Home remodeling..how many go it alone?

[daisy]

DH and I are tearing apart and rebuilding a farmhouse built late 1800's.  It was ancient when his ex-in laws bought it in 1942.  I wish they had done no 'improvements' to it rather than what WAS done. 

Its been a long and arduous process and we are a kitchen, bathroom, laundry room and living room away from being done.  It would have been much faster to pay for help....but he and I are of the mindset "we can do it no matter how long it takes".  Well, I'm about done with that thought process.  I just don't want to allocate $$$$$$$ to this because we want to move in 2 years and would lose too much $$$$$.  

I am am going to hire out the drywall, that's for sure.  We have done 4 bedrooms to this point and DH curses the non-square walls every time... It's getting old.  

Next at house is going to be built BRAND NEW on acreage we already own.....by someone else!

has anyone here taken on a whole-house remodel and lived to talk about it?

[resolution]

DH ripped our house down to studs and put in new plumbing, electric, drywall, trim, and new shower/tub/sink in the bathroom. We did have to have an electrician sign off on the wiring due to permit requirements. We moved in after the upstairs was done and we spent two years living with the downstairs in various stages of being ripped apart. We still need to redo the kitchen but it is currently very functional even though it is from the 1940s. We hired roofers to put on a new roof.

I told DH that if he ever wants to remodel another house, we have to keep living in our current house until it is done, because I refuse to live in a half constructed home again.

[Deleted]

I gutted my first house with my then boyfriend and some help from a roommate.  Man that was fun.  I wouldn't want to do it again now with kids, but it was cool living in a house where you could just be sitting there and decide "hey, lets tear that wall out" and grab the crow bar.  LOL  We turned a 2 bedroom 1 bath into a 3 bedroom 2 bath and just generally opened it all up.  I don't think we stuck much money in it, I never kept track, but it was in a constant state of construction from the time I bought it until just before I sold. 

[thyme4change]

We did a lot by ourselves - but my father was also a key piece to any large job.  We have added some things to the list of things we won't do ourselves.  We did drywall once - and it looked so crappy that drywall was the first thing on the list of things we won't do.  Plumbing seems to be on the list - although I am not sure why.  My father does electric, so we haven't hired that out - but we haven't done much without him.  

Kitchens are the worst to do yourself because living without one is tough.  We did one bathroom and spent two months sharing the hall bathroom with the kids - no big deal.  But once you pull that kitchen sink out, or the stove - life gets really interesting.  When we did our kitchen we made a point to do one side and then the other - so we were only without a stove for 2 days and without a sink for 1 day.  We lived with old cabinets and counters on one side and new on the other for a few months while we caught up with life.  It was pretty hilarious.  We also had stacks of cabinets in the office.  If we had done a full demolition, we would have had several miserable weeks.

[daisy]

Jul 17, 2014 22:58:38 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

Kitchens are the worst to do yourself because living without one is tough.  We did one bathroom and spent two months sharing the hall bathroom with the kids - no big deal.  But once you pull that kitchen sink out, or the stove - life gets really interesting.  When we did our kitchen we made a point to do one side and then the other - so we were only without a stove for 2 days and without a sink for 1 day.  We lived with old cabinets and counters on one side and new on the other for a few months while we caught up with life.  It was pretty hilarious.  We also had stacks of cabinets in the office.  If we had done a full demolition, we would have had several miserable weeks.

This is my fear with the kitchen.  My folks ripped out the kitchen in their old house......and it was MONTHS if not almost a year before they had it done.  My mom was the problem; she's a perfectionist to the nth degree and she wanted the original wood floors to finish.  Which was fine but there were 10 layers of linoleum and asbestos tile to scrape up/abate first.  What a cluster that was.  

Our  kitchen will come down in a day, we need an electrician, plumber and drywall guy ready to go right away and cabinets on the front porch ready to hang.  Which sounds like it could be a huge mess, right? DH is thinking about doing this in the winter when he is off from teaching.  I'm thinking the crock pot and microwave will be my best friends.  

[hoops902]

::has anyone here taken on a whole-house remodel and lived to talk about it?::

We doubled the size of our existing house, finished all the newly created area, then gutted the old part of the house and are finishing up the remodel of that section.  The only things we didn't do ourselves was dig a basement and put up the foundation walls.  Everything else was my wife and I and a little muscle from immediate family.

[Deleted]

My folks, by themselves, completely remodeled the home I was raised in. Said it was the biggest most costly mistake they'd ever made. Doing it even contributed to them getting a divorce. I remember mom wanting to create an open area concept, so they tore down a big supporting wall and brought in this huge ugly steel beam to use to support the upper floor. The beam hung about 10 inches below the height of the ceiling. When it came time to sell the house, potential buyers couldn't get past the sight of that ugly beam.
 

[Bonny]

Hell no! I'm smarter than I look!

We've bought several houses over the years that would be considered "fixers". But I remember when we had our first Formica-type countertop replaced and it took the installer about 6 hours to install because very few of those 1959 walls were true. It cost $500 and I remember thinking DH and I would have been divorced over a $500 home improvement...

[daisy]

My ex and I remodeled 2 houses together but I don't think that contributed to our divorce except for the fact that I wanted to move to a newer house that we didn't have to fix up and he refused.  Along with 12,000 other issues.

when I met my DH, I was excited to take on this project....but it's dragged on too long.  That's why I'm game to hire things out, plus he is a working fool and trying to coordinate when we are both home to work on projects has become a PITA.  

Its frustrating because we have this 10 acre parcel and we know the EXACT house we want to put on it, but this house has to go first.  Because it's an old house when we tear up one thing, it uncovers a dozen new problems.  We tore up the floor in the LR, and half is old pine that can be refinished, half is wide planks that could be refinished but has been patched so needs to be replaced or covered.  I HATE stuff like that.

[Deleted]

Jul 17, 2014 23:59:43 GMT -5 @missmargarita said:

We're redoing our kitchen but I'm going to hire it out because I expect it to be done in less than 2 weeks... Preferably less than 1.

Let us know if that timeline really happens. Good luck.

[Sam_2.0]

Jul 17, 2014 20:00:13 GMT -5 @missmargarita said:

DH and I can't even paint the same room together without wanting to strangle each other... So no.

This is us! We like to plan, and I can handle some level of painting, but DH absolutely refuses to (some childhood bad experience or something). I really want to paint our new house inside & out but will have to save up to have it done since the vaulted ceilings are way outside of my comfort level.

[greeniis10]

We definitely hire out.  DH is a perfectionist and I hate to waste money, so it's best to hire professionals.  DH usually does tear-out and removal of old materials (which then results in weeks of whining about his back).

When we remodeled our kitchen thankfully DH took the week off to keep the contractors and all the others (plumbers, electricians, floor people, etc.) on track and on schedule.  We moved the fridge and microwave to the dining room and were able to manage for a few days without a full running kitchen but it was done completely within a WEEK.  It can be done, but even if you aren't doing the actual work yourself it has to be your full-time job, like it was for DH. 

[kittensaver]

Jul 18, 2014 10:54:24 GMT -5 laterbloomer said:

Jul 17, 2014 23:59:43 GMT -5 @missmargarita said:

We're redoing our kitchen but I'm going to hire it out because I expect it to be done in less than 2 weeks... Preferably less than 1.

Let us know if that timeline really happens. Good luck.

It can happen, but you will pay for it - big time. Two years ago when we did some major upgrading, I started playing general contractor and hired a bunch of different people "along the way" to get things done. I ended up being referred to one guy I really liked, so we stuck with him until the end; we let him bring in some of his subs that he knew and trusted. That really made life a LOT easier, although we still did a good chunk of the work ourselves (design, tear out, clean up, materials selection and purchase, painting, trim work, etc).

This particular guy (who I actually will use again!) had an interesting way of talking about remodeling. He wrote on a piece of paper:

FAST

GOOD

CHEAP

and then he handed it to me and said, "pick any two." And he's right. More than a decade ago (when the program was only a few years old), he was one of the featured contractors on the old NBC show "Extreme Makeover Home Edition." It sort of became his tagline "The One Week Bathroom" (but without using their branded name). He "specializes" in doing bathrooms and kitchens in one week. He does it by having EVERYTHING in place before he ever picks up a hammer. All supplies, materials, fixtures, appliances, etc must be on-site before he begins - and if there are changes he will not begin until they are finalized. Then he has crews working every hour construction is allowed in our city (restricted to 8 am to 8 pm because of noise ordinances). You can bet that that two, six-hours-each crews are expensive! But he guarantees he will be done in a week - and he gets it done.

So yeah - it can be done. It just depends on whether or not you want to pay for it

[kittensaver]

Jul 18, 2014 11:40:03 GMT -5 greeniis10 said:

We definitely hire out.  DH is a perfectionist and I hate to waste money, so it's best to hire professionals.  DH usually does tear-out and removal of old materials (which then results in weeks of whining about his back).

When we remodeled our kitchen thankfully DH took the week off to keep the contractors and all the others (plumbers, electricians, floor people, etc.) on track and on schedule.  We moved the fridge and microwave to the dining room and were able to manage for a few days without a full running kitchen but it was done completely within a WEEK.  It can be done, but even if you aren't doing the actual work yourself it has to be your full-time job, like it was for DH. 

I still have the kitchen (no major tear-out, just face lifting) and a bathroom (complete remodel) left to go to complete this house. When that happens I'm sending DH on vacation!  He HATES HATES HATES the dusk and dirt and upheaval and inconvenience of home remodeling. He likes the finished product, but he HATES the process - it turns him into a crazed lunatic - no kidding. I'm the one who will be acting as general to keep everyone on track. So if I want to stay married, DH will have to go off to Space Camp or a trek through the Andes or something else on his bucket list for 2 weeks while those rooms get done - Lol.

[greeniis10]

In that case kittensaver, yes, definitely send him away!  DH & I are pretty much role-reversed: he handles all the choosing of the paint, colors, flooring, fixtures, etc.  I'm not very picky and I trust his judgement, so I go to work, let him deal with it all day, and enjoy it when it's done! 

Occasionally, if he can't decide on something I'll tell him, "Give me your top 3 choices and I'll see what I like."  He will spend HOURS (days, sometimes weeks) researching a project before he even starts it so I just enjoy the finished project and contribute money-wise.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Jul 18, 2014 10:54:24 GMT -5 laterbloomer said:

Jul 17, 2014 23:59:43 GMT -5 @missmargarita said:

We're redoing our kitchen but I'm going to hire it out because I expect it to be done in less than 2 weeks... Preferably less than 1.

Let us know if that timeline really happens. Good luck.

My MIL and SIL both had their kitchens redone in a week.  But they stuck with the existing layouts and I think SIL stuck with her existing floor. 

I'm scared to start working on my kitchen, even just ripping up the carpet.  I don't know what's all under there.  I know there's some kind of tile in the corner where I peeled back the carpet but I"m assuming we're going to find subflooring issues.  Which would mean dealing with my horrible cabinets (Damn, maybe I should rip up the floor...)  Which will mean new countertops and likely a new backsplash.  And we want to remove the built in oven and separate stovetop and replace with 1 unit.  And if we're going to do that, we may as well move the fridge and open up to the living room some. 

[Deleted]

Just so it's clear, my "Good Luck" was sincere. I hope it gets done in a week or two for them.

[daisy]

Jul 18, 2014 18:18:23 GMT -5 laterbloomer said:

Just so it's clear, my "Good Luck" was sincere. I hope it gets done in a week or two for them.

I second that.  I wish we could get everything aligned so that mine would come together in a week.  I'm hoping for a month at this point with everything we need purchased and ready to go, just the wait for plumbing and electrical.  

Thanks everyone one for sharing experiences and feelings on the subject. 

[Peace Of Mind]

Luckily DH knows how to do most things so we do most ourselves.  He takes forever but he doesn't ruin the rest of the house while doing the project like contractors do and I know he'll show up. 

I have never owned a used home.  I have always bought new or had it built to my specifications because I could not handle renovating anything to extreme like some people here can.  I'm too anal and too particular and most contractors are just stupid, lazy and klutzy where I live and that's just the ones that actually show up.  Seriously - I don't know one person who has not had the exact same experience where it was a clusterfu-nction (my new nicer way to say that) and I've lived here over 40 years now.  We joke that contractors around here are people who can't get real jobs because they have so many issues.  LOL!

Good luck to anybody who's doing home improvements and may your patience last through to the end. 

Off the top of my head we've done (mostly DH):

Granite counters in all 3 bathrooms.
Upgraded lighting and all faucets in the entire house.
We did the demolition in the kitchen for our new granite (we didn't like what the builder offered and it was twice the price!) and then DH plumbed in our new sink, facet and put up our Pendant lighting himself which involved holes in the ceilings and electrical work.
Dimmers where I wanted them and added switches for our outdoor fountain and our light post he added.
He added a hose bib/water faucet to the one side of the house where we needed it (so we have 3 now).
He installed our uplighting and 2 fountains and all of our trees and large landscaping plants.
He installed our security camera system but still isn't done putting all the camera up.
He installed the cabinets, sink, faucet, etc. in our garage.

Stuff like that.  I have the best DH! 
  

[Bonny]

Jul 19, 2014 14:14:21 GMT -5 Peace Of Mind said:

Luckily DH knows how to do most things so we do most ourselves.  He takes forever but he doesn't ruin the rest of the house while doing the project like contractors do and I know he'll show up. 

I have never owned a used home.  I have always bought new or had it built to my specifications because I could not handle renovating anything to extreme like some people here can.  I'm too anal and too particular and most contractors are just stupid, lazy and klutzy where I live and that's just the ones that actually show up.  Seriously - I don't know one person who has not had the exact same experience where it was a clusterfu-nction (my new nicer way to say that) and I've lived here over 40 years now.  We joke that contractors around here are people who can't get real jobs because they have so many issues.  LOL!

Good luck to anybody who's doing home improvements and may your patience last through to the end. 

Off the top of my head we've done (mostly DH):

Granite counters in all 3 bathrooms.
Upgraded lighting and all faucets in the entire house.
We did the demolition in the kitchen for our new granite (we didn't like what the builder offered and it was twice the price!) and then DH plumbed in our new sink, facet and put up our Pendant lighting himself which involved holes in the ceilings and electrical work.
Dimmers where I wanted them and added switches for our outdoor fountain and our light post he added.
He added hose bib/water faucet to the one side of the house where we needed it (so we have 3 now).
He installed our uplighting and 2 fountains and all of our trees and large landscaping plants.
He installed our security camera system but still isn't done putting all the camera up.
He installed the cabinets, sink, faucet, etc. in our garage.

Stuff like that.  I have the best DH! 
  

I think it's time you visited the SF Bay Area. While you and I are having cocktails on the deck, I'm going to slip your DH a little list. I expect he'll be finished by the time we're finished with our girl's week in Sonoma and Napa.

[Peace Of Mind]

Jul 19, 2014 14:45:31 GMT -5 Bonny said:

Jul 19, 2014 14:14:21 GMT -5 Peace Of Mind said:

Luckily DH knows how to do most things so we do most ourselves.  He takes forever but he doesn't ruin the rest of the house while doing the project like contractors do and I know he'll show up. 

I have never owned a used home.  I have always bought new or had it built to my specifications because I could not handle renovating anything to extreme like some people here can.  I'm too anal and too particular and most contractors are just stupid, lazy and klutzy where I live and that's just the ones that actually show up.  Seriously - I don't know one person who has not had the exact same experience where it was a clusterfu-nction (my new nicer way to say that) and I've lived here over 40 years now.  We joke that contractors around here are people who can't get real jobs because they have so many issues.  LOL!

Good luck to anybody who's doing home improvements and may your patience last through to the end. 

Off the top of my head we've done (mostly DH):

Granite counters in all 3 bathrooms.
Upgraded lighting and all faucets in the entire house.
We did the demolition in the kitchen for our new granite (we didn't like what the builder offered and it was twice the price!) and then DH plumbed in our new sink, facet and put up our Pendant lighting himself which involved holes in the ceilings and electrical work.
Dimmers where I wanted them and added switches for our outdoor fountain and our light post he added.
He added hose bib/water faucet to the one side of the house where we needed it (so we have 3 now).
He installed our uplighting and 2 fountains and all of our trees and large landscaping plants.
He installed our security camera system but still isn't done putting all the camera up.
He installed the cabinets, sink, faucet, etc. in our garage.

Stuff like that.  I have the best DH! 
  

I think it's time you visited the SF Bay Area. While you and I are having cocktails on the deck, I'm going to slip your DH a little list. I expect he'll be finished by the time we're finished with our girl's week in Sonoma and Napa.

LOL!  I hope you don't mind us hanging around for about, ohhhh, a year.  He's THAT slow but I'm in! 

[8 Bit WWBG]

I am certainly not qualified to do a remodel of much of anything on my own, or with DW.  I won't touch anything involving electricity, and very very minimal touching of anything involving plumbing.  I'll hook up a faucet, but I'm not messing with pipes.

I very much subscribe to the fear that I'll blow double or triple any potential savings when something goes wrong and I have to hire it out anyway.  Well that and I don't want to devote every evening, most weekends, and a bunch of vacation time.