How best to prioritize remodeling on a limited budget

[Jim1912]

I'm preparing a full-home 2-bedroom, 2-bath with an estimated monthly rent of $5,000 or more in the Los Angeles area and would like to optimize improvements to help lead to good reviews from the start. So far, I had the hardwood floors resurfaced, installed mini-splits, updated the plumbing and will have new vinyl windows installed soon.

It would be great to get suggestions for prioritizing the remaining improvements, to accommodate a limited budget, involving the kitchen, bathroom and landscaping: 

To avoid the costs of a full remodel, is it an option to leave the kitchen and bathroom cabinets as they are for now? If not, would you recommend replacing the cabinet doors and drawers and possibly the countertops?   

With new lawn watering restrictions, the front yard is turning into dirt. I believe artificial turf is a good option to enhance the appearance of the property and is common in the neighborhood, but it's expensive. Also, since we're able to provide a semi-private backyard to guests, I thought it would be worthwhile to create an attractive backyard by installing artificial turf.

I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Kitchen sink sideCabinets opposite side of the sinkside of kitchen with one spice cabinetBathroom

[Jim1912]

@Ted307 , A hot tub in the backyard. That's an interesting idea.

After @Huma0 said Americans like to take baths and you said the bathroom is used more than the kitchen, I thought about a Jacuzzi bathtub. If we demo and redo the bathroom, and figure out a way to install a larger bathtub/shower combo, do you think a Jacuzzi bathtub would be a good alternative?   

[Ted307]

@Jim1912 

We think we want to have a nice soak in a tub. But, we really do not often take the time! Actually, we take a shower every morning. Showers are proven to use less water! Easy to clean for me.

Now, a hot tub looks very luxurious on your cute back yard patio. Guests think they will be in it all the time, but as a former owner of a nice hot tub, you really only use it once or twice a week. A service will come and maintain it for you if you want. You can charge more for it, or offer your monthly guests a discount if drain it and turn it off, pause the service and save water. I, for one, would take the discount!

People do rent my place intending to use the full kitchen with the cute red refrigerator. They really only use the refrigerator and the microwave and rarely cook. But, having a kitchen does get us bookings, I am sure. Just like a tub, people think they will use it but really do not. 😉

[Huma0]

@Ted307 

The other thing with grout is the more area is covered with grout and the less with tiles, the more chances there are of water penetrating and causing damage. The grout started to go on one of my shower cubicles and it was crazy how quickly and how much damage occurred. I ended up having to get the walls partially replaced and the whole thing retiled. Also, regrouping without damaging the tiles is quite a tricky job.

[Ted307]

This is another reason to keep grout coated and sealed with a sealer. Lot of maintenance. I put a sealer on my tile shower ~ once a year. Tile does not come with an instruction manual unfortunately. I really like nice tile, though. The maintenance is less than to keep those granite counters nice.

[Huma0]

@Jim1912 

Okay, so I am not saying you can achieve this sort of look on a tight budget, but it's amazing what you can do without spending a fortune (contractors are the most expensive part because there are bargains to be found in terms of furnishings, fixtures and fittings and a bit of hard graft and paint can go a long way. Your cabinets probably need stripping, or at least sanding down, before they can be repainted, but might look amazing).

I am not an interior designer, but I have done interiors styling and set design and interior decoration and renovation are passions of mine.

I think that if you have not done so already, it's worth making some mood boards for each room and also the overall feel you want for the house. It doesn't necessarily need to be exactly what you are going to do, more to have a look and feel clearly in your mind, which will help to inform some of your choices. Pinterest is your best friend for this.

Here are a few very quickly chosen images to give you an idea of what I feel when I see your photos of the property. If you like this, happy to brainstorm ideas on how you can aim for this on a budget.

[Jim1912]

@Huma0 

Do you think it's worthwhile stripping, sanding and repainting the cabinets and drawers even though the drawers aren't on sliders and don't open/close smoothly and the doors don't have the auto close hinges?  

It looks like you're leveraging colors to help create the deco style, i.e. the blue wall and green cabinets along with the furniture and artwork. Yea, it looks good.  

Would you use pics of stuff you could buy online to create a mood board?

Thanks again.

[Huma0]

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@Jim1912 wrote:

@Huma0 

Do you think it's worthwhile stripping, sanding and repainting the cabinets and drawers even though the drawers aren't on sliders and don't open/close smoothly and the doors don't have the auto close hinges?  

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Very hard to tell without seeing the condition in person. Plus, doing it yourself is very time consuming but obviously can save you money. You always have to weigh up that time versus money equation. Tradespeople here are so expensive and have become even more so since Brexit and COVID etc, so you can make massive savings by doing stuff yourself.

Still, time does equal money, so you have to weigh up if it's worth it. Like you, I can do stuff but I am slow... Sometimes you just have to admit that it will take you forever to finish something. Do you have anything equivalent to Taskrabbit there? I have tried it a couple of times for small jobs and it's been a great experience so far.

If you can find a good and affordable carpenter/handyman, they might be able to advise on what to do RE the draws and hinges. I think the hinges could look amazing if you are able to restore them, but they look like they need quite a bit of paint stripped off and I don't know if there are products that can do that without damaging the original finish (not sure if they are brass, plated or what).

As it's so difficult to advise without being there in person, what I would say is to make a Wishlist, with some different options of what you want done (with first choices of ideal scenarios and other choices if they cannot work) and get quotes. The contractors will tell you what is possible and what it might cost. However, it is also worth considering what you could do yourself.

I am not saying it is worth the effort of restoring those cabinets because it might be to much work for something that is not ever going to work adequately at the end of the day, but it's worth investigating...

As for pics of what I would use online, I am more than happy to send examples, but we are not in the same country, so I am not sure you could find the exact same things in the US. I will have a look though and send some suggestions.

[Jim1912]

@Huma0 , We have taskrabbit here and I'll try using it to see if anyone can tackle the cabinets. Good idea. Thanks.

[Sybe]

@Jim1912 I would definitely try to keep as much of the current interior as you can, it already has a lot of flair on its own. The pictures @Huma0 shared are beautiful and I can certainly see that working for this place!

[Jim1912]

@Huma0 I made the mistake of using Angie's List, now Angie,  and am receiving calls sometimes every 5 minutes from what seems to be every contractor in California even though I only requested info from one contractor.

Taskrabbit seems to be focused on smaller jobs, but unlike Angie's List, it looks legit.

I contacted the sales rep for a company that manufactures cabinet doors and drawers and he'll forward a couple a referrals to installers. Finding people is time consuming.  

[Huma0]

@Jim1912 

I don't think we have that here. I believe it's only in the US, although we might have similar sites.

Yes, Taskrabbit is best for finding people to do smaller jobs, which is very useful as a lot of contractors here are not at all interested unless it's a big project. I've found an electrician on there to change some lights for me and recently a handyman to change a the sash cord on a Victorian windows, a job that none of the tradespeople I already know were remotely interested in doing.

However, some of the people on Taskrabbit are skilled enough to do larger jobs and will quote for it. The handyman quoted me a day rate, so that will be useful to get a whole bunch of stuff off my snagging list.

What I like about it is the review system. It's easy to see who consistently gets glowing reviews, as well as the hourly rate, and booking is really straightforward.

But yes, finding people is time consuming in general. 

[Huma0]

@Richard531 

By the way, if you can restore a feature, something that is a bit special, then yes, highlighting it in a cooler can really help to make it pop out in a way that makes people notice and appreciate it.

It's still a work in progress, but I have amazing Victorian doors and door surrounds in my house. I am slowly repainting them to make them stand out more as a feature. But it is slow, because I am slow at these things, plus I have other things to do, as I am sure you have. You need to have a bit of luxury in terms of time to do that stuff without paying loads to contractors.

[Ted307]

@Jim1912 

We found some latches that match our old ones at our local Ace Hardware. They will stock things that go in the local ancient houses. Not cheap, but we only needed a couple that were beyond saving. I used a little wire brush on a Dremel tool to take off some built up paint. But, it was never my intention to restore it to like new condition. I tell our guests, this is original as we found it, the way the original builders, like your grandparents (or great-grandparents now) would have used it, and with the rust that has built up over time in spots on the original sink. I try to make our old place a feature, not a bug. But, we do not charge $5,000/month. 🙂

The old drawers never operated as smoothly as the modern drawers on metal rails, even when they were new they needed some work to open and close. The craftsmen who built these houses are all long gone, us old people who remember how to work on them are also going fast, Ted will be 72 soon. The guy who tiled our bathroom in the bunkhouse is 70.

Ted and grew up in these old places, and spent his working life keeping our rentals running. This is our last little project. If you can find a retired guy who likes that you are saving this cute house, he will be worth his weight in gold for you. You might find such a guy by asking around at your local Ace Hardware, if you have one. You probably will not find him online, but a bulletin board at the local grocery store might work.

[Huma0]

@Jim1912 

So here's a quick example of handles I found on Amazon, but I am sure you could find a much better deal if you spent a bit more time hunting around than I just did. There's no need to spend $40+ per handle.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09JZCXJ33/?coliid=I2I35HZU0DM3D9&colid=D1L1AN4NJVGX&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_li...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08Y6SCSW5/?coliid=IJPDKTIV8NBL7&colid=D1L1AN4NJVGX&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it...

[Huma0]

@Jim1912 

This is not the look I am suggesting here, but to give you another example, I bought this bathroom basin on Ebay for £25 (plus paid a courier another £25 for delivery) even though the seller only wanted £10. I felt bad for her because she didn't seem to be aware of what she was selling, so insisted on paying her £25. At that time, the same basin would have cost me easily over £1,000 retail.

There are bargains out there, but it does take time to hunt them down. So, again, it's about how much your time is worth. You have to weigh it up.