Where should the budget go for high end remodel
CT_Newbie
10 years ago
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CT_Newbie
10 years agoUser
10 years agoRelated Discussions
What caused you to go over budget with your remodel?
Comments (36)When you give a mouse a cookie .... That's what happened to us. Kitchen remodel - check. Replace the knob and tube wiring in the whole house to the tune of $18k - check. Bump out the back of the kitchen to move the laundry room inside - check. Stucco the bumped out kitchen - check. Landscape the back yard because the new windows in the bumped out kitchen look over the back yard - check. Build a wrought iron fence and haul in loads of crushed granite to keep the dogs in one portion of the yard and not tear up the new landscaping - check. Add more flagstone patio to connect the existing patio to the new bumped out kitchen - check. Paint the brick on the outside of the house - check. Go ahead and paint all of the window trim and wood work around the house - check. Replace the garage doors because the new bump out of the kitchen went into the posts of the garage - check. Get the flagstone guys to install brick over the new stucco on one side of the house so it all matches on that side - check. Rip up the carpet and refinish the original hardwood floors in the DR, LR and hallway - check. Enjoy it immensely - check A year and a half later, start it all over again with bathrooms. And reworking every closet in the whole house. And repainting the whole house. And repairing and making the 75 yr old painted doors look new. And adding insulation. And on and on and on. It was suggested before we ever started to tear the whole thing down and start from scratch. It may have been cheaper. :)...See MoreBudget - Middle of the Road - High End
Comments (20)There is definitely some calculus involved when determining what scale a renovation is, that involves both price and taste/finish. I think a middle-of-the-road renovation generally is around 10-15% of home value. But this frequently is retail cost, factoring in contracting labor, etc. Had I paid retail all along, my renovation would not be taking so long (coming on 2 years, thanks to interruptions for school), but would also be completely unobtainable for me on a students budget. Retail price for what I've done so far would be well over $60k. I've spent about $8k, through careful combing of craiglist and auctions, and free labor (dad). What I've gotten for my $5k* is amazing, however: SubZero 611 (craigslist, owner was upgrading to a Liebherr) SubZero 700BR (craigslist, never used) Gaggenau EB270 (craigslist, barely used) 30" Black Kohler Gilford sink (craigslist, display sale) 40sf of countertop slabs (bankruptcy auction) cork floating floor (craigslist, GC overage from a large job) 18 solid wood kitchen cabinets (friend upgraded her kitchen to Poggenpohl) steel spiral staircase (craigslist), going to the work/sleep loft we built over to the kitchen. *What about that remaining 3k, you ask? That went to a retail-priced 30" Bertazzoni Pro all-gas stove. Craigslist failed to deliver on a stove. There are some consolations- I absolutely love the range, and Bertazzoni had/has a free range hood promotion going on. So while I was never going to buy a $1200 range hood, I'm happy to get one for free. I did cry a little before spending full price on that stove, and a lot of it has to do with the calculus of middle-of-the-road and high-end. I'd talked myself into being reasonable, and just buying a perfectly fine mid-range GE. (Which was still going to be over $1k.) But the fact remained that the GE would stick out like a sore thumb in the kitchen I was constructing. And since craigslist was not coughing up a $500 Viking or Wolf, I finally accepted that I needed to pony up for a good-looking stove, and the Berta hit the sweet spot of no electronics, pretty, and reasonable (for a designer stove) cost. Being your own contractor is not easy, and craigslist is a minefield-- but even in it's half-assembled state, I'm completely in love with my kitchen now. (Possibly tinged with lingering gratefulness over the little things, like having a working sink to wash dishes in, or a stove that doesn't leak gas.)...See MorePictures of finished 'budget' remodel - go Ikea!
Comments (26)We waited 10 years to find the right cabinets at the right price. Most "custom cabinets" cost more than they are really worth. Most are 1/2inch particle sides with shoddy drawer slides unless you "upgrade". I worked at our local home improvement kitchen design center and even with my discount the cost for our 11 by 15 foot kitchen was going to be over $8,000 without adding new appliances. I found IKEA and fell in love. The size options are bit limited but there so many ways to accommodate. The sides are better grade 3/4inch particle using lower fume glues, fully extending drawers made of metal with drawer dampers, and standardized peg holes inside every cabinet to accommodate your customizing needs. Where we had a 5 to 6 inch gap between cabinets, we put in a wine cubby. Good for dishcloths too. I wanted the microwave down below the countertop so we just bought a 30 inch wide cabinet frame (no doors) and ordered extra parts to customize it. We bought an extra shelf for the microwave. We also brought an extra 15 inch door (turned sideways) and some heavy drawer slides to make a drawer underneath the shelf. We had to drill a few holes (with a template provided for the other drawers) to make the drawer but it was so easy. IKEA didnt offer a trash can drawer with a wood cabinet door front so we made that too. We made the two doors of a 24 inch lower cabinet into one by attaching them together with flat metal on the back side. We drilled the holes at the bottom of the doors for the drawer slides (the same template as before). Reinforced (just to be safe) using bent flat metal from the back of the drawer to the back of the doors. With handles like all the other doors, no one even knows itÂs a trash can drawer. Best yet, I can release the drawer slides and remove the whole drawer a couple times a month to get what has possibly fallen behind everything. We needed to fill an upper space 42 inches wide. They donÂt make anything like that so I put two 21 inch cabinets next to each other and made the door open opposite of each other. The cabinet above the sink I call the garage door cabinet because it opens horizontally. It is 39 inches wide and stays open on its own once the hinges are adjusted properly. Great for the mugs and glass stemware. Lastly, we installed a breakfast bar but needed to fill in the last 24 inches at the wall end on the outside. Because the bar has the overhang to sit under, we could not use the drawer at the top of the cabinet. It didnÂt pull out far enough with the overhang. So we flipped it and moved the drawer to the bottom of the cabinet and the doors to the top. The drawer is the "junk" drawer and the doors open up 153 degrees to an interior heavy duty drawer (up to 110 pounds) with the appliances I do not use everyday. You must use the larger opening hinges to get the doors open wide enough to pull the drawer out from inside. Also, the cabinet needs to be away from the end wall by a few inches to accommodate the extra wide opening doors. All in all, even with my husbandÂs doubts, everything went up quite fast. We spent $4,000 with shippng. All the uppers done in 30 minutes thanks to the rail system they mount on and the lowers in another day, leveled using the adjustable legs. The finishing work (crown and bottom moulding as well as removable kickboard) was more precise (45 and 22 1/2degree angles) but looks fabulous. I would recommend these cabinets to anyone who knows how to use a screwdriver, hammer, and drill. Good Luck!...See MoreCabinet budget
Comments (22)for me 3k was incredibly unrealistic! ikea would have been closer to 5k and that is without any inserts! the cost is going to be geographically driven. i had 19 cabinets. i only had 1 insert which was a $200 2 tier cutlery tray (very good use of space) no pantry, no boxed in frig, no wall ovens. i do have a super susan and an ez reach corner but i consider them function vs form as i have a smaller kitchen. i also hated my pullouts and did all drawers for bases except one. i am north of albany ny and medallion siverline came in at 8k (full overlay maple door with veneer and regular stain) again only ikea, chinese imported or american woodmark came in less and not a lot less. believe me i bargain hunted for a long time. and in hindsight, i wish i had spent more, not less! all new cabinets look pretty but the real question is how will they hold up to a family that actually, gasp, cooks in the kitchen?! mine are not impressing me at all and my standards were pretty low. go with the highest quality you can afford...i wish i did!...See MoreCT_Newbie
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