Within the limits
Posted on June 8, 2007 - Filed Under Business |
"What is your objective with these houses? Are you going to flip them or rent them?"
WonderWoman and I had become strategists. The objectives and goals for this project were splayed out for all to see. These are necessary in order to understand the drivers and tasks needed to be done.
- The houses would be rented.
- Renovations had to be complete in 45 days.
- I need to be able to command an insane amount of rent for the house: $2800.
- My budget for this project: $32,000
The big areas for any house are always the kitchen, followed by the bathroom. Fact of life.
For the kitchen, the decision was made to redo everything. New cabinets, countertops and appliances. Serious consideration was given to keeping the current kitchen, adding on as necessary. Two things came to mind: (1) rent needs to be high and a clean, new kitchen can help obtain that (2) in the future, why rehab a rehabbed kitchen?
The main bathroom is a big one. Per the inspection report, this room is the cancer of the house. Completely gutted and redone. The plumbing is a creative mixture of PVC pipe, galvanized steel, and drinking straws.
New tub, new sink, new toilet, new tile-work.
One benefit: I told WonderWoman the shower head will be raised so a normal 6′2" person, such as myself, could shower without doing the limbo.
The new master bathroom will be a 3/4 bath: enclosed shower, toilet, sink. This involves invading the current "laundry room" which is right next door.
For the balance of the house, the trim has to be redone; the floors refinished. Walls have to be painted, lighting installed.
For paint, the interior obviously needs to be painted as well as the exterior. My good friend Anne is already working on color schemes. She’s thinking bisque . . . which I always thought was a type of soup.
WonderWoman and SideKick have already given out some great cost saving tips. Those will be shared as they are implemented.
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10 Responses to “Within the limits”
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“normal 6′2″ person”? When do I meet him?
$32,000?? More like $60,000 from your description. Materials alone look like $25,000, unless you are going low end on the kitchen. Wonder Woman must not only be good, she must be cheap! Would you share the budget as well as the cost savings tips?
I think $32K is a very reallistic budget. Materials shouldn’t cost more than $12k.
Mikki, the “normal” 6′2″ person is your employer. hint hint
AI, I learned from my last project and I won’t be making the kind of mistakes that warrants a $60,000 rehab. But yes, I’ll be sharing budget and cost savings tips.
Kenric, I budgeted $3000 for appliances, based on your input from the last project.
But I see my biggest expense being labor.
I assume you looked at other $2,800 rentals in the area and concluded that you could go with the low-end stainless package on the appliances and possibly granite tile counters instead of slab. Cabinets depend on how much bigger you are making the kitchen, but you must be using some type of decent cherry or maple with a little style to them. You are re-plumbing two baths, and I’m guessing you are using mid-price Home Depot fixtures there. You are not installing carpet, just refinishing floors. If that’s the case, then my original estimate was high.
Kenric lives in Phoenix, where he can get work done a lot less expensively. The labor cost multiplier from Phoenix to Northern California is typically 2 to 2.5 (used to be 3), and I can’t imagine that coastal Southern California is much cheaper.
I’m looking forward to matching the budget to the pictures.
Cliff,
If you are going to be buying at HD/Lowes retail, go to Ebay and get some 10% coupons. In fact, I’ve got a Lowes 10% off up to $500 coupon if you’d like it. You’ll need to get a stack of them.
Another Investor,
I just can’t see a $60k project here. Just off the top of my head, I see $8k for kitchen (unless he makes it real big). $2k per bathroom, a non fancy one, of course.
Add your HD coupon and save $1200. Then get more stuff!
I didn’t account for carpeting or outside stuff. So my materials estimate is probably low.
I did a similar project like this for $15k in materials and $13k in labor back in Chicago.
Kenric
An entire whole house remodel (including brand new kitchen, brand new bath, add on bathroom, reconfigured laundry room, new electrical and new plumbing) for $15k in materials?
Current kitchen (well, before I demo’d it) had TWO receptacles. It now has 4 CIRCUITS with 9 receptacles, per code. And a separate circuit for the lighting.
House also has (d) illegal water supply lines, coupled with unhealthy water supply lines, no smoke detectors, jerry rigged electrical conduit throughout.
California has a huge push on for reducing energy consumption, all detailed in a document called “Title 24″. Not only are the rules in this document required to be implemented, it also adds resale value. Naturally, it adds costs, too!
Occupancy sensing light switches, fluorescent lighting in some rooms to name a few.
There is no insulation in walls or ceilings, single paned windows throughout, and a leaking water heater.
Hey Mikki,
I didn’t have an add-on bathroom when I did mine. What I did have was 2 bathrooms gutted, two walls knocked down, large kitchen put in from studs. I actually have my breakdown somewhere but this is from memory. This is only materials.
Support beams, 2×4s, drywall ($500)
Kitchen cabinets (solid maple, dovetail drawers) from HD $4500
SS sink $450
kitchen faucet $300
Granite countertops 1-1/4″ $2600
Flooring (porcelain) $500
Lighting (recessed, fancy pendants) $1000
Insulation, wiring, plumbing $1000
Bath 1 (shower pan, toilet, sink, fixture, tiles, mirror) $1000
Bath 2 (toilet, vanity, sink, faucet, mirror) $600
Paint $500
Window $400
Miscellaneous little things (nails, mud, etc) $1000
I think this comes out to close to $15k. And of course I used 10% coupons all the time.
I forgot about the $3k in appliances in my figure, so maybe it was $18k. I’m going to post some of my before and after pics in a few days on my blog so you can see the remodel.
Kenric, this house is going to need
~1500 sq ft of drywall (~ 1000)
~250 sq ft tile flooring for bathrooms and kitchen/laundry (up to cliff’s tastes)
~1000 sq ft of R19 insulation (~ 400)
~150 ft of plumbing supply (~ 500)
Entire reworked drain system (~ 300 still working on this)
Also needed is a new water heater.
That’s not even the fun stuff!
The rough in electrical materials alone are already over 1K which included new breakers, smoke detectors, recessed lighting housing, in addition to the normal stuff like wire!