Do I really want to remodel my house?

[tuftears]

All right, I've mentioned this from time to time in my comments, but basically when I let my parents stay at my house, ostensibly to keep an eye on me, they wound up cluttering the place. There are a bunch of repairs that need to be done on it, and the wiring is just old and not intended for modern standards - the kitchen breaker goes out if someone runs a TV in the dining room at the same time as the dishwasher, for instance.

So my initial plan was to refurbish the place. Repaint the walls, rebuild the kitchen, it should be like a couple months, right?

Well, had a contractor in today to talk about it... After I explained what I was thinking of doing - stuff like this SketchUp model - he said that it would be feasible to, as I wanted, remove the fireplaces and the kitchen side wall, but with all the demolishing needed and rebuilding - basic things like the wiring and plumbing - it would probably take some six months or so.

He recommended that I think about demolishing the entire house and rebuilding from the start, and having struggled with the floor plan as I try to figure out where I can put everything, I can see his point. The current floor plan is just tight and cramped. But that gets pricey!

Then we went down to look at the house that he was building for a client - not mock-Tuscan as I was trying, and failing, to emulate, but the real thing. It was gorgeous.

It was also intimidating as heck. This wasn't an ordinary house, this was a mansion. $2 million for the house alone on a property worth $5 mil. Dang!

But it was gorgeous, I'll give it that! Here are a few pictures.

The office:


The kitchen:


The kitchen sink:


One of the bathrooms, a small one:


The other bathroom, unfortunately blurry:


So what I'm currently faced with is a choice between these alternatives:

1. Scale back my plans drastically but go ahead with the remodeling. Stuff like faux marble walls or Venetian plaster go out the window. Fresh coat of paint, do what's needed but no more. I'll still be dealing with a wretched floor plan. Probably take 4-6 months to finish.

2. Demolish the house, build a new one with a more awesome floor plan. It will probably look a lot nicer. We could be looking at a year to be done.

3. Buy a new house, sell this one. Property taxes go up about 25% plus I go through the hassle of refinancing, but I don't have to do any remodeling, just furnish the new house, and I can move in nearly immediately.

I'm going to evaluate my options over the coming weeks. As some of you know, I am a misercat so I hate spending money... But my current house is falling apart visibly. And if I'm going to get significant repairs, why not go a little farther and make it look nice?

Oy! Decisions, decisions.

Comments

[archangelbeth]

I'd shop around for various contractors (but avoid the rock-bottom price ones, because they're probably cutting corners) -- get references from prior customers, if you can! Carrying two mortgages is sucky.

If the apartment cost isn't an issue, then Selective Gutting or Full Gutting begins to look more interesting. (Hmmm. Turn the front entry into a garage, put the front door at the top of the porch, turn the wall between middle half-bedroom into a great big load-bearing archway looking into the kitchen, take out the door into half-bedroom (now it's an entry hall/sitting room!), put in the archway in the kitchen that your sketchthing has, turn the garage into a bedroom, turn the prior master bedroom into an exercise room/library with archway instead of the Door Orgy...

If that current master bedroom has a great big sliding glass door or big window, consider making it a "bump out" window (or door? hmmm) -- it is amazing how much more spacious it can make a room to add another 4-12 inches of perceived space!)

...can you tell I loved designing houses for the Sims way too much? >_>

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

My bro's concern is that all these are basically 'overbuilt' for the area, which is principally what he calls "second home" territory-- for people who have gotten a few kids and are finding their apartments/first homes too small. So, there's little chance of getting back much of the money that'd be spent in the gutting/rebuild.

Of course it'd look awesome, but right now my plan is to see what's already been done out there. If I can find a house that's about the price of what I would have paid in remodeling costs, and has most of what I want done already done, then it makes a lot of sense to buy it and sell the old house instead.

[archangelbeth]

That's true! And without the muss and fuss of moving out for the gutting, and moving back in after...

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Yep! But it comes down to, basically, finding someone who has a nice home like that and wants to sell it for not so much money. For instance, my brother suggests, there are people who buy 'fixer-uppers', fix them up, then try to sell them and find the housing market is not so good, so they start cutting their prices.

It's kind of like fishing, I guess, one must have patience!

[archangelbeth]

And what do you use for bait? O:D (Hopefully not the Miles Vorkosigan slightly-drunk tactic of using hand grenades for "bait"...)