Project Townhouse: 1st Time Buyers

[Sully]

Apparently they cheap strips are hit or miss and possibly get really hot and possibly get set off by random remotes if you opt for a dimmable or color change version. That said, they are super cheap so I plan to try cause the legit ones are super expensive

[SlimKlim]

Love the colors you guys chose, works perfectly with the existing tile floor.

[RawrImAMonster]

Apparently they cheap strips are hit or miss and possibly get really hot and possibly get set off by random remotes if you opt for a dimmable or color change version. That said, they are super cheap so I plan to try cause the legit ones are super expensive

I've got two different brands of cheap led strips (like $15 for 16 feet) and neither make any heat at all. I've also never had a problem with other remotes setting them off.

One set I have behind my tower speakers and are music reactive. The other set I have under the railing around our back porch. The outside ones were supposed to be water proof and the lights themselves are, but the controller box and power adapter that come with them aren't. The remote box for my outside ones doesn't work anymore and it will only light them up white, but that's not really a big deal. If I ever purchase another controller box, I'll make sure to hide it somewhere where it will stay dry.

[Beej]

First off, everything looks awesome. Huge improvement :thumbup:

Since we're throwing in our two pence on under cabinet lights, and they're one of my favorite changes to our house so far, I figure I'd jump in. I went for the more expensive "locally dimmable" (each bar has it's own adjustable switch) and low profile ones from Lowes - can't find a link right now. A bit more expensive, and while I never adjust the intensity, it was nice to be able to set it to what I wanted to be and forget it (low was too dim and high was too bright). I think I got 5 different pieces myself of various lengths, and it was still only like $250 or so. You do see the reflection of the light in the granite, and I don't mind at all not having to look at an LED rope when that happens.

A tile backsplash really pops with the under cabinet lights, too. Just to spend more of your money for ya.

[.RJ]

MAKE IT POP

[Jewels]

After seeing how nice this looks I"m looking forward to my Granite countertops in my new house. I might need to pick brains though about this under cabinet lighting as I'm thinking I might need it.

[JPolen01]

Thanks everyone! It was a lot of work, but the payoff was worth it.

After seeing how nice this looks I"m looking forward to my Granite countertops in my new house. I might need to pick brains though about this under cabinet lighting as I'm thinking I might need it.

Does the house have granite already? Or are you getting to pick your own? Looking at all the different stones was really fun. There is some crazy shit out there. Did you know they have "leather" finished granite. It's fucking wild. It feels soft and bumpy like nice leather. Don't know where you would put that in a house, but I guess that is for people that have f u money.

[Jewels]

Thanks everyone! It was a lot of work, but the payoff was worth it.

After seeing how nice this looks I"m looking forward to my Granite countertops in my new house. I might need to pick brains though about this under cabinet lighting as I'm thinking I might need it.

Does the house have granite already? Or are you getting to pick your own? Looking at all the different stones was really fun. There is some crazy shit out there. Did you know they have "leather" finished granite. It's fucking wild. It feels soft and bumpy like nice leather. Don't know where you would put that in a house, but I guess that is for people that have f u money.

I got to pick my granite.Ididn't have that many options but did have like 10 different colors to choose from so that was pretty cool. Mine is a black and brown color. I actually got to pick the paint, flooring, handles on the cabinets and the countertops. This is a brandy new townhouse and the price was too good to turn down. I've been stopping by every week or so to see how the progress is going. They were putting in my carpet upstairs yesterday. I'm hoping to close January 30th.

[JPolen01]

Time to bring this back from the dead. Let me first start by saying having a split level house sucks balls. I hate walking in and going right up the stairs. Our house had some cheap hardwood in the foyer with carpet up the stairs into the main living area. The carpet was getting so dirty from people coming in with their shoes on. This was mostly our fault for being lazy, but who wants to come in and take their shoes off when the closet is up 5 steps?

To remedy my laziness (and give the house a little more value) we decided to look for a nice laminate. Looked around and found a whole saler with a great selection and best prices by far. After looking at high-end laminates we decided to spend a little more per square foot and go with engineered hardwood. For those unfamiliar with engineered hardwood it is multiple layers (typically three to five) bonded together under extreme heat and pressure. The top is a veneer of real wood and the rest is usually a combination of plywood and/or other substrates. It is not affected by humidity as much as a solid hardwood so it's great for basements. Not really a worry for us as it is above grade, but we loved the color/distressed look and the price.

The stairs were another story. You can't do laminate on steps because it floats and is not to code. Ok no problem. Well the company we went with doesn't produce treads and risers in the matching color. Well fuck. We decided to go with untreated oak treads and risers and have our installer stain them to match the flooring. I was skeptical that it would match, but the owner of the company ensured it would be extremely close although not 100%. It turned out to be damn close to a 100% match. You wouldn't know the difference without being told.

On to the photos! I feel like Emily spent an entire commission check on pillows, lamps, and the area rug, but whatever. She is happy and I'm comfortable.





Pro Tip: Don't rip out your carpet a week before the floor install. It was the only time I had access to a truck to take everything to the dump. Living on the plywood subfloor for a week was awful. Couldn't walk without slippers on.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Looks great! I love the distressed look as well, we ended up going the same path with handscraped.

[SlimKlim]

Looks awesome!

I'm still on a temporary couch, goddamn Belfort's still hasn't given us a delivery window. :roll:

[JPolen01]

Looks awesome!

I'm still on a temporary couch, goddamn Belfort's still hasn't given us a delivery window. :roll:

I hear you on the couch. Those two in the picture were custom from Crate and Barrel. Took about 8 weeks from order to delivery.

[SlimKlim]

I think we're on week six of our 4-6 week delivery time frame so it's not that bad, I'm just getting sick of sharing a regular 3-cushion couch with a girlfriend, cat and 70-lb foot warmer/dog.

[WRXtranceformed]

That turned out great man! Definitely adds value to the house. We're doing this this spring with the tax return (hopefully I can squeeze granite countertops out of it too) and I think we decided on bamboo. Because it looks good, is hard and refinishable to meet my goal of becoming a slumlord someday when we move up to a bigger house. I didn't like the idea of laminate despite the fact that some of them look awesome and even though at some point in the future it will become a rental property (see the Lumber Liquidators story and Chinese chemical debacle...I don't want my floors turning into a lawsuit).

I think we are also going to just rip the carpet off of the stairs and stain the treads to match, as well as the railing spindles. Yall thought about doing those too?

[JPolen01]

I think we are also going to just rip the carpet off of the stairs and stain the treads to match, as well as the railing spindles. Yall thought about doing those too?

Our spindles are metal. They need to be painted though as they look pretty rough. The physical rail is some cheap builders grade wood. I want to stain it but I'm lazy. This will be about it for this house before we start heading down the curve of not seeing a return on any additional improvements.

[rherold9]

So, I just started reading this now. I'm going to ask about the kitchen.

Are you allowed to tear down walls? If so what is behind the wall with the fridge. If it isn't load bearing it would probably awesome to take down and make more open with an island. I just don't know anything about what you bought or how it is laid out.

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[JPolen01]

I can do whatever I want. It's my house. Well it's the bank's but it's mine. Yay America.

Anyway, that wall is more than likely load bearing as it is the only perpendicular wall on that floor. If we knocked it down we wouldn't have anywhere to put the fridge. Other than that wall it's a pretty open for plan which people love these days.

[rherold9]

Ah okay makes sense. You could always make a window at the very least but yeah I guess you can't do much if there is no room.

But if you like the layout then you like it. Do you like open layouts or no?

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[JPolen01]

Open floor plans are cool with me. I like them for the most part. It can work really well or not so great. My parents house is wide open from the kitchen to the family room and if someone is cooking or the dishwasher is running you have to crank the volume way up on the tv to hear. That's not so good. But when you have people over it's nice to not alienate the cook.

[Kaan]

its looking great! we have lots of projects and ideas but...

We need to hire an interior decorator... I'm color blind (but she lets me pick the colors) and Sylvia is indecisive lol