wallpaper

Renovation By The Numbers

A few House page viewers asked me to walk them through a typical room renovation. This room already had a lightweight renovation when I moved in and needed to set up my office quickly. Now it will undergo a complete refab for a guest room.

Generally speaking, I have a few fixed strategies for renovation, at least in this house:

• Preserve the plaster whenever possible. Some people do drywall rehabs, then spend a bundle paying someone to skim coat blue board so it looks like plaster. Plaster is superior to drywall for sound and durability so it makes sense to save it.
  
• Replace old electrical with new BX and boxes. Romex is legal here but I don't like pulling plastic-sheathed cable through nail-strewn walls. Romex also means another wire hookup inside the box.
  
• New floors.