Home Improvement on the Cheap:Remodeling

On my 1st house (now a rental property) I converted the house from 1.5 bathrooms to 2 full bathrooms. It was a fairly major project that involved gutting both bathrroms and relaying out the space to squeeze an extra bathtub into the 2nd bathroom.

I found several ways to keep my expenses under control during this project:

Habitat for Humanity Reuse Store -- I went several times looking for a random item I needed in my project such as sink cabinets and hardware.
Clearance items at Lowes/Home Depot - I bought my washer/dryer (which was part of this remodel project) on clearence at Lowes; I also got many smaller items such as some of the bath hardware on clearance.
10% Off Coupons at Lowes- If your going to buy something, you might as well save 10% on it.
Do almost all the labor yourself -- easier said than done, but your time is money, so why not use it and save yourself a ton. The bulk of any remodel expesne is likely to be labor unless you do it yourself.
Reuse drywall, toilets and other fixtures - If there is nothing wrong with a fixture or piece of material - clean it up and reuse it.

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Comments (2)

The link for Habitat did not work for me. This one might work. http://www.habitat.org/env/materials_conservation.aspx

It is an interesting concept that I never would have thought of.

Nagel
http://finance.webaplex.com

Posted by Nagel | March 29, 2007 6:40 AM

Hey - great read.
I recommend buying PC (vanities,mirrors,) items on the cheap I go to auctions and buy them for a song but get good renovators to do the plumbing etc. else you loose warranties etc. and you don't want to fiddle with electrical. It could be a saftey issue.
Cheers!

Posted by Lily Knott | April 10, 2007 5:49 AM