“I would dearly love to do my kitchen,” Brenda Goburn Smith said. But like thousands of homeowners caught up in the economic downturn, Smith’s personal economics is tilted against the kind of budget that a full redo demands.
Though disappointed, the independent business manager still wanted to make some changes in her 60-year-old house. “I did what I could afford,” said Smith, 62. That meant brightening up the kitchen with paint, adding a drop ceiling and adding a deck on the second floor just above the kitchen.
Homeowners are visiting places such as Second Chance, an architectural salvage company in South Baltimore, and acquiring reusable items as well as donating things that don’t fit into their redesign.
“People are being smart with their money,” said Ann Fingles, acquisitions director at Second Chance Inc., who notes that many visitors to the nonprofit’s warehouses are looking to update their kitchen. “Right now, most people are focusing on existing space.”
Beth Dello, owner of Beth’s Home Repairs, has noticed this trend as well, especially in older homeowners who may be looking to sell but who are waiting out the economic downturn. “Maybe they’ve let things go,” she said, “and the fix-ups have been on their list for a long time.”
That’s not the case with Smith.
“I don’t want to move; I just wanted to stretch my house for more livable space,” she said. “[With the new deck] I have privacy and can sit out and have breakfast or just read.”
Smith also invested in a professional landscaper to help boost curb appeal.
“He looked at my yard with a vision I could not see,” she said. “He scalloped the edge with mulch and took out old bushes that were more dead than alive.”
While she can’t afford the kitchen of her dreams yet, Smith insists that “as things get better, I’ll do more.”
