Ikea solution for a '70s wet bar

So you've got this wet bar in your 1970s house or apartment and it's screaming for a mirror backing, glass shelves, a collection of cocktail glasses, a faux leather ice bucket with tongs, and fifths of Jack Daniels, Tanquerey and Absolut.

Trouble is, you don't drink. So what to do with the wet bar?

A Southern California blogger named John posted his solution on a website called Ikea Hacker. On this site, readers send in photos of ways they've used Ikea products in unexpected fashion.

In this case, John turned a simple Ikea bookcase into a custom built-in. He installed a tile counter, put Ikea pulls on the bottom cabinet, and added the shelves.

He writes:

"I basically cut up a $39 bookcase added a few left over dowels and fitted it inside my existing opening. The cabinet below houses a rack of my audio equipment. Sounds great, looks great."

See the blog post.

Ask a Realtor: Should we cover our Corian counters with granite?

Question: I saw an episode of Flip That House where the house in Thousand Oaks had Corian counters in the kitchen and the flippers didn't think that looked like a million-dollar house, so they covered the Corian with granite tiles. Later, the real estate agent said they should have taken the Corian off completely and installed slab granite.

We are in a similar situation in that we are about to sell our house and other houses in the neighborhood are going for just over a million dollars. And we, too, have Corian counters. We love our counters, but should we replace them with granite to get the highest price for our house? Should we use granite tile or slab granite? In terms of sales value, is there any difference between natural granite and engineered quartz counters?

Answer: From Realtor David Kean:

In a million-dollar house, I would not use granite tiles. Granite slab, a quartz composite, or tile would be a much better option. To install one counter material over another is poor workmanship and inadvisable. In terms of natural granite vs. a quartz composite, they are just about the same price. And they look pretty much the same. Moreover, quartz is much lower maintenance than natural granite. So having quartz shouldn't negatively impact the value of your home. In true L.A. fashion, as long as it looks real, it’s fine. (Click below to finish reading answer.)

(Photo: DuPont Corian)

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Is this a good-looking tiled shower, or what?

This is the master bath shower in a house that was rebuilt after the tragic Cedar Fire of 2003, which Wikipedia says was the second-largest wildfire in California's recorded history.

But from the ashes of the San Diego County fire came this opportunity to rebuild, and thus this shower.

The flooring is slate, and the band under the seat is Indian multicolor slate.

The gray tile on the walls is a Dal-Tile porcelain called Aqua.

And the bench seat and tub counter are red marble.

Delicious, no?

I found this shower on a blog called Duderosa. To see the entire process of this house being rebuilt, start at the bottom of the blog and work your way up.

But can your iPhone roast a brisket?

OK, so this contraption that chills and then cooks your dinner — and responds to phone prompts — costs nearly $8,000. That’s ridiculous, of course. But once the early adopters help work out the kinks (as with the iPhone), and the technology geniuses make it more affordable (ditto), this may be our future.

The new Connect Io Intelligent Oven by TMIO — voted by developers as one of the coolest products to be displayed at the Pacific Coast Builders Conference in San Francisco — is a refrigerator and oven in one.

Want to come home from work to a home-cooked meal? Well, get a wife. Just kidding. A simpler plan is to put your chicken in a pot in the morning or the night before, surround it with potatoes, onions and carrots, and leave it in the TMIO on refrigeration mode.

Then, an hour or so before you’re set to arrive home, call your oven and tell it, via voice prompts, to get cooking. Or, use your computer at work to make the commands. And if something comes up, maybe a late meeting or impromptu drink that makes you want to delay the oven's starting time or switch to the warming mode, even single people will have a reason to say, "Excuse me, I've got to call home."

(Originally published here May 8, 2007)

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After planning for 12 years, a remodeled bath in 5 days

Donna Bankowski has some good reasons why it took her 12 years to remodel the cruddy main bathroom of her Moorpark home, a feat she finally pulled off.

"I'm taking my time," said Bankowski, who bought the fixer-upper with her husband, Leroy, in 1993.

Indeed, since buying the 1970s tract home, the couple has made steady progress on its upgrades — replacing the wood on the front of the house with brick, redoing the driveway and walkways, adding a back patio, replacing the windows and doors, replacing the roof, scraping off the "cottage cheese" ceilings, installing Pergo floors, painting the walls and adding thick crown moldings and baseboards.

As the rest of the house rose up out of mediocrity, the bathroom upgrade kept getting delayed. But it wasn't for lack of need.

The bathroom had a dropped ceiling consisting of plastic panels on a rusted frame over fluorescent tubes. Plus, the dark oak vanity was not at all in line with Bankowski's French-Country palette. Worst of all was the cracked and dingy fiberglass tub enclosure.

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Q&A: Renovate all at once, or in steps?

Question: We want to do several upgrades to our house, including the kitchen, the master bathroom and a new deck. Should we have them all done at the same time, or would it be easier on my family to have them done one at a time?

My answer: I've seen projects tackled both ways. Many homeowners who undertake a massive, all-encompassing remodel say it was the right thing to do, although others who tackle projects one at a time report they actually enjoy the experience.

If you like the process of remodeling, of working with contractors and craftsmen, of tweaking each project to perfection, and you approach it like a hobby, you might like to take it one adventure at a time. I call these people serial remodelers.

But I suspect most people want to plow through, get it done, get the workers out of there and get the dust cleaned up. (What I'm trying to show by this photo of a San Fernando Valley remodel in progress is how messy and dusty a project can be.)

However, if you've never had remodeling work done to your home, you might be ill-equipped to handle three large projects at once. Try having one small project done so you can experience the chaos (and dust!) that ensues.

Maybe you could have a skylight or a bay window installed or some doors replaced. After you get a taste of it, you might decide to go forward with the next project. Or if you get migraines, you might choose to move to a rental down the street and get the whole job done at once. More than one family I've interviewed has said they will "never again" live in the house during a major kitchen remodel.

For a contractor's perspective, I asked Alon Toker, president of Mega Builders in Chatsworth, what advice he would give.

Click here for the contractor's answer
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New on the market: Mini on-demand water heater

Where is it written that hot water must be heated and then stored 24/7 in a big tank that needs a whole closet to itself? Those days are fast fading.

Whole-house on-demand systems, about the size of a breadbox (remember breadboxes?), use electric or gas to heat water at the moment you need it and are increasingly replacing tank-storage systems.

Now, German manufacturer Stiebel Eltron has taken the concept one step further with its new mini on-demand electric water heater, which is pretty cute at about 7 inches square and 3 inches deep.

Though not big enough to fill Kohler's new 84-inch overflowing bath for two with any efficiency, the new mini could provide hot water for a guest-bath sink or a wash-up area you've been considering for the garden shed. Or a pool house? How about on a boat, small cabin or RV?

Stiebel Eltron's whole-house electric on-demand heaters are available online for about $400 with free shipping; the mini costs less than $200.

For more information, go to the Stiebel Eltron's website, or call (800) 582-8423.

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Read one homeowner's experience with tankless water heaters

Where the money went: DIY kitchen remodel and dining room addition

Here are the actual costs for the kitchen remodel and dining room addition done by Lily and Arnie Richards in Downey. The couple did all the work themselves over a five-month period where they worked every weekend, evenings and during their vacation time. If you were to undertake a project like this, and were ready to break ground today, you would be done in time for Thanksgiving, and it would consume most of your waking thoughts.

Would it be worth the work, worry and hassle?

Where the Money Went

Appliances: $2,466
Cabinets: $8,044
Concrete: $539
Drywall: $220
Electrical: $1,601
Flooring: $1,191
Hardware/Misc.: $336
Insulation: $305
Lumber: $2,246
Molding: $560
Paint: $411
Plumbing: $624
Roofing: $390
Stucco: $261
Tile: $1,392
Tool rentals: $221
Tool purchases: $779
Windows/doors: $896
Sales tax: $1,799
Dumpster rental: $1,195
Gas/plumbing service: $1,445
Permit/documents: $721

Total: $27,642

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Attached garage gives Whittier couple room to grow

As you lean back against a comfy armchair in Barbara and Gene Noller’s family room, you can hardly grasp what they’re telling you: This used to be a garage.

Nothing here speaks the architectural “language” of a dreary, drafty garage: not the wood floors, the French doors, not the sheer swag curtains at the windows or the custom bookshelves on the walls.

But this room did indeed start its life as a garage, attached to the house through the service porch, with a cement slab floor, exposed wall studs, tarpaper, and overhead wood rafters.

A few years ago, the couple transformed the room with $12,000 cash and what Barbara calls “sweat equity.”

The Noller’s bought their two-bedroom house in anticipation of Gene’s 1996 retirement from Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The sturdy, ranch-style house was built in 1953 on a 1/2-acre lot in the upscale Friendly Hills area of Whittier.

Their previous house in San Gabriel, where they lived for 34 years, had grown too large after their three children left home.

But eventually, this house grew too small.

Once retired, Gene needed an office for consulting and an art studio for painting. Barbara needed a crafts room. And they wanted space to entertain their growing circle of retirement-era friends.

And mostly they needed somewhere to entertain and supervise their seven grandchildren, all of whom were younger than 11, when they came to visit.

“That’s it,” Barbara had said one Thanksgiving, a few years ago, when the grandkids were underfoot. She was ready to turn the garage into a family room.

To finish story, click below

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If you had an extra 10 grand, this would be the tub to get

I saw this deep bubbling baby at the International Builders Show in Orlando and all I can say is: Oh my. I want it.

It's called the "Sok" overflowing bath for two by Kohler, and it has effervescence (bubbles) and chromatherapy (colored lights). It's deep enough to submerge your shoulders, and if it overflows, well that's the point. The bubbling waters from the inner tub overflow into the outer tub. Look here for more pretty pictures.

This is so politically incorrect I don't know where to begin. The enormous amount of water it would take for one bath? The gas or electric needed to heat that volume of water? The 240 volts of power to amp up those 13 bubble jets? The decadence? What if one had a fireplace in the bathroom? And a flat screen TV? Would you feel compelled to hide those facts from the rest of the world?

I'd like to find out.