Help needed with understanding the renovation process, permits etc.

Bathrooms and kitchens replaced with fixtures more or less in the same spot.

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freespirit | 7 years and 9 months ago

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I am wondering whether $180k in the article above includes the cost of kitchen cabinets/bathtub etc or that is just work alone? I’m pretty frugal and we didn’t buy high-end things (Kitchen was from Ikea, vanities too), no marble tiles either and we ended up spending close to 200k for 3 floors+ basement (including cabinets and sinks and appliances), but not the outside of the house. The quality of our contractors was meh. I got a bid recently to redo the siding of my house and rebuild the porch (I have a stand-alone Victorian house) for $110k. So I think $300k is the bare minimum (that’s all i’m trying to say)

cate | 7 years and 9 months ago

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Freespirit, yes, the $180 in the article above included everything: Materials, labor, architect, and filing fees. Pretty awesome, right? House is small, so that might explain it. Two floors plus English basement and two kitchens and two baths altogether. Updated all mechanicals (including heating) but no exterior work and no structural — house was in great shape. I agree $300K is a realistic number for what you (and I) are doing.

freespirit | 7 years and 9 months ago

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Yes, Cate, I read the whole series of articles and the house is small, they did a lot of work themselves, there wasn’t a lot of work required on the 2 floor and my understanding is that they got some stuff for free because they wrote the article (like the floors). A true gut reno is much more expensive:) I actually doubt even 300k would be sufficient. All last bids I’m getting (for small things like fence) are in the tens of thousands.

chemosphere | 7 years and 9 months ago

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I purposely looked for houses that needed work but not a gut renovation. We also ruled out houses that needed drastic layout changes. We looked for a house that could be renovated without permits and without an architect – bathrooms and kitchens replaced with fixtures more or less in the same spot.
We got a house similar to the curbed reno, 2 floors + cellar, 2200 sq ft, and replaced 2 kitchens and 2 baths for about $120k. No structural except for reinforcing some joists under a bathroom. We put a new layer on the roof. I was onsite everyday and did some demo, sanding, painting, hauling, easy stuff. I went to Lowes and the tile and plumbing places and bought all the materials myself.
The house is not going to be featured on a magazine or a website, but I’m proud of it and it’s structurally sound with new electric and plumbing.
This type of reno was more often covered on sites like Brownstoner about 10 years ago when there were more DIYers and you could get sub $1m row houses. Now the stories here are people who work all the time and hire people to do everything. Nothi ng against those types, but that’s not the only type of renovation there is.
The original poster in this thread is talking about a landmarked house so that’s a whole nother ballpark of neighborly scrutiny and $$$. In fact if you were a really tight budget I would advise against buying a landmarked house for that very reason. But still people should know that lower budget renovations are possible.

workisfun | 7 years and 9 months ago

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I second chemosphere. If you have the time, tenacity, and interest, your work and coordination can certainly save money. We did it this way not only to save money, but to know exactly what we were getting for our hard-earned (debt) money that we did spend. It is stunning to learn how many uninformed contractors there are. Time and again, I would follow up on their prescriptions with other contractors, manufacturers, associations, etc, and learn that I would be throwing money away to do what they wanted to do. Eventually, we landed some competent and creative (and some excellent) professionals. Just a very few mistakes were made along the way to finding them. Saved high tens of thousands of dollars.

gemby | 7 years and 9 months ago

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Thanks Chemosphere and Workisfun– it’s good to hear of more people who have accomplished a reno with a moderate budget. We too are in a landmarked district, which will make windows more expensive but we aren’t planning any other facade work.