Home Remodel: Do, Don'ts, Advice

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Originally Posted by Foggy_Goggles

Your contractor should then be telling you which supply houses he/his plumber uses and possibly even giving you the name of there sales person. You can walk-in (appointment is better) and say, "I'm Danno, this is my shorty, we are working with XYZ contactor".

I use http://martzsupply.com/locations/showroom/

and https://www.ferguson.com/content/showrooms

For the expenses that are "variable" did he give you an allowance or range? Did he provide any guidance on what may be options within you budget? Because, if not, that "Quote" is BS and expect some major changes once you select your finish materials. Here are two easy examples:

1. Shower tile -6x6 ceramic straight lay vs. marble in a pinwheel pattern set on a diagonal with a glass deco band. They don't cost the same to install. If the install cost is "fixed" problems may arise.

2. Shower Trim - Delta Lahara suite vs. Hansghroe suite with a hand shower and the valve controls on the opposite wall. One rough-in takes about a hour. The other requires about 3 times that plus you'll have to re-drywall the ceiling if the backside of the bathroom is on an exterior wall.


Point being, heads up for "fixed" costs before the finish schedule is complete because sometimes one drives the other. If your contractor is not providing any direction and you wife chooses a furniture style vanity with a vessel sink and a wall mount faucet when your exisiting supply and waste lines are coming through the floor Danno ain't gonna get laid in a month of Sundays once you see the plumbers bill

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Thanks. We don't have a firm quote yet, just an "estimate", we're meeting with the bathroom guys this week to start moving forward. But their initial estimate was more detailed than any of the others we received. for the tile install, the estimate did indicate that the tile must be "6" or larger format". And I understand your point re the install, but TBH, we're going to be doing everything fairly straightforward. So, while we are taking down/moving a wall between the bathrooms, everything else will be simple: big tiles on the floor and surrounds (at most one small line of accent tile on the surrounds), fixtures and controls staying in the obvious places, etc. We're trying to make the bathroom look nice, but on a budget. We have a long wish list of things in the house, and want our money to check as many boxes as possible. So, while all of that mosaic tile looks super cool, it also costs a shitton more, and we're going to go with large format tile.

I'd recommend 12 x 12 tile for any shower or tub walls; less joints means less probability of joint failure

Do: Buy a house that has the specs that you want

Don't: Do a remodel

Make sure the shower installers pit the tile right on sheetrock. All the modern waterproofing systems are a waste of money.

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Originally Posted by Stu Gotz

Do: Buy a house that has the specs that you want

Don't: Do a remodel

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Not really possible here, not for the same amount of money anyway.

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Originally Posted by RootSkier

Make sure the shower installers pit the tile right on sheetrock. All the modern waterproofing systems are a waste of money.

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Is this some special fruity tile. Orange peel finishes are hot this year.

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Originally Posted by Danno

Not really possible here, not for the same amount of money anyway.

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Whoosh...

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Originally Posted by Danno

Not really possible here, not for the same amount of money anyway.

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Same thing here. I feel your pain, my friend. Buying a fixer-upper is the only reason I was able to find a decent home in my max price range at all.

^ everyone told you to stay in dentistry school.

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Originally Posted by Stu Gotz

Do: Buy a house that has the specs that you want

Don't: Do a remodel

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Apologize for being glib. 5 months into a re-model and I am losing the collective melon.

^^^ Still, they're wise words. In reality, we'd have done well to consider spending more up front on our current house and just getting one that had already been updated as opposed to buying something older and then remodeling it ourselves. Remodeling sucks when you're paying good contractors what they're worth and trying to live in the house during the process. Maybe some rich dentists can afford to buy a fixer and make it super nice while the live in one of their various rentals during construction. But, for the rest of us, it just sucks to live through the process and fund it with cash.

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Originally Posted by Stu Gotz

Apologize for being glib. 5 months into a re-model and I am losing the collective melon.

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Originally Posted by Cruiser

^^^ Still, they're wise words. In reality, we'd have done well to consider spending more up front on our current house and just getting one that had already been updated as opposed to buying something older and then remodeling it ourselves. Remodeling sucks when you're paying good contractors what they're worth and trying to live in the house during the process. Maybe some rich dentists can afford to buy a fixer and make it super nice while the live in one of their various rentals during construction. But, for the rest of us, it just sucks to live through the process and fund it with cash.

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I am afraid of the remodel, for sure. We looked at real estate for a long time, and even if we could somehow manage the buy/sell at the same time, even if the market wasn't so hot that we could move at a reasonable pace on it all, the reality was this: there was no updated home that we could afford. For the amount of money we are spending, we could have gotten the same house in a "better" neighborhood or a house in our neighborhood (maybe) with slightly better stats. Nothing really updated. We would have to move out of Boulder to find an updated home that we could afford, and we don't want to move out of Boulder (or more accurately, we'd be ok with moving out of Boulder, but not ok with selling our foothold in Boulder).

Expect to go over budget is all i can say. We are four months into adding a master bedroom upstairs which involved opening our roof to add an almost house wide dormer. Along with some other maintenance and improvement things we had done..doors, exterior painted, new cedar fence, etc...we are landing at about 175k when it finishes up here soon. We stuck to mostly upper middle end fixtures and features. The windows, quartz countertop and custom built-ins had the most inflated costs imo. Still made more sense to do this than buy another house. Real estate has gone up 24% in the last 2.5 years here. And its all time and materials here, no bids since anyone with skills is busy. Will be happy to get carpeting in and wrap this all up soon... Good luck to you and have fun! ;)

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Originally Posted by Yonder_River

Expect to go over budget is all i can say.

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yeah, I hear ya. We're trying really hard to choose cheap options as much as possible. For ex, some of those mosaic tiles are cool, but nope. And we saw a marble tile we loved at $10/sqft, and a porcelain tile that we liked at $3/sqft. No marble tile for us. Heck, I don't think my wife even wants to spring for the heated floors in the bathrooms, due to expense.

We know shit is going to go over budget. We've watched enough house shoes on TV to know that they're going to knock down some wall and then go "uh oh, this is a problem."

Well as long as they're not standing in the rubble of a collapsed roof when they say it, it'll all work out.

I don't get the heated floor business. I've never stood in my bathroom and thought "damn, I wish this floor was warmer." But then again, I've got one plastic foot, so maybe you bipeds have stronger preferences.

The electric heat floor came with our house. Never had it before, but it's kinda nice.

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Originally Posted by Danno

I am afraid of the remodel, for sure. We looked at real estate for a long time, and even if we could somehow manage the buy/sell at the same time, even if the market wasn't so hot that we could move at a reasonable pace on it all, the reality was this: there was no updated home that we could afford. For the amount of money we are spending, we could have gotten the same house in a "better" neighborhood or a house in our neighborhood (maybe) with slightly better stats. Nothing really updated. We would have to move out of Boulder to find an updated home that we could afford, and we don't want to move out of Boulder (or more accurately, we'd be ok with moving out of Boulder, but not ok with selling our foothold in Boulder).

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Yup, and I certainly don't mean to try to scare you off from moving along with your remodel. It's crazy how much home prices have increased down here over the last 3y since we bought this place and I can only imagine how much worse it is up in the PRB.

Re: budget - if you expect to go over budget, you will. If you budget for contingencies, you'll probably be OK. Shitty contractors view any inconvenience that a professional should have been able to foresee is an "egregious concealed condition". A budget is not "it would be nice if it cost XXX".

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Originally Posted by Pegleg

I don't get the heated floor business. I've never stood in my bathroom and thought "damn, I wish this floor was warmer." But then again, I've got one plastic foot, so maybe you bipeds have stronger preferences.

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I don't have tiled bathroom floors, but I do notice that the kitchen floor is cold in the morning, and my kiddo notices. My wife said she's never noticed, but then she puts on slippers when she wakes up so it's kind of hard to notice cold floors with fuzzy fleece things on your feet.

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Originally Posted by Danno

I don't have tiled bathroom floors, but I do notice that the kitchen floor is cold in the morning, and my kiddo notices. My wife said she's never noticed, but then she puts on slippers when she wakes up so it's kind of hard to notice cold floors with fuzzy fleece things on your feet.

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next best thing to floor heat are these:
http://a3.zassets.com/images/z/1/5/0...-MULTIVIEW.jpg
http://www.zappos.com/haflinger-as-c...=pd_brand_page

$73 for slippers? Really?

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Originally Posted by glademaster

$73 for slippers? Really?

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i usually pay around $40, but yeah, that's them

We added on a bathroom, office+closet space, storage room, water heater room for a new tankless. Wound up getting a bid from our GC for foundation, framing, drywall, roof, rough plumbing and electric, including WH and installing the plumbing and electric fixtures after we purchased. Contractor was to bid on the finish carpentry, etc but we wound up buying and installing our own cabinets, I built some custom size cabinets and did the finish carpentry. We hired a tile guy and someone to do the shower enclosure and countertop (Kerrock, great stuff but not widely available). We painted. Doing it that way maybe saved a little money on the painting and finish carpentry, but mainly it made the bidding process a lot easier, without having to think of every thing ahead of time. On the other hand, we didn't have a final price in writing. We had a couple of thousand in extras--decided to go with 2x8 framing to match the engineering specs on the footing and for extra insulation (north side of house), paid the excavator a little extra to move some rocks around. All in all bidding it that way was a nice way to go.

BTW-in the North Tahoe Truckee area Ron Adams is a great contractor, even if he is a knuckle dragger/hard core metal lover. And contrary to popular opinion buying cabinets, doors, lumber, etc and hiring people locally has repeatedly turned out to be both cheaper and better quality than shopping in Reno, especially when you figure in delivery.

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Originally Posted by Foggy_Goggles

It is really only complicated if a. you let the process overwhelm you and b. get bogged down in the minutia before you even get started.

Perhaps, I don't make it clear. You need to figure out a pro-forma/hypothetical/first draft scope of work and finish schedule. From there, you should be able price the project and adjust to your budget as needed. If you haven't even started and you are asking where to see a kitchen faucet in person you are doing it wrong. Hows that Excel spreadsheet coming along?

Here is your homework, this should take you are your wife about 1-2hrs. depending on whether you have good focus or are totally fucking scrambled.

A. Make a best guest about what you need for plumbing fixtures. Off the top of my head you need:

Kitchen - sink, faucet, disposal

Bath 1 - tub or shower base, tub/shower faucet, sink, sink faucet

Bath 2 - see bath one

oh, maybe a couple of shitters. I suggest comfort height elongated bowl.

If needed, maybe make a column in your spreadsheet for budget/midgrade/top end? If you have any questions, post them here and I'll try and answer. If it's too daunting, just stick to Delta. What kind of "education" is needed for this task?

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What about a bidet so Danno can wash his vj when this project goes awry?