Additions and renovations

[bullygirl979]

I'm a reg on TIP and H&F but I need some perspective regarding additions and renovations. And no, I'm not looking for 100% concrete "I'm going to hold you to this" information. 

BF and I are looking for a house. He wants land, a giant garage. I want an open floor plan and a nice kitchen. I found an 1850's farmhouse on 3 acres. It is 120k less than most of the houses we are looking at. It is only 1000 square feet, though. I'm saying that it is possible to do a reno, an addition and get him a giant garage for 100k, if we do some of the work ourselves. He thinks I'm insane and that an addition alone will cost 80k. FWIW, I'd want to add about 700 sq ft to the house. And yes, I know that a lot will depend on what the existing walls are made of. 

Thoughts? Any personal experience with this? 

[bunnymendelbaum]

It completely depends on so many things. House itself, site, lot topography, and most importantly your location. I'd consult with a local contractor and a realtor.

[dr.girlfriend]

I've found homewyse to be good for estimating stuff...looks like they have an addition cost estimator.

www.homewyse.com/projects/add_on_to_home.html

We renovated a 9x11 kitchen and it was $20k alone, so I would be concerned too about everything you are thinking you might do...

[bullygirl979]

Thanks for the link, dr.girlfriend! I will check it out.

And for those you previously asked, we are in a LCOL area. This house is on 3.3 acres, is 1000 sq feet and is in one of the nicest suburbs in my city. The current asking price is $110k.

[mrs.jacinthe]

Jan 28, 2015 12:14:15 GMT -5 bullygirl979 said:

Thanks for the link, dr.girlfriend! I will check it out.

And for those you previously asked, we are in a LCOL area. This house is on 3.3 acres, is 1000 sq feet and is in one of the nicest suburbs in my city. The current asking price is $110k.

Is it priced in line with other similar properties or is it significantly less?  I'd be wary of buying a 150 year old house that's priced below similar properties (especially if the listing says "as is") due to potential for significant structural issues.

That said, I *own* an old house (125 years) and we're planning on placing an addition in ~10 years.  It will be a MAJOR reno - adding approximately 800 sq ft, new roofing, gut/new kitchen, new HVAC, gut/new bathroom, possibly add a garage - in a HCOL area, so we're currently budgeting $300k in today's money, but in 10 years, I'm guessing we'll be looking at substantially more than that.  

[treedimensional]

Oh heck yeah, I agree with you spouse, except I think he is underestimating how much it will cost.

[bullygirl979]

Jan 28, 2015 14:22:42 GMT -5 jjwritergirl said:

Even in LCOL I don't see how you could accomplish all that on 100k. Do you already have all the tools and equipment needed? That adds up quickly. With a house that old you are likely to run into other, non-planned repairs and renovations just in order to finish the ones on your list. I am specifically thinking of plumbing and electrical incompatibilities. Our house is only 25 years old and we still put a lot of extra money into our kitchen reno because of finding other things wrong with the house once stuff was gutted.

If you think the project is possible, I would take an architect and/or contractor with you to a walk through and discuss all your plans. We did this in advance and it was invaluable. We knew which walls we could safely remove, what electrical issues we may run into, etc.

And this is exactly what we need to find out. I'm saying it is as least worth looking in to, as we don't know if it's been updated. The listing has updated windows, furnance, roof, etc but doesn't have that info (as well as what the walls are made of).

[msmerymac]

My mom is planning to gut 2 full baths and a kitchen in a LCOL area and her estimate is $90k, no garage, structural work (except for filling in 2 windows in one bathroom, because who has windows on 3 walls in a bathroom?), or addition.

I want to say it cost my parents almost $30k to add a 3 car attached garage about 20 years ago, and that was with doing the demo of the old garage themselves.

So it depends on what you want. For an easy addition, I can see $100k, assuming you're adding something simple like a family room and a bedroom or two. If you are adding a master suite with a 5 piece bath AND re-doing the kitchen AND re-doing the existing bath AND adding a garage AND moving walls to open the space, you'd probably be way better off building or finding something more in line with your wants already.

[mrs.jacinthe]

Jan 28, 2015 15:28:16 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

My mom is planning to gut 2 full baths and a kitchen in a LCOL area and her estimate is $90k, no garage, structural work (except for filling in 2 windows in one bathroom, because who has windows on 3 walls in a bathroom?), or addition.

I want to say it cost my parents almost $30k to add a 3 car attached garage about 20 years ago, and that was with doing the demo of the old garage themselves.

So it depends on what you want. For an easy addition, I can see $100k, assuming you're adding something simple like a family room and a bedroom or two. If you are adding a master suite with a 5 piece bath AND re-doing the kitchen AND re-doing the existing bath AND adding a garage AND moving walls to open the space, you'd probably be way better off building or finding something more in line with your wants already.

LOLOL, it's like you can see my reno list. 

[r]

We did a near gut on the first level to our previous 1900 farmhouse. It all started with replacing a few floor joist in the hallway which was dipping. Can of worms I tell ya. We eventually had to replace all the floor joist on the first level and add some foundation piers. It was a lot of dirty nasty work. I did a lot of the demo to help cost and we had to have them stop at the plywood sub floor because we could not afford them anymore. We got a serious deal on the work.. it could have been a lot more expensive. We ended up spending 60k on contractors labor and material. We eventually DIY put down pergo floor and redid all the 5" baseboards to match and had new carpet laid in the first floor bedroom... So add another 10k in those materials. We finally sold the house a year ago and we sold for exactly what we bought it for 8 years before. Live and learn... Don't always trust your inspector when he says the slight bowing to the hallway was settlement and it will be an easy fix in a couple of years. Nope nada nope.

[jillybean222]

I think it depends on what everyone else said but also if you can add value to the house by making improvements. We recently put about $200K into our house that we have owned for 6 years but added a lot more to the market value...if we ever had to sell for any reason, we would make back our money and then some. We don't plan to go anywhere but it is nice to know aren't stuck. Oh and our house was built in 1967 and we found some surprises...I can only imagine what you would find in a 125 year old house!!!

[msmerymac]

Jan 28, 2015 15:34:17 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

Jan 28, 2015 15:28:16 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

My mom is planning to gut 2 full baths and a kitchen in a LCOL area and her estimate is $90k, no garage, structural work (except for filling in 2 windows in one bathroom, because who has windows on 3 walls in a bathroom?), or addition.

I want to say it cost my parents almost $30k to add a 3 car attached garage about 20 years ago, and that was with doing the demo of the old garage themselves.

So it depends on what you want. For an easy addition, I can see $100k, assuming you're adding something simple like a family room and a bedroom or two. If you are adding a master suite with a 5 piece bath AND re-doing the kitchen AND re-doing the existing bath AND adding a garage AND moving walls to open the space, you'd probably be way better off building or finding something more in line with your wants already.

LOLOL, it's like you can see my reno list. 

Our reno list when we bought included expanding the mud room to put a powder room in, re-doing the kitchen and re-doing the bathroom. The longer we live here the more fantastical it becomes. Like, we could tear down the kitchen/mudroom/3rd bedroom addition on the back of the house and TOTALLY REBUILD IT and double the size and make the small bedroom a master suite with a full bath and walk in closet. For like $180k minimum, I'm sure, lol. I get it. 

[downtoearth]

I don't know costs for an addition AND a garage, but I would talk with your lender about that if you're doing a loan and planning to go for a construction loan or renovation loan (Homestyle and 203k, I think). I don't know the details, but there are requirements on lending up to 95% of the appraisal for the house, so it might be the limiting factor. Could you do the garage now and wait to add on until later or vice versa?

[lb2006]

It is all dependent on what is found when walls are opened

We gutted(completely) and added an upstairs and shop, adding approx 1300 sq ft. Our house was built in 1971 and we prob spent close to $300k on it. It can get really expensive really quickly . Same as jillybean though - we have less in our house now than what we can sell it for, so keep that in mind when renovating. You don't want to overdo your house for the neighborhood

PM me if you have garage specific questions - my H added an I-beam, other components etc

HouseBlog is in bio

[bullygirl979]

Thanks, everyone! The houses surrounding this one are assessed at between $275-550k. I drove by the house today. The house looks roughhhhh, but the lot is gorgeous. I might still push BF to look at it with me but I'm not as confident now lol.