Well, I didn't strip down to the studs, but I am doing a bunch of stuff.

I just had the garage turned from front entry to side entry so that the front of the house could be properly graded. Well, not just for that reason cause it looks a lot nicer, too. Lots of dirt to deal with with dogs and children and nice shoes coming in from work! It's going well.

Great contractor - for those of you in the Charlotte, NC area, CHL is wonderful!

I will be doing basic stuff to laundry room, gut and re-do kid/guest bathroom, add a master bath to replace existing, enlarge front porch, perhaps bump out master bedroom, add box bay to front, new windows, new hvac, and, of course, THE KITCHEN!

The rest is good and functional, but the KITCHEN is so exciting.

It might seem crazy to do so much to a house, but the price was pretty good, i LOVE the land and location, the house has great bones, and I plan to be here until I die (a good 50 or so years from now).
Lisa

I didn't answer all your questions. I've been researching and deciding for 1.5 years - since I've been in the house. They started just a couple of weeks ago. I'm having most stuff done by the contractor. I would love to do more by myself as I am not in a big hurry and I enjoy the satisfaction of DIY; however, I'm an only child and my mother is helping because work, diy AND spending as much time as I want to with my children is too much, and SHE wants all the dingy 1985 brown stuff to go away quickly. (She lives 8 hours away, lol.)
Lisa

We bought our 1825 two family home 10 years ago and have been planning this renovation ever since. We're converting the house back to the original single family, gutting 2 baths (and moving a wall), taking out one staircase and adding one where the original staircase was, moving doorways, gutting the kitchen and adding 8 feet out the back with a half bath, adding a mudroom, updating ALL the electrical and plumbing (some of my pipes are the original from 1877 when they brought in the sewer lines and lots of knob and tube wiring), $20K of structural work in the basement, lining a few fireplaces, adding a home automation system, roughing in the guest bath (we'll do the finish work ourselves), plus a few other things. I'm reglazing the 30 1st floor 6 over 6 windows, stripping woodwork, painting the whole house, buying all items like lights (30), plumbing fixtures, caninets, doors (custom and stock), pillars, staircase parts (lots of research) etc. coordinating my contractor with MY subs (window repair, HVAC, floor guy, roofer, etc). I've been working with an architect since 3/08. We were in zoning purgatory this summer but finally got our permit early Sept. Our addition framing is almost done and most of the demo is finished on the 1st floor. (We're living on the 2nd floor). The plumbing and electrician will rough in and then the contractor will break thru to our floor after Thanksgiving and go gun-ho until finished.

We're also planning a full backyard renovation with inground pool. I'm working with a historic landscape designer and want to use plants from the 1850's or earlier. She designs period gardens for modern living. We hope to have the pool in by late spring. Kitchen is my main focus but I have a lot of other things going on. And renovating a very old house there are many surprises in the walls. My contractor has to cut thru a 10 x 10 support beam so we had the architect and structural engineer out to make sure the house won't fall down (he didn't think so but better to check).

We are starting year 6. When we started I thought it would take 3 years, DH said 5 - guess we were both wrong. We bought a 125 year old farmhouse (complete with farm) and it was a toss up whether the house should have been fixed up or torn down. We have basically stripped it down to the studs, but done one room or section at a time while we have been living in it (kids are grown). We have replaced the entire electrical and plumbing systems (including wires coming in and septic system).

We also added an addition so we could have a basement under part of the house.

We have left the kitchen for last, as it is centrally located and we've been hauling stuff through the middle of it for years. DH and I are both rather sick of it all and having a hard time getting motivated to get that final kick to get it all done.

On a good note, after living with a mock up of the kitchen for this long I have changed the layout three times, moved walls twice and finally decided to go with tile after all. Had I done the kitchen as originally planned (5 years ago) I would have something that would not be near as usable as what I'll have now.

The only thing we have hired out was excavation for the basement, installing the septic tank and new leach lines, trenchign in the incoming water lines and incoming power lines. Other than that we have done everythign ourselves, but this our third house and we are not new at this (we've been told many times we should hire out, but DH and I make better money at our real jobs).

So far the worst part was having to jack up the two story section of the house and rebuild the sill. About 1" had rotted away on the north east corner and 3" on the north west corner. It's nice and solid (and level) now.

I'm starting to wonder what life will be like when I won't have the house to work on.

Cathy

Wow, that is a very aggressive project you have there. Can't wait to see it complete.

We are not going to the studs, but it is a ton of work. In 2004, we put on a new addition of bedrooms and laundry room. Summer of 2008, we built a detached garage and at the same time started demo of the interior. We have now taken out two load bearing walls and filled in the sunken floor. We are now reworking duct and electrical.

It is going very slowly because my handyman has a regular job during the week. I am ready to call in some backup and get moving again. But all in all, I guess you could say this part of the remodel has been going on for 15 months.

Here is a very condensed version of the work in the main house so far.

Here is a link that might be useful: Remodel

We are. We're restoring an historic property (1888 storefront) and while all of it is pretty exciting, I'm mostly interested in the kitchen/family room space (followed by the master bathroom). I am itching to get down to business with the millwork shop that is to make my cabinetry!

Here is a link that might be useful: Renovation Blog

Well, we will have to stick together, us Whole House Remodelers! I will enjoy hearing about your progress. I especially am intrigued by the historic home you are fixing up. I am not sure a 1950s rancher would be considered at all as interesting, but it's my little project!

We're also in CA- and finally started work on our whole house remodel. We have a 1951 two story ranch (is that an oxymoron?). We are retrofitting the original foundation, patching and repairing stucco, and redoing everything else. Electrical, plumbing, roof, interior layout, new stairs, new bridges (hillside home). It's all down to the studs and the kitchen & baths are gone. We were 8 months in architecture and permitting. Last week, they started digging the piers for the bridges and new decks!! CG estimates 7 months to move in. The kitchen and mudroom are my favorite parts of the house. This forum has given me excellent ideas and has influenced our design.

Can't wait to hear more about your project.

We also just completed (for now anyway) a whole house remodel of a ranch, but not nearly as ambitious as yours. We gutted the kitchen and one bath down to the studs, took down walls in the LR/DR, replaced flooring in the entire house, replaced windows in the entire house and expanded (often doubling) windows throughout. We also added doorways and put in a pocket door and sliding door.

We just had the crown and the base installed last week, so we can finally breath a little again, but the plan is to do an addition at some point in the future. We'll need a few years to A. forget the pain of remodeling and B. get the money tree to grow a few new branches! ;-)

We had planned to rip the roof off and go up a story, some days I wish we still had, but for now I'm just happy to not have drywall dust as a constant companion. Or a house that has furniture and stuff crammed in to every possible space as we played "musical" stuff during the reno.

I love seeing and hearing about other people's renovations, it's such an exciting and daunting process to do a whole house renovation. One of our neighbors is tearing down their house this week and then construction will start on their new house. Lucky them, as this is a weekend home and they have a nice clean, organized space to live in while the construction will be going on....oh how nice that would have been!

Good luck and your project sounds wonderful! Keep us updated!

Kat :)

I was so inspired by grlwprls blog that I started my own blog of our home renovation. This is my 1st time blogging. It's much easier than you think. I always wanted to do it but I thought I didn't have any time. Friends and family have been asking for pictures and I think this is the simpliest way to communicate the pictures to them. Instead of sending out periodic emails with renovation news I just update my blog. It took me about 5 hours to put together most of the entries (this included the learning curve).

Here is a link that might be useful: my home renovation

Bostonpam: Here's my blog too.....
http://www.sharonheightsremodel.blogspot.com/

Midwife kim: our homes were probably built by brothers/sisters...I swear mine looked just like that!

My realtor and the old kitchen:

All you Whole HOuse remodelers: attach some before pics!

some of you have more guts and energy than I have. probably money too tho~ lol!

we added an addition onto a house in the 70's, then in the 80's bought another house and did some slight remodeling. mostly a bathroom and divided the huge upstairs into 2 bedrooms.

I'm going to be doing some minor - compared to yours - remodeling. removing 1 wall, hopefully ripping out a fireplace and a few built ins. new flooring thru out it and some new light fixtures. and painting. then next yr (spring maybe?) I'll work on the kitchen remodel. new cabs, stove/cooktop, counter, sink and that's about it tho. probably will not redo that floor until then. I've been working on that already really. this forum is a great help on it. i've got everything for it down to a few options each - will live in it a few months before making final decisions.

and i won't be doing much other than picking things out, pointing here and there, yelling, pulling my hair out, probably some crying and ... more crying! I hope a few sighs of relief will be included in there somewhere.

I can't believe I missed this thread! (Must be because I was up to my ears in drywall dust with not a seond to spend on line that month...)

We, too, are doing a whole-house remodel. We bought this 1956 one-story ranch in Oct 2008. We thought we'd be done with the first round of renovations (mainly a kitchen remodel, we thought) by fall 2009. Fat chance. We discovered tons of unexpected and major drainage issues, and a frozen drain pipe filled the master addition crawl space with mold, which we discovered this spring -in the middle of the kitchen reno- when things started to warm up. So the kitchen/LR/dining remodel (which involved moving rooms around and taking out bearing walls) is on hold, half-finished, as we tackled the mold problem. Of course, since the floor and walls in the master area had to be gutted to studs, we realized we should just do that remodel now, instead of in a couple of years like we planned.

it has been way too crazy. My daughter is so angry that we're so busy on the house all the time (this is about 90% DIY). My marriage is suffering. I am sick all the time. Blech!!

but the end is in sight. I think we should be done with almost everything, including the exterior, by next fall. Fingers crossed!

Stacey

Southern California, mid-century modern, whole-house remodel:

Yup! As the focal point of the house, the kitchen was the biggest stumbling block, and also the most difficult to demo. It was filled with that mid-century rock motif (real rocks, about the size of small footballs) that was hugely difficult to remove.

1. Started initial demolition and kitchen design process three years ago. Much of the time was spent designing, researching, and doing small kitchen-related projects prior to the main countertop installation, which only happened two weeks ago. Went through about three iterations in the design of the layout. Rough-in plumbing and electrical was almost exactly one year ago, but we got stuck for whatever reason, and didn't restart until Thanksgiving of this year. Kitchen was finished last week. Thank god, it's 99% finished now!

2. Finished bathroom today for under $4,000, including labor! This took only about a week for some reason. Have been designing all rooms over the past three years, so I was ready.

3. Bedrooms were finished right after we first moved in three years ago, since they only needed flooring and paint.

4. Only one more bathroom to go!

5. Hard-landscaped front yard this past summer (about $7,000 in plantings, anodized aluminuml structures, railings, seating, water features, etc.--all DIY). Backyard, next summer!

6. Next: replace all windows (all anodized aluminum Milgard).

7. Next: install steel roll-up garage door.

8. Last: new, whole-house siding treatment (metals, stucco, Hardibacker, etc.).

No designer--did all design work myself (I have a graphic design background). I did 100% of the cabinet install, some minor framing, and some drywall. GF did 100% of the patching and painting. All plumbing, electrical, flooring (porcelain tile) and quartz countertop installs were all hired out. It's been hell, but we're almost finished. We acted as our own GCs and saved a ton of money. Really loved the control over every design element, and not having to leave it to anyone else's tastes or preferences. Extremely pleased with final palletes and textures. Slower than expected, but now I own a LOT of tools, and will have a great space with a highly integrated palette and design theme.

Yes! We were forced into it by a fire, but it's updating that needed to happen anyway.

The lightning strike/fire was 3/26/09, the GC started work on 12/1, and we think we'll be moving back into the house in May.

The fire only damaged the attic + roof, but the water took care of the kitchen, DR, LR and guest. Since we have to replace all the wiring because of the lightning, we took the whole house down to studs. And since the MAster bath was smoke-filled, we gutted that too.

Our house is a 1956 ranch with galvanized plumbing which has reached the end of its life, so we're going back with PECS and replacing the water heater, too. The HVAC was where the lightning current went, so that's getting replaced too!

adding a bonus room and converint the laundry/office into a large mud area in the process...the back hallway now has stairs to the bonus room, so everything is in our kitchen which we're remodeling. What fun.

Trish

Hooray for us whole house remodelers--post some pictures....I think we have a lot of ranch style homes in this group (mostly because all of the ranchers need remodeling about now!)

My metal roof is started, two weeks to completion:

I am totally itching to go buy my appliances--love those. My GC told me to hold off though. Many of the warranties start from the date of purchase and we don't want the appliances sitting around for too long. I think we are still 3 mos from install of those. Cabs go in mid-Feb.

I want my kitchen!

This is a story of what you should NOT do with your house.
Bought a tiny 2 bedroom 1950s ranch in 1989. Added a floor and put the living, dining and kitchen on the top floor. It gave us a view of the mountains and the lake.
Garage in the basement was incorporated into the basement floor space. Built a detached garage in 1997 to augment the garage that was lacking.
Tried to see if we can move up in the neighborhood. Could not afford the comparable view and did not want to give it up. So we brought the middle floor to the stud and reconfigured it for 3 bedroom and 2 bath in 2002. (previously only 1 bath and very knarly floor plan which was inherited from the original house.) Finished the basement with a media room, infloor heating, trim to match the rest of the house etc.
Fast forward another few years... We still cannot afford the view in the slightly better neighborhood any other way. (The upcharge is about 1/2 to 1 mil.) We looked at many houses recently! I recently saw a beautiful house that was done very well. But there was no view from the kitchen or the dining room. Saw another house that had a view from the living room only. We are not in the living room until it is dark outside! We would lose our breakfast with sunrise over the mountains. This was the usual story of all the houses that we looked at.
At the comparable price point, the houses have the view from the bedroom, not from the kitchen or the living space. Because we have the ususual space arrangement of living/kitchen/dining floor at the top, we have the view from the rooms we use everyday as a family. This is unusual but gives us a very open space with 180 degree view.
We are now embarking on a kitchen remodel of the kitchen that was put in 1989/1990. The kitchen was done on a budget and is not at the level of the quality that we have updated the rest of the house.
So we are actually the other way around. Whole house remodel first and back to the kitchen which is 20 years old.
In the end, we have the house that we want to live in. Had we not done this and lived with what is there or moved to another house and given up a few things, ie view, open living configuration, natural light etc, we would be way ahead in the money! Oh well, you can't take it with you...