Right now my Cost Estimate is $232,500, plus $38,000 for owner selected fixtures, for the following:
Bedroom addition in back on first floor
Push out living room to front
Add porch and covered entry
Add powder room and reconfigure 1st floor
New kitchens and baths
All new doors and windows
Two fireplaces
New deck off dining room in front
New concrete walkways and stairs
New 1,000 ft 2nd story with den, master bed, bath, closet, laundry room
Balcony off master bedroom
Exterior stairs up to rooftop deck
New matching roof on garage
We’re in a pretty low cost of living area and that budget seems like a bargain to me for all that you plan to do. I hope you don’t encounter any (or not too many) delays due to difficulty sourcing materials and fixtures.
We’re in the early planning stage with an architect. Some of the things I want, from appliances to HVAC to tile, have extended delivery delays. I plan to give the architect and builder a list of options in order of preference and tell them that if the first is not available to go on to the next and so on, without contacting me until they have confirmation. Then I’ll make any necessary adjustments to finishes. I’ll be pushing the builder to order some things much earlier than he usually does. We can store stuff in our garage or inside, depending on whether they’re humidity/temperature sensitive.
Good luck! I look forward to reading about this project.
For this project I keep trying to emphasize they need to spend some money on curb appeal. The house is so ugly from the street, including all the crap they have in the driveway.
I think I might lose my $1. He hired a friend to move the fence and the fence is already moved. Driveway still half full. The true test is whether they can get completely out of the house by Oct 10. Right now they are searching for a 1 bdrm rental for 6 months
Just drove by the house on the way home from my first haircut. There’s a giant UHaul truck parked in front, plus two cars and a trailer in the driveway. The curb appeal has nowhere to go but up ;).
Day 1
Today we focused on setting up our safety and sanitation stuff. All of the San Diego construction rental places are out of hand washing stations so I had to buy a small sink thing on the Internet to set up hand washing. Also got our Porta Pottie delivered and I loaded in a bunch of masks, gloves, safety glasses, toilet paper, first aid kit, etc to get started.
Our goal for the next 2 days are to jackhammer out all of the concrete in the back of the house and I need to jack hammer out the concrete steps and walkways to the house. But they are returning from vacation Sept 18 and are not moving out until Oct 10 so it will be hard for them to get in and out of the house if we jackhammer out all the stairs. Both the front door and back door are moving location so we have to get rid of all the concrete around those doors to lay foundation for new additions.
Today I took a closer look at the neighbor houses. OMG!! They are both old wood shacks that are about to fall down. Roof look shot, everything is deteriorated. I loaded some photos. The western neighbor doesn’t even have safe stairs to the front door. He has a rope coming down from the roof holding the stairs up. This old guy came out as soon as we showed up and proceeded to stand there watering weeds in his front yard staring at us. Luckily the homeowners had warned him we were going to start construction. He’s not happy about it. My bigger concern is that I am not sure his home is a safe and sanitary place to live but I don’t dare call social services or anything.
I’m hoping that immediate neighbors and/or family are watching out for this elderly person in the derelict house. I am a stranger to the situation, but I am going to have a discussion with the property owners when they return from vacation about their neighbor. Only reason I am concerned is because of that sad situation at my Hoarder House purchase where the elderly person had been living in horrible conditions for a long time before the neighbors finally called in Social Services.
Even though the elderly man is clinging to his rotting house, it would really benefit him to sell the property for a million bucks and move to a better living situation. But, none of my business!!
Even though our plans are already submitted to the City and passed 3 out of 4 reviews, the wife is panicking because the Master Bedroom / Bath need to be re-designed. She has a good point… right now there is not really a long wall to set up the bed and nightstands. For some reason the draftsman told me they were going to do a ‘floating’ bed in the room. I have no idea who got that room to this point but now I need to panic and re-design and hope that the City will accept the redesign in the final submission.
Objective: Move master closet door and bathroom doors so that a bed can go on either wall and now she has added in that she wants a door from Den into the bathroom.
So, I removed the linen closet that was in the upstairs hallway, pushed bathroom eastward and rearranged to have door at east end of bathroom and added a door from Den. This is going to compromise the light and bright giant shower. Now half the shower is tucked behind the toilet room but it will have a big window bringing light into the room. I loaded the new design to photo group
Meanwhile, I am starting another project next week. This will be a really interesting project. My agent represented a buyer from Texas who purchased a beautiful real Adobe house on top of a hill with sweeping views in El Cajon - for son to live in while attending college in San Diego. The interior of the house is kind of stuck in the 70s and she wants a total renovation. I am insisting that we have to stay in the style of the house, even though she wants contemporary design.
We have to do this in stages because the Son (and maybe roommates?) will be living in the house. We are starting with gutting a big studio apartment over the garage and turning it into an office space, small kitchen and bath.