Ryan
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Post by Ryan on Mar 15, 2017 17:14:19 GMT -5
I would get an architect, not a drafter. pay a couple grand to get someone good to make sure the rooflines/etc will all be nice and not looked tacked on. I would do it. I would pull a HELOC day one. I'd rather owe the money and have the 125K sitting in your brokerage vs spending that down. You can always pay off the HELOC after all the shooting is over. before you go ahead. make sure that this won't trigger some crazy city stuff like all new electrical or water lines or fire sprinkler requirements. it might add significantly to your cost if one of the above gets triggered due to the project. We have an architect now that basically drew up the plan and scope of work. We paid her a couple grand and she designed something that flows well with the house and addresses most of the problems, plus that looks nice. This is the first stage and will be good enough to get a solid quote, we'd have to pay more to get the construction drawings complete. She did bring up a couple issues that would likely need to be addressed, such as adding a bathroom would mean upgrading the water line. That's why we opted to basically keep the bathroom fixture count the same and just repurpose one of them for the master. We are looking at a HELOC too, but I'm a little concerned about the appraisals in my area. We have the largest of the original homes in my little area. Most of the other homes don't have a basement and are dated, so they'll sell for $400K or so. Ours has a full finished basement, bar, bathroom, and workout room downstairs. Plus the upstairs has nicer finishes. I have no doubt that we'd fetch at least what we paid, as is, but the appraisals are difficult because of all the comps aren't really comps.
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Urban Chicago
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Post by Urban Chicago on Mar 16, 2017 11:24:48 GMT -5
I would totally do it.
For the record, I've seen many really awful additions, as well as many really nice one.
Most of the bad ones I've seen are on suburban homes from the 80s-90s where the lot is configured such that you have very few options as to where the addition could be located. then the homeowner adds on in the only place they can, regardless of whether it makes sense for the house.
One was a "den" that the owner added to the front of his house, thus eliminating 90% of the front yard, because there was no space to add to the sides or back of the house. Also, now the den is right next to the living room, when the whole point of the addition was supposed to be offering a little privacy for the teenaged children.
It's very ugly, and I shudder to think of what they've done to their resale value.
All too common around here, but from your description you won't have these issues.
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techguy
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Post by techguy on Mar 16, 2017 11:34:09 GMT -5
Well, we finally moved forward and got the plans drawn up. At least, we got the preliminary concept drawings and scope of work in order to get some quotes. The plans would include a master bedroom/bath and borrow a little space from the existing house. Total SF that would be added would be 380 and, I'm being told, I could expect to pay around $150/SF for the new space. That total would be around $57K. Plus I'd need to do some work in an existing bathroom which could cost another $10-$15K. I'll be curious to see what the quotes come in at.... Yay!!! I think it's great that you are moving forward with this. I would love to hear updates as you go through your various construction stages.
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Ryan
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Post by Ryan on Mar 16, 2017 15:35:39 GMT -5
I would totally do it. For the record, I've seen many really awful additions, as well as many really nice one. Most of the bad ones I've seen are on suburban homes from the 80s-90s where the lot is configured such that you have very few options as to where the addition could be located. then the homeowner adds on in the only place they can, regardless of whether it makes sense for the house. One was a "den" that the owner added to the front of his house, thus eliminating 90% of the front yard, because there was no space to add to the sides or back of the house. Also, now the den is right next to the living room, when the whole point of the addition was supposed to be offering a little privacy for the teenaged children. It's very ugly, and I shudder to think of what they've done to their resale value. All too common around here, but from your description you won't have these issues. Actually that was one of the things holding me back was whether or not it would look right. The original house was just rectangular all the away across with a small bump out in the front to give it some character. They eventually added an addition on the back right of the house to give it an L-Shape. Our addition would basically make it a U-Shape and wasn't quite sure how that would look. We currently have a deck on the house so so my thought is to take out the deck and then do a brick paver patio between the 2 additions. This is way nicer than it would look, but something like this is what I was thinking...except our patio wouldn't go out that far. It would mostly fill in the middle of the U part of the house.
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Ryan
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Post by Ryan on May 5, 2017 8:53:51 GMT -5
So we've gotten back 2 quotes so far from contractors for the work. The first one came in at $120K, which I thought was outrageous. I actually was kinda pissed that he even submitted the bid because I got the impression that he was just eyeballing the costs and it probably wasn't very accurate.
The 2nd contractor was highly recommended from my architect and she called to say that his quote was ready and wanted to setup a meeting to discuss. The quote comes in and it's $165K! I wanted to just tell them to leave right away and not waste my time, but I wanted to pick their brain abit. $400/SF! Are you kidding me? Of course, they talked about how they don't use junk materials and how they don't use subs and all that.
I'm still waiting on a 3rd contractor to kind of see where that lands, but comparing the 2 quotes has me confused. One guy estimates concrete work at $30K and the other $11K, so I don't know which one is accurate.
Plus, I know there are economies of scale and all that, but I'm struggling to figure out how I could have bought my last house for $250K that was a 2 car garage, full basement, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and 2300 SF and how this addition could cost $160K.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on May 5, 2017 9:21:34 GMT -5
Sigh. I feel for you.
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on May 5, 2017 9:40:01 GMT -5
That's fucking ridiculous. New builds around here are ~$125/sf. Purchased my whole house, all 1,665 sf of it, for $120k.
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Ryan
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Post by Ryan on May 5, 2017 14:15:11 GMT -5
That's fucking ridiculous. New builds around here are ~$125/sf. Purchased my whole house, all 1,665 sf of it, for $120k. The average price per SF around here is around $220, so I don't know how builders can price things at $300-$400 per SF and get any business. I know most people don't put additions on to make money, but they also don't want to lose their a*s.
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Jake 48
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Post by Jake 48 on May 5, 2017 15:53:24 GMT -5
Ryan, I don't know where your located but in MA, adding a bedroom will often trigger a new septic system $$$ and bringing the smoke /CO detectors up to current code.
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dee27
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Post by dee27 on May 5, 2017 20:31:03 GMT -5
That's fucking ridiculous. New builds around here are ~$125/sf. Purchased my whole house, all 1,665 sf of it, for $120k. The average price per SF around here is around $220, so I don't know how builders can price things at $300-$400 per SF and get any business. I know most people don't put additions on to make money, but they also don't want to lose their a*s. Ouch!!
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movinonup
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Post by movinonup on May 5, 2017 22:32:42 GMT -5
Ryan Does the $400/sf include the cost of the patio? If so you should definitely back out that cost when figuring the cost/sf. You can also easily downgrade some of the materials and save a lot of money. Flooring can cost next to nothing or an insane amount per sf.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on May 6, 2017 11:47:08 GMT -5
That's fucking ridiculous. New builds around here are ~$125/sf. Purchased my whole house, all 1,665 sf of it, for $120k. New builds are nothing like major remodelings. There is a lot more that you have to take into consideration. Also, the cost per sq ft is very location dependent. I know up here, it is very high. A quick google shows a new build about $300/sq ft. Some of this is due to supply and demand, local contractors are slammed right now. The tile place I use told me that their contractors are booked into Aug. right now to install a granite or quartz countertop. 2 years ago, it took us about 2 weeks to get onto the schedule.
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on May 6, 2017 17:26:46 GMT -5
That's fucking ridiculous. New builds around here are ~$125/sf. Purchased my whole house, all 1,665 sf of it, for $120k. New builds are nothing like major remodelings. There is a lot more that you have to take into consideration. Also, the cost per sq ft is very location dependent. I know up here, it is very high. A quick google shows a new build about $300/sq ft. Some of this is due to supply and demand, local contractors are slammed right now. The tile place I use told me that their contractors are booked into Aug. right now to install a granite or quartz countertop. 2 years ago, it took us about 2 weeks to get onto the schedule. Obviously. New builds also include the cost of land and hooking up utilities, which can be substantial.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 7, 2017 7:10:49 GMT -5
If I didn't know better, I'd think you were my husband. Our financial and family picture is almost identical. The addition I want is a nice screen porch and patio. We spend tons of time in the backyard and the existing deck is old, too small and not ideal at all. But, it sucks shelling out the money to pay for it. I know this is an old post but I hope you go for it at some point; my house has a back porch overlooking the lake, with windows between the porch and the kitchen. When DH and I bought it, it was screened in and we paid $26K to enclose it, which was WAY more than we anticipated. (That included only particleboard flooring; I later tiled it myself.) I love that room. DS, DDIL and the granddaughters are here and the 3-year old loves it, too. She's learning about the different types of birds, and wants to eat most meals out there, which is fine with me. At this point I don't even care if it added $26K to the value of the house. OP, I know you're dealing with bigger amounts of money and they're pretty scary. While you may not feel comfortable asking neighbors what they paid for an addition, you could start with "We just got a quote of $XXX,000 for an addition and that sounded crazy to me. What do you think?" Even if they don't want to tell you what theirs cost, they could give you some valuable input.
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countrygirl2
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Post by countrygirl2 on May 7, 2017 10:24:02 GMT -5
I'm going in another direction. You both work so you are gone hours a day. You want to spend $85k to $120k for something that will sit there unused, what 90% of the time? Do you really need a bigger master, I mean really? Now a bigger kitchen and adding a laundry room or something like that I can see, you use that a lot.
Are you going to spend evenings in it or the living room, the kids have their own rooms so not cramped there. Are you doing it just because the neighbors are, just wondering. I think sometimes we are just spending because.
It's your money and do what you want of course. We have been there but we did most of the work ourselves and I understand many can't or don't choose to. It's quite an undertaking. I sure can understand not wanting to move, we didn't either the location was just perfect.
Now, having said that we did add an addition to a home, our daughter is an adult and for her. And we had no garage so that was part of it. It did make the house perfect, but my husband designed it all. We had a handyman that did the work, he was very good. We lived in an area that required no permits. It was useful and came out great so I can see it the other way too. But she lived in that section so it was used all the time. The house passed all the inspections with flying colors when sold so no issue there. It was only $30k to $40k and we added a full bath, half bath and expanded a closet plus an oversized 2 car garage finished inside with plywood and a half bath out there. We also added a huge concrete patio area big enough to park and wash our motorhome on. We were reroofing from shingles to metal anyway so the roof line just continued out. We could not buy the brick so had to use another color. To not make it look funny from the road we extended a board fence across from it.
At that same house we tore the roof off to the rafters, had to replace some of those, it was a huge span in the kitchen/dining room and husband put strong engineered wood as rafters to support it. The roof was in bad condition, he changed it to metal and he did it with our handyman and tenant, plus I insulated just before they were redecking and adding the metal. Another $20k I think, but we covered 3000 sq ft or more. He measured, drew up and had the metal cut for it. I spent $10k have new insulated windows and patio door in the house too. We figured we added $100k of work to the house but we only paid $25k for it and almost 2 acres in the 90's it was a foreclosure. We sold for about $220k. And we lived there for almost 20 years.
My husband tore out the whole kitchen while off one year, he went to the studs, rewired, replumbed everything it was beautiful and we left it, sigh. He put in all new cabinets, granite countertops, we did have those professionally installed, cost about $25k for everything. Our carpenter had a friend that was an artist with tile and he did the backsplash. Still I can't imagine spending that much but we were talking and he said remodels are a lot more per sq ft. I still miss that house, this one is beautiful but that one we put tender loving care into. Whatever your decision hope you are happy with it.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on May 7, 2017 15:06:50 GMT -5
If you have a finished basement with a bathroom why don't you use that as a master?
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countrygirl2
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Post by countrygirl2 on May 7, 2017 15:57:05 GMT -5
Just understand you will never get all your money back. The prices in the neighborhood limit you and being the biggest and best in the neighborhood will still not make it more. Consider its for your comfort not for a profit.
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mroped
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Post by mroped on May 7, 2017 17:17:59 GMT -5
You could have "new build" for say $150/sf and adding on existing at $250-$300 or more. When builders quote a price per square foot new build, they already have all the variables into account. When you add on existing there are way too many variables that cannot be accounted for therefore everybody piles them on just to be covered. If all goes right and there's are no unforeseen hitches- meaning that there was nothing out of the ordinary but the bid was for extraordinary- then the builder makes a killing. Likewise, if there are issues at every step then the builder is worth every penny.
For example, just something off the top off my head, your sewer lines might need altered/moved, your electrical feeds/panels will need replaced and all wiring needs checked. Anything and everything tha is outdated will need to be brought in compliance with the code otherwise they would fail inspections, and many other reasons.
Best for you would be to sit down with the contractor and ask for explanation but make it clear that the high quality materials shpill doesn't fly.
As far as you wondering why and how one concrete guy comes at thirty and one at ten I'd say that one of them thinks too much of himself while the other not enough. The truth is somewhere in the middle. Good luck!
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countrygirl2
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Post by countrygirl2 on May 8, 2017 0:55:16 GMT -5
We bought a 13 year old house hoping to do nothing. So far $28k for a metal roof, $1700 for termiting, yep we had termites. He said they just started but still. Then hubby dug out and added a bigger sump pump drain, pump, and battery backup system to make sure we didn't flood the basement. I was gone a lot and we had lots of power outages at that time. New driveways and added buildings. I swear new or old it never ends.
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hoops902
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Post by hoops902 on May 8, 2017 13:07:18 GMT -5
When they opened up the walls in our house they found sparking electrical, missing ductwork and no insulation. When you add an addition they have to open up existing walls to connect the ductwork, electrical and gas and then repair all of it.. We had to have a new support beam put in our attic. The more remodels we do the more I swear the next house will be brand new and custom. To the same point, a LOT of remodels lead to a lot of other work on existing parts of the house. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it's just "scope creep". After having done quite a few (2 big additions to our own home, some smaller ones to my dad's rental properties) I'm getting pretty good at understanding what stuff other than the addition is going to end up getting done...but I can say that the one we did to our own home also led to all new siding, plumbing, electrical, windows, doors, etc on the entire house (some planned, some not). It's hard to tell the house has an addition now, but it was definitely costly. The bigger impact than cost was just having the ENTIRE house torn up in one form or another for so long.
I'm not saying I wouldn't do it again, but I definitely wouldn't live in the house while doing it in the future...it would be on something new we buy and add on before moving in...but most likely I'd buy something with the necessary space and then remodel...remodeling and adding on are very different animals...particularly if you're doing all the work yourself (specifically, my wife will never forget when we laid the subfloor and then got hit with 2 weeks of rain...trying to keep it dry was nerve-wracking for her).
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Ryan
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Post by Ryan on May 8, 2017 15:33:10 GMT -5
Ryan Does the $400/sf include the cost of the patio? If so you should definitely back out that cost when figuring the cost/sf. You can also easily downgrade some of the materials and save a lot of money. Flooring can cost next to nothing or an insane amount per sf. I was fudging a little on the $400/SF because they will be redoing an existing bathroom and moving a doorway, but the vast majority of the work is the addition.
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Ryan
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Post by Ryan on May 8, 2017 15:34:28 GMT -5
If I didn't know better, I'd think you were my husband. Our financial and family picture is almost identical. The addition I want is a nice screen porch and patio. We spend tons of time in the backyard and the existing deck is old, too small and not ideal at all. But, it sucks shelling out the money to pay for it. I know this is an old post but I hope you go for it at some point; my house has a back porch overlooking the lake, with windows between the porch and the kitchen. When DH and I bought it, it was screened in and we paid $26K to enclose it, which was WAY more than we anticipated. (That included only particleboard flooring; I later tiled it myself.) I love that room. DS, DDIL and the granddaughters are here and the 3-year old loves it, too. She's learning about the different types of birds, and wants to eat most meals out there, which is fine with me. At this point I don't even care if it added $26K to the value of the house. OP, I know you're dealing with bigger amounts of money and they're pretty scary. While you may not feel comfortable asking neighbors what they paid for an addition, you could start with "We just got a quote of $XXX,000 for an addition and that sounded crazy to me. What do you think?" Even if they don't want to tell you what theirs cost, they could give you some valuable input. Yeah, I've been talking with some people about their projects and trying to get a ballpark, but it's difficult because of the variables that go into each one. Usually additions have another major project built-in (like a total remodel of kitchen) so tough to nail down costs.
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Ryan
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Post by Ryan on May 8, 2017 15:39:43 GMT -5
I'm going in another direction. You both work so you are gone hours a day. You want to spend $85k to $120k for something that will sit there unused, what 90% of the time? Do you really need a bigger master, I mean really? Now a bigger kitchen and adding a laundry room or something like that I can see, you use that a lot.
Are you going to spend evenings in it or the living room, the kids have their own rooms so not cramped there. Are you doing it just because the neighbors are, just wondering. I think sometimes we are just spending because.
It's your money and do what you want of course. We have been there but we did most of the work ourselves and I understand many can't or don't choose to. It's quite an undertaking. I sure can understand not wanting to move, we didn't either the location was just perfect.
Now, having said that we did add an addition to a home, our daughter is an adult and for her. And we had no garage so that was part of it. It did make the house perfect, but my husband designed it all. We had a handyman that did the work, he was very good. We lived in an area that required no permits. It was useful and came out great so I can see it the other way too. But she lived in that section so it was used all the time. The house passed all the inspections with flying colors when sold so no issue there. It was only $30k to $40k and we added a full bath, half bath and expanded a closet plus an oversized 2 car garage finished inside with plywood and a half bath out there. We also added a huge concrete patio area big enough to park and wash our motorhome on. We were reroofing from shingles to metal anyway so the roof line just continued out. We could not buy the brick so had to use another color. To not make it look funny from the road we extended a board fence across from it.
At that same house we tore the roof off to the rafters, had to replace some of those, it was a huge span in the kitchen/dining room and husband put strong engineered wood as rafters to support it. The roof was in bad condition, he changed it to metal and he did it with our handyman and tenant, plus I insulated just before they were redecking and adding the metal. Another $20k I think, but we covered 3000 sq ft or more. He measured, drew up and had the metal cut for it. I spent $10k have new insulated windows and patio door in the house too. We figured we added $100k of work to the house but we only paid $25k for it and almost 2 acres in the 90's it was a foreclosure. We sold for about $220k. And we lived there for almost 20 years.
My husband tore out the whole kitchen while off one year, he went to the studs, rewired, replumbed everything it was beautiful and we left it, sigh. He put in all new cabinets, granite countertops, we did have those professionally installed, cost about $25k for everything. Our carpenter had a friend that was an artist with tile and he did the backsplash. Still I can't imagine spending that much but we were talking and he said remodels are a lot more per sq ft. I still miss that house, this one is beautiful but that one we put tender loving care into. Whatever your decision hope you are happy with it. The addition isn't necessarily all for us, even though it is a master bedroom. We currently have 3 small bedrooms and my boys share one of them. Even now, and looking ahead, everything is cramped in the bedrooms. Cramped in our room because of a lack of closet space and because of the small bathroom, small in my kids room, etc. Also, it's hard to explain, but the main bathroom that the kids use is kind of exposed to the rest of the house. So with typical ranch, the bedroom wing will be down a long hallway so entering/exiting the bathroom is hidden to the people in the living area. In our house, that isn't the case so the remodel will resolve that problem in a relatively inexpensive way. This can really only be achieved if you have another bedroom because we'd be stealing room from an already small master bedroom. So the remodel would solve a bunch of problems at once. For a house that we could live in 20+ more years or longer, I think it's worth it depending on the price.
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Ryan
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Post by Ryan on May 8, 2017 15:41:13 GMT -5
If you have a finished basement with a bathroom why don't you use that as a master? We use the bedroom downstairs already as a workout room. The window is too small for a bedroom, so that would have to be remedied but that could be an option. In other words, I'm not a big fan of having people sleep in the basement for a lot of reasons, but it's something we'd consider depending on the prices we get.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on May 8, 2017 15:46:24 GMT -5
I'd enlarge the window and make it work.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on May 8, 2017 15:48:50 GMT -5
I'd also look at an IKEA and how they manage small rooms.
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Ryan
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Post by Ryan on May 8, 2017 15:50:50 GMT -5
You could have "new build" for say $150/sf and adding on existing at $250-$300 or more. When builders quote a price per square foot new build, they already have all the variables into account. When you add on existing there are way too many variables that cannot be accounted for therefore everybody piles them on just to be covered. If all goes right and there's are no unforeseen hitches- meaning that there was nothing out of the ordinary but the bid was for extraordinary- then the builder makes a killing. Likewise, if there are issues at every step then the builder is worth every penny. For example, just something off the top off my head, your sewer lines might need altered/moved, your electrical feeds/panels will need replaced and all wiring needs checked. Anything and everything tha is outdated will need to be brought in compliance with the code otherwise they would fail inspections, and many other reasons. Best for you would be to sit down with the contractor and ask for explanation but make it clear that the high quality materials shpill doesn't fly. As far as you wondering why and how one concrete guy comes at thirty and one at ten I'd say that one of them thinks too much of himself while the other not enough. The truth is somewhere in the middle. Good luck! I knew a remodel would be more expensive than the new build and I think my architect did a good job of putting the issues into the scope of work, so everyone went in eyes wide open. Still though, even the $120K bid seemed high to me....the $165K seems unreal. Actually though, the thing that is the most mind boggling is that my architect confirmed that an addition would run $150/SF ($60K) plus a portion for the bathroom remodel and interior changes. I actually thought the quote would come in at $80K and I'd build in a $20K overage budget. In this case, $165K? Come on!
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Ryan
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Post by Ryan on May 8, 2017 16:10:17 GMT -5
When they opened up the walls in our house they found sparking electrical, missing ductwork and no insulation. When you add an addition they have to open up existing walls to connect the ductwork, electrical and gas and then repair all of it.. We had to have a new support beam put in our attic. The more remodels we do the more I swear the next house will be brand new and custom. To the same point, a LOT of remodels lead to a lot of other work on existing parts of the house. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it's just "scope creep". After having done quite a few (2 big additions to our own home, some smaller ones to my dad's rental properties) I'm getting pretty good at understanding what stuff other than the addition is going to end up getting done...but I can say that the one we did to our own home also led to all new siding, plumbing, electrical, windows, doors, etc on the entire house (some planned, some not). It's hard to tell the house has an addition now, but it was definitely costly. The bigger impact than cost was just having the ENTIRE house torn up in one form or another for so long.
I'm not saying I wouldn't do it again, but I definitely wouldn't live in the house while doing it in the future...it would be on something new we buy and add on before moving in...but most likely I'd buy something with the necessary space and then remodel...remodeling and adding on are very different animals...particularly if you're doing all the work yourself (specifically, my wife will never forget when we laid the subfloor and then got hit with 2 weeks of rain...trying to keep it dry was nerve-wracking for her).
Yes, I can see how things would get out of control if you had a “While you are out here” type attitude. That’s why I’m somewhat nervous about putting any more money into the house. Looking back, I think we probably overpaid for the house at the time. I kind of can’t believe that that happened when we bought the house in 2011, but what are you gonna do. I knew the people before us paid $550K and then did an addition, so they had like $675K into the house when they sold to us. I think my thought process at the time was, “We’re getting this at $50K less than they paid for it 4 years ago, plus they put in $125K”. I should have been ignoring what they paid or put in and just put in an offer and used price per SF to justify. Still though, I say that but know my thought process at the time. When compared to the houses that we saw at the time, this was the best value. Still though, just given the dynamics of the area, I think I have to stop and revisit my options here: Option 1: Just live in the house as is with some minor tweaks. I could “close off” the bedroom area and add a bedroom by making the dining room into a bedroom. This would tackle 2 of the problems on the list (bedroom plus bathroom privacy issue). Option 2: Utilize the basement bedroom for when kids get older and someone wants to move down there. Option 3: Sell the house and then move. Assuming we can sell for $500K or so, we’ll have roughly $110K in equity. There is actually a 4 bed/2.5 bath on the market now for $575K. It’s updated, it’s new, and it has a basement. The location isn’t quite as good as where we are now, but it’s in a low tax zone so that’s good. I could probably get the house for $550K, put down $200K, and then have a payment close to what I'm paying right now.
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mroped
Senior Member
Joined: Nov 17, 2014 17:36:56 GMT -5
Posts: 3,453
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Post by mroped on May 8, 2017 16:18:12 GMT -5
It does seem to be a bit of a stretch when you are told one thing and ends up being double or more. Maybe you should ask a third contractor for a bid?! This is just a thought!
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zibazinski
Community Leader
Joined: Dec 24, 2010 16:12:50 GMT -5
Posts: 47,910
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Post by zibazinski on May 8, 2017 17:21:19 GMT -5
To the same point, a LOT of remodels lead to a lot of other work on existing parts of the house. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it's just "scope creep". After having done quite a few (2 big additions to our own home, some smaller ones to my dad's rental properties) I'm getting pretty good at understanding what stuff other than the addition is going to end up getting done...but I can say that the one we did to our own home also led to all new siding, plumbing, electrical, windows, doors, etc on the entire house (some planned, some not). It's hard to tell the house has an addition now, but it was definitely costly. The bigger impact than cost was just having the ENTIRE house torn up in one form or another for so long.
I'm not saying I wouldn't do it again, but I definitely wouldn't live in the house while doing it in the future...it would be on something new we buy and add on before moving in...but most likely I'd buy something with the necessary space and then remodel...remodeling and adding on are very different animals...particularly if you're doing all the work yourself (specifically, my wife will never forget when we laid the subfloor and then got hit with 2 weeks of rain...trying to keep it dry was nerve-wracking for her).
Yes, I can see how things would get out of control if you had a “While you are out here” type attitude. That’s why I’m somewhat nervous about putting any more money into the house. Looking back, I think we probably overpaid for the house at the time. I kind of can’t believe that that happened when we bought the house in 2011, but what are you gonna do. I knew the people before us paid $550K and then did an addition, so they had like $675K into the house when they sold to us. I think my thought process at the time was, “We’re getting this at $50K less than they paid for it 4 years ago, plus they put in $125K”. I should have been ignoring what they paid or put in and just put in an offer and used price per SF to justify. Still though, I say that but know my thought process at the time. When compared to the houses that we saw at the time, this was the best value. Still though, just given the dynamics of the area, I think I have to stop and revisit my options here: Option 1: Just live in the house as is with some minor tweaks. I could “close off” the bedroom area and add a bedroom by making the dining room into a bedroom. This would tackle 2 of the problems on the list (bedroom plus bathroom privacy issue). Option 2: Utilize the basement bedroom for when kids get older and someone wants to move down there. Option 3: Sell the house and then move. Assuming we can sell for $500K or so, we’ll have roughly $110K in equity. There is actually a 4 bed/2.5 bath on the market now for $575K. It’s updated, it’s new, and it has a basement. The location isn’t quite as good as where we are now, but it’s in a low tax zone so that’s good. I could probably get the house for $550K, put down $200K, and then have a payment close to what I'm paying right now. I'd do 2 or 3.
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