Top 10 Remodeling Budget Busters

Stairways in homes have become a sort of sculptural element, and many people are installing a cable-rail system that can run upwards of $5,000. In Boulder, Colo., a pair of homeowners opted against expensive cable and instead commissioned a bike welder to build them a metal railing that still has the same industrial feel of the cable rail. It saved them $2,000. They also built the steps themselves with glue-laminated beams that they cut to size, stained and then sealed. The cost for those? Only $300.