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Ed The Roofer
August 21st, 2009, 01:29 AM
I remember when I was having my old 1880 2-flat remodeled about 6 years ago.

At first, I just wanted to conceal the bowing plaster walls with a mounted drywall for a smoother uniform appeal and have several doors that somehow had acquired kick or punch holes in them, which if I recall correctly, all seemed to occur about the time I was getting divorced in the mid through late 90's.

Then one thing lead to another and another and another and a project with an intended high guestimate cost wound up being just shy of $30,000 at that time.

Yes, everything inside turned out beautiful, including a complete kitchen and bathroom remodel with all new cabinetry and fixtures incliding sinks toilet, tub and Yawza out of the Ying-Yang additional lights and new kitchen appliances, which included an electric range whih required an upgrade to a 220 power source and feed into the home.

All new cielings framed out with drywall to replace the former 1970's style acoustic drop ceilings and also canned lighting in the living room the front room and the kitchen and hallway and even the bathroom too.

In the living room, we had carsiding installed and stained gunstock. Then, to cheapen the cost of wainscot for the bottom of the living room walls, I purchased cedar paneling and cut the 96" into 3 of 32", which is just a tad lower than the wainscot, but then topped it off with a nice chair moulding. No one knows the difference.

Then, after all of that, I fell in love with my new house and moved out in less than a years time after all of that upgraded remodeling was done.

Oh well.....It sure seemed like a good idea at the time, but I now wish that I would have kept the budget around and less than the originally planned for $5,000 amount.

Ed

Mike(VA)
August 21st, 2009, 06:07 AM
Did you ever go to sleep last night? Rory, I don't think Ed could have found these sub-forums any faster if you had announced them.

Ed The Roofer
August 21st, 2009, 12:59 PM
Yes I did, but not last night. It was 3:30 am when I left my office after going through some things I needed to check out. Probably fell asleep around 5:00 am and woke up around 8:30 am.

I was here and saw new forums pop up each time for a while when I clicked refresh.

Ed

orson
September 5th, 2009, 06:40 PM
Ed,

We always warn our customers that they should be prepared to add things to the project during the remodeling process.

It is simply human nature that people will change their mind on something and decide it is worth it to upgrade something once things get rolling.

I get particularly concerened when I'm working with customers who are trying to max out to their budget on the front end before work has begun.

Ironically, after projects are finished and I ask people what they would have done differently on their project if they were able to do it over again the most common response is that they would upgrade something that they were trying to save money on.

mikeswoods
September 5th, 2009, 07:10 PM
This happens ALL the time! You make one part of the house look sharp and the surrounding areas look shabby.

Often the add-ons are as large as the original work order.

I try to prioritize future work for customers who's budgets don't allow all the work to be done at once.

It helps them to plan on what should be done next and prevents having to redo flooring or other finishes that might be disturbed with future work.

MIKE