• Bathroom Remodeling Ideas to Increase Your Property Value

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    So, you’ve decided to approach remodeling as a way to increase the property value of your home. That’s the first step, and an excellent choice for any homeowner who wants to see a little return on their investment. The next step in that process is choosing which parts of your home to remodel and finding ideas that fit your budget, timeline, and aesthetic.

    If you do a quick search to look for ideas, you’ll find thousands of options, ranging from modest costs to millionaire budgets. You’ll probably want to narrow those options down a little, and the best way to that is to figure out where you’d like to start. Research shows that bathroom remodels are a surefire way to increase the value of your property.

    Below, we’ll talk about five great ideas for remodeling your bathroom, while shooting up your property value at the same time.

    #1 Did Someone Say Walk-in Showers?

    An updated or renovated shower can change the look of your bathroom entirely. Sure, you can always go with a fancy jet tub or the classic clawfoot tub for that vintage look, but if you’re looking for a direction, there’s nothing that can tick up the curb appeal of your bathroom as much as an updated walk-in shower. From waterfall showerheads and multi-directional water streams to heated floors and glass doors, a new walk-in shower can become a statement piece in your newly remodeled bathroom. 

    The materials you use are crucial, like polished chrome fixtures and durable glass, but the shower walls may be the most essential choice you’ll have to make. A dingy tile wall can make even the most enthusiastic buyer turn away. 

    If you go with a solid surface corner shower, on the other hand, you can cost-effectively transform your bathroom. These showers are made with materials generally associated with kitchen countertops. However, you can use this material on shower walls with great results. They’re nonporous, can be cleaned and refinished with ease, and look fantastic.

    #2 A Bathroom Counter that Shines

    Speaking of counters, your bathroom counter is another part of the bathroom that can affect your property value. Just like with shower walls, the materials you use are probably the most important decision you’ll have to make when considering this particular remodel. 

    Solid-surface countertops, which are designed to look like stone, have a high-end, beautiful look while remaining nonporous and easy to clean. A porcelain tiled counter is both cheaper and can be more durable than granite alternatives. Or you can go with quartz bathroom counters, which are designed to look like limestone or marble but are more durable. They’re also nonporous so they won’t absorb moisture and they’re easier to clean.  

    #3 Pull Up Those Old Tiles

    Some bathrooms have floors that are three decades old, stained and chipped, and that kind of damage or degradation can negatively affect your property value. There are plenty of options for remodeling your floors that can be both cost-effective and look great.

    Stained concrete floors, for instance, are an ideal option. A lot of the time, you can pull up those old tiles, and there will be a perfect concrete floor sitting right underneath it. A little polish and staining and your bathroom floors will look luxurious and expensive. Of course, concrete can be a little cold when stepping out of the shower, but that’s nothing a small bathroom rug can’t fix.

    #4 A Fresh Coat of Paint

    This may go without saying, but a fresh coat of paint can do wonders for any bathroom. It isn’t a complicated process, either, though it can be tricky. Choosing the right color scheme, the appropriate tools, and the best quality paints are paramount. When in doubt, go with neutrals. 

    Plus, the best thing about this option is that it’s very cost-effective, and you can do it yourself. 

    #5 When in Doubt, Go Green

    Energy efficiency and water conservation are so crucial in our society, and if you remodel your bathroom with that in mind, it can skyrocket the value of your home. Water-efficient toilets, showers, and sinks are perfect options for updating your bathroom and increasing the value of your property. These options not only decrease the amount of water you’re using; it can also lower your water bill. Any prospective buyer is going to see this as a great benefit and added value.  

    Remodeling is the Key to Increasing Property Value

    The options don’t stop there. There are so many ways to increase the value of your property by remodeling, and it is one of the best ways to guarantee a return on your investment. Your bathroom is the perfect place to start because it’s an integral part of your home.

    You can’t just wait for the housing market to swing your way. Relying on the ebb’s and flows of the market can be a waiting game nightmare. Instead of letting time determine the value of your home, fix it up. Change it. Spend a little on remodeling and renovation, and you’ll thank yourself later. And above all, make sure who you hire – whether it’s contractors in Olympia WA or elsewhere – has great recommendations & experience.

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  • Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House is for sale!

    From Architectural Digest:

    Welcome to the Ennis House, one of the Los Angeles Hills' most legendary homes. At $23M, this Mayan revival Frank Lloyd Wright house has been featured in movies like 'Blade Runner' and is full of furniture designed by Wright himself. Join real estate agent Rayni Williams as she takes you on a tour of the entire house.

  • Arroyo’s Edge: Greene & Greene interiors 2012

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    a tour of six Greene and Greene-designed properties in Pasadena’s historic Park Place neighborhood
     
    This coming Earth Day, architecture buffs are in for a Greene and Greene (and green) treat. On Sunday, April 22, 2012, The Gamble House will present Arroyo’s Edge: Greene and Greene Interiors 2012, a rare opportunity to visit six privately-owned properties designed by Charles and Henry Greene between 1902 and 1915. Featuring acclaimed architectural features and design by the masters of the American Arts & Crafts movement, the five private homes and one private garden will be open for touring along Arroyo Terrace and North Grand Avenue in Pasadena, all within easy walking distance of The Gamble House.
     
    It has been twenty years since a “Greene and Greene Interiors” tour featured the interiors of houses in the historic Park Place neighborhood.  On April 22 from 12 noon to 5 p.m. (last entry 4 p.m.), this remarkably intact enclave of the Greenes’ work – once known as “Little Switzerland” for its woodsy, chalet-style structures – will once again be the focus of a tour to benefit The Gamble House, a National Historic Landmark designed by Greene and Greene in 1908 and operated by the University of Southern California School of Architecture as a public site since 1966.
     
    Thanks to the generosity of six property owners, the Arroyo’s Edge tour will feature: the Duncan-Irwin house(1906-08), the Mary Ranney house (1907), the F. W. Hawks house (1906), the Van Rossem-Neill house (1903-06), the Louise T. Halstead house (1905-15) and the James Culbertson garden (1902-14), and will give participants a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see Greene and Greene interiors that are rarely, if ever, opened to the public.
     
    tour details:
    date: Sunday April 22, 2012
    hours: noon – 5 pm (last entry at 4 pm)
    general admission: $85 per person; $50 for children under 12
    member admission: $75 per person (to join Friends of The Gamble House visit gamblehouse.org or call 626.783.3334 x16)
    Off-street parking is available to ticket holders. We regret that these private homes and gardens are not wheelchair accessible. Visitors should plan to wear sturdy walking shoes.
     
    proceeds benefit The Gamble House, a National Historic Landmark in Pasadena, CA
     
    about The Gamble House: Built in 1908, the Gamble House is the most complete and best-preserved example of the work of renowned Pasadena architects Charles and Henry Greene. The Gamble House is an internationally recognized National Historic Landmark in the style of the American Arts and Crafts movement. Owned by the City of Pasadena, the Gamble House is operated by the University of Southern California School of Architecture.
     
    The Gamble House is open for public, docent-led, one-hour tours Thursday – Sunday, noon – 3 pm, closed on national holidays. For more information, visit gamblehouse.org.

    photograph: Exterior detail from the Duncan-Irwin house (which is part of this tour). Photograph by Alexander Vertikoff.

  • Frank Lloyd Wright, cast in stone

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    Frank Lloyd Wright’s shingle, as it were: this is the cast concrete lettering (the etch marks, I am told, come from the form, which was chiseled) advertising FLW’s architectural and design practice in front of the office portion of his home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois.

  • A New Focus for Hewn & Hammered

    I want to start out by apologizing for the infrequent posts here in the last six months. Family responsibilities have kept me (happily!) very busy.

    Thus, in an attempt to increase the amount of interesting, useful, readable content here, I've decided to change the focus of the site somewhat. While we will still focus on architectural and design issues, we'll expand a little bit – we'll still include content related to old homes & the modern and historical Arts & Crafts Movements, but I'll also be posting regular articles on more contemporary, non-A&C work.

    Modern furniture, architecture and design objects – still, always, with an emphasis on the wood, the hand-made, the product of skilled craft – will become a big part of this site. I know some of you are not nearly as interested in this sort of thing, but I hope this will bring a large number of new readers here. I promise to keep posting things that fans of Arts & Crafts will appreciate, though!

  • Hume Castle in Berkeley, California

    note: article updated with new image & details
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    2900 Buena Vista Way in Berkeley, California is home to a rather unique property, one which many local residents don’t even know about given its location on a hillside high above street level and the fact that it’s almost completely shrouded in olive and pine trees.

    Originally built in 1927 for Samuel James Hume and Portia Bell Hume – the former professor of theater arts at the University of California and the latter a pioneer in the field of community psychiatry – Hume Cloister was designed by John Hudson Thomas based on a very specific 13th-century Augustinian monastery in Toulouse, France.

    I’ll try to get some pictures from the inside – maybe the owners have a few photos they wouldn’t mind sharing with us. All I know is that the interior details are pretty incredible – enormous wrought iron chandeliers, a deep wishing well, a beautiful cloister, spiraling stone staircases. It sounds terrific!

    There aren’t many images of the house available online, and not many other textual references either; this fellow lived in the area and writes a bit on it, and includes some maps and pictures; the home sits on a tract of land known as La Loma Park; finally, Hume may have been involved in this staging of Henry VI, which took place on the property. I’ll post contemporary pictures if I can find some!

  • for sale: restored Knoxville shingle bungalow, $289,000

    Knoxville is a great town with some really terrific old neighborhoods, and for the most part, citizens who delight in historic preservation and are trying consistently to keep chains, strip-malls, big boxes and other detritus out of historic districts full of pretty old homes.

    Knox Heritage is the most active of the city-wide architecture rejuvenation and conservation development companies, regularly buying old properties and cleaning them up for resale as part of their Vintage Homes Program. They also regularly offer neighborhood tours, raise money to preserve endangered properties and keep track of threatened structures throughout the region.

    Metro Pulse, Knoxville’s alt weekly, recently ran a note & listing for one such home that has to change hands due to an unfortunate job relocation – the owner, Amy Quimby (who knows old homes – she’s an executive at Home & Garden Television) – is very sad to leave it, but she’s got to move on to Denver.

    The 2650 sq ft, 4 bed, 2.5 bath home – at 321 E. Oklahoma in Knoxville – is going for $289,000, and it’s gorgeous inside and out.

  • photography bits & pieces

    To fill a few minutes while I’m off recovering from the holidays:

  • Sears kit homes in Minneapolis

    Kim Palmer had a good article on Sears kit homes in the Star Tribute earlier this month. Read the entire article on the Star Tribute site.

    When Paul Kirkman first laid eyes on the house he bought last year, he
    knew it was a rare find: a 1917 Arts & Crafts bungalow with all its
    original woodwork and charm intact.

    The
    house, in Minneapolis’ Bryn Mawr neighborhood, had all the features
    that bungalow fans covet: dark built-ins, wainscoting and moulding,
    coffered box-beam ceilings and even an Inglenook fireplace.

    "I
    said, ‘This is perfect — the one,’" recalled Kirkman, who had been
    searching for just such a home for seven months. "I like bungalows, and
    in my mind, this hits the pinnacle of that kind of architecture. The
    living room is about as original as you can get."

    But Kirkman’s
    bungalow is something even rarer: a Sears kit house, one of about
    75,000 sold by mail order between 1915 and 1940.

    There were 370
    models, representing many styles, but Kirkman’s house, the "Ashmore,"
    is one of the least common, with only a handful of known surviving
    examples, according to Rosemary Thornton, author of "The Houses That
    Sears Built."

    Advertised as "the Aristocrat of Bungalows," the
    Ashmore was among the largest (2,800 square feet) and most elaborate of
    the Sears kit homes. "It’s a beauty, with a lot of nice features,"
    Thornton said.

    And it definitely defies any stereotype that
    mail-order homes are low-rent, said Tim Counts, president of the Twin
    Cities Bungalow Club. "Some people think of kit homes as ricky-ticky,
    slap-it-together, but often they are very high-end homes, and that one
    is a perfect example."