Forum Archive

Spring is almost here and we are hoping to embark on some renovation work on our South Slope frame house. There are numerous projects that need to be done, but we only have the funds to take on one this spring so we are coming to you for some advice on which project to tackle first (i.e. which would be the best investment in today’s economy, or which makes the most sense to add equity to our home.)

The façade. The house originally had a façade typical of Victorian frame houses in the South Slope. Beautiful cornicing, a porch running along the full length of the parlor level, ornate wood working, etc. However, the current façade is a total eyesore. It was redone about 30 years ago with aluminum siding and a concrete porch. We plan to restore the façade to its original glory based on the tax photo from 1938. This would be our first choice, but we think that it may be out of reach given our budget. Any advice from anyone who redid their frame house façade on what kind of ballpark cost we might be talking about? We need to redo the siding, the front door, the front porch & stoop steps, we want to add a cornice, and probably replace the windows.

The cellar. We have a large partially finished cellar which would turn our owner’s duplex into a triplex with a recreation room in the cellar. There is already a half bath installed down there, but the previous owner did not finish the job and so it still needs a good amount of work. We know that we could not turn this into a legal rental so it will just be a family/recreation room, but we don’t yet have kids so not sure if we should tackle this now. We do get water in the cellar when it rains heavily so waterproofing the cellar would also have to be done.

Bathrooms. We have two full baths and one half bath. All were redone fairly recently and in working order, but the style of each is plain awful (and there is no heat in the master bath) so a facelift in each of them is a firm reality at some point.

Any and all suggestions would be appreciated.