I would say post the house plan but based on that list I think you need a different house. You'd need a massive reno and add a very large addition to punch out that list.

When was the house built an how many hundreds of thousands do you have to redo the house?

1959. Hoping to stay under $150K.

Buy a different house? this one looks nice as is…. you’d need to post pictures and floor plan if you wanted any useful feedback.

I’ll try to draw and add a floor plan tomorrow.

Please don’t comment saying we should buy another house! That’s not helpful and we love this neighborhood.

Contact Hilary Farr. She will want to know what the budget is…😉

We actually met with a contractor yesterday who quoted us within budget, just need help with the design.

Yup every time I see Hilary Farr on Love It or List It my response to my husband is "there's no stinking way they did all that for that amount of money!"

"Just moved in" ... exceptions to every rule but it's always a good idea to wait at least six months before deciding what to renovate.

Your house looks like a good solid 1959 house -- well built; but we don't live the same way that folks did in 1959 so some updates might be appropriate. I'm not in love with the more modern bathroom, but very much love the vintage bath you start the video with.

Is the decor to your taste? It strikes me as odd that your dining room is so fancy (I like it) but you want an open concept kitchen ...?

Looking forward to your floorplan and feedback from the designer professionals. I learn a lot from them even if it's not my house or I don't agree 100% with their suggestions :-)

You have a list of 10 items, and 7 of them require taking space from somewhere else or adding space to the footprint of the house. You are at the very beginning spark of your ideas - so you'll have to do lots of homework to zero in on the project scope and your budget. Dreaming is fun, but your goals and budget in relation to those says you probably need a realtor and architect on board in the next couple of steps if you are serious about it.

Renovation costs vary depending on your location and the quality of design/ construction/ materials. Plus it depends how quickly you want to have it all completed.

I’m in the Boston area and all you list would be about $500k-$2M depending on your finishes.

I highly recommend working with a design professional to help focus efforts. Rarely does someone have the real budget to get the wish list completed all at once. A pro designer (not a contractor) will help prioritize the work. I’ve been in my home for 15 years and still have work left to complete from my original wish list. All due to budget!

$150K for all that? No way!

go ahead and start planning now but definitely agree with living there for 6 months before you commit to any big renos. things that may have bothered you at first you may like. see how you use the house then you can prioritize.

Then he is a bait and switch guy who you cannot trust.

Or a hack. (Before you begin, try reading all the stories on here about bad contractors. It's an eye opener.)

What general area are you in?

In my market, a list like this would start at about $300k. A traditional home like this turned into "open concept" will require a good amount of engineering. An average kitchen remodel in my market is $100k, an average hall bath is $15k-$20k and an average primary bath is $30k-$50k. Add to that all the space planning changes you want and the cost of a qualified architect, designer and contractor, and you will most certainly double your budget.

Any contractor who gives you a price for this type of scope without seeing any plans is immediately disqualified in my opinion.

$50-75k + using stock cabinets - Big open kitchen with big island

- More open concept throughout

$15-25k +each - Updated bathrooms

$20k + - Larger master bath

20k +- Private guest bath?

7-15k +- Better closets throughout

$7-10k - Mud room/drop zone when entering the house (could enter through garage and spare room in basement (not on video) or into the kitchen)

- Dedicated office (could double as a guest room)

$10k + - Laundry on main level (currently in garage/basement)

$10k +- Make stairs from basement less steep?

And I'm being conservative in my pricing as I'm remembering the pricing I had 4 years ago building brand new. Pricing has only skyrocketed since I built. Meaning once you start opening up walls, etc, who knows what else needs to be fixed. So how do you expect to get it all done for the $150k?

And notice I didn't even add in 2 of the items.

Five years ago in LA I paid $25K for LABOR ALONE for a basic 3 piece bathroom gut/remodel. I bought the materials. I don't remember the exact number, but approximately an additional $5K. And the contractor gave me a "good" price for the bathroom because he was going to do my kitchen after that.

Right about the basement stairs. We get asked to do this a lot but most of the time it's abandoned because of budget. It's relatively easy if you have floor space at the bottom of the stairs and headroom clearance, but typically there is a structural beam that makes the head room non-code compliant once the staircase is extended. I see this mostly in older homes like the OPs.

Not going to pile on - I also think your eyes are bigger than your stomach here. But I just wanted to say I hope you didn't buy this house thinking you were going to turn it into a modern open concept home. I hope you talked to your realtor about your wish list, and I hope they didn't tell you it would be easy to do within that budget. If they did, don't use that realtor again.

Take down the wall paper, paint the walls, update the lighting, replace the carpet, and consider that a lot of people are trying to add walls back into their homes rather than take them all down. I think your house is great as is. Live with it for awhile, and whatever you do, don't touch that lovely bathroom with the stained glass window.

If you DO decide to do major structural renovations, you will not be able to crowd source that design and will need an architect.

Whatever you do, definitely be wary of that contractor.

This appears to be a lovely traditional home. You said you just moved in, but this looks like this might be a 'walk-through' from when it was on the market. Are these your furnishings? If not, what is YOUR style? The home has great light, lots of windows, upstairs AND downstairs family rooms, great room sizes. Changing window treatments in DR and LR, new light fixtures, and paint would "modern" it up quite a bit, if that is one of your complaints, but most of your wish list are structural items, and you won't get much of that done for 150K, as others have stated. I understand you love the neighborhood, and it is a great house, but I would hate to see it changed into something it is not and never will be without gutting the entire home. Good luck to you.

Under $150,000?! The ”big open kitchen, with big island” “open concept” (read removing walls, adding beams), will eat up that entire budget. Even before pandemic pricing, your full list would not have been realistic. And now? Fuhgeddaboutit.

Hopefully you're doing this with permits. The scope of the project may or may not require you to follow whatever the ccurrent code is for the rise/run of the stairs. If not required I wouldn't do it. That is expensive.

Ten years ago we did a whole house reno and we only moved one wall, all rooms stayed the same size and that was done with permits and was a $300,000+ job.

I would definitely live in the house for at least a year before embarking on anything at that scale. You will get to learn your traffic patterns, how you use the space, what is actually working for you and your family and what isn't, what doesn't need changing but perhaps just requires a facelift. You may figure out that you can do the work in stages and work in the stair reno.

Agree with others that its a beautiful home, and once you move in and change out furnishings it will probably feel much better. You will also probably adjust to the different mode of life being in a more traditional style home. Open concept is definitley have some backlash lately.

The biggest quality of life adjustment I think would be to change out your main entrance and laundry from being through the basement. if the door from the kitchen dining area is an acceptable entrance path, maybe a bump out mud room / laundry would get you some important things on your list?

In the current season of the PBS show "This Old House", a house in Newburyport, the most recent episode showed moving and updating a staircase very much like you described. If your PBS station is running it, it is Season 44, Episode 11. This was for a staircase to the third floor which was narrow, steep and against current Building Code. They showed the amount of work involved, it needed an architect, engineer, Building Code adherence, and also the best-of-the-best contractor Tom Silva working on it. You can see what went into this small staircase change, which was a lot, and also it was lucky that they had the space and headroom for it. It might help you see what is involved with one of the things on your list.

It must be discouraging to read this thread, but your list is extensive, and it is best you understand that $150k won't cover it before you start signing contracts, and get hit with double or more of costs later.

Edited to add: I just found the episode is on their website. Here is the link, forward to 03:30 for when the staircase work begins. It's about a 4-minute segment. https://www.thisoldhouse.com/newburyport-forever-house/23537804/s44-e11-demo-find

Making the basement stairs less steep to meet modern codes is a 50K+ project.

I was assuming the room was there and it wasn't a major change.