Estimates and Quotes from Renovation Contractors

The range of estimates is interesting or maybe frustrating is a better word. Ideally, I'd love someone to charge all material costs on my home depot account and give me an estimate of hours of labor with a rate per hour. After not receiving that, I've started asking for it up front and they will tell me that they'll get back with me in the morning on a good time to schedule an appointment to view the work area. They never call me back because they'd prefer to get away with these big unspecific quotes and an uninformed home owner that doesn't know any better than to blindly accept. I'm excited about a carpenter who immediately told me that he charges $35 an hour. When you compare that to one of the non-specific quotes estimating over $10,000 to replace 3 pieces of siding, 10 strips of molding, some fascia boards and paint the exterior- it makes you realize how wildly high some of those quotes are.

For the sake of giving someone the benefit of the doubt, say that supplies did cost $1000 (reality is closer to $500) how much would I be paying for labor? To rack up $9000 in labor at $35 an hour it would take over 6 weeks of full-time work. My job could easily be finished in a week by a professional putting 40 hours of work into it. So why on earth would I accept the random quote for $10,000? Well I couldn't think of a reason not to make about five more calls until I found a carpenter willing to give me an hourly rate. I'll be thrilled to post his name and contact number after I use him and can give a definite testimony of workmanship.

I'll update more after we get the utilites turned on when the city gets its check from yesterdays closing to cover all the back taxes and bills. LOL Heat would be nice in December. Oh how I'm praying that the $35 an hour carpenter/handiman works out. He is praying too as his day job is in ministry. :)

The Race to Renovate House Begins!

Yesterday all paper work was signed and we are now the owners of a historic York Chester house in Gastonia. My better half left with the trailer to pick up cabinets at the Restore on his lunch break. I had done an exhaustive search looking for the best priced cabinets and nothing was coming up cheaper than $3000, which I budgeted to spend, but was hoping to do better. I remembered my friend suggesting the Restore and this changed.

Restore is the coolest thing. When people are renovating houses or have surplus unused materials they donate to Habitat for Humanity to sell at their Restore. All profits go to building new Habitat Homes. Since I couldn't find good looking cabinets for under $3000 new, I scouted Restore and found solid wood cherry stained ones for a steal at $950. I didn't want to buy them until we closed so when better half went by to pick them up yesterday the price had dropped to $700. Yeah!

Restore also has appliances, fixtures and all sorts of things. Our AC guys is going to see if some units there will work for the AC. If so that will shave at least $1000 off my budget for AC. Believe it or not they have stainless steal appliances for under $100. Granted their used, but the 15 year appliances in my kitchen that are older than what Restore offers, work just fine. I might end up being their best customer by the time we're done.

Thanks to Craiglist.com, I bought a great stainless frig for the property. New they are at least $2000 for the 26 cubic meter ones. It's nicer than our kitchen fridge. I got it for $360, then it wouldn't fit in the jeep so the seller kindly accepted $40 to use his truck and deliver it to our house. Super nice guy because he had his kids and it was already 8:30pm.

Owen (the best 15 month old junior assistant ever) and I have collected loads of estimates and Andy can choose to not do any of the handiwork. As I type that last sentence he is picking up the cabinets that wouldn't fit on his original run and taking them over to the property- so I know he'll be actively involved because that's just the kind of guy he is. I was telling Andy this morning it is dangerous for me to go to the property because the more I go, the more I love it.

I have one more carpenter that is giving me a quote on Monday morning, otherwise we are set to dive into the work. Due to the holidays we initially had said we'd wait until January to worry with things. But we've knocked out a bit of leg work already. Three days before closing I called the city to schedule electric and water to be turned on. I was wrong in that assumption. They refused to connect it even in my name as Bank of America (the seller) owed taxes for 3 years onbehalf of the person that they had provide the loan as well as some crazy $825 waste removal charge that was two months over due.

I feel bad for BOA as they trusted someone with a loan who was negligent and ended up costing them far more than these city bills. The borrower did not keep the house in good condition so the list price was greatly lowered and BOA received at closing about $40,000 less than they were owed by the previous owner.

I plan on posting the contractors that give me good results at a fair price, as I would have LOVED to have had a list of trusted contractors as a starting place. Right now, no work has been done so I can't comfortably give an opinion.

Closing, Rehab quotes, Gaston County Permits and More

We close in two weeks. The most coplicated work to be done will be the plumbing for the upstairs master bath addition. The room is big enough, but the plumbing will be brought up from the crawl space through original plaster walls and be a big production. My hope is that we can just go with my current neighbor's neiphew. We met with him yesterday to give us a quote solely for labor. He is emailing me a quote I'll recieve tomorrow. LOL He appears to be about 21. I wonder if I'm half crazy to let him do it even if his quote comes back in the range that I've budgeted. We'll see. Off to change a squishy diaper.

Renovating a Historic House

I’ve always loved unique people and places, the more character the better. A neighborhood on the National Register of Historic places seems perfect for our family. While I was pregnant with my three year old, we renovated an 1100sqft beach condo while living in it. Andy gutted the kitchen and both bathrooms. We had a two year old son interested in every piece of construction. Although renovating our historic home seems less daunting than the condo, we are realistic that there will be unexpected costs, problems and stress in general. Luckily this time, we will not be living in the construction zone, I will not be belly heavy AND we've worked with most of the contractors that will be doing the work.
The first unexpected problem has already occured and relates to closing. All mortgage companies have said that it is extremely suspicious that we would make that our primary residence. They bluntly point out that it is almost unheard of for someone to sell their home to purchase one costing 35% of the value of their existing home. I will have to write up a testimony as to why we are doing it, have it notarized and cross my fingers that they believe me. What does this say about our society that no one ever simplifies their life by taking on less financial responsibility? Hopefully my wordsmith ways will convince them.
We are excited about the charter school that is within walking distance from the house that has the same scores as our current Lake Norman area home without the 200% overcrowding issues. Yeah. I plan on updating this blog instead of repeating myself to folks on our process. Check back whenever you wonder how we are faring. We are shooting to move in late April or early May. I’ll drive Riley to his current school for those last couple of weeks. The house was built for Nancy Jenkins in 1920. She lived there for 24 years and was the widow of the state treasurer David Jenkins. I'd love to get a hold of a picture of her, perhaps the historical society can help? Last thing of note, NC pays 30% of your rehab costs in the form of tax credits. Pretty neat. Off to man the rug rats. Ciao!

Historic House Restoration Cost Estimates

I updated my costs estimates now that all of the expenses are known and contracts for all work to be done are in hand. I've purchased all of the electric and plumbing fixtures as well as the kitchen cabinets. We know what appliances we will purchase as well so everything is fact now and not a guess. Our focus has begun to shift from moving our family in to probably putting up for sale at the beginning of March. So we are going the neutral route on all decisions. Neutral but with Victorian theme. :)

Project Amount
Exterior siding repair of rotting wood etc. 1760 Foreman's
Painting exterior 3700 Foreman's
Bath/closet construction 3500 Foreman's
master fixt (tub 884, shower 380, toil 109, vanity $450, fauc 57) 1880 acehardwareoutlet.com
Kitchen cabinets 700 Restore
kitchen appliances (frig $400, range, washer, sink & faucet)
1100 Craigslist & Lowes
kitchen floors (if we can save wood floors, no cost) 500
wooden floors 1800 Mr. Sandless
HVAC unit and install 6600 Travis Heating & Air
electric fixtures ($223 so far) 500 stockblowout.com
electric install 400 Johnson Electric
bath repair 2 toilets $150, sink/facet $52, shower $110, misc.$210 460 acehardwareoutlet.com
bath repair plumbing install 800 Alfred Henry Plumbing
landscape 1000 wholesale on Mt. Holly-Huntersville
attic stairs install 350 Foreman's
kitchen counters 3000 Guy off Craigslist.com
window pane replacement 500 ?
new locks 150 stockblowout.com
misc. 1000 some staging accents
Total $29,700