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We are considering buying a modest brownstone – 16.5 x 40′, 3 stories (currently used as 2 family with top floor rental). What is a “safe” cost per sq ft to budget for renovation? It seems to be all over the map – I’ve been quoted 200/psf up to 500/psf. We are not “fancy” types – we have a tight budget and like a simple, clean look (a la Dwell magazine) and are not dealing with restoring tons of old detail, since the house does not have much. So far, a couple of architects have said we could squeak by and renovate 2 floors for 200-250K, but I have trouble meshing that to contractor prices I’ve been given.

Re: work we want to do – The house is in decent shape but we do want to do pretty major work including: flipping configuration so that we could first live on upper duplex (and hopefully eventually afford to take over garden) though this means putting kitchen on parlor; nearly gutting parlor floor (taking down a bunch of walls, creating kitchen & possibly a powder room and closet); top floor some reconfiguration but not as extreme – mainly ripping out kitchen to make bedroom larger (currently that room is a LR) and possibly add closet space, renovate bath and add add’l closet space, and maybe change door entry point to small study in front half of room (currently opens from adjacent BR, we want it to open from hall).

We are about to go to contract but are dying to get more of a sense of the true cost of renovation – can it done be rather thriftily? To me, 200-250K seems like a hell of a lot of money!

Thanks -