<p>Coralbrook, I truly think the fact that you were able to find a buyer way before your reno was done has turned out to be a curse, not a blessing! But I think you already figured that out.</p>
<p>Counting down…I saw that too…do you want to start a thread?</p>
<p>My H used to build spec homes.He never listed his houses till he was at a point that changes could not be made. He did not want to go through what Coralbrook is going through.
I appreciate Coralbrook sharing her experiences. </p>
<p>Me too!</p>
<p>Some things are blessings disguised as curses while others are curses disguised as blessings. In any case, we all have to make the best of the hands we are dealt. ;)</p>
<p>I have loaded a photo of all of the colors painted across the front of the little house to our Flickr group. I will keep you all in suspense on which color was selected! Although it might be easy to guess from my discussion above.</p>
<p>Buyer was at project again this morning making changes with her tile layout for the small little bathroom. Luckily she is very aware that her tile choice is expensive and the layout will be expensive. Just finished a large change order from her changes this past week. </p>
<p>But, the interesting thing is she now trusts me with color choices and told me to choose an accent color myself and the color for the fences. I’m excited, I’ll get to have a little fun with the house after all </p>
<p>CB, you are a very tolerant and patient soul. Your buyer is so lucky to have you!</p>
<p>You DO sound like you have the patience of a saint, CB! I understand that you can’t post photos of the Spanish bungalow but would you mind sharing the names of the paint colors? It also sounds like you have a great eye for color…do you have a preferred interior neutral color that you tend to use in your work? Thanks so much for taking us along for the ride again. </p>
<p>I can post photos of Spanish Bungalow and they are the ones that are on Flickr. It’s the Pacific Beach Project #2 that I have not posted photos. The Spanish Bungalow photo with multiple colors has black on the windows which is representing the color that the custom windows are, since they are aluminum clad exteriors with a manufacturer color, we have to live with that color. </p>
<p>I DO have a preferred interior color. I have been using it for several years. It’s Frazee ‘Chopstick’. Make sure you look at the ‘new’ Chopstick color, not the old color they had several years ago. I asked an interior designer friend to help me with interior color on a very challenging project several years ago. She recommended Chopstick because I t is a neutral brownish grey tan. The grey tones in the neutral color make it perfect for a flip because it goes with either warm color furniture or cool color furniture. It’s all around perfect with any tones that the buyer wants for their furniture and décor. Most buyers walk in and love the color. Unfortunately Frazee doesn’t have a color chip of this specific color in their display. But, Home Depot has it in their database and matches it for me with Behr paint. But, you have to be careful that Home Depot doesn’t pull up the Old Chopstick because it is an ugly fleshy color.</p>
<p>I have painted Chopstick all over Project #2 now and the house has come to life. The owner had painted oranges, peaches and weird blues with semi-gloss on the walls. The new Chopstick has lightened and brightened the house, it has a wonderful contrast to the white ceilings and for this house it was perfect because it looks like ‘sand’ for our new theme. I have invented ‘Sophisticated Beach’ as our theme for Project #2.</p>
<p>Also, I hate Semi-Gloss on walls, even in bathrooms and kitchens. Go with mild eggshell sheen if you need to clean the walls in kitchens and bathrooms. Stay away from Semi-Gloss especially if you have heavy textured walls (which are out of fashion right now) and you want the texture to recede away. If you have horrible texture on your walls you need to use flat to subdue the texture.</p>
<p>re Chopstick:</p>
<p>Is it this one?</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.myperfectcolor.com/en/color/280194_General-Paint-CL-2832W-Chopstick”>http://www.myperfectcolor.com/en/color/280194_General-Paint-CL-2832W-Chopstick</a></p>
<p>Looks like Frazee is now a Sherwin Williams brand.</p>
<p>Forgive me, but I don’t understand why you and the client couldn’t paint the swatches yourselves, rather than pulling the crew off their other work. It’s not a big deal…I’ve painted the entire inside of most of our houses myself, and some of the outside. </p>
<p>I tend to like the cooler colors to the right of the door. :)</p>
<p>Yes, that’s the correct Chopstick, nbr 2832. Sometimes its too dark in small dark rooms so I will lighten it with Swiss Coffee which is my go to trim color.</p>
<p>If I really need to lighten a room I will paint a very pale steel blue</p>
<p>Another fan of Swiss coffee for trim. I generally get it at Kelly Moore but I suppose anyone could match it. </p>
<p>Another Swiss Coffee fan here!</p>
<p>What’s the steel blue color you like, CB?</p>
<p>I like River Rock (I think it’s a Martha Stewart color at Home Depot), but that is a deep color. It looks gorgeous in a white/stainless steel kitchen. I just wing it for the pale steel blue when I need it.</p>
<p>Right now I am struggling with finding just the right bath wall color that will go with a cream 12x24 tub surround tile, complemented with a steel blue textured floor tile and crazy gorgeous cracked glass insert tile that has hints of steel blue, grey and cream. I paid way too much for a gallon of Frazee Smoked Oyster color. Got it on the walls and I hate it. It’s going to be one of those expensive repaints as I keep trying to find just the right color. Color just never looks the same on the walls with the room lighting as it does on the swatch.</p>
<p>BUDGET UPDATE:</p>
<p>Just wanted to let you all know that we are done with all of our new ABS sewer and drain lines, new copper water lines and all new gas plumbing. As usual it took a week longer than I thought and a lot more money than I thought it would. It really does not make that much of a difference in the size of the house because I was plumbing for:</p>
<p>Kitchen Sink
Gas for Range
Icemaker for Refrigerator
Washer/Dryer with gas line
Utility Sink in garage
Water Heater in garage
Bathroom sink
Toilet
Shower
Gas Line to furnace
AC Condenser drain line
Stubbed gas line to back patio for future BBQ</p>
<p>So, it is all the basics of a big or small house. Past this point you just have to add bathroom plumbing for multiple bathrooms.</p>
<p>Budgeted $3,500 and it ended up costing $4,175. I use my own guy because he is excellent at plumbing and we pay a helper. That just helps you get an idea on the actual cost of plumbing a 1 bath house versus what a Yellow Pages plumbing company would cost.</p>
<p>Regarding painting the swatches ourselves… normally I would have only one project and I would spend days painting swatches everywhere myself. I would drive the guys crazy since I was always putting swatches of paint up everywhere and then they would have to prime over them later. But I am just way too busy now.</p>
<p>The first day was when the ‘Color Specialist’ suddenly showed up and stood there with the Buyer and acted like I was supposed to leap up and start painting swatches for them. So, since I was busy with the Buyer I had to ask the guys to come paint the swatches.</p>
<p>On Saturday, I had only 20 minutes to drop off all the paint samples I had selected and explain the diagram to one of the guys. Then had to rush over to Project #2 for a meeting with the other owners. So I had no choice but to pull the guys to start putting the samples up before Buyer came.</p>
<p>Later when I returned and someone was showing up with even more samples, I didn’t know where the paint brushes were. So, I had to find them and clean them out (no sink, had to get on hands and knees in front yard mud at the hose bib) and one of the guys just rushed out and started helping me to be nice and he painted the swatches.</p>
<p>I have a question for our experts.</p>
<p>My son is living in a 1906 house that DH and I bought in his grad school town. When he moved in, the windows were terrible – they are original and, especially in the bedroom, they leaked terribly. We got an estimate to replace all the windows in the house and the total was way too high for us at the time, so we only had the bedroom done. These windows are ginormous – maybe three feet across and seven feet high.Since then, I’ve learned that repairing the original windows is an option, so I’m considering that for the remainder of the house.</p>
<p>There’s nothing fancy about the windows – no stained glass, or unique shapes, or unique leading or anything – just their enormous size. </p>
<p>So, two questions:</p>
<ol>
<li>Will renovated/repaired windows be energy efficient, and can they be made “snug” again?</li>
<li>How does the cost compare to replacement windows? Is it more, less or about the same?</li>
</ol>
<p>Before proceeding we’d of course get estimates, but I’d like to know if anyone has an opinion.</p>
<p>It depends how bad the windows are. </p>
<p>I replace the 1926 house windows from single pane to double but Sash only. I did not replace the casing which is going to be costly.</p>
<p>Unless you want to maintain the 1906 look of the house and match the inside trim with the window, I believe it might be more costly to refinish the old one. But what do I know, the rehab addict lady likes to rehab the windows.</p>
<p>Artloversplus, that’s exactly what made me think about this! I had a “Rehab Addict” show on in the background. </p>
<p>IMO, the ones that we did in the bedroom looks just fine. Two of them cost around $1K. And it’s going to cost ~$5K to do the rest of the house. As I said, they are HUGE!!</p>