uu

Oh boy, I have never done home improvement, now I truly realize what other people have to go through for a big house. Thank god I just have a studio that is less than 600 square feet. I really thought $10K was enough since I was only doing the floor and the kitchen. Wholy crap, these things do add up. I am already approaching $20K. Let's see, contractor labor is $6K, new floors and kitchen stuff 4K, other material such as plaster/padded wood/paint/nails/molding/glue 1K!!!! (damn, I really didn't think all of these misc stuff!!!!) Then I have stove $800, range top $130, TV (???), sofa (???), bed (???)... damn damn damn.

My studio better come out good

And I thought I have expensive hobbie of modding cars, crap, modding a place is what I call a really expensive one.

astro

no doubt dude, but at least you're somewhat limited with the size etc. wait till you get your first home, it feels like an unending list of things to do and money to spend.

heck, i'm considering getting a real job strictly so that I can do more stuff to my new house!

keg1997

The other thing is you'd think that with a new house, you'd be spending less than on a comparable resale. You'd be wrong though....new house = $$$$$.
Closet organizers, window treatments, blinds, garage organizers, landscaping, paint to redo the builder white, etc...

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

^



Both of our houses have been new construction, and it seems that the actually construciton of the house is just part of it. We closed on our current house on 3/31/05... and to date, which is only about a a year and a half, we've probably spent close to $100k getting it the way we want... and we're not quite done yet!!

NSXNEXT

iTrader: (2)

Learn to do it yourself I've probably saved $10K buy doing it myself on just my master bathroom and basement.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

We would have spent even more money had we not done a lot of the work ourselves... especially in the backyard. We did almost all of the landscaping, built a deck, installed lattice, mulched, built a fountian, and so on. We probably saved almost $10k in landscaping alone back there by doing it ourselves.

RaviNJCLs

iTrader: (4)

Or hire NSXNEXT.

A friend of mine saved about $20K doing a lot of the work on his place. I think just in painting our place our selves we saved over $1500. The kitchen crap I did saved us a couple hundreds as well. If you pay to get everything done, it's always going to add up really fast.

Next year I plan on tackling re-doing the kitchen counters and the bathroom floor and vanity.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

^ Painting is one thing I refuse to do. We painted in our last house and I hated it. I'd much rather pay someone to paint then spend the time prepping and painting myself. That's one thing I'd gladly hire out...

RyeCL

yeah painting sucks. just got done painting my dining room over the weekend. still have to finish painting the molding and then painting some new bedroom doors i put in. its so time consuming.

/end rant

fsttyms1

<---- lucky enough to be able to do just about every thing himself (cause he knows how expensive things are)



(if he cant he has liscened friends for just about every thing else)

RyeCL

yeah i do everything myself....i just remodeled my kitchen (raised the ceiling, rewired, new drywall, new floor, cabinets, appliances),

replaced all the interior doors with new panel doors. gutted the yard, new ceiling fans, outside lights, replaced all outlets in house, blinds, paint, toilets, etc...

glad i knew how to do it myself, also glad i had a dad who could bring all his tools and help me. saved a TON of money.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

We hired someone to stain our decks and pergola this past summer. The deck off of our house is 420sqft of deck not including the steps (about 12 plus a 4x4 platform), the floating deck by the pool is 128sq feet, and the pergola is 208sqft. Add in the steps and railing you're looking at about a total of about 900 square feet of wood... charge was $350 plus stain/paint (pergola was painted) which is irrilivent since I would need to buy them even if I did it. Not only that, but they did underneath the deck off of the house... so it's almost like they did that deck twice.

$350 was well worth it for me to not have to be out there staining/painting all of that stuff. Screw that. We'll do the same when we decide to paint the house. My ass isn't getting up on scafolding to paint a 22' high wall or any of the vaulted walls upstairs, so we'll hire that out too. The same guy who did our decks and pergola does indoor painting as well, and he's cheap and very good... so I'll have my checkbook at the ready once we decide what colors are going where...

RyeCL

yeah im lucky all my ceilings are 8' no need to climb on any ladders...

Scottman111

This is what I was gonna suggest.

Fibonacci

Decks are a pain in the arse!

After owning a large deck in our current home, we absolutely insist on NOT having one in our next. I don't care about giving up the walk-out basement, brick paver patio is worth every penny

keg1997

^^^ We have both and I have to tell you that I prefer the deck...something about being a couple of feet off the ground and the "better" view of the backyard. Plus I don't mind staining the deck every few years since their is such a tangible improvement. Can't explain it....

Titand19

I feel you, I did my apt myself, and it still cost me a ton, and it never stops.

RaviNJCLs

iTrader: (4)

I not a big fan of it either, but I can handle doing it. And I couldn't see myself paying someone to do something I was fully capable of doing. Plus the wife did most of the detail work. That's the part I hate the most.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

See, to me it is worth it. Spending a weekend painting a room or two is not really something I prefer. Factoring in that we will be getting a few rooms painted, one room which has 22' ceilings and 2 with vaulted (probably about 14'-16' at the peak) makes the justification even easier. Giving a guy a few hundred dollars to do it and have it come out perfect while freeing me up to do other things is also completely worth it. If the painter's were ridiculously expensive, then it wouldn't make sense, but time is money, so I'd rather pay someone else a little bit to free up my time and eliminating any worry about problems or the finished product!

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Yeah, I'm the same way. Difference is that we love the aerial view of the yard as keg mentioned. Our next house will have a brick/stone deck with iron rails. We actually were going to rip this deck down and do that here, however, we won't be living here long enough to justify it... so we're just going to wait till our next place and have it done during construction.

RaviNJCLs

iTrader: (4)

We looked into it. But there was only one room that was going to be a pain in the ass since it has a 14 foot wall. I had a buddy come over. He loves painting. We were able to bang it out in a day. I got a couple quotes and the cheapest was about $400-$500 for just that room. And it took us a couple hours and some beer.

RyeCL

gotta love friends that work for beer......haha...

i had a friend bring over his chipper and stump grinder and we knocked out my entire yard in 4 hours. i paid him in burgers, hotdogs and chicken...plus gave him some money for gas...its good to know people...

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Damn... ouch. $400-$500 for one room? Our neighbors used the same guy we did for the outside and will for the inside. For $900 they painted the foyer, dining room, living room, kitchen, back wall in the great room and front hall totalling about 1600 square feet. That also doesn't factor in that the foyer and the great room wall are about 20' high. That price also included paint... so what they paid for labor alone was minimal.. and they were done in about a day and a half.

TBone2004

Yo man - you could have dug that pool by hand yourself - why you so lazy? ha,ha.

I agree - sometimes it pays to have someone do stuff. I enjoy painting because I am a detail freak so I prefer to do it (cause I am great at it - except for doors, I have not mastered the secrets to a good door), but like you said it eats up a lot of time - especially the prep work...so after the addition was put on in our old house we decided to paint the downstairs which ran into the two story foyer so we paid to have it all done - I am not hanging out on a ladder 15ft in the air - hell, I'd still be painting it. Sometimes it is OK to pay - agreed

NSXNEXT

iTrader: (2)

To me it's all about pride in doing it yourself. I have yet to find something I'm not willing to tackle.

RaviNJCLs

iTrader: (4)

That's NJ for you.

uu

The renovation is finally done... just gave the contractor the final installment of $1200.

Oh man, me broke... the apartment does look a lot nicer than before though.

RaviNJCLs

iTrader: (4)

Post some pics.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Haha. I tried to sell my wife on that idea but she said she wanted a pool, not a swimmin' hole. We're not that far south