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Other Design Dilemma

New to houzz and starting a HUGE renovation

last year

last modified: last year

Hi! I'm new to houzz and home renovation. My husband and I are embarking on a huge renovation of our small farmhouse because of extensive mold. We will be gutting the entire house and moving rooms and finishing the attic to make a space for our children. I see most of the posts here have very professional and clear floor plans, can you recommend a website to make one of these?

Comments (11)

Mary Elizabeth
last year
@Kendelle A,

If you give more details to the background of your situation, you might get more help.

"Extensive mold" is a huge red flag. Did you recently purchase this property? Was the mold disclosed? (If not, legal action may be appropriate.)

Or is a property you inherited? Is there sentimental value?

Or is a property that you already owned, and you've recently become aware of the mold issue?

Check your homeowner's insurance to know if you have any coverage for mitigation in your situation.

Remodeling can often times be more expensive than building new, so gutting the entire house, PLUS dealing with mold - what are you really saving?

Maybe a good first step would be to contact someone in your city or county's public health department for input and direction.
btydrvn
last year
In cases like yours…experimenting on graph paper would be a good place to start to see how much you think you can do with the space you have…this will help you to know better if you may need to add ….beyond the existing layout…it seems to me that an architect would be the first expert to consult after firming up a list of your needs….
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Comments (6)
For me? 3 years...lol OK more seriously...I started considering a renovation 3 years ago, hired a KD to do plans about 2 year ago, then put it on hold to save some more money. Last year I started getting updated bids beginning in June 2016. I signed the contract in Dec and they demo'd in Feb (this was mostly based on the contractor availability). The renovation was for kitchen and my only bathroom. GC said 4-5 weeks for the bathroom (important as I was moving out). 3 weeks after demo, that timeline was clearly wrong, and I got a schedule that showed 8 weeks--then they kept getting further behind. I ended up moving back in at 6 weeks with a toilet and tub spout for a bathroom. Shower was done at 10 weeks. Appliances at 15 weeks. Nearly everything was done by early July. Final inspection was 2 weeks ago (last few months really didn't need to be so slow, just they were waiting on materials and the last little items weren't very urgent for me either). I'd keep in mind that contractors are busy, so the quoting and contract signing will be slow, and it may be a while (like months) for a good person to start. I strongly recommend taking your time in layout and material planning. I thought I'd made most of the decisions before they started, but there are so many things that came up that I hadn't considered! I was glad that I'd already picked cabinets, countertop, and the big stuff. Ultimately I'm happy with the results with my GC, but the scheduling snafu was incredibly stressful. If I were doing it over, I would have asked them for a detailed schedule before they started. I assumed the 4-5 weeks he told me was based on a schedule, but I think it was just a bad guesstimate and they didn't do the schedule until after demo (which is insane to me!). I'd consider moving in and living with the kitchen and bath as is for a bit. That will at least take the pressure off during the planning and quoting stage, which will definitely take a long time. Living there will also help you better understand what exactly you want to fix with the space. But that would depend on how much time you have on your lease and weighing paying for 2 homes vs. moving twice and finding temporary housing. Ok sorry for writing so much! I think it doesn't have to be as slow as my situation...but it will be slow!
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btydrvn
last year
Keep in mind that the children’s needs …and yours….change over time…privacy being one of major things that may evolve..
Jennifer Hogan
last year
I bought Chief Architect 15 years ago and still have the program and really enjoy playing with it, but I probably use excel more often than I use Chief Architect when I am just doing a basic floorplan. I do like the 3d rendering capabilities of Chief Architect.

I honestly don't know if there are better programs available today.
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last year
I am still a lover of a nice clean piece of paper and a sharp pencil.My drafting table is my favorite piece of furniture and I find graph paper makes doing to scale drawings simpler. I do many Ikea kitchens but have found the planner a real PITA to use. I am not really computer savvy with different software. I will answer here regarding this dilemma you will need a pro and the first step is to find out if the home can have an attic made for living space . Often old foundations and construction did not allow for attic living space to code.Then you get the pro to help for sure. I do agree a rebuild is proably cheaper then a major renovation like you are planning but sometimes I just like to bring life back to an old home . I happen to love renovating .
Kendelle A
Original Author
last year
Thank you I’ll pull out the graph paper. As far as cost goes, my husband will be doing most of the work himself so we figured it would be less expensive and also much faster since we don’t have to wait on contracters and permits every step of the way.
Lee M
last year
You need permits regardless of who does the work. Check w your county, city, or town planning department. And as someone asked - if you have a mold problem, should you remodel?
kandrewspa
last year
Obviously some DIY can help hold costs down, but does DH have a day job? If so, this project will take a long time and in the meantime you are living with mold. Does he have experience with mold remediation? My husband has expert level DIY skills but we figured out years ago that it is a mistake not to hire some professionals as he couldn't work the day job and get everything done in the house in a timely manner. But maybe you're more patient than I am . . .

I would definitely look into hiring a professional architect or designer to look at your floor plan. Unless that is your or DH's occupation, there is no way you can approach their level of knowledge. The amount of work you're talking about is substantial and you can end up with a mediocre end result or a great end result with some help. You can enjoy a great end result for years to come and when you go to sell you will also reap the reward.
Kendelle A
Original Author
last year
My husband rehabs houses to make them into rentals, he will be working full time on our home while we renovate. We have consulted with mold experts and have a remediation plan in place, that mostly consists of removing all drywall, HVAC, insulation and adressing our crawl space. We aren’t living in our home because the mold was making our children sick but we are blessed to have a guest cabin, although small at 200 sqft, to live in while we make our house livable. We never liked the floor plan but probably would have made do for a lot longer if we weren’t told that removing all walls was necessary to remediate the mold.
btydrvn
last year
In so many cases like yours …people decide to sell the home they are in when something interesting or bigger comes along that they want for themselves….so i would not “personalize” too much…
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RappArchitecture
last year
This doesn't seem to be the situation to rely on websites for a viable design. With the money you (might) save by doing much of the work yourself, I would strongly suggest hiring an architect to provide a design and layout which is fully functional and meets all of your needs.

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