Stacy Jacobi Home

100% Return on investment

Did you know per the National Association of Realtors that a new front door is the only thing you can do to your home that provides a 100% Return on Investment

Of course this is how I justify changing every front door of almost every house I have purchased or my clients home. I am amazed at how many ugly doors there are in the world. (I know I think about strange things like ugly front doors ).

Anyway this new construction already had a two story challenging front. It was a two story front and I questioned why a builder would do this on the front of a house. Yes I did ask a contractor if we could take off the two story front. The answer was no based on the cost and my sweet husband who said "you have lost your mind!" Okay so two story entrance stays so the question was how to distract from that ugly two story stone monstrosity entrance?

A new double front door to replace the single door. The double door was made from Cypress and of course glass to let natural light in. The end result is beautiful and helps distract from the awkwardness of the two story entrance. Plus a nice return on investment

Hope you had a great Tuesday

Don't settle for New construction Ugly

I know you have heard me say this before but you don't have to settle for what I call builder boring & boring =ugly. Maybe you think the before photos are perfect if so I am probably not the blog for you! This house was a new construction builders spec house that had a great layout but sat on the market for over 2 years without a buyer. The inside had typical brown cabinets in the kitchen and the bathroom. The bathroom had cultured marble tops, so awful and light fixtures and brushed nickel faucets. I consider brushed nickel conservative everyone has this type of finish. Or I don't want to be different. It's not for me. Anyway, I don't claim to know why builders pick the selections they do but in my 12 + house flips of my own and many other updates and renovations for clients. I am convinced with a little bit of thought and really not much more money you can have a really unique home. Yes you can find tile at Lowes and Home Depot it doesn't have to come from Italy. You can find cool lights online. You can pick chrome or now even soft antique gold plumbing fixtures. It is all in how you mix it up.
You don't have to use what I call the "lick and stick" mirror. The one without a frame of any kind around it. Trim is cheap to add around the mirror. Or at the very least you could buy a mirror at
www.homegoods.com or www.tjmaxx.com or even www.shadesoflight.com or easier yet www.target.com
This picture below is the bathroom before with brown ugly cabinets, cultured marble tops and brushed nickel faucets. We painted the cabinets, pulled off the 'lick and stick' mirror, changed the faucets to chrome and added two arm library lights in polished chrome from www.circalighting.com
Plus I found a remnant of granite in Absolute black. Now you have a house someone wants to buy and live in!
Happy Sunday
xo
SJ

Before brown boring cabinets

New granite tops, painted cabinets

Love these mirrors I found at a local furniture store

When you love a house that is just a Hot Mess!!!!

I fell in love with a 1949 Brick Rancher and unfortunately it was a hot mess. Everyone of the bathrooms, the kitchen, paint colors and on and on needed some attention. This tile in the original bath was put on the wall back in the day with concrete lath so to remove this bathroom tile was a huge mess. The pink sinks and tub were out of place and it was time for a new look. Personally in a master unless I can find a spot for a soaking tub I don't usually put one back. In this bathroom since it was a master we had no room to do a separate tub and I didnt think it would look that great with a tub shower combo so out with the pink tub. Which was so heavy it took four guys to remove. The toilet was in the room for all to view and so we bumped out a wall and enclosed it for much needed privacy. We had room to add a vanity which I purchased on www.amazon.com it came with the carrera marble top and two undercount sinks. I was then left to figure out what to do with the glass block as it caused the new vanity sinks to be off center for a mirror. So I just covered the wall with mirror and pulled the new vendome single sconces from www.circalighting.com in a polished nickel thru the mirror. No more block glass and I didn't have to do anything to the outside brick. Saving money as my husband says that never happens. A beautiful new pendant light by Currey and Company (to the trade only)

New black marble tile on the floor and subway tile on shower walls with a grey grout. Frameless shower doors and Benjamin Moore London Fog paint on the walls. www.benjaminmoore.com and Delta faucets in Chrome and this bathroom looks Fabulous! Functions much better and we used a mix of high end finishes and some big box items to save money like the subway tile and the vanity.

Hope all your snow is melting as mine is have a Happy Friday!