How much would you guess this renovation might cost? UPDATED

[janegold]

Apr 23, 2019 19:06:16 GMT -5 fryjack2 said:

If you upped your budget by the Reno estimate you received, what other homes does it open up for you? Might be worth it to put the Reno money towards a home that doesn’t need all that work.

Or are you in love with that particular home?

Our house search budget does not have $700k of wiggle room. This particular house is priced such that we could buy it and put in $400k of work now, but not all $700k.

I also am a bit concerned about the lack of diversity in this town, especially compared to where we are now. But a lot of our family and friends are there, which makes it more appealing. I would also be thrilled to be in your town, and you know we’ve been looking there too, but it’s been harder to find houses we like there in our price range.

Would def appreciate any and all recs and numbers! Thank you!

[sonrisa]

Around here? $600,000 at least. remodeling costs in the bay area have always been higher than average, but with the wine country fires, it's become astronomical. Our neighbors did something similar 9but less ambitious) recently. At last check it was costing them $750K and they hadn't finished yet.

[rikki]

We are doing something similar in Chicago, so med-high COL.  We are gutting our 3100 sq foot house and adding a 1,000 foot addition. Our quotes have been 374-450.  The one we are going with is 425.  We do not need new roof (except addition), garage, landscaping and windows which we did last year.

[dr.girlfriend]

I was going to guess $500 - $600k. I would also worry about what your taxes and insurance would be when you're done. :-)

[thatgirl2478]

5 years ago we almost did a similar thing.

Our dream house needed: New roof, new electric, new plumbing, new boiler, insulation and air conditioning. Then it needed extensive structural porch work, 3 new bathrooms (reconfigured, new everything etc), and an entire kitchen. Once we got THAT basic stuff down we could work on the floors, and the decoration of the walls with.

For just the basic stuff, we brought our contractor in to have him look at it and he estimated it would be around 200k. And we live in a MCOL area. That's not touching a driveway, garage, anything cosmetic (and it needed exterior painting 10 years ago), or doing anything to the 1 acre yard.

I could see all of that stuff adding up to another 100k easily. In my area. Where people are leaving in droves.

[janegold]

Well we just put in a verbal offer. There are already 3 others on the table, though - one of which is all cash, but lower. We shall see...

[agnes]

plenty of people have responded with what I'd say, but I'm just curious about your definition of high-end? Is it like Liebherrr refrigerator/freezer and La Cornue range or KitchenAid fridge and Viking range?

[janegold]

Apr 25, 2019 14:00:39 GMT -5 agnes said:

plenty of people have responded with what I'd say, but I'm just curious about your definition of high-end? Is it like Liebherrr refrigerator/freezer and La Cornue range or KitchenAid fridge and Viking range?

My preference would be 6-burner Viking or Wolf range and full side-by-side Subzero fridge and freezer, or similar.

[janegold]

Update in OP.

[dr.girlfriend]

Wow, that's a beautiful, gracious house, and I'm glad I don't live in your area. :-D That's quite a price tag for a fixer-upper. Makes me feel better about the $200k renovation we are embarking on!

[janegold]

Apr 29, 2019 10:04:28 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

Wow, that's a beautiful, gracious house, and I'm glad I don't live in your area. :-D That's quite a price tag for a fixer-upper. Makes me feel better about the $200k renovation we are embarking on!

It is not affordable, that's for sure, although that area is particularly expensive.

And that house was actually a steal by the neighborhood's standards...the person who got it and puts the time and effort into it will probably make a killing on it, if and when they sell.  (We looked at a house a few doors over from this a few months ago, similar size lot, not nearly as much character/potential, and it sold for hundreds of thousands more - the buyers are tearing it down and building new.  Same with the house next door to it.) 

[janegold]

Apr 29, 2019 22:17:00 GMT -5 RockNVoll said:

Apr 29, 2019 11:49:56 GMT -5 janegold said:

It is not affordable, that's for sure, although that area is particularly expensive.

And that house was actually a steal by the neighborhood's standards...the person who got it and puts the time and effort into it will probably make a killing on it, if and when they sell.  (We looked at a house a few doors over from this a few months ago, similar size lot, not nearly as much character/potential, and it sold for hundreds of thousands more - the buyers are tearing it down and building new.  Same with the house next door to it.) 

I missed it   Would you consider re-posting for a bit, or PM me a link?  Yes, I'm nosy, and love looking at real estate

I do, too - it's probably my primary past-time.   

Limited time re-post for you :

[janegold]

Apr 30, 2019 13:04:57 GMT -5 RockNVoll said:

janegold , I've seen it if you want to delete!

I agree that's cheap for the area, but you would have to really love that location to make it worth it I think.  You've saved yourself a lot of frustration and pain in taking on a huge reno project!  I'm also curious where guests park since it looks like there's no street parking.  And no one wants to deal with all the shoveling that place would've entailed.

So, yeah, it's OK that you didn't get it   Good luck with the continued search; inventory around here just sucks.

Thanks - it's out there somewhere.

Street parking is allowed on one side of the side street, but that was one of the heftier aspects of our renovation proposal - we wanted to take down the freestanding garage, dig out the remainder of the half-above grade basement on the closer end of the house and convert it to a double attached garage, and then lengthen the driveway.  Visitor parking is always such a hassle living in the city so I really would like our future home to have abundant and easy parking.

Good point re the shoveling though - it didn't occur to me that we would be responsible for the sidewalk in front of the house, since my building hires that out.

The location really would have been great for us though - 5 minute walk to the train and shopping, 18 minute drive to my office/Back Bay in no traffic, a lot of which is via a quiet back route, within a few blocks of several friends, a mile of H's aunt, etc.  Would have made leaving the city (which has been quite the existential crisis, especially for H) relatively painless.

[mrsukyankee]

Shoveling is the one thing I don't miss from when I lived in Watertown. Not at all.

[janegold]

Apr 30, 2019 14:30:46 GMT -5 RockNVoll said:

Apr 30, 2019 14:18:42 GMT -5 janegold said:

Thanks - it's out there somewhere.

Street parking is allowed on one side of the side street, but that was one of the heftier aspects of our renovation proposal - we wanted to take down the freestanding garage, dig out the remainder of the half-above grade basement on the closer end of the house and convert it to a double attached garage, and then lengthen the driveway.  Visitor parking is always such a hassle living in the city so I really would like our future home to have abundant and easy parking.

Good point re the shoveling though - it didn't occur to me that we would be responsible for the sidewalk in front of the house, since my building hires that out.

The location really would have been great for us though - 5 minute walk to the train and shopping, 18 minute drive to my office/Back Bay in no traffic, a lot of which is via a quiet back route, within a few blocks of several friends, a mile of H's aunt, etc.  Would have made leaving the city (which has been quite the existential crisis, especially for H) relatively painless.

Wow, really?!  That's surprising.  I actually ruled that town out as being juuuust too far out of Boston for my taste.  My aunt and uncle used to live there, just a few minutes from that listing actually, and it felt like a little bit of a haul driving there from Waltham never mind Boston.  With all those folks so near by though I can see why it was super tempting.  I hope something even better pops up for you guys soon.

Also, two-car attached garage is the best, but don't forget about having to shovel the driveway, too!  You can always hire out, but I've always wondered how quickly those services get to you, and how often given some of the bigger storms we get.  Can you tell I had to shovel out a long driveway as a kid?

I've wondered the same thing re shoveling/plowing services. Outdoor maintenance in general is going to be a real shock to the system.  Maybe we should just scrap this entire idea and relocate to the south where we don't need to worry about shoveling AND full-service lawn maintenance is affordable.

Re the commute, yeah, the eastern parts of town can be really really quick if you are traveling during off-peak times and you know some of the back route shortcuts.  My H's cousin lives farther west in town though, close to the college, and it feels like it takes forever to get to his place.  But we're open to other possibilities beyond this particular town - we're even looking at a couple towns in the North Shore (but let's not get started on the commutes from there...ugh).

And thanks

[devonpow]

Boo I missed the listing! Outsourcing shoveling/plowing is the best thing we ever did, lol - and really not as expensive as we feared! We are on a corner lot with a LOT of sidewalk plus have a large 4 car driveway- no way was I shoveling. Every storm now we are so pleased we hired a plowing service lol.

Good luck in the house search - it took us 6 years to find ours so I know what a massive pain it is, but worth it in the end!

[fryjack2]

I'm sorry you didn't get that house

If its any comfort, we lost out on a home that needs a ton of real work and I was heartbroken. I know see it as blessing in disguise because the current owners have had to spend soooo much more money that we had anticipated needing to spend.

I'll keep my ears open for any insider scoop from friends on potential homes in that town for you.