“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.

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