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CNN Live At Daybreak

Do-It-Yourself Home Improvements

Aired April 29, 2002 - 06:40   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: How do you spend your money? If you are a homeowner, surveys show you spend a lot on home improvements and you're probably doing the work by yourself.

Joining me to -- from Boston to talk about home improvements and their payoffs is Lynda Lyday who is host of "The Fix" TV show.

Good morning to you.

LYNDA LYDAY, HOST, "THE FIX": Good morning, how are you?

COSTELLO: Oh it's so ironic we should be talking to you on a day when so many people have suffered tornado damage to their homes.

LYDAY: Yes.

COSTELLO: Like where do you start with that?

LYDAY: From the ground up, I guess.

COSTELLO: You're not kidding. We want to talk about a survey that you guys did on home improvement and it showed some surprising things like many of us want to do the work ourselves.

LYDAY: Yes, how about that, huh? Looks like I'm doing my job out there inspiring people.

Well the Champion Mortgage Home Improvement Survey actually showed quite a few things. Not only are we doing the work ourselves, but we're a little off in numbers meaning that a lot of us think it's going to cost a lot less money to do some projects than it's actually going to cost. For instance, on a kitchen remodel, it's going to be -- people think it's going to be about $18,000, guess what, it's going to cost about $38,000.

COSTELLO: Wow!

LYDAY: So the price difference is what -- now I'm not here to say -- to discourage anybody, I just want to come here and tell everybody yes, you can do it yourself or you can do aspects of yourself, but you can also be a little creative. And doing it yourself is definitely, you know, part of that.

COSTELLO: Well... LYDAY: But you know a lot of us aren't going to have -- excuse me?

COSTELLO: I just wanted to talk about the discrepancy there. So people sit down and they figure you know I got to buy this, I got to buy that, it's going to cost me this amount. I mean what are we doing? Are we doing bad math here? How does this discrepancy occur or is it -- does it -- when we're going along, does it cost more than we thought it would?

LYDAY: Well it just adds up, you know. If you're going to -- you know if you're going to do some painting, maybe do some wallpapering, you're right, that's not going to cost that much. That's something you're going to -- you know you can like spend cash and do that. You know we'd all have the money to do that. You start doing you know some home improvement, bigger ticket items like home remodeling, a room addition, those get pricey. You're not going to really spend -- you know put the money on your high interest credit card.

So my feeling is let's get creative, let's do it ourselves and let's you know -- how about a home equity loan. That is a great thing that -- to consider. And really what you want to do is you just want to make sure you go with somebody reputable like Champion Mortgage.

But here's the deal. This is the news that I was really surprised about, anything that you put in -- so whatever you're going to put in your kitchen, you're going to when you sell it, you're going to get double the money. That is huge. So if you take out a home equity loan and you get X amount of money and you do the work yourself and you're saving money, now you're able to get -- you know be able to do more projects. And then of course that's going to reap you even that much more money. And the good news is that in most cases it's tax deductible.

COSTELLO: What are the most desirable home features to add to your home?

LYDAY: OK, well the Champion Mortgage Survey showed that actually you have I think it's the room addition and the kitchen remodeling and landscaping, all three kind of come in there. That's what everybody wants to do. So...

COSTELLO: So if you're going to add something to make money in the future, you should add what a walk-in pantry to your kitchen, a linen closet for your bathroom, a laundry room is a big item, exterior lighting, that surprised me?

LYDAY: Yes, isn't that. Well to get more money back, it's really the kitchen and then a room addition and then, you know, the I guess you could go landscaping and decks and so forth. But the most money that you're going to reap back is kitchen. And I guess you know, especially nowadays, you see it all over the place that we're all starting to nest, we're getting together, family is really important, the kitchen is where it's happening. And as families, you know we multiply, we need more room as well. COSTELLO: Exactly, so roll up your sleeves and get to work out there.

OK, Lynda Lyday.

LYDAY: And you can do a lot...

COSTELLO: Go ahead.

LYDAY: You can do a lot of it yourself so that's the good news.

COSTELLO: Yes, as you. Thank you, Lynda.

LYDAY: Thank you.

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