Home remodel costs

gkainz

gkainz

Final Approach
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Feb 23, 2005
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Arvada, CO
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Greg Kainz
Is there some rule of thumb for major remodel costs? I'm floating a hare-brained idea to counter my wife's "we should just move" idea .... I know, I know - futile effort, but I want to at least offer up a someone educated proposal.

Real Estate continues to sky-rocket in Colorado. our house has appreciated about 4x since purchase. However, that means anything we buy to replace it has done the same. I want to somehow retain or leverage my equity as part of my retirement - somewhere between "tomorrow if the stupidity continues" and "a couple of more years".

My parents had to go into assisted living too soon ... or perhaps better stated, lived in hard conditions too long trying to negotiate stairs in their house before having to sell and move. So, we've been discussing this for a while now. I like my property and location - half acre in unincorporated county, with access to a leased lake. House is paid off this year. It's a double split level with the main living space on ground level with full basement, and raised garden level about 1/3 down and 2/3s up, with bedrooms and bath up, and den, laundry, bedroom and bath in the sunken garden level basement - about 3' below ground level. I'm imagining a remodel of lowering that garden level to match the main level, essentially dropping it 5' to make a one level ranch.

The idea is far-fetched enough that I don't even really want to ask someone to come out and give an estimate, but just curious how much a project like that might cost, in order to compare remodel to selling. I have a couple of realtor friends who could give me impact to the value of the house - as-is vs remodeled ranch. I guess I wouldn't be surprised if the ranch on the same footprint actually nets out less than the double split-level design.

I mean, how hard could that be? A couple of guys with shovels, a couple of levers and fulcrums and a couple of decades? What could possibly be expensive with that? :)
 
I priced out a small bathroom remodel...convert to sliding door, tub to shower, new cabinet and finish work. About 5k in materials and around 8-10k in labor. Bathroom is about 60 square feet. Figure anything that touches the foundation is going to require structural work too.

We’ve made the decision to move and build new and incorporate all the structural stuff to exceed ADA requirements in the design... single floor, but capable of having a second one, no carpet, 36 or 42 inch doors and so on.
 
On that bathroom - similar job (no shower, kept cabinet, new granit, tile, paint, fixtures) cost me less than $5k with labor to include refreshing the laundry room. Look for different labor, this is highway robbery.

On the house - same approach. Get general contractors talking with you. Shop around. Should be (depending on the extend i.e. materials) around $50K-$60K.
 
Not really, in that it requires replacing a load supporting wall the door is in, and essentially reworking a total of 6 walls, two ceilings, flooring in two rooms besides everything else. Half the attic decking has to come up and all the blown in insulation in that area.
 
What is the goal ?

A. Fix shortcomings your wife sees in your current home so she gets off your case about moving
B. Improve the current home with an eye on increasing its value for an eventual sale


Neither will work.


Living in a paid off heavily appreciated home while on a retirement trajectory, I would do the absolute minimum required to keep the wife from walking out the door. That 6-month 150k complete remodel with landscaping that you are hinting at will not affect the value of your home substantially as it doesn't affect the value of the comps the bank hired appraiser uses to set your price. Unless you add bedrooms, bathrooms and square footage, your comps will remain all the other 4 bdrm split-levels in a 5 mile circle. The wording in the comments section will change from 'shows well with market customary features' to 'shows exceptionally well with market customary and premium features' and maybe you'll get an extra 5k on the final price.
Update what needs updating and 2 years into retirement, decide whether this house/location still works for you.
 
My wife and I have done substantial renovations by ourselves on several houses:

Totally gut, expand, add a window, replumb, retile the master bath.
Replace the cabinets/sink in the master dressing area.
Put down new floors all over the house (we've done just about every technology out there; finished in place hardwood, prefinished hardwood, laminate, sheet vinyl, plank vinyl, ceramic tile, etc... except for carpet).
Did some substantial rewiring.
Rebuilt load bearing porch columns.
Build decks.
Redo kitchen cabinets and countertop.
Redo a few bathrooms (new sink/vanity and toilets).
Regraded our side yard (rented a bobcat, that was fun)
Lots of paint.
Installed raised (vegetable) beds.
Completely finished the basement including installing an Endless Pool and wine cellar.
Framing round solartube skylights (the tubing installer wouldn't do it).
Terracing the side yard (building retaining walls).
Installing recessed lighting in the master bedroom.
Relocating lighting sconces (meant pulling wires out and rerunning them in different places).
Installing my own alarm system.

My daughter when she bought her house laughed at us and said "You people like watching all those home improvement shows and doing the work, but I'm just going to pay someone to do it."
That attitude changed once she got quotes. Then I'd get calls asking "Do you have a tile saw? Can you bring it over and show us how to use it?" and the like.

Yeah, blown in insulation can be a pain but it's not insurmountable. What was kind of cool was when I cut down the ceiling in the master bath, the blown-in fiberglass that had been undisturbed for decades. It just hung there in place for a few seconds until I touched it and it all came raining down.
 
Get on HGTV "Love it or list it" show.... Let us know when it airs, and let us be entertained...


In the alternative, tell her she's right. And only look at homes in airparks.
 
Yeah we can’t get on the HGTV shows ... our son-in-law produces shows that HGTV airs. Family connection disqualifies. :)
 
Changing floor levels is probably out of the question. That's pretty fundamental to how a house (or any other building) is constructed. Based on your description (and lacking plans or pictures) you'd be talking about somehow temporarily supporting the roof structure, tearing out the entire garden level including foundation (and slab?), building a new structure including foundation up to the old roof and reincorporating the roof. And it's entirely possible that it would be cheaper to remove the roof structure and rebuild it as well. Not sure.

I'd surmise more than your house is worth. Possibly cheaper to tear the whole thing down and rebuild it.
 
jsstevens said:
Changing floor levels is probably out of the question. That's pretty fundamental to how a house (or any other building) is constructed. Based on your description (and lacking plans or pictures) you'd be talking about somehow temporarily supporting the roof structure, tearing out the entire garden level including foundation (and slab?), building a new structure including foundation up to the old roof and reincorporating the roof. And it's entirely possible that it would be cheaper to remove the roof structure and rebuild it as well. Not sure.

I'd surmise more than your house is worth. Possibly cheaper to tear the whole thing down and rebuild it.
Click to expand...
That was my first strong reaction, too. After re-reading the OP a few times, I got thinking that maybe it isn't quite as impossible/impractical as it originally sounded, although no matter what it won't be cheap.

IF I understand the floor plan and proposal correctly, one side of the house has a full basement and a ground floor living area, while the other side's foundation/basement floor is higher at only three feet below ground level. That's still a foundation for that side of the house, correct? The outside load bearing walls could remain untouched and the current floor/ceiling between the partially sunken basement and garden-level second floor removed and dropped to the first floor ground level of the other side of the house, leaving a three foot crawl space underneath and a lofted ceiling to the existing roof. Might actually be very attractive. You'd of course have to take into consideration any interior load bearing walls on that side of the house (if any) and whether or not the existing floor is managing side loads, but with enough engineering those challenges could be met without changes to the foundation or roof.

Of course, I'm a musician, not a builder. Just thinking out loud.
 
I can't give you anything close to an estimate on that, but I can give you a few thoughts. One is that contractors still seem to be mostly busy, and you're talking about a job that's a lot of work. Remodels take more skill and effort than new construction with an overall lower ROI.

It will take shopping around for you to find the right contractor who both 1) has the time and 2) has the interest to help you out. It took us a while to find that guy for our deck project. He's out there now working on it (solo) and doing a great job, we're very happy. But understand that it will take you a long time to find that person.
 
Wouldn't it be easier to install a handicapped lift on the stairs if and when you get to that point? Because you might not.
 
A few good reasons to sell and move...
1 the wife wants to. It will be better for you to do as she wants.
2 consider the tax consequences of selling. You will likely be able to avoid capital gain on up to 500 AMU's. Who knows how long that tax break will be available.
3 major reconstruction costs might price you out of the local market.
4 interest rates are dirt cheap right now.
 
It’s one thing to plan for a possible future lifestyle change.

It’s another to rip up the whole house for a change that hasn’t happened yet before you even know what the change is.

I wouldn’t do it.
 
My data is way out of date. When we bought our house 24 years ago we stripped the kitchen down to the bare walls, took out a non-load bearing wall between the kitchen and breakfast room and rebuilt from scratch. Same for the master bath, took everything out and rebuilt from scratch. 1/2 bath in the entry hall was a bit simpler. Downstairs bath was also a bit easier. $50,000 back then. I don't want to think about what it would be now.
 
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