Want to know how to apply a faux granite counter? Watch this!

I have seen hardwood floors in all kinds of conditions – gleaming to the point that you could use them as a mirror to apply eyeliner all the way to severe staining caused by excessive pet use. The one that breaks my heart, though, is when I see little indentations covering what would have been a gorgeous floor caused by high heels.  Ouch.

Some of the most interesting floors are ones that are painted.  If I was considering painting a hardwood floor, my heart would be in my throat the entire time although the outcome is usually gorgeous.  Apartment Therapy readers helps answer the question about what to do with their hardwood – or more specifically, should they paint or stain?

Should I sand down the floor completely and restain or just paint over the floor? I’d love the floor but sanding it down is a huge job and the floor just is really old. I’m not sure how it will take. Painting is a lazier way out, I know, but if I can find the right colour, along with a great primer and some hard work to sand & repair, perhaps it will breathe some new life into this wood floor. I want this to last and look good for a long, long time.

My advice is if you have help, restain. If you’re on your own, paint it!

A fire-pit is such a wonderful perk to have for relaxing outside your own home.  We took advantage of the mild winter experienced through many parts of the country and built a stone fire-pit in our front yard.

We picked up a kit from Lowe’s which included the circular bricks and the metal ring to hold them in place.  A silica sand was put down in the area prior to the bricks being put into place.  Additionally, we didn’t build the pit under any overhanging branches because fire will injure the trees.

I lit the first fire with my dog’s help.

And now our neighbor’s dog Jack is a frequent guest.

I’ll stick to my paint rollers!

Photo by Garden & Gun.

I have a confession. The vast majority of the walls in my house are still painted white.  I did brave up and paint my kitchen a light yellow. The first round was heinous (a yellow so bright that you had to wear sunglasses while eating) and the second round turned my kitchen into a giant post-it note pad. Therefore when I see a beautiful restoration, I am always impressed.

This time, I am particularly impressed that Young House Love opted to share their first home with the internet,

Our first before picture is a doozie. We inherited a yard full of trees and mulch… where’s the house?

 We did some major tree work, planted a ton of grass, laid a new stone path, ripped down some country details, painted our front door red, and upgraded the landscaping for the ultimate streetside transformation. Here’s the after:

Bravo to Sherry and John on the fantastic work they completed. Now go visit their site to see the rest!

In Ireland, the people responsible for remodeling this gorgeous schoolhouse did it right!

The Schoolhouse in Annaghmore, County Sligo was built in the 1860s to educate local children. From the ‘before’ picture, we can tell that, at a certain point, either the pupils or the teachers stopped turning up for class. After years in the undergrowth, the ILT did their homework (get it? School? Homework? Never mind) and turned the schoolhouse into the kind of fairytale spot where you’d expect to see Snow White leaning out the window, chomping on an apple with a suspicious look on her face.

This before and after picture is definitely a WOW!  It looks like a new roof was clearly needed and the brick (or stone) was scrubbed. I would love to see photos inside the house as well!

Whether a counter top is granite or Formica or the appliances are stainless steel or off-white could well determine whether you can an offer or not.  Many memories are made in the kitchen – from a strong sense of smell when cookies come out of the oven to learning how to prepare chicken & dumplings – so it can make or break a home sale.

This is true no matter what part of the country you’re in, no matter if you’re a house flipper or first-time home buyer. From Realty Times,

Kitchens, however, can be one of the most expensive rooms to renovate. These projects can also be the most labor and time intensive of all home renovations. It’s not just a new layer of paint.  

Instead you find a complicated array of flooring, tiling, cabinets, and counters. This means buyers may want a home with an up-to-date kitchen but they aren’t willing to tackle this problem themselves. Most buyers want a kitchen that is ready to use the day they move in.

If you’re ready to sell, pay careful attention to the kitchen!

So you have bought a new house and now you need some help on how to redecorate or redesign a room.  Help is available at a great website called Houzz.  One person just posted a photo of their new bedroom and asked what in the world they could do to decorate it. The answers are quite helpful! For example,

I am in complete agreement with making the upper area of this a sitting area and placing your bed on the wall opposite to the bathroom opening. It appears the walls and the ceiling are the same color so you might want to consider changing one or the other to create some further visual interest.

I think this is a great space and I know many of my clients who are buying older homes which they had this kind of room to “figure out”

Houzz is a wonderful web resource.

The reality shows in which houses are staged, remodeled, or dressed up for sale or for show has always been a wonderful asset to real estate agents.  Why?  When people watch them, they can learn from designers and staging gurus why something does not work, or why something else does work.

When I first visit a home that may be listed, it’s easy to say, “You’ve seen the shows on tv.  You know you need to pack away the clutter, put on some fresh paint, and define this space.”  Because of the shows, it’s an easy pill to swallow!

However, some real estate professionals disagree.  They believe these shows do more harm than good.  Richard Weisser of Newnan, Georgia said,

The proliferation of home improvement cable channels and the resulting bombardment of “how-to” shows have created a culture of substandard repairs and functionally obsolete upgrades.

Which led me to this somewhat obvious but rarely mentioned conclusion: Just because you CAN do it yourself doesn’t mean that you should.

Point taken!  Therefore the good of these shows is that sellers have a more comprehensive understanding of why it’s important to have fresh paint and be clutter-free.  The dark side is that not everyone is as handy as the handymen on tv.  Perhaps real estate agents need to point out shoddy workmanship to potential sellers, too, so they will be able to bring in professionals in order to sell at top dollar.