won't really get you to far in the bath and kitchen departments, but you should give you some change back each month in your utility bills, and leave you some cash to buy some new paint.

Or say screw it and buy some new tools.

[Stic-o]

Matt I just thought of it...get your HVAC fixed!

[RockRanger]

Originally Posted by Joe Dirt

Unless it's that chopping block woodgrain stuff...

Winner winner that is what it is.

Originally Posted by Stic-o

I say go spend the $400 bucks on tools

If only they sold DOM tube.... I just bought a 7 pc makita LI cordless kit for $250

Originally Posted by leebo

I know I'm going to sound somewhat stupid on this one, but just how old if your house? I myself would keep an eye out this winter for a sale on insulation and redo it. You can deduct it up to 30% this year, and out west keeping the heat out in the summer is just as important as keeping the heat in during the winter in the east. I know it's not as exciting as a new kitchen or bath, but we spent about $300 last year and noticed a HUGE difference in the comfort of the house last winter. $400 won't really get you to far in the bath and kitchen departments, but you should give you some change back each month in your utility bills, and leave you some cash to buy some new paint.

Or say screw it and buy some new tools.

This will kind of go with Stic-o below. House was built in 1979. When I bought it half the drywall was missing in the house We upgraded the ceiling insulation to R30 to help with the heat. We also added a whole house fan which works great for cooling the house in the evenings. The bedrooms and living room also each got ceiling fans to help circulate air. In reality on the Hotest days here when it hits 105 there is maybe two hours in the late afternoon it can get warm in the house. It may hit 105 but will be in the mid 60s that night. Using the whole house fan can cool the house way down. We have never had a night where it was so hot in the house we could not fall asleep. In the winter we turn it on in the afternoon to help suck warm air from outside in to help heat the house. May not work perfect for that but it helps.

In the last 18 months the interior has been half of it re drywalled, new insulation in ceiling, painted, new base and case, new carpet, new applances, whole house fan, ceiling fans in bedrooms, and a new roof. I have just over $10,000 into all of that. Almost half of that just being the roof. Only thing in the inside not touched has been the bathrooms and kitchen other then a quick coat of paint.

Originally Posted by Stic-o

Matt I just thought of it...get your HVAC fixed!

Its been a year and a half with no AC or Heat what makes you think we need it now In reallity I think I would buy one of the portable AC units first. I can't see spending the money to heat and cool 1800 squarefeet when we use about half of it. We have a heat dish we use for spot heat in the winter. Usually we just use a sweatshirt and extra blacket. It would be nice to cool the master bedroom in the afternoon for Tracy to nap in. However the second bedroom gets no direct sunlight and stays cooler then any other room in the house by 10- 15 degrees. She can go in there when she needs to rest.



Tracy wants to repaint the outside of the house. Something about the stucco being three different colors depending on which side of the house you are on is bothering her

[leebo]

Then it looks like new paint for the outside it is then!

It's really kinda funny just how much a few bucks spent on an attic fan and insulation can make. Our house is a 1 1/2 story cape cod with the bedrooms being up in what should be the attic. Once we added the fan and insulation it also made a HUGE difference at nights being able to stand it up there. It was just a thought, but it looks like you beat me to it.

[RockRanger]

It is amazing what the $200 wholehouse fan and the $100 ceiling fans can do to keep the house livable without AC. They were by far the best changes we did to the house. I am not sure how people lived in this house before us with out ceiling fans. That AC must have ran a ton.

I know a great painter that can give me a hand with getting the outside painted. I am figuring around $6-700 to paint the outside if we go that route.

[Tbars4]

....Just putting this out there but, OSH is having their anniversary sale and no tax this weekend...

[RockRanger]

No OSH stores in San Diego. Not even sure where the closest one would be.

[Tbars4]

...Sorry, I thought they were also further south...

...The furthest south they go seems to be by me and Froader...

[Stic-o]

I Love OSH