renovation--better all at once or in stages?
Hi, I’m looking at a frame house that requires a gut renovation. This would be our first such project, having lived in an apt. my entire adult life! What are the pros and cons of doing the renovation all at once, likely subletting somewhere else for our family of four, versus occupying one rental unit…
Hi,
I’m looking at a frame house that requires a gut renovation. This would be our first such project, having lived in an apt. my entire adult life!
What are the pros and cons of doing the renovation all at once, likely subletting somewhere else for our family of four, versus occupying one rental unit while re renovate our future unit, then moving in there and renovating the rental unit afterwards?
Thanks for your thoughts — ELM
Having done a very minor renovation (electrical, structural, skim coating, floor refinishing) that has stretched out to absurd lengths of time, I say do it all at once and don’t live there. The dust will make the whole building uninhabitable — and will ruin the stuff that you just fixed. You will actually save money by doing it as fast as possible — you’d be surprised.
Having just gone through this, I strongly side with the comments above. Better to rip the bandage off fast in one swell whoop than inch it off bit by agonizing hair-tearing bit. You will have one bad very expensive year, but in the long run, your costs will be less, or about the same. If you stay in the mess, you’ll have to put half your belongings in storage anyway because of the dust. It’s hard to rent out apartments when a house is under construction. The workers will have to work around your stuff, and that will slow them down considerably. And with kids, it would just be a nightmare. Sublet as cheaply as you can, and visit your renovation as often as you can. A really good architect will also make your life a hundred times easier. Good luck! It’s definitely worth it.
Another consideration is exposure of your children to construction dust. Despite safe practices (which are often not really used) and best intentions, construction is messy and unpredictable. Dust gets everywhere and some of it will contain lead paint dust, ancient mouse droppings from between the walls, etc. It’s really, really difficult to to keep from tracking this into your unit while demo and construction is going on elsewhere in the building. Sometimes there’s no way of avoiding it, but if there is, just another issue to add to the balance.
We are doing our place in stages, but it is mostly a cost issue. I didn’t have quite enough cash to do the entire thing at once and needed about a year to raise the cash to finish the top floor. Of course you have to balance that with the loss of income from your rental unit.
Also, don’t underestimate the amount of stress that living through and in an renovation project will cause. We almost got divorced at least a dozen times and a friend of ours did get divorced half way through their gut reno. Coming home from work to a war zone is NOT relaxing. Even if you have a unit that you can live in while the other is being done, there will still (probably) be construction crap all over the place, and when they need to work on utilities, it will likely knock everything out for at least the day.
Everything in the above post is true.
The only reverse argument (except the modest cost for the sublet), is the keeping tabs on the construction issue.
If you are there, you’ll know which trade didn’t show up. You’ll see the astoundingly poor choice made by a sub before it’s so complete that you have to live with it.
If you have this angle covered already, then live elsewhere.
As an architect, I would suggest the sublet, especially if you’re doing a true gut, meaning taking out all the plumbing and electrical. Even if you’re just doing a major renovation, there will be times when the house is unlivable because of interruptions to these kind of services or because there’s just too much going on around you. It’s very hard to live through a renovation, particularly on kids. Having a contractor put into place additional measures for your safety and convenience, and working around your schedule will add to the budget. Likewise, phasing the work will stretch out the schedule, which in turn will add to the budget.