Home Renovations: The Budget

Our contractor came over this week with The Budget for our renovation wish list. We went over the three page spreadsheet and the sub trade quotes. Let's just rip off the bandaid:

$200 000.

Two hundred thousand dollars.

All I can say to that is HAHAHAHAHA. We cannot spend that much money on our house. Yes, everything we'd like to do makes it more livable, more functional, more of what we want. But we need to be able to afford to live here. And, you know, eat.

So we are going to have to trim/chop. The contractor's suggestions to save money are to skip:

• dri-core in basement,
• gas fireplace,
• tempered glass on stairs,
• pantry storage in wall backing the stairs, and
• granite countertops.

That will save us somewhere in the $25 000 range. A good start, but not enough. 

Not quite panicked, but feeling poor, I asked the interior designer for her input on how to prioritize what we want. We're going to have a designer-contractor-me meeting this week to figure out how to bash the budget into a more pleasing shape.

Here's where having our priorities clearly defined helps. A LOT. Gas fireplace - that's an easy cut. Ceramic tile at the entrance - that's not important. But those are relatively small drops in a pretty darn big bucket o' moola. What can we cut that's going to make a big difference? I'm perfectly happy to pay $22 000 for electrical work, because lighting will make a huge difference in these rooms. I'm also perfectly happy to pay the contractor to get the permits. For $2000, he can do it. The other option is me lugging my kids downtown, parking, filling out forms where I don't really know what I'm talking about... ugh, to me, that $2k is money well spent. 

Where else can we reduce scope? Another easy cut is custom cabinetry in the front room. That's $11 000 we don't have to spend.

A more difficult but perhaps necessary sacrifice may be the basement gut. Technically we don't need to gut it. It's already insulated and has panelling. It won't take much to make the basement livable, mostly carpet and lighting. The end result won't be as pretty as the initial plan, but heck, it's a play area and family hang-out zone, not luxury accommodations.

However, the contractor says that to put in the lighting, as per the plans, we'll have to take down walls anyway. So then we're still gutting the basement, insulating, but perhaps saving on finishing. I dunno, if that's the case then maybe we have to pull back on the lighting, because it's feeling like a cascade of work, and if we simply don't start, we don't have to put it back together. Just slap down some carpet, maybe put in new windows, and call it a day.

Another big expense is re-stucco-ing the exterior. I really don't want to redo the whole house (it's $9000). Other options are to re-stucco the really destroyed zone, stick to patching only, or perhaps even reduce the changes we are making inside to minimize the damage (read: don't move any windows!). The interior designer suggested a trellis in front of the big patch area - that's talking my language! The thing is, the major stucco blemishes will be on the side of the house. I do not spend a lot of time looking there. I don't think it needs to be super pretty. I suppose if patching turns out to be super ugly, I will save up my dimes and fix it when I can. Or if $10k somehow falls in my lap.

OK, so, this part isn't exactly fun, but it's our dime. I do have to remember not to get pushed into things. We're the ones who have to live here and with the consequences of our decisions. The last thing I want is to be stuck with a half-finished house because I said to go ahead with something without being able to pay for the finished job. Gotta keep an eye on that bottom line.