Suzanne O’Connor’s Bargains LA

Our Home Renovation Sources

Our new home renovations are finally finished. We spent a lot, but saved a lot on quality workmanship and goods. Here’s who we used and where we bought stuff:

Contractor
Al Menendez - Contractor.
We used him for everything from our new wood patio cover ($1200) to re-roofing ($6900- nearly half was Spanish tile), garden cement pathways $3500, electrical, garage conversion w/ new foundation and new office finishing.

Very happy with his work ethic, insight, design capabilities and trouble shooting concepts. From the roofing to the sidewalk, and from the painting to the patio cover.  He valued our modest home architecture and worked with it. His crew was polite, easy to work around, on time, honest, helpful and by the time we were done felt like family members.

Al Menendez (626) 831-2429

New Office:
Tough Shed =$4000 w/ 3 windows, shutters and a regular door.
Making a shed into an office was a lot cheaper than doing an addition or building from scratch or converting a trailer. We added insulation, flooring, electric, phones, Ethernet and paint for an additional $1300.

We also got a regular 10 x 12 shed for storage at $3000, since we were converting the garage and needed storage.

http://www.tuffshed.com/

Floor Refinishing = $2200 (1000 sq ft) -Sanding, re-stained and 4 coats polyurethane.
Chris Blake did great job of refinishing and staining our original 1927 oak wood floors. Plus after the renovation was finished, he came back and spot treated a few areas that got scratched … for free!  Reasonable, on time and neat, Chris made floor refinishing nearly hassle free.

Chris Blake at Blakes Wood Floors (818) 848-2488

Chimney Rebuild
$9,900= A full rebuild. Save $1000- $2000 from other quotes.
Fireplace Freddie (323) 953-1538

Took a bit longer than expected, but their thoroughness and ability to design around our older home’s architecture was terrific. Freddie came by often to check on the progress of his crews work and was totally on top of all aspects of the rebuild.

Curtain Panels
Villa Firenze- I saved at least 50%! My cost was $1200. Retail $2400-$3000.
I had them make custom window panels for our living room, dining room, breakfast nook, daughters bedroom and kitchen along with custom pillows and tie backs.

Villa Firenze, 11840 Vose St., North Hollywood, CA 91605   (818) 503-9143

Window Blinds
$435 for 6 windows (2 of which were French door windows). Retail $650-$750
They came to the house with samples, measured and installed them two weeks later.

The Vertical Factory, 14552 Garvey Ave., South Baldwin Park 91706   (800) 352.5005

Caesar Stone Kitchen Counters - $2400, ($3000 retail)
National Flooring Liquidators, 1705 S. Mountain Ave., #A-5, Monrovia, 91016
(626) 358-3145
I LOVE LOVE these counters!

Kitchen, Office and Garage Flooring
10 x 12 - porcelain tile $456. Retail $650
10 x 12 – closeout linoleum tile $110, Retail $220
12 x 13 – closeout carpet $300. Retail $550

National Flooring Liquidators, 1705 S. Mountain Ave., #A-5, Monrovia, 91016
(626) 358-3145

Crown Molding
Two Bedrooms (8 x 12 feet for $60 plus install).
Door and Window Plus, 2110 Tyler, South El Monte, CA 91733   (626) 448-8321

Furniture Re-upholstering
Love seat/sofa, Bergere chair, Bench, Chippendale king wing, 6 dining chairs
Here $1000. Elsewhere $1800-$2400. I used my own fabric.

Valley Upholstering, Inc. 18165 Napa St., #8, Northridge, CA 91325 (818) 349-4336
www.valleyupholstering.com

Décor Fabrics
Michael Levine, 920 Maple Ave., Los Angeles, 90015             (213) 622-6259
Home Fabrics Inc., 910 South Wall St., Los Angeles, CA 90015 (213) 689-9600
Villa Firenze, 11840 Vose St., North Hollywood, CA 91605         (818) 503-9143

Lighting:
Bought a flush mount, Spanish styled hall ceiling light on sale from $189 to $89
2 lamp shades at $24 each at:
Lamps Plus Outlet, 12206 Sherman Way, North Hollywood CA 91605

Bought a wrought iron Chandelier from LightingShowroom.com at $220.
Mini Chandelier Shades at Lowes for $3 each!
Outdoor lighting = 3 x $40 each at Home Depot
                          Tiffany styled, wrought iron outdoor lamp $20 at a garage sale.

Furniture Refinishing:
Most of our furniture had been refinished over the past 4 years. But we had two pieces left, our big buffet and our 100-year-old L & JG Stickley rocker. Both were sent out to Jorge Garcia in Pasadena. Cost $1800 for both.

The buffet looks amazing and though we don’t have the leather seat in for the rocker yet, I went by to see it and Jorge took great pains to give the chair the exact same finish as the original including keeping the L & JG sticker on.

Jorge Garcia, 2739 Nina St., Pasadena, CA 91107-4308   (626) 644-6356

Misc:
Kitchen Sink- $385 on sale from $500 at Pacific Sales
Kitchen Faucet- $180 Lowes (okay, we paid retail)

They’ll be additional upgrades and work done on the house in the future. But I am grateful the big renovation push is finally over. Now on to the garden.