Our Home Remodel Costs Part 2 - $1500 Living Room Makeover
I shared our $3000 Kitchen Remodel and now want to share part 2 of my breakdown of our home remodel costs. I am presenting today our living room. Oh, the living room. Once a room of drab faux (actually, so bad I should just say fake) dark wood paneling, 2 tiny windows, and oh the shag carpet - orange and lime green! I wish those photos hadn’t died with my old laptop, but they did. Under the shag carpet was a lovely avocado green linoleum tile. There was very little redeeming about that room.
My daughter still will say things like “remember when my house was old and the walls were brown and my bed was over there?” That’s right. The living room used to be one big bedroom. Sooo fab. I know you are jealous 
Since I don’t have the before the shag carpet was ripped out and we moved in photos, I have to share this one
I have NO CLUE who that crazy lady in the photo is that snuck into my house and let her photo be taken by my then 2 year old daughter. The least she could’ve done was smile instead of making a stupid face and showing off her 6 months pregnant belly. Sheesh.
Here is hubby working on the room that we thought could not be redeemed. Look at that fabulous avocado flooring!!!
A peek at it during the during phase.
And here are the after photos then I will breakdown the costs
This is not how it looks today, decor and furniture-wise, but it gives you an idea of the french door across the one wall to outside and the shelf above it.
Okay, so that is pretty much the room as it is now. We made some changes like making the front door come in the living room as opposed to where it used to be in an awkward useless entry space that we now have as our dining area.
We replaced all the walls, windows, framing, electrical, doors, added a 4 panel french door, put down tile on the floors, painted and decorated, adding new fixtures and window treatments. It’s 100% DIY, so no labor costs.
Flooring - retail tile at Home Depot - $200
French Door - $250 on ebay, bought locally and picked up by us - $275 including gas to pick up
Walls & Ceiling - drywall and insulation retail at Home Depot - $175
Paint - retail at Sherwin-Williams - $30
Electrical - $100
Windows - 2 windows on clearance at Home Depot with the rest of the ones we bought for the house - $75
Trim and Baseboards and shelf above french door - retail at Home Depot - $200
Entry door and door to master bedroom - retail for entry door - $150, $10 on ebay for other white door to master - $160
Fixtures - retail at Home Depot - $100
Furnishings - don’t necessarily count as remodel costs but they were almost all either free, thrifted or hand-me-downs so we paid a total of about $100 for all of it, couch, chairs, wall unit, entryway and tables, rug, etc…
Total Cost - I’ll round to $1500 for extras that I am forgetting.
Not too shabby. And awfully cozy and totally OURS.
What do you think?
May 14th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Beautiful! I love the warm yellow walls and natural tiles.
May 14th, 2008 at 11:08 am
That reminds me so much of our living room. We had that ugly flooring with the gold flecks in it in that same green and peach walls? BLECH! We replaced it with the yellow and natural tiling too
Great job!
May 14th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I love that you were able to do so much for so little, yay for you guys!
May 14th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Beautiful! We had ugly fake paneling in one of our rooms and boy was it hideous! You did a wonderful job! Thanks for sharing all the details!
xo
May 14th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
What a nice room! You guys do great work! Do you have a “Re-store” anywhere near you? It’s the thrift store for Habitat for Humanity. I’ve never been, but I heard that it’s awesome for deals.
May 14th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
It’s so warm! I love the yellow and the orange tile…gosh. I’m sure the sweat equity y’all put into it was worth another $5000 at least.
May 14th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Love it! I had given up any thought of remodeling any area of my house because of the cost but you give me hope! It looks great!
May 14th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
What a transformation! I like it!
May 14th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
How cool! What a transformation!
May 14th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Lovely and great deals Emily!! I’ve also found a lot of luck by buying on e-bay with local pickup for stuff too. I agree, you have to factor in the cost of gas though!
May 14th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Hey! Others beat me to the word I was going to use: “transformation.” I was going to say, “Wow! What a transformation!”
Instead I will just say gotta love 70s decor!
Gotta love your remodeling even more! Beautiful! 
May 14th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Love the gorgeous yellow! (Same as my family room!) The French doors are just beautiful. Nice baseboards, too. I’m a sucker for baseboards.
I don’t want to have a laugh at your expense (literally), but it’s kinda funny that on so many shows, they lift off the carpet to find–what else?–gorgeous hardwood floors. You find… avocado linoleum. Cruel, cruel fate.
May 16th, 2008 at 8:00 am
It is really beautiful. You guys did a wonderful job.
Rosemary
http://her-home-blog.com
May 17th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Fabulous job!
I had some linoleum tile in my kitchen that would have gone great with that avocado.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:48 pm
AWESOME!!!!
November 14th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Hey- I had the matching avocado wallpaper in my house- I love the yellow- I did a yellow living room in my last house- we LOVED IT- always sunny….And I think the best part is the French door- that was a HUGE bargain.
Anita
homestory-anita.blogspot.com
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