Start with an architect. He or she will have recommendations for a structural engineer. Since you are in an apartment building, the homeowners association (or whatever it's called for your building) will have some rules and regulations for you to follow. Check with your new neighbors to see if they have any architect or contractor recommendations.

As for budget, write down a range of possibilities before you contact any architects. Ask them if they work in your price range because if your budget is $100K and your architect typically works at $1M on up, there's a mismatch in what you both are accustomed to.

Thank you both for the detailed input! So, it sounds like start with designer/architect and a general budget and go from there? Thankfully, I've lived in this complex for a while, in this, and a previous unit, and staff turnover is low here so both me, management, and maintenance are pretty familiar with the alteration agreement process. I've done a new kitchen and bath before and the various other projects like refinishing floors or installing appliances that require the same process - I'm more daunted by how holistic, for lack of a better word, a whole unit reno seems.

A lot of the online articles and such suggest looking around at architects'/designers' portfolios to see if their style is a match for yours. But it sounds like looking for the right experience set and personality and willingness to work with my budget is the biggest thing and most of them can get a client's style? I ask because I've seen several well done neighbor renovations, where the quality of work is very good, but only one where the style (judging from the renovation and the architect's online portfolio) is similar to what we're envisioning. (And I do agree that people who have already done work in this, or similar, buildings will be most helpful.)

On budget - I hear you on needing to have a general sense of it before it's productive to talk to someone, but am a little stuck with the chicken and the egg problem of not really knowing what the range is for this area. For an expensive metro area like DC, do you think $125k for a 2 bedroom/2 bath 1700 square foot unit where we want to redo flooring, new kitchen and baths and move 2 non-load bearing walls and probably get middle of the road fixtures is a reasonable starting point for conversation? (I did a small bathroom gut and rebuild with builder grade stuff for $10k a few years ago.) It's not that I don't want to "show my hand" before seeing what an architect can do for the money, but more that I don't want to have conversations focus on the wrong assumptions just because I SWAGed wrong.

I think the portfolio is meaningless in terms of style as a good designer listens and observes.

I did nit want beige, gray, spa, white subway tiles or any of the safe bland choices that are currently en Vogue. My designer brought me her book and I closed it after looking at a few of her projects because They were all tasteful but not my taste.

We discussed what my style preferences were and I sent her loads of inspiration photos. I hired her to do the detailed plans to get permits with the rest of the contract as an option with some amount paid as a design fee that was recoupable.

Obviously she got me and as we went on, she got me further in terms of my style preferences and choices. My end result is much more exciting than if I had attempted to do it myself because I trusted her design choices and of course she prevented me from making bad choices as well.

The design board she produced was more more than I could have imagined in terms of translating my vision and was totally unlike anything in her design book. It’s so totally unlike the standard bland gray and beige design choices that some of the inspectors have complimented me on it. Lol.

I was much more interested in whether she could handle the project professionally rather than whether her previous projects were ones that I wanted to replicate.

As to cost, that is impossible to say since I spent a lot on higher end finishes and so if I had to work within a lower budget, my finishes would have been less expensive choices.

ETA - And I am not sure that my choices aren't really "middle of the road" considering what things cost. For example, the cost of constructing a tiled shower is so high if properly done that my tile and fixture choices were pricey but it seemed crazy to not get the Encore tiles I really loved. My square footage is less than yours (about 1200 square feet) so the cost of materials that I loved (within reason) was pretty much what cheaper stuff might have cost in a larger space. I had a lot of custom wood cabinetry done - bathrooms and kitchen of course but also a custom wall unit/desk for my office area as well as a custom room divider that holds my stripper pole television :-). I also opted for Bosch appliances which are "middle of the road" on this forum :-).

As GreenDesigns points out there were costs that went beyond just the "remodeling" - I had to rent a place for about 7 months - I ate a lot of takeout and restaurant food.

Triple your budget for a gut redo with all of the limitations that condo living puts on trade work. You’ll need to find another place to live for 6-12 months, and that has to be in your budget too.

I just wanted to add in terms of actual cost example - I had engineered factory finished floors installed. My floors are Mirage which is probably a "middle of the road" brand. The actual wood cost $8.00 per square foot but the final cost with installation and the necessary soundproofing was $18 per square foot - that included the cork and plywood for soundproofing; the self leveling materials needs to prep the concrete subfloor; the glue plus the actual installation costs.

Definitely start with an architect. In DC there are some pretty strict rules about remodeling and what needs to be filed in the city in terms of renovation. If you can find one, a design/build firm will take off a significant burden by supporting as a one stop shop for the design and construction, but these types of firms can be more expensive, too. For a standard resale renovation, I would stay around 150PSF, but if you're going to live in it -- budget up to 250PSF.

I'm not sure what "swaged" means but you need to determine how much you can spend because that's the start.

As posted above, it is theoretically possible to do the project for $125,000 - there are lots of design choices that will drive up the final budget.

Also, to some extent, how old is the unit - will the electric need to be upgraded - I needed a new panel which cost $6000. My popcorn ceiling cost $6000 to remove because it contained asbestos.

What items are you excluding from your budget - I needed new appliances plus a washer dryer so that was probably about $20,000 more or less including installation.

What kind of shower do you want - tile shower with the necessary waterproofing is expensive - I would imagine the cost of a prefab type would be considerably less - saves both labor and materials

Do you want frameless glass shower doors or just a curtain. I opted for frameless with Showerguard protection - a shower curtain would have been much less money.

And so on - Per my first sentence you need to have a come to Jesus moment with yourself in terms of how much you are able (and willing) to spend - then deduct a contingency budget and then have a sit down with designers who are knowledgable with condo remodels to get an answer. Talking with a GC is IMO pretty futile because without the specific design plans AND specifications, there is no way you can get an accurate bid since so much of the final cost will depend on your choices. My contract with the GC did not include any discretionary materials although it did include the specs for the design since installing 3" x 6" tiles and basketweave marble tiles is going to be a different installation cost than other options.

Thank you all for the detailed feedback, especially with regards to costs. I will mentally scale up my SWAG ("scientific wild ass guess", I think) by a good margin. The points with regard to things like budgeting to live elsewhere are really good - and were things I was planning for - would one usually include them in the amount that one tells a designer/architect one is looking to spend? Ditto on the budget for surprises? The building is about 60 years old and the previous owners loved them some DIY, much of which wasn't done that well, so we're definitely allowing for that, but would one fold that into the budget one relays to the designer? Because the building's a coop and owns everything behind the walls, I'm counting on things like putting in that new electric panel, adding bazillion outlets and pulling upgraded cabling to the back of the unit, but if they find issues with the plumbing or wiring when the open up the walls, that's on the HOA. (And they're pretty speedy about dealing with it.) Asbestos abatement is the biggest variable I'm accounting for - I'm quite mournfully familiar with the tiny cartel of firms here that do it, their usurious fees, and the super long notice required by the city.

We'll likely live here at least part time for 40-50 years, so my thinking on "middle of the road" on materials is that I want to get things like flooring, any custom built ins, fireplace tile and the footprint right, but assume I'll buy new appliances several times, update vanities, etc in that time. So, I like the LG appliances I've got now fine, and would be OK with getting new models in the reno if the performance difference between them and the swanky Thermador induction cooktops doesn't seem to be that huge, but do, for example, want to be able to budget for high end floors and tile if I like their look or durability better.

Helen, thanks for your description of how you contracted with your designer and what she did. That's exactly what I'm hoping for. I don't need a designer to tell me what art I should (or shouldn't have ; - ) bought but definitely to tell me what lighting installations are best for it and the layout.

Generally the budget for your living expenses wouldn't be part of the budget per se but would be impacted by length of the remodel including how long until you can move back in even if remodel wasn't done. I was out of my until for about seven months - some delays caused by things like waiting over a week for the water in my building to be turned off so plumbing could proceed and other delays caused by stuff like tiles I wanted not ready to ship. There were also delays caused by the number of inspections required and inspectors canceling inspections because they were too busy. This creates rolling delays - my shower had to be inspected multiple times so each time an inspector didn't show up and rescheduled, it pushed back completion of the shower - and a functional bathroom several days - multiplied by number of inspections.

Obviously you can discuss this with whoever you hire but I would think you need to calculate off site living expenses for approximately six months.

I live in a condo which has similar ownership/maintenance in terms of whether homeowner or HOA is responsible for specific maintenance issues. As you wrote, typically the building is responsible the common pipes and electrical connections up to connecting with your unit.

All of the issues were my responsibility except for one fairly minor one - in order to convert the tub/shower to a shower, the drain had to be access through my downstair neighbor's ceiling. Once my neighbor's ceiling was opened, a small leak in the building's pipes was discovered - it was the building's responsibility to fix and so they paid for half the cost of repairing my neighbor's ceiling - a relatively small amount in the scheme of things since the workmen who fixed the hole in the ceiling and repainted were already working in my unit and it was a small job.

But ALL of the major plumbing and electrical work that needed to be done was mine - and although I did do a LOT of electrical work including the new panel, I did not have them replace all of the wiring in my walls. I dodged that bullet because my wiring was grandfathered in so long as I didn't move sockets. Obviously the bathrooms add kitchen were completely rewired because they weren't up to electrocution hazard Code measures.

The standard contingency is 10% and if your GC and designer have been remodeling in your building, they should have a pretty good idea of what hidden surprises they might find. This wasn't really an issue for me luckily because I paid for the remodel from savings and although the surprises weren't fun, they didn't impact my ability to move forward including my having to change the scope of the project. I am still getting surprises - when the stacking washer/dryer was finally installed, the closet wasn't deep enough so they had to come back in and add depth to the closet. Once that was done, my closet built in's had been installed for a shallower closet so I decided to make them deeper - more storage - and so it goes. However, I know people who funded remodels with loans and so they had to deal with funds running out when the surprises became too plentiful - so you need to determine what would happen if the 10% contingency became 25%.

Thanks everyone! This is all really useful as we go forward. We’re having a bunch of neighbors who have done recent renovations over for drinks soon to get some recommendations and lessons learned and then will talk to a couple architects and designers.