Renovating on the Cheap in New York City
The House & Home section today uses the quest of the former editor and chief of Dwell magazine to find the perfect house for $100 a foot as a jumping off point to investigate whether in New York City it was possible to do a gut renovation for that number. They look at six renovations…
The House & Home section today uses the quest of the former editor and chief of Dwell magazine to find the perfect house for $100 a foot as a jumping off point to investigate whether in New York City it was possible to do a gut renovation for that number. They look at six renovations across the city that ranged from the Red Hook house above for $67 a foot to a Tribeca loft for $180 a foot. We know first hand that it’s possible: We did our house for about $75 a foot. We could have easily spent double that and close inspection quickly reveals numerous imperfections. Certain things don’t bother us, like the layers and layers of accumlated paint on the door moldings; others, like way the contractor mounted the old marble sink in the guest bathroom too close to the side wall, will bother us for the next twenty years. But the way we look at it is that an old house like ours is a lifelong project and, plus, we couldn’t have afforded to buy it if a “perfect” renovation was the only option. And, like most things, it looks great by candlelight!
We’d love to hear what readers have spent on their “on the cheap” renovations.
The Cheap Fix [NY Times]
you should of tried
renovatemyapartment.com
We need to renovate our new apartment on the UES and would love to get recommendations for a contractor and an architect. Please email ayelet32@gmail.com. Thanks!!!
I need to defend contractors a bit. Not all are bad. I have a family member who is one, and I think he does very nice work and has a very good eye for detail and very good w/ the finishing touches, that many times are very inexpensive but really make a huge difference in look and feel of your home.
What many of us are not asking is, why did the contractor walk out on me? We always hear horror stories of bad contractors but what about there side. I am sure they have horror stories of crazy, unrealistic home owners. I was told of one customer who would call his contractor at 11pm every night. What about people who don’t want to pay a lot but want high end work. I think it’s a 2 sided street here. Also as far as pricing, many times contractors don’t included the unexpected and that’s when it starts costing some bucks and well I think every one agrees when you are renovating always expect the unexpected..
i had to gut 4 floors and 6 apartments and the basement. my guy did it in record time of 5 months. leveling and rebuilding the back side of the building, all new plumbing, wiring, new floors, walls, kitchen, bath room and all. cost me about 300k. i did all the design myself, contractor did the rest. there are minor flaws in places like they didnt screw tight the cabinet doors etc…but only minor. other wise i’m very happy with what i paid for.
thank god my parents know the contractor for years. he done alot of work for them.
We had an excellent contractor who’d we’d used previously to do an extensive, though not completely gut renovation 5 years ago. Central air, new and expensive boiler, all new landmark-OK’d windows, completely redone high-end kitchen and baths, central air, moved all interior walls, and decorative paint job. Total was $130 psf (excluding cost of architect). Took about 14 months (part of it was our changing our minds as we went along), almost dissolved our marriage, but now we’re extremely happy and there’s only tiny things we’d change if we had it to do over.
i posted earlier and commented on the gut reno of our basement of which we are using a major contractor (we also used an architect to draw up our plans). however, we project manage and oversee every single detail – with a fine-magnifying glass i might add. we’re picky and choosy. everything aesthetically and otherwise has to be just right! this is all time consuming so eventually all this stuff can get to you. but the flip side of conducting a reno like this yourself is that fortunately you get to approve (or disapprove) everything your contractor does which makes easier. the basement is our last project but we also managed our entire 4-floors of renovation which turned out “architectural digest” beautiful. And we’re women!
I am the person with the 2820 brownstone and I spent 150,000. It is a renovation of a horrible renovation and I did not remove all walls. Although I never picked up a hammer or brush, I was very involved and had to work with a crew that was doing multiple jobs, so it was a little nerve wracking. Also, the top floor I left alone. I bought it with tenants in it who are organized and applied pressure on the former landlord to keep in in shape, renovate kitchen etc, so it is liveable and has tenants so I left it alone — for now anyway. The tenants, who are neat freaks lived through the renovation, so it wasn’t easy for them, but I did everything in my power to minimize the impact on them. Also, I did not rip out all plumbing (though I found some ugly surprises when we opened walls and had to do a lot of plumbing repair, ie, the former owner never vented the pipes from the ground floor bathroom and kitchen!!! So that was the disgusting smell!!!!). Also, I did not completely rewire the building but had it all checked out and replaced most of what was in the renovated floors. My brownstone is skinny, hence 4 floors and 2820 square feet.
I am also not of the one floor per decade school. I can’t wait to get this completely finished. I have done all of this work in 1 year and 9 months and that included the delightful experience of evicting one of the sets of tenants which could make a good movie to compete with Money Pit, Burnt offerings and Pacific Heights. I have about 1 month of work left and after that I am taking a vacation to contemplate having a normal life. OK, a more normal life…..
Let’s talk flooring options…brownstoner is there any way people can post photos of what they’ve done to their floors in their homes? We have to figure out what to do in place of wood flooring in hallways and in the kitchen which is being renovated. All the options: wood, engineered, reclaimed wood, distressed engineered, tile to look like stone, ceramic tiles that look like wood. Makes my head spin. Love to see your pix if possible. Thanks.
I agree with the poster at 9:25,
(like so often at the NY times) the article is poorly written gibberish.
It has little to do with the title of the book.