D.I.Y. Run Amuck
Koontz - I have been inside four houses recently that have all been remodeled by their owners, and I'm beginning to wonder if I need to change my stance on D.I.Y. work.
I've supported DIY because I believe it contributes to the sense of a personal investment in your home. But lordy, what these people are doing!!!
All of these homes are owned by friends of mine. Of the four, three of the owners have worked (or do work), as carpenters. The last house is a friend who works in the trades in an area unrelated to carpentry. For the most part, the workmanship is fine. In my rating scale, one does excellent work, one does very good work, one does good work and the last, the non-carpenter, well, he tries very hard.
The problem with three of the four houses is the design tact choosen by the owners'. Only one of the houses is staying true to it's root structure and actually being improved upon. That house was remodeled by a previous owner and my friend who owns the place now is working at correcting several serious design flaws from the previous remodel. His will be the hardest remodel because of this previous work. It will also be the only one of these four examples that will turn out right for a couple of key reasons that I'll come back to.
The other three houses all started as various sized Craftsman bungalows. They have since become; 1. A combination Craftsman/Victorian with long hallways, over-fancy trimwork, and 1200 additional square feet that resembles a train car. 2. A stripped Craftsman-you can still see the skeleton, but everything that made it what it was is now gone, including the lovely old front door, (now a metal six-panel), the wood floors, (now Pergo), and the six-over-one, wood, double- hung windows, (now single-hung, nine-over-nines). 3. Okay visually from the outside, but inside it has been modernized to the point of bastardization; wrong material choices, bad lay-out, no character left.
The sad fact is that I even know how these houses came to be; On the first one, they had the budget, but not the right design sensibility. On numbers 2 & 3, they sacrificed the house to the budget demands, trying to "get the most" for their money, in short; their budget was too tight to start with.
The other sad fact is that these owners' would do the same thing all over again, because they think they made the best choices they could with their design and budget. But they're wrong.
With better planning and more time to consider and search out options, all of these owners' could have made their improvements without destroying the gems they started with.
Have a heart people! Do some research, be aware of the space you're in, recognize that you can rehabilitate, remodel, even add-on and not lose what was originally built-and if you want a modern, new-styled house than think about selling your old one and relocating!
Going back to house number 4-this remodel will work because the new owner knows something about the style of his house and he likes it and wants to stay in keeping with it. He will take his time and if the budget gets too tight, he'll just take longer to accomplish all that he wants; he actually does serious DIY stuff---if he wants a wooden door at the back and he can't find the right style, he'll take the time to build the right door. He drives his wife crazy I think with his pickiness, but when he's done, you'll never know he changed anything. This will be a job worth following, (obviously he's also the only one not done). I'll keep you posted.
I've supported DIY because I believe it contributes to the sense of a personal investment in your home. But lordy, what these people are doing!!!
All of these homes are owned by friends of mine. Of the four, three of the owners have worked (or do work), as carpenters. The last house is a friend who works in the trades in an area unrelated to carpentry. For the most part, the workmanship is fine. In my rating scale, one does excellent work, one does very good work, one does good work and the last, the non-carpenter, well, he tries very hard.
The problem with three of the four houses is the design tact choosen by the owners'. Only one of the houses is staying true to it's root structure and actually being improved upon. That house was remodeled by a previous owner and my friend who owns the place now is working at correcting several serious design flaws from the previous remodel. His will be the hardest remodel because of this previous work. It will also be the only one of these four examples that will turn out right for a couple of key reasons that I'll come back to.
The other three houses all started as various sized Craftsman bungalows. They have since become; 1. A combination Craftsman/Victorian with long hallways, over-fancy trimwork, and 1200 additional square feet that resembles a train car. 2. A stripped Craftsman-you can still see the skeleton, but everything that made it what it was is now gone, including the lovely old front door, (now a metal six-panel), the wood floors, (now Pergo), and the six-over-one, wood, double- hung windows, (now single-hung, nine-over-nines). 3. Okay visually from the outside, but inside it has been modernized to the point of bastardization; wrong material choices, bad lay-out, no character left.
The sad fact is that I even know how these houses came to be; On the first one, they had the budget, but not the right design sensibility. On numbers 2 & 3, they sacrificed the house to the budget demands, trying to "get the most" for their money, in short; their budget was too tight to start with.
The other sad fact is that these owners' would do the same thing all over again, because they think they made the best choices they could with their design and budget. But they're wrong.
With better planning and more time to consider and search out options, all of these owners' could have made their improvements without destroying the gems they started with.
Have a heart people! Do some research, be aware of the space you're in, recognize that you can rehabilitate, remodel, even add-on and not lose what was originally built-and if you want a modern, new-styled house than think about selling your old one and relocating!
Going back to house number 4-this remodel will work because the new owner knows something about the style of his house and he likes it and wants to stay in keeping with it. He will take his time and if the budget gets too tight, he'll just take longer to accomplish all that he wants; he actually does serious DIY stuff---if he wants a wooden door at the back and he can't find the right style, he'll take the time to build the right door. He drives his wife crazy I think with his pickiness, but when he's done, you'll never know he changed anything. This will be a job worth following, (obviously he's also the only one not done). I'll keep you posted.
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