Part 2 of Before Pics / Allowances: They’re Made to Be Broken

For Part 2 of my before pics, I’m featuring the soon-to-be-fabulous kitchen and downstairs area.  One of the good surprises of this house is that it’s deceptively big.  Now, 1762 square feet isn’t palatial but based on what you assume from the street view, this house has some pleasant surprises up its sleeve.  I mean, who would expect their very own laundry and utility room in this diminutive bungalow?  I know….stop now, because you might swoon!

So, the downstairs features two bedrooms, a bathroom, sizable hall closet, furnace room and the aforementioned laundry / utility room.  Thanks to plentiful windows, the downstairs also avoids that basement dungeon-y feeling and is really quite bright. 

Now on to those pesky allowances…if you’ve ever built or remodeled, chances are you’re familiar with allowances: those line items that tell you how much you can spend on things like lighting, cabinets, and flooring in order to stay within your proposed budget.  In other words, they are totally irrelevant to what you actually WANT to do with your house…the trick becomes robbing Peter to pay Paul.  If by some miracle of super sleuthing, or ingenious design, you manage to save, say, $300 on one line item, that $300 is AUTOMATICALLY sucked up by some other line item that you just can’t compromise on.  I mean, I’m not going for builder basic here!

On that note, I made a fortuitous discovery at Preservation Hall on Friday.  I found a pedestal sink that matches the only original sink left in the house.  It needs to be refinished, as does the one left in the house, but I think I might have managed to save a few bucks that can go into some snazzy lighting or cool tile elsewhere.  If you’ve never heard of Preservation Hall, by the way, it’s a must-see for anyone looking for vintage architectural stuff.  And anyplace whose owner tries to talk to you into fixing the front door you have versus buying one from him, is golden in my book.