depending on where you are, who is doing the job, materials used, and what the job entails, 25 k could simply remove a wall. or it could completely change the looks of the entire interior. my wife and i just had ~400 sq ft of tile put in and it cost ~1100 for everything-labor AND materials. my parents had a similar sized job a few years ago and they paid well over 5k! we caught our tile on clearance, the manufacturer quit making that exact style, and saved 700 bucks right there. we went with the low bid on the install, NOT MY IDEA, and saved a few hundred there. we did the prep work of ripping out the carpet, removing the trim, and then the finish work of reinstalling the trim and sealing the tile/grout.

my wife's grandmother had custom cabinets BUILT on site for her house 3 years ago. the total, a whopping 5 grand! we priced KIT cabinets for our kitchen, and they would run closer to 8k and we have a simple layout compared to the custom layout her grandmother had!

I have found the probably the most important aspect of using that money wisely is thinking out of the box. Davidandkasie's grandmother is the perfect example. What are "cabinets"? Somehow we have gotten accustomed to the idea that a cabinet is a specialized piece of furniture that takes great skill to build. Hello! It is shelves with doors. It is vertical pieces attatched to horizontal pieces with a backerboard attatched to the whole thing for stabilizing. Our old house has exactly that. A PO just had "some guy" build her cabinets in the kitchen. The doors are even plywood. A nice grade of maple plywood, but plywood all the same. The edges are routered off to a nice rounded edge, but it is still plywood. We will eventually have to redo our kitchen (long story. -like this post. grin.) and those cabinets wil have to go, but I have had several folks wanting to buy them. And what will I put in their place? More shelves with doors on them. (Only a lot more, enough to fill the room.)

Second example: I wanted wood craftsman styled couches/chairs. There was no way we could afford to spend a thousand a piece with all of the other stuff we were doing, so... What are they? Boxes, with 2 sides open, on legs. I can build a box, I can put on legs, I can sew cusions/pillows. Next thing I know I have a couch, chair, coffee table, bench, TV armoire - for under $500.

I did a kitchen facelift for $150 using cheap shelving, $1 roll wallpaper and paint.

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Sorry, this is almost becoming a rant. But I cannot believe the money some people spend on what they consider an economical remodel.

My kitchen reno is as follows-Labor 4500, Appliances-d/w. range and fridge, all stainless, 2000-bought at sears outlet; Floor-300; Cabinets, 2600(probably ikea, but i'll know by the weekend. Sink stainless-200 and faucet -150.Plumbing 500. Countertops-granite 2500 approximately. Electrical free. I am in Bmore. The kitchen is being completely gutted. About 13,750-kitchen is 13 by 13 according to my contractor. Its a kind of galley shaped with a curve, but rather small by todays standards.

Gutting and remodeling second floor and only full bath 2500 plus materials.

Remodeling powder room-1900-way over priced and I told him this-he is to get back to me.

Painting entire house 6600-includes labor-this is not the normal house-3 story brick rowhome with lots of very high ceilings and details.materials included

Refinishing and repairing all h/w floors which are in all the rooms, except bathroom and kitchen-5600. materials included. House has seven bedrooms-three of which are large and the other four smaller. One bedroom is becoming a master bath, one a walk in closet and one an office. The last small one will be a nursery for the bambino.

Repairing all damaged walls and plaster-3800 materials included

Knoking down a wall and putting up reinforcements-1800-which i cant afford at this time-must stick to necessities only

Sunroom which i also cant afford this time around 17,000.

Turning some weird addition into a laundry room-9500-which i cannot afford right now either

Contractor comes higly recommended by a very very picky friend

This is all in the Baltimore area. Good luck!

I really appreciate the way these answers are going, especially dainaadele's. I'm so tired of reading in books and magazines about how $25,000 will barely start a renovation. I suppose if you hire the most expensive GC and have everything done custom, but what about those of us who can do some if it ourselves, are willing to use salvaged materials and don't need every new gadget on the market? If anyone else has more suggestions, please weigh in! thanks for all responses, Mary

We put in a completely new kitchen for $15,000 or so. We did almost all the work (except electrical, removing a load bearing wall and adding a window). http://www.draftymanor.com/house/remodel/ to see.

Oh, and I'd say for around $40,000 we added this three story tower to our house. We did a lot of the interior work ourselves.

We're gearing up for adding a second floor to the front part of the house to make the entire structure look like a castle. Prices do seem to continue to climb as we go through our projects.
Jennifer

Here is a link that might be useful: Building the tower

Best way to stretch your money -

1) DIY
2) DIY
3) DIY
4) Shop around, locally, online, ebay, closeouts
5) Plan carefully, dont change your mind too much, keep waste to a minimum
6)Use ikea for cabinetry

I think definitions are in order here. I would not call anything dianadele did a remodel. Sprucing up? Decorating? Looks great, but I wouldn't call it remodeling. To me, remodeling means some type of reconfiguration.

We took out a spiral staircase and put in a tradional one, took out walls and made 3 bedrooms out of an old family room area, put in a full bath where a half bath was, moved the furnace to a different location and popped windows into dark areas of the house. Not even counting the "decorating" of flooring, lighting and painting we spent $100,000. I don't have the skills to do any of those things. Labor is very expensive where I live.

I would consider cosmetic things to be changing some windows, creating a different entry look, flooring, lighting, maybe a new fixture or two in bathrooms or the kitchen. I found Susanka's books to be very helpful in defining what to do in our remodel. Her insight into the natural light in the house was a big point for me as well as how to define the "flow" of the traffic and living spaces.

It really depends on what you would like to do and how much labor you can devote to the projects.

Gloria

AS several have said, the more you can do yourself, the more money you will have to spend.
I built a 22by20 kitchen onto my house, did all the work myself from foundation to finish. Beautiful custom Cherry cabinets (40 ft. base and 20 ft uppers) designed by my wife, Great double entrance door and four new Peachtree windows and every fixture is special ordered to her design. All new applicances. It cost us a tad over 40k in material. I don't have a clue how much it would have taken to contract it out but I'm confident I saved a bundle. Of course, I'm a retired builder so that helped.
Decide what you want. do lots of shopping and don't let some fly by night contractor working out of his pickup take you is my advice. Contract each phase of your remodel to individual people. You can look around. You'd be surprised at the number of good craftsman who are working full time for a contractor who would like to do small weekend projects like hanging doors, tiling, electrical and plumbing, drywalling, etc that would love to have you help them.

I agree with the other commenter that there is a big difference between redecorating a space and remodeling. DIYing can be great as long as you can handle the work and it is work, no matter how you go about it. If the person doing most of the work works fulltime as well, then figure your weekends will be filled and during the week you'll have to live with in a construction site. People have posted some pretty good ideas of what kitchen cabinets can cost retail. Professional contractors should be called in on larger projects such as removing walls, doing new building or any other larger construction parts of the project unless someone at home is/was a builder or remodeler. As a professional remodeler, we deal with headaches on the job on a daily basis, but we can manage them and move on. I am always amazed at how homeowners like to believe that every project is a cinch and remodelers and builders are all overpaid thieves. Some contractors will be fine with you doing some of the work such as demolition, painting or installing flooring -- as long as you don't get in their way and do what you say you are going to do when you say you'll do it.

25k should get you a good set of detailed architectual plans.

This is what we did for about $25K in New York City. Upstairs we had a tiny 3/4 bath. We gutted and enlarged it, put it 6' jacuzzi tub with separate 30"x36" shower with the extra shower body jets and floor to ceiling frameless glass doors, 60" vanity, all grohe fixtures, "rialto" tile from Lowe's. Also we had to move a window to accomodate a larger shower stall. The enlarged bathroom cut into our long bedroom so we also had the rest of that side of the room enclosed to make a walk-in closet and they installed the Closetmaid Completions system I purchased at Lowes. We had electric breaker box moved, 3 new windows installed. The only place where we saved money was the labor for the plumbing. My brother-in-law is a plumber. Otherwise, we paid for everything else.

How we could have saved more: Instead of Grohe fixtures (my husband insisted), we could have used Moen or Delta or American Standard. Did we need a 6' jacuzzi tub, No. But husband insisted (since he's tall) - I think he's taken a total of 3 baths in it in the past 3 years. LOL. But it sure does hold a lot of toddlers at bathtime.

My suggestion is to do whatever work you do to accomodate stock items found in most stores. Anything custom ordered will cost more and cause delays. You can always find closeout items or perfectly good returned items marked way down. If you're paying a contractor to build things, maybe it's cheaper to have him build something (e.g., mine built a towel closet in the bathroom instead of buying a linen cabinet). Only drawback is you can't move it. Don't fall in love with any particular thing or it will cost you. The more open you are to possibilities, the more you save.

I wish I didn't let someone talk me out of creating more shelf space around the tub (for candles and such) and a built in seat in the shower. Otherwise I love my bathroom.

I am glad I didn't compromise on size of the room, installing extra windows, extra details in my bathroom (e.g., recessed shelves, bullnose tiling, knee wall between shower and toilet area), and the frameless glass doors. Looking at the preceding list I realized that all those things contribute to the look and feeling of a large, airy room with good lighting and nice details.

so may, you hired all the labor out? that was for materials and labor (except plumbing, which you mentioned)? I'll be honest. We have about $25K to spend and I want a laundry room added on to our house. I know it's an ADDITION, but I've worked out where the plumbing with go so that none of it has to be moved (it will share the other side of the wall with the kitchen sink/dishwasher) and we plan to do almost all finishing work ourselves. we live in San Antonio and I KNOW the labor must be cheaper here than anywhere on the east coast. We are known as one of the less expensive places in the U.S. to build or remodel. Any and all comments on this are more than welcome!

You'll have to think in terms of foundation, roof line, electrical, heating for the area, drainage away from the addition, etc. Your kitchen plumbing may not automatically work for draining the washer. An addition is going to need a permit pulled and probably a certificate of occupancy issued at the end. Even doing some of the finish work, you'll still be needing all of the plumbing, electrical, foundation, framing, etc. inspected during each phase.

I'd probably start at the library getting some books on how additions are built as well as becoming familiar with the code in your city. Our codes are online, maybe yours is available that way.

The best way I know to get a fairly decent idea is to have a contractor or two come and look at your place. I'm not above knocking on the door of a house which has been worked on and asking who did the work and if they are happy. I know I could do a small addition on our current house for 25K, but our last house would have been much more expensive due to the land/foundation configurations.

You'll have to decide if you want to be the general contractor or have someone else. I always stay in the general contractor position for our remodels just because it gives me more control.

Gloria

Gloria, what sort of foundation/land configurations affect the addition? I would prefer a pier and beam foundation because the soil here in SA is clay and shrinks and swells, depending on the moisture (go from drought conditions to flood conditions).
I OWN a library of books on building, renovations, plumbing, doing additions, etc. The more I read here and other places the more I learn about the choices to make, what will cost what and what is WORTH what. I feel like I can't get enough info.
How many of your own additions have you supervised ? Where do you live, abouts? any tips and suggestions are appreciated and thanks for the many responses, everyone...

Hi Mary, I live in Alaska and our last house was on a sloping lot, so we had to have the foundation done by a structural engineer, with a retaining wall and drainage built into it, etc. I've done four projects. The land here can range from almost clay like to permafrost and bog, which all have to be dealt with differently.

Our current house is on a flat lot with our typical yuck soil, so we were able to just hand dig for a foundation of five feet and it was done with cinder blocks. I needed a 4 x 25 bumpout at the back of the garage for relocating the furnace and for a bit more storage. Obviously, I have really different consideration with cold here. This winter, the freeze has gone down to nine feet. Lots of water pipes breaking.

I am not all that knowledgable with this stuff and rely heavily on the contractors/plumbers/electricians, etc. for their advice and recommendations. Everyone from the hardware store to the workers to the code people have all been willing to share their knowledge. I like staying GC so that I can keep a close eye on expenses. I give purchasing power to the people so they can go get what they need, when they need it, but I can go over those bills closely, return what isn't used, make sure I don't get billed for items which aren't part of my job. And that has happened. Subcontractors often prefer to work with certain people and I let the guys working give me the first recommendations, but as GC if anyone gives me problems or isn't doing good work I can tell them not to come back. More than once I've had to find a quick replacement in order not to hold up the project.

My last contractor turned out to be a real problem. He had done a great deal of work for us, but he started drinking again and things were a mess. I was able to keep him off the job, where had he been GC it would have been more difficult. But, really, for the most part I enjoy the remodeling process. I've learned so much and can really appreciate the work and skill that goes into someone doing a good job.

Find someone to start with. Maybe a framer and they can connect you with all of the other jobbers like foundation, roof, plumbing, electrical. Most of my guys called for their own inspections once they were ready or told me to call it in. I followed the inspectors around like glue, took notes and learned as much as I could from them.

At some point you have to just trust your judgement and go with it. Nice thing about remodeling is that screw-ups can be fixed. It's not brain surgery or a heart attack where you don't get second chances. Things will go wrong. People will mess up. Costs will go up. Just try and build yourself a cushion with expenses and time, be good at confrontation and standing up for yourself while remaining diplomatic.

Gloria