Ok so I'm looking at buying a house that I'd want to make a lot of renevations too and I have no idea how much things cost. I'm looking to hire a general contractor as well. <BR>Its about a 1300sqf house. <BR>New Roof <BR>New Windows <BR>all new dry wall <BR>new trim <BR>new doors <BR>new floors <BR>new ceilings <BR>update bathroom <BR>Add a bathroom <BR>add a master bed with walk in closet <BR>add a laundry room <BR>destroy old kitchen and put a new one in <BR>new siding <BR>add a morton garage/shed <BR>I don't want granit countertops, or real wood floors, or custom cabinets....middle of the road stuff all around. Any idea what this all may cost me?

That is a ton of work. Unless the lot is the reason for buying you have a 99% chance that it will be way cheaper to buy what you want than to do all that work.

Yea, its a family owned house so I'll get to buy it for next to nothing.

And its on over 2 acres.

That is a LOT of work. The Kitchen alone will be 10k on the really cheap side..

I'm hoping it'll be around 75k all said and done....and I'll do some work like demo, tile, doors, some of the easy stuff.

Man. I'd hate to put a tag on all that stuff but to do it right at least 45K? Just build a new place.

If your looking to save some money on this, I would recommend not hiring a G.C. if you have the time to commit to this, You could save a lot of money by contracting out the subs on your own. Also, im not sure what your construction background is, but try and do as much of the work yourself as you can, like the demo, painting, hanging drywall, etc. and leave the specialty work like electrical, plumbing, tiling, taping/bedding/texturing up to the pros. Contracting the job yourself will probably be more stressful, and take a longer, but it will save you quite a bit in the long run. It will also be more rewarding once your finished.

The only other option would to knock that house down and build one where the old one is. And that would prolly cost a ton...if its even possible.

The G.C. is a close friend of mine but he doesn't want to give me a number till he sees the inside. And like you said Brett I do plan on doing the simple stuff like painting, demo and whatever else. <BR> <BR>(Message edited by DenWbaseball on February 09, 2010)

Well I have done some of that stuff on my house but I did a lot of the work myself but here are some of the costs I incurred. <BR> <BR>New Vinyl Windows 2700 dollars (all 3'x6') (own installation) <BR>New Doors interior 250 dollars 4 doors, one accordion (own installation and huge pain due to settling of the house doors had to be shaved) <BR>New Trim 200 dollars lots of time plus your going to need a pretty nice saw <BR>Repainted cabinets and put in new LG solid surface counter tops 4000 dollars (paid to have countertops installed) <BR> <BR>Your big costs are going to come from adding additional rooms. Depending on your location your going to have to have an engineer come in and look at it, especially if you are messing with the roof line. <BR> <BR>I would say by the time your done close to 55-60K. Just my guess, also if you are doing any work yourself buy decent tools, cheap tools means the final product will look cheap as well.

there are a lot of things you can do yourself with some basic knowledge and tools like: <BR> <BR>New Windows <BR>all new dry wall <BR>new trim <BR>new doors <BR>new ceilings <BR>update bathroom <BR>new siding <BR> <BR>but this is if you have the time <BR> <BR>(Message edited by kickflip_mj on February 09, 2010)

dont know how it is where you live, but in my area when you started adding "foundation" (bathroom/shed) our city gets involved. which means permitting and inspections. In my case it add's thousands of dollars to total. And every time that inspector comes out he/she will be snooping.....which typically leads to more $$$. <BR> <BR>All this x2 if you have a HOA. <BR> <BR>I remodeled once. I will never do it again. <BR> <BR>With all that going on in the house, dont' plan on livig there. <BR> <BR>Not to be a debbie downer but by everything you listed; the house sounds old....you may get some surprises when you start your demo...which = $$$$$.

Adam is right, <BR>if you think your project is going to be over $500 dollors(correct me if im wrong) by law in Cali. you must have a permit. with that being said these are things you could get away without a permit: <BR>Carpets <BR>molding <BR>trim etc. <BR> <BR>now if you were to do a roof, get a permit

Yea, I don't plan on living there while the remodel is going on. And it's not in a "city" the inspectors would be county inspectors not sure if its the same or not. And I'm sure demo will turn up something that needs to be addressed and will cost more money. <BR> <BR>I'm wishing it will take 55k, hoping it won't be more than 75k, but its not the end of the world if its 100k. <BR> <BR>I live in IL <BR> <BR>(Message edited by DenWbaseball on February 09, 2010)

Make sure you do some sort of basic cost/sq ft analysis based on your (high) estimated cost. You dont' want to end up in a house that costs you $200/sq ft when everything else in the area is selling at $150/sq ft.

if your worried about cost you can do so much yourself saving you thousands. good luck

^^^ Determine what your time is worth to you. <BR> <BR>Figure anything the pros do will probably take you double the amount of time ( not including time/materials spent on excess waste and mistakes). most people dont' include this in their cost estimates when doin home improvement. You'll get better as you move thru the project.

Ahh, at the end of the day it is really going to depend on your finish items. We have remodeled and built houses and the one constant is the majority of $$ (esp your overages) comes in the form of the trim outs... <BR> <BR>You could drop 75 on a kitchen and bath in about 10 minutes if you wanted to.

Get estimates and add at least 20% for overruns. On a project that big, there are ALWAYS overruns.

electrical.....?

It should be fine...new fixtures and new electrical to the addition...and I have a friend thats an electrician so that will go for parts and $15 cash an hour. <BR> <BR>As far as finishes....nothing fancy...no hardwood, no gourmet kitchen, no granit, no super expensive stainless appliances....middle of the road stuff.

You on sewer or septic? Before you start thinking about adding bedrooms, if on septic, make sure your are approved otherwise you can add septic into those costs.

septic/leech field i think <BR> <BR>not sewer for sure.

Well if you are not on sewer than septic it is. Septic systems are rated by bedroom for code. Check with the county to see what your system is set for before you move as you won't be able to get your permits for the additional bedroom/s without a septic system that is sized to handle.

kinda sounds like my house, lol <BR> <BR>the comments about permits, septic, finding more problems are all spot on. new construction is alot easier. houses out in the sticks are often 'engineered' with whatever they have on hand. if you have to bring all of that stuff up to code in order to pass an inspection, you could be in deep. it's highly doubtful that the original septic was overbuilt so much you can add a bedroom and bathroom. <BR> <BR>you might be better off buying a small lot nearby, moving the house and selling it as a package. then start over on your lot. neither way will be cheap.

Is all this something that I could do for 75k with running into some problems and not buying high end?

Yup it can be done - I could do that for 75k if you were in my neck of the woods. We just finished a job that had all that stuff done for around 65k @ 1200 sq ft.

I'd say you are going to be closer to 100,000.

$130k

ya definitely well over 100K in ca. not sure bout other places but here your looking at around a hundred and a quarter

Thanks for all the info guys!! I guess the next step is to see what I'll be buying the house for and see if its worth to spend 130k on it. I'm still thinking that it'll be worth it because I bet I get it for 0-20k and its probably worth over 100k with the 2acres its on.

Dennis, keep in mind too that the market is weak for builders and their subs right now. You can prob work with your friend and really bargain with the trades on the jobs. Lots of competition = good deals for the consumer...