If you remodel your home, be careful you don’t destroy its original charm and end up with a . . .’REMUDDLE’

Hunting for their first home last summer, Fabian and Julie Yeager found a great buy in a 1923 Spanish-style house in South Pasadena and bought it, they say, for thousands below market.

They got such a good deal, the Yeagers say, because much of the home’s original charm had been destroyed by the renovation efforts of previous owners. “Although we loved the neighborhood and could see the charm of the house, at first we were appalled by the way it had been altered,” Fabian Yeager, a lighting designer, said.

The original arched windows in the den had been replaced with aluminum sliding windows and the arches had been covered with plywood. In the living room, three arched windows had been replaced with a large picture window.

Next to the Batchelder tile fireplace, a cabinet had been mutilated to make room for a wall unit air conditioner, and the cabinet doors were missing. In the bathroom, the original pedestal basin had been replaced with a cheap vanity with fake marble that didn’t match anything else in the room.

“There is no question that these factors were a detriment to the house,” Yeager said. “When original work is removed, you may lose the architectural interest of a house. The price we paid for the house reflected both the market and the alterations that we anticipated needed repairs.”

While no one knowingly remodels or renovates a home with the goal of lowering its value, realtors say that “remuddling,” a term sometimes applied to alterations that are incompatible with the original architectural style of the home, does detract from salability in today’s tough market.

“Buyers today are more sophisticated about architectural styles,” said Richard Mach, an agent with Progressive Properties, which specializes in homes in the Los Feliz and Silver Lake districts of Los Angeles.

“In today’s market, buyers are picking on everything, and many want original condition. People look at details, and original features bring more money.”

Improvements and decorative embellishments of the past that are considered detrimental by many buyers today include acoustical ceilings, especially those with glitter; aluminum windows and sliding glass patio doors, louvered windows, simulated paneling, old or low-quality laminated countertops, glitter mirrors and cheaply made particleboard cabinets.

Fads in interior design also change, and yesterday’s hot look may have gone out of fashion. Painted-over fine wood paneling and brick and wall-to-wall carpet or linoleum over hardwood floors are less popular today than in years past.

Poorly thought-out additions that hinder the traffic flow from room to room or alter the way a room may be used also detract from value, regardless of the architectural style or age of a house.

Frank Thomas of Anaheim believes he and his wife, Michele, got a buy on the 20-year-old custom Spanish-style home they purchased earlier this year partly because a large bookcase in the family room dominated one wall.

“It was a nice bookcase in the wrong place,” Thomas said. “It made it impossible to arrange seating so that you could watch television in the family room. We ripped it out, and now the room looks three or four times larger.”

“When no thought is given to an alteration and the way it functions, the price is affected downward,” said Jolene Medina, the agent with ERA Diversified in Buena Park who sold the Thomases their home.

Lin Vlacich, a realtor with Prudential California Realty in San Marino, concurs, citing tandem bedrooms that can only be entered through an existing bedroom or a kitchen as an example of a poorly thought-out addition.

According to Vlacich, many of the renovations that homeowners of the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s made on older houses are considered detrimental today.

“Earlier homeowners weren’t as sensitive to style, so they added on modern elements to older homes. For example, the more astute buyer today won’t buy a house with aluminum sliders and louvered windows,” she said.

Joe and Maria Hein are restoring their three-bedroom Spanish-style home in San Marino by replacing many of the elements that former owners had added in an attempt to make the house look more modern. Aluminum sliding glass doors were installed in the family room and around an inner courtyard. The kitchen ceiling was lowered with plastic panels on tracks for indirect lighting. In the living room, the brick fireplace was painted a light color.

“We have hired a designer to advise uson what to do to recapture the character of the home,” Joe Hein said. “We feel the house is unique, and we don’t want to do damage to it that would hurt it later.”

The Heins have already pulled up the wall-to-wall carpet and are planning to replace the aluminum sliding glass doors with French doors, and will remove the lowered kitchen ceiling. They want to return the fireplace to its original brick color. In some older homes, attempts to modernize resulted in structural damage that can be costly to repair.

“Previous owners had replaced the 12-pane windows in the front room of our house with a huge plate glass picture window which was improperly installed and was causing the house to settle,” said Carol Harris, a set designer and owner of a 1914 Spanish Colonial Revival home in Hancock Park.

Harris and her husband, Stan Harris, an art director for films, had the window replaced and installed new beams under the house to shore it up.

The Harrises also found that all the interior walls of the house had been sprayed with a rough texture coating.

“It was probably blown on in the 1970s,” Carol Harris said.

“We tried scraping and sandblasting it off. At the same time we noticed that the house had a strange odor. When the plaster was removed, we discovered that the walls were all covered with particleboard. We think that the original plaster had been removed and the walls replaced with the particleboard, which was then sprayed with the texture coating. We had to remove all of this and replace it with drywall.”

Acoustical plaster is sometimes used to cover up cracks in the original plaster. In recent years, many buyers, especially in upscale neighborhoods, reject this solution.

“Buyers absolutely hate cottage cheese ceilings,” said Michael Many, an agent with Jon Douglas in Cheviot Hills, referring to the texture of some acoustical plaster.

Scraping the material off can be very costly because much of the acoustical material used in the 1960s and early ‘70s contained asbestos, which requires special precautions in removal and disposal.

When Leah and Tom Griffith purchased their 1902 Victorian home in the West Adams district, acoustical material covered most of the ceiling, including an area over a stairwell and on the walls surrounding the stairwell. The Griffiths were lucky because it did not contain asbestos.

“Scraping it off is a very messy job,” Leah Griffith said.

Ironically, the former owner happened by while she was removing the material in the upstairs bedrooms. “She told me ‘We paid a lot to have that put up there,’ ” Griffith said.

Historic homes in older neighborhoods such as West Adams are the houses most likely to have been altered over the passage of time.

The Griffiths’ single-family Victorian had been converted into two apartments years earlier. To provide a full bathroom downstairs, a half bath behind the dining room was enlarged by ripping out a built-in china cupboard in the dining room and moving the wall to make room for a six-foot tub.

The Griffiths have removed the tub and are planning to replace the china cupboard. Luckily, they found parts of the original cabinet--four leaded glass doors--outside on a trash heap.

A more serious repair to a wood-paneled Victorian or Craftsman house occurs when an owner opts to stucco over the wood rather than restore the paneling.

“Adding the weight of the stucco to a Craftsman house can damage its foundation,” said Dale W. Jones, senior associate with Heritage Realty, which specializes in the historic homes in the West Adams district.

“The houses were designed to sway in an earthquake. When you add stucco to these houses, you create the danger of serious cracking in an earthquake,” he said. Jones said many buyers turn up their noses at these stuccoed houses.

“Most of my buyers look for original,” he said. “It’s not unusual for a buyer to choose a beat-up house in original condition over one that may have a well-preserved interior but which has stucco on the outside. I would say that such a house could sell for up to 20% below the house in a more original condition.”

Jones says that one stuccoed-over Craftsman in his area has been on the market for well over a year. “A buyer might get a good buy on such a house,” he said.

Stucco can be removed, but Jones warns that often some of the distinctive architectural elements of the Craftsman style were removed prior to applying the stucco.

Often older houses do need repairs and renovations. Additional bedrooms and bathrooms may be needed, and kitchens may need upgrades. Electrical and plumbing work may not be up to code.

Improvements can be made to a house. The secret is having sensitivity to the style of the house and staying consistent to that style. The savvy homeowner must do his or her homework.

“We advise people to study the character-defining features of their homes,” said Teresa Grimes, an architectural historian formerly with the Los Angeles Conservancy.

“The concern of the Conservancy is that anything done to a house not violate the integrity of its design. It’s hard to say that any one element might be inappropriate at all times. For example, putting French doors into a Spanish Colonial Revival house might fit even if the doors were not there originally. However, putting the same doors on a Streamline Moderne or International design home would be inappropriate,” she said.

Grimes also suggests asking yourself if the alterations are reversible as they may not appeal to the next buyer.

“A bad remodel is one that looks like a remodel regardless of style,” said Sandy Schiffman, ASID, a Sherman Oaks interior designer and contractor who has redesigned many older homes.

“Most houses are adaptations of a style. You have to determine whether to save details that were original but may have been cheaply made,” she said.

Schiffman recently renovated a mid-1940s traditional home in Sherman Oaks as an investment. Schiffman tried to modernize the house while keeping its original flavor. New baseboards and crown moldings replace the older, less dramatic trim, but Schiffman retained the original wood double hung windows. Where new windows were needed, the old-style windows were copied.

“Do what you can to make the house safe and comfortable,” she said. “Bring it up to code. It also makes sense to add modern amenities which enhance usability and value such as phone jacks and connections for cable TV.”

If your home contains some elements that are out of favor with today’s buyers but you aren’t planning to sell in the immediate future, you may opt to leave the house as is or gradually make changes as your pocketbook may allow.

If, however, you plan to sell in the immediate future, some realtors believe that you may have to make changes to receive top dollar, especially if your home is at the higher end of the market.

“A house might sell more quickly and at a higher price if the windows and sliders are replaced by French doors and windows,” said Vlacich of Prudential California Realty.

“It also helps if the wood floors look good, and if the kitchen has tile rather than Formica countertops. Many buyers want all the perks and are willing to pay for them unless the house is a total fixer.”