It's so easy to beat yourself up by 2nd guessing, and make yourself crazy, but what's the point? (I fought the same type of thoughts and still do occasionally...We built a whole house, so you can imagine how many places and ways I can see where we might have spent too much!) What will it accomplish? It won't unspend the money...You waited 20 years and I'm sure you tried to make the best possible decisions along the way. Appreciate that fact, and then just drink in all you've accomplished and ENJOY it!!!

I can't wait to see the photos.

Wow Alaskangirl, sounds like you got a LOT for your money! After 20+ years, you deserve a place you enjoy, can relax in, and feel like a queen!

And, if your name is an indication of where you are from, You probably stay in a lot! I would LOVE to see Alaska, it's my next major goal!

Wanna share your new digs?

OH, and the surround sound? Well, we have to give them *something*. That's what mine is getting as well. :)

And I can assure you, you got more for your money than we are. I think everyone feels a little "buyers remorse" at some point or another. But, you'll get past that!

Congrats!

We have definitely over renovated our house and will never get back what we put into it but we intend to live in until we're too old and decrepit to take care of ourselves so it doesn't matter. All of the changes were made for our enjoyment and we haven't regretted any of them....yet....in this economy we could all use some money stuffed in the mattress.

We are doing similar stuff, and it's costing twice as much. House is "worth" more, space is bigger than 900 sq ft, but it still doesn't sound bad to me!

Wow - as someone pointed out, $60/sq ft isn't so bad, so you've done very well with managing the budget to get what you want! And it sounds as if it will be wonderful once completely done. So yours was entirely renovating rather than adding, correct? Ours is close to the same as far as square footage (~1000 sq ft), but is an addition (with some renovation of existing space as well). I wish I could say that ours was anywhere near $60/sq ft but unfortunately it's not - it's closer to approx. $220/sq ft and we're not even finished (best guess is still about 2 months out if we're lucky - it's been almost 7 months so far)!!!! I realize that additions to existing houses are probably the most expensive things to do, but I cringe every time I think about the figures. It's not that we didn't plan for the amount we will eventually have spent (and we're not over budget at this point), but I suppose in the back of my mind I was hoping that we'd miraculously spend much less - haha!

As many others stated, I think we all have thoughts that we're spending too much (and panic - at least I do!) no matter the amount, but in the end hopefully it's all worth it and we're happy :)

Thanks, you guys. I'm sitting here trying to figure out where the '20 years' comes from.... and I realized that I probably confused people with the orginal date of the house of 1985. Actually, we just bought the place last summer. :)

Yes, we can actually afford it. I just have a hard time spending money, and the remodel ended up costing more because we kept adding things (SOME were necessary - like when we found water damage to the walls, and adding more insulation, etc.)

Yes, Alaska is beautiful, and I spend 95 percent of my awake hours on the floor we just remodeled. :)

The fact that YOU are asking is making me laugh Alaskagal :oP Yes I spent too much...LOL Cuz everything is more expensive here and our contractor option suck (Angies list won't even help if you're in AK). But if it helps....sure I was doing an entire home, but still, I spent about ten times what you did on ohhh probably 350K worth of work. Did I spend too much? I sure as hell wish you were managing my process instead of me managing it from afar while in hospitals with DS!! It sounds like you rocked your budget :)

Fortunately our markets aren't taking a big hit like others, so I'd guess you did quite well in your remodel. Don't let it stress you out...and yes, please share :) Umm contractor names as well LOL

OH MAN I am with you. I bought my 1940s bungalow two and a half years ago, and since then I've had to completely replace the HVAC, redo the plumbing, replace a large amount of the wiring, replace EVERY appliance, replace the garage door and opener, gut the kitchen including walls, insulation, floor, and ceiling, and now I'm having to completely replace the roof after two patches last year. After the roof, I'm going to have to redo all the gutters and downspouts as well, and the chimney guy comes tomorrow to tell me what I'll have to do there.

I've kept the old wood floors & plaster walls in the main part of the house, old windows, bathroom tile and fixtures, siding, basement and foundation. When I have the money, I need to tear down the porch columns because they are falling down, and add a new deck. I really need a new toilet too.

Have I forgotten anything? Please let this be it. I have old asbestos cement siding, and I suppose I'll have to something about it eventually, but I'm hoping to put that off for many many more years.

I don't feel like I've spent too much when you take it project by project. If I told you how much I'm paying for the kitchen and roof combined yall would be shocked - its almost nothing compared to most kitchens here. But when you start out scraping together what you can to just afford a new dishwasher, every single extra expense stresses me out. I feel like I've spent WAY too much considering what I set out to spend. But in any remodel, especially in a much older house, everything just snowballs.

I'll be very happy with it all when its over. But I'll still be stressed to the max over what I'll end up spending.

We're going to end up spending about that much on just a 9 x 12.5 kitchen - and we're DIYing most of it. Now I really feel bad! But I went & fell in love with those custom CP cabinets & soapstone & integrated refrigerator.......Plus the unexpected costs of asbestos removal & re-plastering....It's water under the bridge. Just enjoy it!

You can never spend too much when you consider the labor is always a huge part of the cost, and the quality of superior products is always satisfying.

Here is a link that might be useful: IraWoods.com

Wow I think you have done great! Some people spend that on just the kitchen and then you'd be left with a beautiful kitchen and nothing else. Sounds like you have worked hard and budgeted wisley.

Igloochic, Hey, where are you at in Alaska? I saw your post the other day talking about volcanoe ash, so you can't be too far from where I am (Soldotna.)

Yes, our contractor was pretty good (took longer than he said, cost more than expected, so fairly normal.) The thing I liked about him is that I felt like we were usually on the same page, so I could just hand him a design and he would say, 'good idea', and make it happen. He was actually based out of Eagle River, if you are up that way.

To everyone else: I was careful in some areas, and splurged in others. It's great to hear that others have felt the same way as I have - like they've spent too much. One thing that I think is causing me to stress out is that I have so much MORE work that needs done to the house. So if this part of it cost more than I wanted, what's going to happen to my budget on the rest?

Also, we don't plan to stay in our house more than a few years, so I'm always scheming about resale values and such.

I'm in Anchorage :) I think you've had a bit more ash than we have, but we're a bit hyper sensative to it here because I have a sick little guy. Saturday we got a nice dusting (so as with your home I'm sure...it looks much better inside than it does outside with our grey snow LOL)

OK funny thing, my current (and last) contractor is from Eagle River and he did a job in Soldotna not long ago...does yours have a small boy? (That would be a very small world). I adore the guy. He's not speedy gonzalas, but he's not milking me as the other guy kept doing. And his work is fabulous. Taking time to do it right is ok in my book! Taking time on purpose to screw the client...well that's a different story!

Honestly though, you're even further away from the hub and you had all of that work done. I think you did very well, especially given some of the unique challenges we have here to our budget (the cost of counter tops kills me!)

Be sure to share pics. I'd love to see some more alaskan girls on the threads heh heh

By the way, our market is really pretty stable. My house is also a 1980's (just about everything is heh heh) and even though we did put too much into it, I've had offers that cover the cost already. I don't think you did anything excessive at all. I had mine appraised after it was finished so I know we did as expected (I wanted a 60% return on money spent and averaged 62%). I bet you do just fine :) Well that is if you sell it after you clean up all the ash, verses before :oP

I just sold our other townhouse two weeks BEFORE it went on the market LOL so I think our market is pretty stable in the under $500k range really. Soldotna is the same in that aspect.

You're going to laugh, but here's the other side of the coin: I wish I'd spent MORE. I had a very strict budget, which I stuck to almost religiously. I am proud that I did stick to my budget, and actually my final total was underbudget ($28,000 vs. $30,000). We've had threads in the past where people talked about veering off their budget by 50% or more.

I was very meticulous before any work started in figuring out what everything was going to cost. My two big splurges were my granite countertops and my backsplash of hand-made tiles. Every time I walk in my kitchen, I enjoy looking at both, and never get tired of that! Having said that, I skimped on appliances. We've also had threads in the past where people talk about what they'd wish they'd done differently. I wish I'd gotten a bigger fridge, and I wish I'd gotten wall ovens. I have the room for both, but didn't want to spend the extra money. Though I am not unhappy with my fridge and range, they're quite good, my kitchen could have been better if I had been just a little more relaxed about my budget. So, Alaskangirl, since you say you can afford what your kitchen cost, I say don't feel a moment of second-guessing, and enjoy your beautiful new kitchen!

We did spend/are spending too much, if it's possible to control costs and still go over budget.

Looking back at our original budget, we were very good about setting a reasonable price range for certain work and getting contractors within that range (and we certainly did NOT always go with the cheapest guy). If I look back at the line-item budget for flooring, electric, plumbing, we're OK.

But then we got caught up in project creep (the dreaded If They're Already Here, They Might as Well Quote Us on This Too syndrome), and had to fire the a/c and paint crews mid-job and accept higher overall costs for those parts of the job in order to get someone else to come in and complete the work. We also dug into our 20% overruns to cover not old-house surprises, which we were expecting, but stupid errors by our architect that now have to be worked out via expensive change orders with the contractors. Our job has been very poorly managed by the architect and construction manager, resulting in four months of temporary housing that was not in the original budget, and somewhere along the way my husband has developed expensive tastes in lighting fixtures and bathroom tile. I think he's a victim of "if it's going to take this long, then darnit, I'm not denying myself any pleasure in the finished product" which is both understandable but also self-defeating from a budget point of view, but I'm too tired to argue at this point.

Like everyone else, I think it will be 'worth' it in the end, not from a dollars-and-cents standpoint but from the perspective that we're adapting the house to fit our needs and we will love what we've created.

If we live long enough to see it, hah.

Zeebee - I was laughing as I read what you said about your husband: "if it's going to take this long, then darnit, I'm not denying myself any pleasure in the finished product." Are we married to the same person??! Haha. My husband has been the same way, so the entire time I've had to say, look, we don't need to spend so much in EVERY area, just on the things we really care about.

Zeebee - I was laughing as I read what you said about your husband: "if it's going to take this long, then darnit, I'm not denying myself any pleasure in the finished product." Are we married to the same person??!

Ah, so that's where he goes on the weekends....

It is insane, isn't it? We got the quote from the tile store for the ridiculously priced marble he fell in love with, and when I reminded him of our tile budget, he said, "I'll just work harder." For BATHROOM TILE?!?!?!?!?

LOL Zeebee and traci, I think our husbands are getting around...mine travels a lot...is it to your house?

Don't even try to budget when you're looking at a Wolf range and he wants a french one designed to his specs! Oh and the tile he likes best is the one that is hand made...and yes, he said he'll work harder LOL

My favorite overrun of his happened to be knobs. Anyone on GW for long knows I have a knob obsession myself but I didn't know it was contagious. One night after he'd been down to the wine club for a "business meeting" (wine club tasting that the guys call business...I know because I used to belong LOL) he came home very happy (read three glasses of wine or more into that). I was looking for knobs for the master bath. He liked the shells I was picking out in the sale page online so for fun I showed him the entire line (most were full price) and what I was considering all around with a mix of clearance and full priced items. His blearly little eyes zero'ed onto two sea horse knobs he just HAD to have! I was laughing my head off when he justified it with the need to insert some of his personality into the room. "WHAT"????? You mean your tendancies to act like a sea horse????? (Nothing about my DH seems horsey to me LOL) So we bought the freaking sea horses, which are prominately displayed on his cabinet doors...for gad I don't remember, but well over my budget of an average of 20 per knob!

I married a freak LOL a sea horse freak even. Have you girls noticed any sea horses hidden in your DH's things??? If so we need to talk!

Yes, we're definitely getting "budget creep". I saw several beautiful unusual granite slabs that are higher end, but forced myself to look at some New Venetian Gold that really did have some interest and movement to it. Now I'm considering... Akchicago, could you tell us more about your kitchen and staying on budget? Any compromises? Also, what range hood did you wind up with? I remember reading that you had 6" ducting like we do and had to search for something that would fit. Would love your input and pictures, if possible. Thanks!

With property values spiraling down treacherously , ANY money spent on home improvement is TOO much!

However, we improve our homes for ourselves, not for others. The house is, first, a home, then an investment. So we have improved our house for our comfort and needs. At this point it is hard to imagine that we will recover any of our costs :(

That said, I have postponed our wabi-sabi master remodel to next year. will see how the economy/job situation improves.

I don't think that's too much especially if you love the changes. I just bought a 1200 sq ft cottage for a great price and am renovating a lot of it. When it's finally done, I'll have a place I love. So will you.

As long as you can afford what you're doing, go for it.

I haven't even spent anything other than $350 on a used Sharp microwave drawer and already it's killing me. I think some people have a harder time spending money than others, and it's not necessarily tied to stinginess, but ideas of fiscal responsibility/management, approach to debt and nest eggs, and influence of upbringing.
I am one of those people who doesn't mind spending money if it's a super good value - so I wouldn't mind spending the $20K if in the end, we get $40K worth (DIY is my friend!). But I am finding that when you want the cabinets I want, it's going to cost A LOT - more than the value I feel I am getting, but I am unwilling to settle for a (more inexpensive) look that doesn't make my heart skip a beat occasionally(I have that now!).

It's also hard to justify in this economy because you just don't know what will happen in the future, and what if we direly need that $20K a few years down the line. My kids eating is more important than a redone kitchen. My house is only 10 years old, so it's not like my kitchen is horrible, it's just not living up to even 1/2 of it's potential in looks or funtion.

Overall, I agree with everyone else that it seems like you got an exceptional value for your money. And what's done is done, so now just enjoy living in it. Feel good that you don't have any pressure to move or sell like some folks these days - you are home and it's a pretty and functional place to live!

Zeebee and Igloochic - now I'm laughing even more!!! Not sure where you are Zeebee, but Igloochic, your husband would be traveling a long way if he's visiting here - I'm in GA :) Who knew that others had husbands who were so similar to mine?? I can TOTALLY identify with the knob thing! My husband happened to see the Soko Studios Manhandle pulls and said "we should really get a couple of those - it will give the kitchen an interesting touch." I almost fell off the sofa laughing because he had no idea what they cost!!! I told him that they started at ~$200 each and wouldn't you know - after many conversations, we now have 2 of them ready to install on the cabinets on each side of the range (if we ever get to that point). Of course I compromised by not getting the other pulls I preferred and spent much less on simpler ones instead!

But actually, no seahorses around the house... :)

I'm in Brooklyn, NY, so if this man is making the rounds among NY, GA and Alaska, I admire his stamina.

Come to think of it, we have a LOT of frequent flier miles.

I'll be on the lookout for seahorses!

Wow, doesn't everyone feel like they spent too much? I can't even figure out how it's possible that I spent as much as I did. A friend of mine did her kitchen & bathroom a year before I did - I remember being horrified at how much she spent, and I was determined to spend much less. Yet, by the time I was done, I'd spent almost as much as she did.

Part of the problem was that as I explored my options, my taste "improved". Plus NYC is a crazy expensive place to do a renovation. Labor costs here are a *much* larger percentage of the total than anywhere else - which exacerbates the problem, because then you feel like while you're paying so much for labor anyway, you may as well spend a little more on materials. I definitely scrimped on some things (fridge, sink, tile), and splurged on others (cabinets, dishwsher). And there are places I wish I'd spent more. But every time I think of the total, my jaw drops.

>I have postponed our wabi-sabi master remodel to next year.

Darn. I was really looking forward to seeing the results, pharoah.

We definitely spent too much - we also bought a 1200 sq ft cottage and are completely renovating inside and out - we definitely were victims of the "slippery slope" - the house was in awful shape - we knew that - but one thing led to another and now its been gutted. ;-) All new systems, hard scape, landscape - it's going to be a totally new house - and we'll never get our money out of it. But we don't have kids so what else are we gonna spend our money on? ;-) we hope to retire there, so we didn't really skimp on much. It'll be worth it in the end, but those checks are mighty hard to write!!

Well...today was not good for my house. Turns out that the $300 chimney repair has turned into a $1500-$2000 chimney repair.

I feel like I am hemorrhaging money into this house. And it was it fine two years ago - or so I thought. I can't just NOT fix the chimney, because even if I don't burn a fire I still need to stop up the gaping hole letting all of the heat out.

Remodeling is not for the faint of heart. I just hope I survive it.

Anyone have any ideas for living cabinet-less for several months? I don't think I'll be able to afford cabinets for some time now that I have to completely replace the roof and do all this to the chimney. I've already demo'ed the kitchen because it collapsed, but I am starting to go nuts having no sink and all of my plates and whatnot in boxes in the middle of the living room.

Melanie

Buy a relatively inexpensive shelving system to hold the dishes you use and keep them in the kitchen if you can.

melanie - I would go to Ikea and get the bare minimum of their "free standing" systems to make the kitchen functional.

Budget creep!!! I like that. yeah my budget is creeping as in long, leaping bounds. I was originally going to "update" my kitchen: rip out and replace the floor, replace the counter with Wilsonart and put in a top mount sink and new faucet. Fresh coat of paint on the cabinets plus new hardware --- Good to Go! I've already replaced the dishwasher cuz it broke down and I have no hood over the stove so decided to put a microwave hood there.

Instead, my Contractor says "we have to remove all the cabinets and appliances to rip and replace the floor. do u really want to put back these old cabinets?" By this time the sprayer on the faucet cracked (cheap delta faucet with plastic sprayer) and water is dripping into a bucket under the sink. So I figured why not just bite the bullet and redo it.

So now instead of Wilsonart I'm getting granite with an undermount sink. Because that's what I love and I can't see going to ALL the trouble of renovating to get things I don't love.

Budget creep??? Oh year. But like you kpaquette, I could retire here and the money I spend now means I enjoy the place more from the start instead of waiting to do things down the road.

So again, if you can afford it, go for it. I always got at LEAST two people bidding on each and every thing I've done so far and sometimes three bids: new windows, window treatments, painting the whole house, refinishing wood floors etc. etc. etc. So I had a good idea, in advance of what things would cost me so I knew I had the money. It paid to shop around because I saved on my kitchen cabinets alone, over $2,000 by picking a door style on sale. Cabinets come with all the bells and whistles, too: soft shut drawers, dove tailed joints, plywood, etc. But that was a huge savings. That's how I got my granite.

This is the BEST thread ever. Igloochic, I'm still laughing at the sea horses...my DH just said "what's so funny?" "you wouldn't get it" I replied...

Yes, I've felt like I'm spending too much b/c I'm partially re-doing a brand new kitchen. I posted about my "leopard print granite" last summer and I'm finally getting around to replacing the countertops and glazing/toning over the existing finish on the cabs. All told I will spend about $27k *without* new cabinets and only 1 new appliance (Wolf rangetop). Since I was replacing the countertops, I figured, hey, I might as well get that huge, single bowl Rohl farmhouse sink I've always wanted and a fancier rangetop (house came with a Wolf cooktop). Replacing the hood, too, since you can't grill with only 500 cfm. Oh, and I might as well put in new pendants and fixtures, too! And those full extension, soft close drawers sure are nice. Ack. At least I'll be much happier.

And I totally agree with the comment that I don't want to go on vacation to experience a beautiful setting (or something to that effect). I want to live in one!

Zeebee, you're so right that we'd have to give the guy a hand for having the stamina to travel between NY, GA, and AK. Not to mention having 3 wives - haha :)

Melanie1422 - so true that remodeling isn't for the faint of heart! There's always stress of some kind, even if it's not all financial. Just the sheer number of decisions to be made stresses me out! As for cabinets, as others said, just get some temporary shelving, even cheap bookshelves will do. I had just 2 upper and 1.5 lower cabinets in my old kitchen, so I had an ugly wicker thing with 4 shelves in the corner for extra storage the past 8 years - won't know what to do with all the space in a new kitchen!

Kpaquette - we also have no children, so like you said, might as well spend the money on something :) I don't know how we would have survived the past 7 months of renovations if we had kids - I can't even imagine how people manage that!!

Wow, this is so great to hear other people's experiences! I'm the OP, and while I'm still feeling a bit of 'remodeling remorse', I have had a couple of thoughts.

First, I think my problem is that I always analyze EVERYTHING in terms of $$$ and return on investment (blame my Economics degree.) I have a hard time recognizing the value of beauty and enjoyment. I tend to think "if I don't get 100% back when I sell, then the project was a bad decision." Ok, maybe I should blame my HGTV habit....

My other problem is that I've moved 9 times in 14 years. I tend to think of my surroundings as temporary, and I also tend to expect things to change at any time. I have a hard time expecting that we will stay in this house more than a few years at most.

So, after reading your posts, I asked myself "How much per month would I pay extra to live in the new surroundings vs what I had before?" This is my way of trying to analyze how much value I'm receiving from this beauty around me. When I take that value, and multiply it out by the number of months that I think I MIGHT be in this house (cause I have no real idea, do I?), then that dollar amount makes me feel much better about my decision. I'll CERTAINLY recoup the rest when I sell.

Another thought is that recently I visited a friend, and she expressed such regret about her house. When they bought the house, they expected to be there about 3 years. With that in mind they didn't change ANYTHING in the house. Now it's been about 5 years, and the kids are firmly entrenched in school, and they love their neighborhood, and they really wish they had made their house their own years ago and enjoyed it.

Anyone feel 'remodelers remorse' when it was time to sell their home because you didn't get back what you spent???

I'm chiming in with the opposite experience -- I wish we'd spent more.

I'm a "competitive shopper" -- always looking for the best deal on everything and for the best value in what we buy. - And in general, I think that's a good thing.
I know I scored some amazing bargains for our whole-house Re-Do (so much more than a renovation).
But there were some places I scrimped that I probably shouldn't have, and the ones I notice most are in the kitchen. If I had a do-over, I'd have sprung for the professional cooktop and wall ovens and a built-in fridge instead of the perfectly functional black appliances and panelled counter-depth fridge. (In fact, when we go to sell, that might be something we do then. Of course, by that time, the appialnces will be 5+ years old, so maybe new ones would be in order anyway...)

zeebee, igloo, and traci - how did I end up with your husband's evil twin? LOL.

When I told DH the tile was going to be about $30, his answer was, "Wow, for all of it? That's pretty good." When I said per sqft., he asked, "For recycled glass!!? Shouldn't it be cheaper if it's reused?"

Sigh.

To answer the original question, I did feel like we were hemorrhaging money during the construction. Now that it's finished, though, I don't regret a single penny of it. Even DH admits it was worth it.

Alaskangirl,
It sounds like you got a bargain with your kitchen
renovation. It might seem like a large expense but
my questions are...

Do you love it?

Will you use it?

Do you enjoy cooking in your kitchen?

Do you see yourself using this kitchen 5 years from
now, 10 years from now?
(appliance replacement aside)

Right now, as you look at your receipts and
calculate the costs it seems like the $50 grand
you spent is a HUGE amount of money. If you are like
me and I am kind of like AKCHICAGO. I am too strict with
my budget. It was good to read her post and remind
myself to get what I want not what I need all the time.

Try to think of the expense over a long period of time.
In the year 2019 you will look back and appreciate the
changes you made to your kitchen.

For the next 10 years you will love using your
kitchen. And if you made some long term changes you
might even be able to say in the year 2029 how
practical you were to make the changes, updates and
beautiful work you did back then. You will still love
your kitchen with it's good bones and wonderful
memories.

Enjoy your work and put your guilt on
the back burner. :)

Sounds like you got a great deal. I felt like I spent too much, but I don't agonize over it b/c I really LOVE our final product. Everything we spent "just a little more on" (counters, range, wall oven) really added up, but I can't imagine having settled for less now that I'm enjoying the kitchen.

Please, enjoy your new space, guilt-free--- it will be beautiful, and it really does sound like a good deal.

Melanie, one more vote for Ikea, only I would suggest getting real cabinet boxes, and you can buy the doors for them later. You should be able to get at least a semi-functional kitchen for around $200 (you can use plywood for the counters, or MDF and contact paper).

You may save that in food costs if you don't have any way to wash dishes...

"zeebee, igloo, and traci - how did I end up with your husband's evil twin? LOL"

mom2reese - oh, no, there's another one out there?! :) I have to admit that I agree with your husband about the recycled glass tile - why in the world are things that are reused/recyled MORE expensive??! Sometimes I wonder if things like that are more expensive simply due to all the focus on "green living" and saving the environment - so all manufacturers/companies think that consumers are willing to pay a premium for recycled items because it's "hip" to be green!! Buying used and recycling used to be what people did if they were really frugal or needed to save money, but now it seems to be the opposite in that it's just the cool thing to do - haha!