Reclaimed Wood a Hot New Accessory

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More homeowners are using reclaimed wood from barns, factories and log cabins to decorate their modern homes, The Wall Street Journal reports. They’re using the reclaimed wood to decorate everything from ceilings and flooring to window accents.

“They want it to look as primitive as possible,” Klaas Armster, co-author of the upcoming book Reclaimed Wood: A Field Guide, told the Journal.

Old-growth timber is no longer available in the U.S. construction industry. Suppliers today use wood from trees cultivated to grow fast that can be quickly processed into timber. Homeowners looking for antique wood from mature trees are calling on wood-reclamation companies to look for planks to reuse. They can be costly. Large structures of wood can cost anywhere from $300,000 to $1.5 million. On a smaller scale, homeowners may find costs much lower, such as $55,000 to use reclaimed accents on their kitchen or living room ceilings.

Charles Preston used antique timbers reclaimed from an 1800s Vermont barn for a vacation home he built with his wife several years ago in Texas Hill Country. The couple used the wood on the living room and kitchen ceilings, as well as to decorate interior and exterior lintels over the windows. He told the Journal that the reclaimed wood became a focal point in their home.

Preston also says that in the 7,000-square-foot, five-bedroom home, they also have a dining room ceiling adorned with 1900s oak fencing from Minnesota and exterior siding made of hemlock that was reclaimed from Midwest barns built from the 1850s to the 1900s. “That’s the first thing people talk about,” Preston says.

Chestnut barn frames from the 18th and early 19th centuries are a big draw, James Dixon, an architect in Chatham, N.Y., told the Journal. “If you find a chestnut frame, that’s like gold,” he says.

Source: “Homeowners Get into the Groove of Reclaiming Old Wood,” The Wall Street Journal (Sept. 5, 2019)

Empty Nesters: Best to Remodel or Time to Sell?

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Your children have finally moved out and you and your spouse now live alone in a four-bedroom colonial (or a similar type of house). You have two choices to make:

  1. Remodel your house to fit your current lifestyle and needs
  2. Sell your house and purchase the perfect home

Based on the record of dollars spent on remodeling and renovations, it appears that many homeowners are deciding on number one. But, is that the best long-term solution?

If you currently live in a 3-4-bedroom home, you probably bought it at a time when your children were the major consideration in determining family housing needs. Along with a large home, you more than likely also considered school district, the size of the property and the makeup of other families living in the neighborhood (example: you wanted a block with other kids your children could play with and a backyard large enough to accommodate that).

Remodeling your home to meet your current needs might mean combining two bedrooms to make one beautiful master suite and changing another bedroom into the massive walk-in closet you always wanted. However, if you live in a neighborhood that historically attracts young families, you may be dramatically undermining the value of your house by cutting down the number of bedrooms and making it less desirable to the typical family moving onto your block.

And, according to a recent study, you will recoup only 64.4% of a remodeling project’s investment dollars if you sell in the future.

Your home is probably at its highest value as it stands right now. Instead of remodeling your house, it may make better financial sense to sell your current home and purchase a home that was built specifically to meet your current lifestyle and desires.

In many cases, this well-designed home will give you exactly what you want in less square footage (read less real estate taxes!) than your current home.

Bottom Line

If you are living in a house that no longer fits your needs, at least consider checking out other homes in your area that would meet your lifestyle needs before taking on the cost and hassle of remodeling your current house.

19 Ways to Add Character to Your House

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Personalizing Their First Place

For more than a decade, as they lived in rentals in New York and California, Katy and Ken Byers were squirreling away design ideas for their future forever home. So when they relocated to Nashville, TN, in 2013 and snapped up a new-construction Craftsman-style bungalow, they knew exactly how they wanted to modify it. “After being nomadic for years, we were excited to own a home and finally make it ours,” says Katy. The couple, free of the decor restraints imposed by landlords, started customizing almost every inch of the 3,100-square-foot space.

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READ MORE: http://www.hgtv.com/design/decorating/design-101/19-ways-to-add-character-to-your-house-pictures