[...] this series, the author discussed the costs of a housing addition. Part two explored funding, and part three featured tips for saving money on [...]

I also LOVE that you are reusing old materials. It’s great for budget and the environment. Mother earth will thank you on this. I used to think my mom is super frugal and silly for keeping all these old wood planks when we had to redo our fence since crooked neighbors invaded our property line (she kept the good ones and used the rotting ones to fill certain gaps in our yard). I was like Mom you are crazy. We could just buy new ones! But now I am working myself, and the material costs are significantly more than what it used to be, I realize mom was right on the money. We actually recently used those good wooden planks that mom saved to build a new deck. We not only saved money because we didn’t have to buy as much wood, we also felt we were ecologically responsible by reusing the old materials. Now I am like.. Mom you are so ahead of the times! haha

Cheers,

Cindy

I will have a whole post on installing radiant floor heat yourself soon!

Radiant flooring is sooo nice! It’ll be great in your new addition! But, is it still under warranty if you install it yourself? Is it complicated to install?

Also, houses not being plumb, straight, or square, is a given, even new construction where we tried our absolute best. Trees are like people, no one the same, and they change shape and dimension as they dry out. It’s not all that hard to adjust a 90 angle into an 89 or 91 if you use a piece of scrap as a test FIRST. Then set the chop saw and go for it.

Electrical, if you know how, fine, if not, don’t. I’m good at changing out fixtures, switches, outlets and repairs, but I pay for everything else gladly. Same for plumbing.

Good advice on not moving electrical and plumbing around from J.D. It can get up there in cost and adds a lot of work since walls and ceilings have to be opened up.

Changing stuff once the framing goes up is not a good idea either. Cheapest is in the pre-construction phase. Most expensive starts when when the electrical and plumbing rough-in is done. Changing to tile from vinyl can add cost, since the floor is framed differently for both.

Cleaning the work site….is the GC’s responsibility and he should be doing it because it saves him time and money as well. I work for a green builder at the moment. Not only do we clean up, we save and re-use any scrap we can. It saves on not having to buy two-by for blocking for instance, and there is that much less to dump. De-nailing is a given. Any piece of wood that is removed must be de-nailed instantly or OSHA will get nasty. They do inspect building sites from time to time.

Your idea of putting the ac in the attic is pretty cool.

I did the electrical in my house (I live in Toronto, Can), it turned out to be a heck of a lot of work but it worked out pretty good. We had it inspected by the city so no worries about fires. Now if I could just get the lights to stop flickering all the time….

I agree with Kevin about the trim – I did the kitchen in my old house and it was an eye opener – I had no idea trim was that hard to do. I wouldn’t touch crown molding with a 10 foot pole!

Looking forward to the next installment next Saturday!

Mike

As far as positive thoughts, I agree with most of the rest of your article. I love radiant heat, it provides a much more even heating for more comfort at lower temps. Its also great for people with asthma or other breathing issues as it doesn’t force all sorts of dust into the air. Did you go with hot water or electric?

New windows are always a good idea if you can avoid the con artist sales people. So is keeping the property line clean. I’ve seen a few crazy neighbors blame obviously existing damage to their house on the construction next door.

You are completely correct on prices varying greatly from store to store. A great thing to do is go to a supply house and talk to their sales people. While their list price is generally higher than a box store you can get some great discounts and freebies if you buy everything through them all at once. You also get to deal with someone who deals solely with that area of construction.

You have a much better handle on your renovation than most homeowners so I’m sure it will turn out great once its finished.

As for trim, its something I’ve done before many times. Yes, if you dont have a general skill level with it, itll take forever. But I once moonlighted as a carpenter =)

Hopefully there were some positive thoughts on the article =)

I;m still back and forth on ikea cabinets. I’d say for the price they are decent. They will not stand up as long or be as nice as true hardwood cabinets though. (not the cheap ones with wood doors and funiture boards sides)

I honestly wouldn’t recommend doing trim yourself. Yes the general concept is not hard but you’ll almost never run into a 90 degree corner. If your remodeling one room or a small area its doable but for a whole house it would take a beginner forever to match every corner and miter every piece as well as a master carpenter. Between the huge amount of time it will take you and the added waste from bad cuts I find it better to let a pro handle it. Trim and drywall taping are the two big things I generally won’t deal with. I also usually hire a painter for larger jobs for pretty much the same reasons.

Lastly for all th DIY’ers here please please please do not attempt to do any electrical work without at least someone whose trained to do it checking over your work. It really is extremely dangerous and very easy to make a small mistake that could end up killing someone or burning your house down.

UPDATE on the project : We have passed all inspections! Insulation Monday

I’d like to add that a lot of people who start renos (like us) vastly over estimate the amount of work involved. Even if you hire a contractor to do all the work, it’s still a ton of work for the homeowner to buy stuff and make decisions/changes etc.

The more prepared you are and the more knowledge you have will allow you to be better organized in terms of having time to buy things properly – ie on sale. If you know that you need to have the tiles picked out by such&such date then you can shop around and take your time. If you get a call on a Friday from your contractor saying they will start tiling on Monday, where are the tiles? Then you’ll have a busy weekend and might end up paying more than you need.

Mike