Buying stock cabinets for your kitchen remodel can definitely save you money. Here are some tips to help you make the right buying decision.

Stock cabinets save you time because you don’t have to wait for them to be built. And they save you money because you aren’t paying for customizations.

But that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice quality. You just need to know what to look for.

What to Look For

• Solid wood and plywood cabinets. They’ll give you better longevity and crisper details than pressed wood.

• Walls at least ½-inch thick. They’re more sturdy.

• Consistency of finish. Lesser quality cabinets often have irregular finishes and colors from one cabinet box to the next.

• Full-extension hardware. It allows you to open drawers all the way and open doors almost 180 degrees to make access easier.

• Dovetail joinery. Or a metal box. Drawer sides and backs that are stapled together won’t last as long.

Cost and Installation

The cost of quality stock cabinets for an average-sized kitchen generally runs $8,000 to $10,000. Semi-custom cabinets would cost about twice that. And full custom cabinets would cost even more.

There are some lower-cost stock alternatives, such as IKEA (as low as $2,500), but you’ll offset your savings with the hassle of difficult assembly — fine if you have the patience and skill.

But unless you’ve got professional building experience, actually installing kitchen cabinets isn’t a typical DIY job.

So carve out $100 to $300 per cabinet (depending on labor rates in your area) to have them professionally installed.

The Drawbacks of Stock Cabinets

• Finish and color choices are limited. The most likely options are painted white, natural wood, or stained maple and cherry.

• Stock cabinets are only 36 inches tall. If you want taller cabinets, you’ll have to go semi-custom, which can take you up to 42 inches.

• You could lose potential storage space. Filler strips are used to cover gaps created when the stock sizes don’t quite fill the space — whereas custom cabinets can be measured to take advantage of all space.

• Extra details such as crown molding aren’t included. Mitered corners and furniture-style sides aren’t included either. However, you can add crown molding yourself later if you choose.

• Warranties are limited. The industry standard is about 5 years, and they only cover product failure, not wear and tear.

Note: You’ll also need to choose hardware. But that can be a fun project to really personalize your kitchen.

Get more tips on planning a kitchen remodel.

“Visit HouseLogic.com for more articles like this. Reprinted from HouseLogic.com with permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.”

1. Add solar lighting

If you’d like your wood deck to come alive when the sun goes down, add solar lighting. Solar lights don’t need an on/off switch — they light up when it gets dark, then fade away 4-6 hours later.

You won’t have to plug them in or wire anything, either. Their solar-charged batteries are renewed every day, and the lights are built to withstand all kinds of weather.

Types and cost:

• Paper lanterns (made from synthetic, weatherproof nylon; $20-$30) are made for hanging and come in all sorts of fun shapes, sizes, and colors.

• Carriage lights can be fixed on top of a pillar or railing newel post. $45-$150.

• Solar illuminated replicas of old-fashioned mason jars can be set on any flat surface, about $35.

• Rope lights have small LED bulbs inside a flexible cord. A 25-foot-long rope with solar charger and stand is $25.

What else: Suspend lanterns from overhead trellises, railings, and nearby trees, where they’ll shed a soft, colorful glow. Wind rope lights around rafters and railings.

2. Install a stone landing at the foot of your deck stairs
3. Put up a privacy screen
4. Paint a faux floor rug on your decking
5. Wash and refinish your wood decking

2. Install a stone landing at the foot of your deck stairs

Dress up the transition from your deck to your yard with a little hardscaping — a stone landing at the bottom of your deck stairs. Stones are a natural compliment to wood decks, and they’ll help prevent mud from forming where there’s heavy foot traffic.

Cost: Flagstone is priced by the pound; you’ll spend $60-$100 for enough stone for a 3-by-4-foot landing.

How-to: Techniques for installing a landing are the same as putting in a patio, although you’ll have to temporarily support your existing stairway while you work around — and under — it.

What else: You should be able to add a landing in less than a day. It’ll get done faster if you hire a pro, but it’ll cost you another $150-$200 in labor.

3. Put up a privacy screen

Whether you’re relaxing alone au naturel or entertaining friends, a little home privacy is always welcome. You can add some vertical supports and fill in a variety of cool screening materials that are as nice for your neighbors to look at as they are for you.

Types and costs:

• Bamboo fencing comes in a 6-by-16-foot roll for $20-$25.

• Lattice panels are either wood or plastic, $15-$30 for a 4-by-8-foot panel.

• Grow climbing plants on a trellis ($20-$100) to create a living privacy screen. Plant climbing vines in tall containers ($40-$120) to raise them above the deck surface and give them a head start filling in your screen.

• Outdoor fabric resists moisture and fading; $12-$120 per yard. You’ll pay another $20 to have a seamstress cut and hem a 3-by-5-foot panel.

How-to: Your privacy screen should integrate with your deck; make the framework using the same basic materials as your deck railing and structure.

Add some flash by building a frame with 2-by-2- or 2-by-4-inch uprights spaced 1 foot apart, then weaving aluminum flashing between the uprights.

What else: Make sure to position your privacy screen where you’ll get maximum benefit. Sit on your deck and check your lines of sight.

4. Paint a faux floor rug on your decking

Punch up a boring old deck with a faux rug. This is a fairly low-cost project with a big wow factor, and one you can share making with your (well-behaved) kids. It works best on a newly cleaned deck.

Cost: Most of your cost will be deck stain or paint in various colors. Because you won’t be using that much stain per color, you can buy quarts. Figure $15-$20 per quart.

How-to: Figure out a size, sketch out the design on your decking, and then all you have to do is paint or stain between the lines. You can use painter’s tape as a guide, but a little leakage is likely on a wood decking surface.

What else: Keep a few basic cleaning supplies on hand for any drips or spills. After the stain is dry, coat the entire deck with a clear deck sealer.

5. Wash and refinish your wood decking

The ultimate deck makeover is none other than a good cleaning. Applying a coat of deck sealant afterwards ensures your wood decking looks great and will last for decades.

Cost: There are many brands of deck cleaning and brightening solutions. Some require the deck to be wet; others need the decking to be dry. Some are harmful to plants and you’ll have to use plastic sheeting to protect your landscaping. Consult the instructions carefully.

You’ll pay $15-$25 per gallon, enough to clean 300 sq. ft. of decking.

How-to: Scrubbing with a good cleaning solution and rinsing with a garden hose is more foolproof than scouring your decking with a power washer that may damage the surface of the wood.

What else: After you deck is cleaned, apply a coat of deck stain or clear finish. The sealer wards off dirt, wear, and UV rays, and helps prevent deck splinters. A gallon covers 250-350 sq. ft., $20-$35/gal.

 

By: John Riha
Published: July 2, 2012

Read more: http://members.houselogic.com/articles/deck-makeover-ideas-under-300/preview/#ixzz33gWeUp8q
“Visit HouseLogic.com for more articles like this. Reprinted from HouseLogic.com with permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.”

In our litigious society, trashing your contractor’s shoddy workmanship could land you in court. Here’s how to offer criticism and avoid expensive legal hassles.

Your contractor didn’t show up on time, botched the job, won’t fix what’s wrong, and now is demanding full payment.

You’re so mad you could spit.

So you go online to post a negative review and vent some choice words, hoping to warn others about the yo-yo whom you hired in good faith. Next thing you know, that contractor is suing you, claiming you harmed his business.

Yikes! What happened to the First Amendment? Can’t you say what you want?

Apparently not. In Virginia, a homeowner who felt shoddy workmanship had ruined her remodeling project posted scathing reviews of her contractor on Angie’s List and Yelp, even implying that he stole her jewelry.

The contractor didn’t take the heat lightly and sued the homeowner for $750,000, claiming the defamation resulted in loss of business.

What followed was a series of suits, countersuits, and more online accusations. Ultimately, a Virginia court ruled in favor of the contractor, but refused to award any damages, saying that both parties had managed to defame each other.

Is Posting a Negative Online Review Asking for Trouble?

A botched remodeling job is a major headache — both emotionally and financially. A negative online review can be a potent way to shed a light on shady contractors and poor workmanship.

But voicing an opinion isn’t a carte blanche to launch into tirades. In fact, the Virginia homeowner was lucky on two counts:

1. She lost the case but avoided paying damages because the contractor had publicly criticized her in kind.

2. Her case was handled by a pro bono lawyer. Otherwise, she would have been on the hook for court costs and lawyer fees, win or lose.

“The fact that she had to get a lawyer and go all the way to a trial has got to be a cautionary tale,” says Paul Levy, an attorney for Public Citizen, a First Amendment advocacy organization. “If you get sued, it can end up costing you thousands to defend yourself, even if the verdict goes your way.”

Tips If You Like to Post Reviews

Check your homeowners insurance policies to see if you’re protected in the event of a libel lawsuit.

• If your policy covers personal liability, you’re probably protected against claims of libel and slander.

• If not, you can purchase an umbrella policy that covers libel, or add a rider to your current policy for about $200-$300 per year.

The Contractor’s POV

If you have a beef with a building contractor, you’re in good company. Here’s a quick rundown of the businesses that received the most Better Business Bureau consumer complaints in 2012, the latest year for which it has comprehensive data:

Rank	Business Type	BBB Complaints (millions)
#1	Roofing contractors	3.2
#2	General contractors	2.3
#3	Used car dealers	1.9
#4	Plumbers	1.6
#5	New car dealers	1.5
#6	Remodeling contractors	1.5
#7	Attorneys & lawyers	1.2

In addition to registering a complaint with the BBB, an online criticism posted at Angie’s List, Homestars, Service Magic, Yelp, and other forums makes the issue more visible.

A public expose not only exacts retribution, it may help solve the problem. Many professionals take negative criticism seriously, and will work with the homeowner to fix problems and right wrongs in the hopes that the homeowner will either retract the negative comments or at least say the issue was resolved to her satisfaction.

But the reality is that by the time a contractor has a chance to smooth things out, the damage to his reputation may already be done. A negative review tends to pop up more prominently in search results than a host of positive reviews, says Michael Fertik, CEO of Reputation.com, a company that works to protect the respectability of companies and individuals.

“For homeowners, dealing with contractors certainly can be an emotional issue,” says Fertik. “A homeowner might not understand the complexities or skill set of a contractor’s business, and the result may be a review that’s exaggerated and deleterious.”

Will a Contractor Sue You?

Turning the tables — and suing a homeowner for posting negative comments — doesn’t necessarily make the best sense for contractors.

For one, proving libel is difficult. A contractor would have to establish that whatever was said about him and his business was false and slanderous, not simply a complaint.

In response to the Virginia trial, Yelp’s senior litigation director, Aaron Schur, wrote, “Litigation is not a good substitute for customer service. Businesses that try to sue their customers into silence rarely prevail, end up wasting their own time and money, and usually bring additional, unwanted attention to the original criticism.”

Not only that, but, “who’d want to hire a contractor with a reputation for suing his customers?” questions attorney Paul Levy.

Nevertheless, even the threat of litigation is a powerful option for contractors. When a Toronto couple posted a 2,000-word negative review about their $400 home improvement project, their contractor threatened litigation unless the review was removed. Intimidated, the couple revised their review to a mere 30 mild words.

How to Write a Good Negative Review

When it comes to posting negative comments, there’s a good way and a not-so-good way. Here are guidelines for writing critical online comments that help readers understand the problem, and help the offending party (your contractor) improve its services.

Take a deep breath before posting. Vitriol and anger have a way of backfiring.

Avoid hurtful words: thief, liar, crook, rip-off artist, stupid jerk.

Document your concerns with facts. For example, if your contractor was habitually late, note how many times the crew failed to show up on time and how many days you estimate your project lost due to absences.

Without specific documentation, present any specific issues as your opinion. For example, if you didn’t see them do it, don’t say, “They damaged our siding while unloading their truck.” You can, however, make your point by stating it as an opinion: “I believe our siding was damaged when they unloaded their truck.” Those qualifiers — it looked to me; it felt as if — help establish your comments as personal opinion and help put you on safe legal ground.

Keep your comments short and to the point. Remember that you’re talking to peers who want to be informed and who probably will dismiss a rant as too extreme to be trusted.

Can You Trust Reviews?

Online reviews have been a boon for homeowners, allowing us to gather firsthand info on every subject, from roofing contractors to lightbulbs. A 2013 consumer survey by BrightLocal says that 79% of consumers trust online reviews.

And 58% of respondents to a study by Dimensional Research say they’re “more likely to tell others about their customer service experiences today than they were five years ago.”

But not all is calm in review-land. There are concerns that online reviews are too easily tainted, such as:

• Positive reviews posted anonymously by a company’s own employees

• Underground reviewers-for-hire who’ll post five-star accolades for money

• Companies that try to undermine competitors with fabricated negative reviews

Opinions vary on whether review sites do enough to ferret out false reviews. Amazon, Angie’s List, and Yelp insist they do. After all, it’s in their own best interests to have trustworthy reputations.

Angie’s List, for example, has an engineering group that randomly selects reviews for analysis and runs algorithms specifically designed to identify suspicious patterns.

“Overall, I do think entities like Yelp provide useful value for consumers,” says Levy. “I’d hate to see people deterred from participating in them.”

Contributing insightful, fair, honest reviews is a service to your fellow consumers.

How to Read a Review

Sorting out fact from fluff takes due diligence. As a reader of reviews, try to get the big picture before letting negative (or positive) reviews influence your decisions.

Get opinions from multiple online review sources — not just one.

Be wary of extremes. The worst contractor alive; the best experience of my life.

Balance the good and bad. Don’t let a small number of bad reviews overshadow the positive. With negative reviews, check to see if the contractor has followed up and attempted to appease his critics.

Would you throw away $20,000? You are if you’re letting your home age faster than it should. Here’s a simple maintenance strategy to keep your home young.

You know how Dr. Oz says that if you keep your body fit and your mind nimble, you’re likely younger than your chronological years? The same principle applies to your house.

An out-of-shape house is older than its years and could lose 10% of its appraised value, says Mack Strickland, an appraiser and real estate agent in Chester, Va. That’s a $15,000-$20,000 adjustment for the average home.

But good maintenance can even add value. A study out of the University of Connecticut and Syracuse University finds that regular maintenance increases the value of a home by about 1% each year.

So if you’ve been deferring maintenance, or just need a good strategy to stay on top of it, here’s the simplest way to keep your home in good health.

Focus on Your Home’s #1 Enemy

If you focus on nothing else, focus on moisture — your home’s No. 1 enemy.

Water can destroy the integrity of your foundation, roof, walls, and floors — your home’s entire structure. So a leaky gutter isn’t just annoying; it’s compromising your foundation.

Keeping moisture at bay will improve your home’s effective age — or as Dr. Oz would say, “real age” — and protect its value. It’ll also help you prioritize what you need to do. Here’s how:

Follow This Easy 4-Step Routine

1. When it rains, actively pay attention. Are your gutters overflowing? Is water flowing away from your house like it should? Is water coming inside?

2. After heavy rains and storms, do a quick inspection of your roof, siding, foundation, windows, doors, ceilings, and basement to spot any damage or leaks.

3. Use daylight savings days or the spring and fall equinox to remind you to check and test water-related appliances like your washer, refrigerator, water heater, HVAC (condensation in your HVAC can cause leaks) or swamp cooler, and sump pump. It’s also a great time to do regular maintenance on them. Inspect any outdoor spigots and watering systems for leaks, too.

4. Repair any damage and address any issues and leaks ASAP.

Don’t procrastinate when you spot minor leaks or drips inside your house. Ongoing small leaks can slowly erode pipes and fixtures, and even cause mold and mildew issues you won’t notice until it’s too late.

Say you’ve got a bit of cracked caulk around the kitchen window. It may not seem like much, but behind that caulk, water could get into your sheathing, causing mold damage and rot. Before you know it, you’re looking at a $5,000 repair that could have been prevented by a $4 tube of caulk and a half hour of your time.

To help you with this routine, we have several guides with specifics and tips:

• How to Prevent Water Damage

• Inspecting and Maintaining Your Roof

• How to Inspect Windows and Doors for Leaks

• Spotting Foundation Problems

• How to Help Your Appliances Last Longer

• Caring for Siding

Once you settle into a routine, it becomes easier to handle other maintenance tasks, which will only do more to protect and enhance your home’s value. Plus, you’ll get to know your home better, which will help you spot other one-off problems, such as termites and other wood-destroying insects, that can cause costly damage.

If You Want to Take Home Maintenance to the Next Level . . .

If you’re a geek about home maintenance like we are, and you want to do more than water patrol, these ideas will help you keep your house in great shape.

Give yourself an incentive to do maintenance. Maintenance is your springboard to sexier projects like a kitchen remodel or basement makeover. So plan a room-per-year redo. This way you’re maintaining, fixing, and improving. For example:

In your basement:

• Check for dark stains that could signal plumbing leaks. If you find any leaks, fix them.

• Check your ductwork for leaks that are wasting energy.

• Clean the lint out of the dryer vent. The machine will last longer, and you’ll help prevent fires.

• Caulk and seal basement windows to stop air leaks.

• Once your space is moisture sealed, you can start converting it into a family room or other livable space.

• Add a basement ceiling.

• Brighten it up with paint.

In your kitchen:

• Clean out all the cabinets, then wipe them down. It’s a great way to purge and get organized.

• Take a good look under your kitchen sink. Remove all the wastebaskets and cleaning supplies to help you spot any leaks, and fix them.

• Pull out the fridge to give that yucky alcove a thorough cleaning. Check the drip pan for moisture that can spawn mold growth.

• Update cabinet hardware and adjust hinges if necessary.

• Re-caulk the seam between your backsplash and wall to keep moisture out. To give your whole kitchen a low-cost facelift, how about a new backsplash?

• Re-paint the walls using paint with a tough, semi-gloss sheen that stands up to repeated cleanings and resists moisture.

Keep a maintenance fund. Some sources say you should save 1% to 3% of your initial house price annually to pay for maintenance. On a $200,000 house, that’s $2,000-$6,000 a year. Yeesh, that’s a big nut.

Alternatively, make it a goal to save enough money to do a major replacement project, so the bill won’t catch you off guard. Probably the biggest single replacement project you’ll have is your roof or siding.

You can build up this fund over several years by paying yourself a monthly assessment — whatever you can manage. Keep it in a separate account to avoid the temptation to tap it for hockey tickets or other impulse buys.

If you need to replace the roof before you have a fund, an equity loan is an option. But consider very carefully.

If you’re practicing maintenance in the way we’ve outlined here, you won’t need $2,000 per year to manage your home’s natural aging process. Some routine tasks, such as cleaning rain gutters and changing furnace filters, could cost you $300 or less per year.

Your house takes care of you — not just for shelter but as a financial asset. Return the favor and keep it hale and hearty by caring for it with regular maintenance.

“Visit HouseLogic.com for more articles like this. Reprinted from HouseLogic.com with permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.”

When you buy a fixer-upper house, you can save a ton of money, or get yourself in a financial fix.

Trying to decide whether to buy a fixer-upper house? Follow these seven steps, and you’ll know how much you can afford, how much to offer, and whether a fixer-upper house is right for you.

1. Decide what you can do yourself

TV remodeling shows make home improvement work look like a snap. In the real world, attempting a difficult remodeling job that you don’t know how to do will take longer than you think and can lead to less-than-professional results that won’t increase the value of your fixer-upper house.

• Do you really have the skills to do it? Some tasks, like stripping wallpaper and painting, are relatively easy. Others, like electrical work, can be dangerous when done by amateurs.

• Do you really have the time and desire to do it? Can you take time off work to renovate your fixer-upper house? If not, will you be stressed out by living in a work zone for months while you complete projects on the weekends?

2. Price the cost of repairs and remodeling before you make an offer

• Get your contractor into the house to do a walk-through, so he can give you a written cost estimate on the tasks he’s going to do.

• If you’re doing the work yourself, price the supplies.

• Either way, tack on 10% to 20% to cover unforeseen problems that often arise with a fixer-upper house.

3. Check permit costs

• Ask local officials if the work you’re going to do requires a permit and how much that permit costs. Doing work without a permit may save money, but it’ll cause problems when you resell your home.

• Decide if you want to get the permits yourself or have the contractor arrange for them. Getting permits can be time-consuming and frustrating. Inspectors may force you to do additional work, or change the way you want to do a project, before they give you the permit.

• Factor the time and aggravation of permits into your plans.

4. Doublecheck pricing on structural work

If your fixer-upper home needs major structural work, hire a structural engineer for $500 to $700 to inspect the home before you put in an offer so you can be confident you’ve uncovered and conservatively budgeted for the full extent of the problems.

Get written estimates for repairs before you commit to buying a home with structural issues.

Don’t purchase a home that needs major structural work unless:

• You’re getting it at a steep discount

• You’re sure you’ve uncovered the extent of the problem

• You know the problem can be fixed

• You have a binding written estimate for the repairs

5. Check the cost of financing

Be sure you have enough money for a downpayment, closing costs, and repairs without draining your savings.

If you’re planning to fund the repairs with a home equity or home improvement loan:

• Get yourself pre-approved for both loans before you make an offer.

• Make the deal contingent on getting both the purchase money loan and the renovation money loan, so you’re not forced to close the sale when you have no loan to fix the house.

• Consider the Federal Housing Administration’s Section 203(k) program, which is designed to help home owners who are purchasing or refinancing a home that needs rehabilitation. The program wraps the purchase/refinance and rehabilitation costs into a single mortgage. To qualify for the loan, the total value of the property must fall within the FHA mortgage limit for your area, as with other FHA loans. A streamlined 203(k) program provides an additional amount for rehabilitation, up to $35,000, on top of an existing mortgage. It’s a simpler process than obtaining the standard 203(k).

6. Calculate your fair purchase offer

Take the fair market value of the property (what it would be worth if it were in good condition and remodeled to current tastes) and subtract the upgrade and repair costs.

For example: Your target fixer-upper house has a 1960s kitchen, metallic wallpaper, shag carpet, and high levels of radon in the basement.

Your comparison house, in the same subdivision, sold last month for $200,000. That house had a newer kitchen, no wallpaper, was recently recarpeted, and has a radon mitigation system in its basement.

The cost to remodel the kitchen, remove the wallpaper, carpet the house, and put in a radon mitigation system is $40,000. Your bid for the house should be $160,000.

Ask your real estate agent if it’s a good idea to share your cost estimates with the sellers, to prove your offer is fair.

7. Include inspection contingencies in your offer

Don’t rely on your friends or your contractor to eyeball your fixer-upper house. Hire pros to do common inspections like:

• Home inspection. This is key in a fixer-upper assessment. The home inspector will uncover hidden issues in need of replacement or repair. You may know you want to replace those 1970s kitchen cabinets, but the home inspector has a meter that will detect the water leak behind them.

• Radon, mold, lead-based paint

• Septic and well

• Pest

Most home inspection contingencies let you go back to the sellers and ask them to do the repairs, or give you cash at closing to pay for the repairs. The seller can also opt to simply back out of the deal, as can you, if the inspection turns up something you don’t want to deal with.

If that happens, this isn’t the right fixer-upper house for you. Go back to the top of this list and start again.

G.M. Filisko is an attorney and award-winning writer whose parents bought and renovated a fixer-upper when she was a teen. A regular contributor to many national publications including Bankrate.com, REALTOR® Magazine, and the American Bar Association Journal, she specializes in real estate, business, personal finance, and legal topics.