S/O New Home Construction Upgrade Budget

[boiler717]

I pulled out our paperwork after the new home construction list. Here's a list of what we upgrade (and what the base was when I could remember) and what percent of our total upgrade budget these accounted for. Hopefully this helps someone looking at building! We picked a house that had a fairly low base price and upgraded a lot on it instead of picking a more upgraded house that had things we didn't want.

Structural Changes - 25%
Sunroom
Bathroom off of 4th bedroom

Flooring - 20%
First floor hardwoods (upgraded to 5" on main floor from 3" in entry and hallways)
Ceramic tile in laundry room and secondary upstairs bath (laminate standard)
One level carpet and pad upgrade (be sure to remember to only pay for the carpet you are upgrading if you've replaced some carpet with hardwood)

Exterior and garage - 15%
Exterior flood lights
Dimensional shingles
Prairie window grids
Elevation credit (we chose a more simple one with less brick)
Stone wrap
Lanscaping (required by HOA)
Deck (I ended up getting at 12x14 deck for free)
3 car side entry garage  (2 car front was standard)
Belt garage opener (chain standard)
Keyless garage opener

Basement - 12.5%
Full basement with 9 foot ceilings and 5 daylight windows (half basement with 8 foot ceilings and no windows standard)
Bath rough-in
Rough-in water softner
Rough-in wet bar

Kitchen - 15%
Deluxe layout (double ovens, more cabinets, etc)
Gas line for cooktop
Wiring for pendant lights over island
Carrara marble countertops
Wine bar
Cabinet upgrade
Deleted appliance credit
Kitchen island upgrades -- we did box newell legs and faux cabinet door fronts instead of beadboard
Stainless single vessel farmhouse sink
Double rollout shelves
Soft close drawers
Stainless faucets
Sink at wet bar

Miscellaneous - 12.5%
Master bedroom tray ceiling
Whole house humidifier
Dining room crown
Office crown
Box newel railing on staircase
Glass French doors to office
Smooth white ceilings
Raised bathroom vanities
Expanded Jack and Jill vanity (deleted door in between sink and made one long counter)
Frameless shower door in master
Upgraded door hardware
Upgraded baseboards / crown / trim work
Front wood staircase
Exterior service door off of laundry room to deck
Rough in laundry room sink

[cajungal]

Jan 25, 2013 15:12:14 GMT -5 boiler717 said:

I pulled out our paperwork after the new home construction list. Here's a list of what we upgrade (and what the base was when I could remember) and what percent of our total upgrade budget these accounted for. Hopefully this helps someone looking at building! We picked a house that had a fairly low base price and upgraded a lot on it instead of picking a more upgraded house that had things we didn't want.

Structural Changes - 25%
Sunroom
Bathroom off of 4th bedroom

Flooring - 20%
First floor hardwoods (upgraded to 5" on main floor from 3" in entry and hallways)
Ceramic tile in laundry room and secondary upstairs bath (laminate standard)
One level carpet and pad upgrade (be sure to remember to only pay for the carpet you are upgrading if you've replaced some carpet with hardwood)

Exterior and garage - 15%
Exterior flood lights
Dimensional shingles
Prairie window grids
Elevation credit (we chose a more simple one with less brick)
Stone wrap
Lanscaping (required by HOA)
Deck (I ended up getting at 12x14 deck for free)
3 car side entry garage  (2 car front was standard)
Belt garage opener (chain standard)
Keyless garage opener

Basement - 12.5%
Full basement with 9 foot ceilings and 5 daylight windows (half basement with 8 foot ceilings and no windows standard)
Bath rough-in
Rough-in water softner
Rough-in wet bar

Kitchen - 15%
Deluxe layout (double ovens, more cabinets, etc)
Gas line for cooktop
Wiring for pendant lights over island
Carrara marble countertops
Wine bar
Cabinet upgrade
Deleted appliance credit
Kitchen island upgrades -- we did box newell legs and faux cabinet door fronts instead of beadboard
Stainless single vessel farmhouse sink
Double rollout shelves
Soft close drawers
Stainless faucets
Sink at wet bar

Miscellaneous - 12.5%
Master bedroom tray ceiling
Whole house humidifier
Dining room crown
Office crown
Box newel railing on staircase
Glass French doors to office
Smooth white ceilings
Raised bathroom vanities
Expanded Jack and Jill vanity (deleted door in between sink and made one long counter)
Frameless shower door in master
Upgraded door hardware
Upgraded baseboards / crown / trim work
Front wood staircase
Exterior service door off of laundry room to deck
Rough in laundry room sink

I wish we would have done that!  We had no idea how much we would hate the off-white ceilings until we started painting the walls.  Now we're painting ceilings too, and it's such a PITA...

[tripleshot]

We did the smooth ceilings too and I love them!

[boiler717]

Smooth ceilings were only $600! Total bargin. They don't like to do them because they are a PITA but it's worth asking for.

[pitterwoo]

.