NBR: If you've renovated a fixer-upper, come in

Jen&Len

There a house in an area we love for really cheap.  The thing is, it's a fixer upper.  It's structurally sound...all cosmetic renovation.

It's a small house, 1500 sq feet, so material costs won't be too much compared to a bigger house.  IF we get the house, we'd like to totally redo the kitchen (including knocking down the non load bearing wall between the kitchen and dining room, new cabinets and adding an island), add a master bath with shower (they already have plans drawn up for this and there's room inside the master bedroom so no addition is needed) and possibly convert an attached garage into a family room.

 I tried looking stuff up online but estimates were hugely varied, and understandably so.  We've never done any renovations at all, so I was just curious to see what the costs were (barring any underlying issues).  I know it depends on location...but I just wanted to get a general idea to see if it's worth it or if we should just move on and look for something more updated. 

If you wouldn't mind, can you share what you had done and how much it cost you?  We probably won't be doing any of it ourselves except maybe painting.

kcisthebombdotcom

We did lots of renovations to our house, but we mostly just paid for supplies only since my uncle/DH did a good chunk of it together. My FIL also will come help with projects here and there, but we don't pay him. Cost-wise, we put about 2k in the bathroom and 2500 in the kitchen.

I think it's been worth it personally. We got to do everything our way. With that being said, we got the big projects out of the way before we started having children. If I were looking for a house in this point in time, I would buy something that didn't need work because it's going to be a lot more challenging to do it around 2 kids.

TheBuddha

Before we moved into our home we completely remodeled the master bath. We moved a wall to make the closet smaller and the bathroom larger.

We added a pedestal soaking tub, a new double vanity, all new fixtures and a new tiled shower with double shower heads. We hired out the plumbing and the tiling in the shower. We did everything else ourselves.

We spent 23,000.

French Dads Are Best

It really depends on where you live. The prices we have here, both for materials and labour, will be different from those where you are.

We did some very similar work in the house we bought a year ago, but we did all the work ourselves. It still wasn't cheap, of course. However, there is a general rule of tumb, saying that the materials cost is roughly half of the total cost, when the work is done by a reasonable contractor, quality and pricewise. So, you could have a good look at the price of the things you want cabinets, bath, shower, etc etc including things like pipes and screws and the like it's crazy how the small things can add to the cost!, add 10 to be on the safe side, and then multiply all this by two. This is your rough number of where you should be. If a contractor estimates much higher or much lower, go away.

I would suggest that you have at least 5 estimates from local contractors, have a second chat with those in the middle of the price range and go with the one you have a good feeling for.

Finally, if I have to give you a number, my guess would be 30,000 to 40,000. But I might be very wrong. Good luck!

ammare

Do you know if the electrical and plumbing are up to date?  That can be a huge expense there. Also, how new is the roof and was it done well? Those are the 3 things I wish we had looked at more closely.

This is all for a home around 1100 square feet. 

We renovated a much older home and had to have all new windows and installed central heating/air.  About $4,000 for the windows and $7,000 for the heat/air.

We completely gutted the kitchen and took down a wall. The kitchen remodel, with everything included was probably around $12,000, nothing high end. No backsplash yet, I still want to do that. We put about $3,000 into the bathroom, but the floor was already retiled. About $2,000 to refinish the wood floors. We did the painting ourselves. But, it's a rental now and we just recently had it repainted for about $1,000.

Oh, and we had to do yard stuff too. New lawn and sprinkler system. I don't know how much that was. MH had that done along with a fence. Probably close to $8,000 total though.

Lots of work was done by us and family. I don't like seeing how much we have put in to that house. But, we had some huge expenses like the windows and heating/air. Plus, all the yard stuff. Also, little things always come up because it was an older home, 1950's.

bobbi5342

I'd say about $50,000.

Lilywildcat

We purchased a fixer upper and we spent about $45-50,000. We did a lot of work to it and my dad and hubby did a lot. We put in new windows and doors, new and extended concrete veranda and added a cold cellar, gutted and remodeled 2 bathrooms, new wood flooring thru out, all new paint, new fences, remodeled laundry room. When we sold the house last year, we got $80,000 over what we paid 7 yrs prior.

shannm

Coming in late but in the Philly area, we had a quote for a basic bathroom remodel at 18K.  We did it ourselves and spent less than 4K.  

We are also planning on doing our kitchen and I don't expect to pay any less than 20K.