Can we brainstorm and save $100K on our remodel?

15 years ago

We received our first bid (on our previously posted PLAN A) and are in the sticker shock phase now.

To bump out the back wall of our current kitchen and extend the garage to create a mudroom/laundry room, we are looking at $100+K for just construction. Cabinet bids are coming in at ~$50K+ and then we have appliances,counters , misc, on top of that. This doesn't even cover any cabinets in the mudroom/laundry.

So while we are getting additional estimates that will hopefully be a little lower,I am studying our current floorplan to see if we are missing something and to see what we could achieve in this kitchen by removing only interior walls. We still would like an island (family of 5). So looking at our current floorplan, if we were to dedicate the powder room/pantry/mudroom space into a kitchen space what could we achieve?

We would still like a powder room somewhere. Even some of the office space could be used. And we can remove the family room closet wall to open up the FR to the kitchen if that helps.

The problem area is the basement door location and the entrance hallway-it prevents us from extending the kitchen into that space. Can the steps be repositioned somewhere? And we also don't know how to use the small alcove area with sliders more effectively-it has a round table which we don't need and is way too tight right now. Other than that , it is just a pass through area to the patio.But for a 9' wide area it seems like it should have a better purpose!

It seems like there is a lot of area to work with , but we just can't figure it out.

So wanted to brainstorm here.

We haven't given up on the construction but just wanted to try and put things in perspective by looking at all our options.

I will be happy to provide more info, but didn't want to reiterate things that were already discussed previously to those who helped so much with our Plan A and Plan B floor plans!

By the way, I have been studying MALHGOLD's floorplan as it reminds me a bit of what we have in terms of the entrance foyer, basement steps, etc. and I lover her plan so was trying to see if we can incorporatea a similar layout somehow with all our door/hallway obtacles.

Thanks so much AGAIN! Especially if we can save a few bucks!

I posted a link to the PLAN A floorplan we previously discussed and you can see the proposed addition space and surrounding areas.

Here is our EXISTING floorplan (based on some work we did back in 2001)

Here is a link that might be useful: Plan A floor plan

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Comments (4)

alku05
15 years ago
Ravmd, have you gotten more than one bid yet? I ask because when I compare what we did for our remodel (particuarly the addition construction) to what you're doing, the bid sounds high. Of course there's quite a bit of variance due to geography, but we're in CA (think $$$) and we did our project before the economic slow down hit contractors. We're starting to feel out sources to do bids for a bedroom addition and we're hearing ballpark estimates from about ~$300/sqft to $125/sqft which is a huge range.

As far as the budget goes, you can't really find much, if any, savings in the construction part, but you can probably save a bit in other areas if function is more important to you than form. We saved a ton on cabinets by selecting a simple door in a standard finish with no glaze. My point is, try and get as much of a breakdown as possible on your bids so you can start to brainstorm on where you can make less expensive choices.
remodelfla
15 years ago
It's a little hard to read the existing layout on my monitor (could be the eyes!) but a couple of questions. Are the windows in the alcove counter height and could you enclose in the door there leading to the patio? My thinking is to wrap kithchen cabs around in there and extend the little nub of wall down that leads to the family room. Then take out the closet(?) so you have an opening to the family room. You could put french doors/sliders on the north family room wall as your new entrance to the patio. Shift the eating area down to the narrow east end of your kitchen and replace the round table with a smaller rectangular table. I don't realistically now if any of this will work for you.
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ravmd
Original Author
15 years ago
Alku: we intend on getting more bids, but between the cabinet bids(2) and construction bid (1) , it got me thinking in a less expensive direction!
We will definitely pursue more bids and I think from what I have read here, we should be able to at least get the cabinet bids decreased in 1/2 if we shop around.That is really encouraging that your estimates on $/sq ft ranged that much. So hopefully we will find a happy middle ground somewhere.Thankyou! It just made me think, what can we do with what we have if we got more creative and tried to avoid an 'addition'. So will see what both options come up with!

Remodelfla: the alcove has sliders at the north side and a window which goes almost to the floor but that can be changed.The sliders could be taken out. New sliders can't go on the FR wall -this backs up to the 'breakfast/dining room' which opens to a small porch -so access to patio could be via the porch or a single door possibly off the dining room on the east wall if needed.
We no longer need the table in the kitchen since we have the dining room right there (previously our play room) BUT we would love an island for seating in the kitchen. SO that is the big ??? is , is this worth $100K+ to do an addition to accomodate an island OR can it be put in by simply redoing interior walls rather than exterior/addition?
The idea of cabinetry in the alcove area is interesting as a start to all of this.

I don't know if this will help or confuse things... this is the photo with the new addition. I drew in red lines to roughly indicate the current walls of our existing kitchen. But maybe this is easier to read then the above photo which I know isn't the best -its' hard to show the entire 1st floor without making it small.
farmhousebound
15 years ago
I would strongly encourage you to get more bids. We just started on Phase I of our renovation as we are doing it in several phases due to cost concerns. We sought out 5 different bids, only received 2 back. However, out of the 2, one was over twice the amount of the other (in fact, it was so high his total was what we thought the whole project would come to). Luckily, the GC for the lower bid is the one we felt more comfortable w/ and had received a lot of good feedback about. So, just don't go w/ one--get as many as you are able and you might be suprised (we were!) Good Luck!!!

Can we brainstorm and save $100K on our remodel?

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alku05

remodelfla

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Can we brainstorm and save $100K on our remodel?

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alku05

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