I have a house under renovation off of Aramingo Ave. It's very close to the borderline of fishtown and port richmond. Anyways, the kitchen is VERY SMALL. I got into an argument with my general contractor (who's the wife of my business partner) in regards to the cabinet base. the wall is 79 inches long. We bought a 60 inch cabinet base and now there's no room for a fridge. When we first bought the house, it had no fridge in it. The countertop went across that wall and then wrapped around until it met the stove. The neighbor next door said his fridge is in his dining room.

Anyways, the selling point in a house is mainly the kitchen and bathroom. To accomodate a fridge, we wouldve had to put in a 36 inch sink base. That's way too small and it wouldnt make the kitchen all that attractive.
Anyways, we're hoping to sell it for $90,000 but I'm not sure how the market is.

BTW ... the house is on Memphis st near the school off of Ann St. A house on the corner sold for $65,000 (I think) and it needs work. We're putting in a new kitchen and bathroom. Carpets throughout the second floor and new floors in the dining room and maybe the living room unless we go with carpets for that.

You know--one of the reasons I hate contractors who remodel here is that they bother to put money into stuff that they expect to get out of the house when they sell it...when they know damn well that the new homeowner isn't going to want it like that and will have to rip it out and start from stratch.

That's what I was thinking when I read your post. If you're going to bother remodeling something, why not put the fridge in the RIGHT ROOM? Instead of spending a little more and getting a custom cabinet to put in there, you're just doing the cheapest thing you can.

How about refinishing the hardwoods? Tossing carpet over it is hardly what new homebuyers are looking for nowadays. I know someone in my neighborhood that just bought a huge house with wall to wall brand new carpetting. He's now in the process of shredding it in parts so the garbagepeople will take it.

Someone looking to buy this house is going to figure in the costs of these repairs and you're not going to get as much for the house. Not to mention they're going to have to rip out what you've already done rather than your advantage---starting from scratch.

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Resident of Fishtown, Moderator of Fish/No. Libs/Kenzo forum, Real Estate Agent-Prudential Fox & Roach

This is a pet peeve of mine as well. When searching for a home in Fishtown I was shocked to see homes considered "remodeled" with bathroom vanities in place of kitchen sinks, appliances in other rooms, one had no range or refrigerator nor room for one because of countertops installed on every wall with stools.

What are they thinking??

Exactly, Stephanie. One house I almost bought had a pretty decent sized kitchen at 12 x 10. The "remodeler" stuck in about 4 cabinets and a sink on one wall. The fridge was the thing you saw when walking into the house in the straight shoot. They wasted one whole wall with a "breakfast bar" and in order to put in a stove, it would have blocked about 2 of the 4 cabinets. The cabinets were nice...but they would have obviously had to have been ripped out and the kitchen redesigned. Not to mention why would I want to waste space on a breakfast bar that would limit me to 4 cabinets when my dining room is steps away? I refused to have to move into a house that wanted the value for this "new kitchen" when I'd have to totally rip them out and start from scratch!

Another thing I love that remodelers do is stick in wrong size cabinets places. They'll not only add too few...but the ones they do are all the ones that are meant to go above the refridgerator...

To all you remodelers...Why not just give the buyer's a rebate back at closing and save your money on a kitchen the new buyer will have to rip out?

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Resident of Fishtown, Moderator of Fish/No. Libs/Kenzo forum, Real Estate Agent-Prudential Fox & Roach