This month, the Cyberhomes crew will share what's on our wish lists for the holiday season. Join us for 12 days of great gift ideas for home and real estate buffs.
Sarah Weissman, Cyberhomes director of photography
On my wish list: skim coating followed by new paint for my kitchen, dining room, hallway, bathroom and guest bedroom. After years of paying for essentially lousy paint jobs for my very old co-operative apartment in New York City, I had an epiphany when I saw a friend's house after her remodel. Of all the things that made my heart soar (new appliances, windows and floor), I couldn't take my eyes off her walls. They were truly things of beauty. So flat, you had no idea plaster ever touched them. There where none of the dents and imperfections that I always assumed were part of having walls in New York. Based on the walls alone, her apartment looked like a museum. I got the name of her painter and paid him $5,000 to apply a super-thin coat of plaster, sand it to perfect evenness and apply warm-toned paint to the front three sun-drenched rooms of my apartment, where the light would allow people to marvel at my newly flat walls. Seriously: People now talk about my paint. (Putting holes in it to hang pictures nearly broke my heart.) Next up: the rest of my home.
Cost: Based on the first round of work a year ago, completing the job will cost about another $5,000, including materials, and should take about one week. It seems insane to me that painting 600 square feet of space should cost so much, but I would have never known how beautiful it could be. While the rest of my apartment still feels very much like it probably did in 1860 when the building was built, the walls are fabulous.
Gift's added value to home: It's fairly unscientific, but I'm guessing no less than $20,000. It makes the place feel more modern and very well cared for. Even though a buyer might want to paint in their chosen color palette, the heavy lifting of evening out the lumpy walls will last regardless of what one paints over it.
My gift to you: A really good, authentic Chinatown wok. Sounds like a simple gift, but my wok matters to me almost as much as my walls do. Anything can be cooked in a wok, and after people have come by to admire my walls and eaten one of the many dishes I can make in four minutes flat, they want one. I'm more than happy to share the wok wealth. The thing about living in New York is that time moves very, very quickly. When you return from work cold and hungry, you want to be eating in less than five minutes from when you walk through the door. The wok wants to help make that happen. One more thing: Pretty much everything that comes out of the wok demands to be covered in Thai chili sauce, so I would pick that up for you too.
Click here to read the previous holiday wish.
Click here to read the next holiday wish.
—Sarah Weissman