Renovating before move-in

[Anonymous]

I’m hoping to buy a house soon and want to know how long it would take to upgrade a house that needs some (but not extensive) updates. We would try to avoid moving in before it’s done if possible due to having young children.

Hypothetically let’s say we wanted to install new flooring, update a couple of bathrooms and modernize the kitchen (new cabinets, countertops, maybe a new kitchen island but nothing beyond that). Maybe add some recessed lightings. No gut renovations.

Could this be done in a couple of months or is that overly optimistic? How often would we have to go check on progress? Will this all be a huge pain?

[Anonymous]

OP, you’re gonna have to be a bit more specific about what you want done, how long you’re prepared for it to take, and how hands on you want to be (vs paying someone else to PM it for you).

We had a some of this done in the last year:
- floor took a week (1k of floors removed and installed, stain in place hardwoods)
- countertops were a 1 day install (with 3 weeks of selecting stone, measurements, fabrication etc)
- new cabinets have a 12 week lead time after you have design done and before you install

I think you could get this all done in 12 weeks if you were prepared to be quite hands on & decisive with your decision making AND had the GC ready to roll AND you don’t find huge surprises when you start messing with walls

[Anonymous]

Also: a paint job and exterior mulch is a facelift. What you’re describing is a cosmetic renovation without structural impacts (most likely). You’ll want to be hands on every few days at min to make sure things are progressing and troubleshoot the inevitable speedbumps

[Anonymous]

This is not just updating a kitchen, it js pretty much a total makeover. This is not a minor update. It would take a couple of months with the planning stages, selecting appliances styles, counter material. Usuallg the sink is replaced when counter is replaced

[Anonymous]

I don’t think you can do all of that in 2 months. Normally you’d want to finish painting before doing the floors - so some of this timing is sequential and can’t be done by hiring more people. The bathrooms and kitchen work - can you be more specific?

[Anonymous]

Do the floors before you move in. You can do everything else over time.

[Anonymous]

6 months unless you were in a position to have all materials including cabinets, counters, and all bathroom materials picked out and ordered ahead of the renovation start date. You can’t do all of this concurrently- for instance, you cannot have floors done at the same time that you’re renovating a bathroom or kitchen.

My advice, from having done all of this- get flooring done right away as cabinets and counters are getting measured, selected, and ordered. Be prepared to move in as soon as floors and kitchen ate finished. Then at some point after move - in, hire a smaller team to do the bathrooms one or two at a time such that you always have at least one that’s functional. Bathroom renos are not hard to live through, but living through having flooring redone is not physically possible and living through a kitchen Reno is very sub-optimal.

[Anonymous]

This will take months. You can't realistically get bids or measurements until you have the keys, so the bidding process starts then. It takes time to get contractors out, time for them to get back to you, time for the project to start, order materials, do the work ...

[Anonymous]

We just bought a home as an estate sale. It took about 10 days for the workers to pull up all the carpet, paint and replace all the electrical outlets, put in recessed lights and fans. The hardwood floors are being sanded and finished over the next few days, then the home will be deep cleaned and we move in. Everything else will be done over time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m hoping to buy a house soon and want to know how long it would take to upgrade a house that needs some (but not extensive) updates. We would try to avoid moving in before it’s done if possible due to having young children.

Hypothetically let’s say we wanted to install new flooring, update a couple of bathrooms and modernize the kitchen (new cabinets, countertops, maybe a new kitchen island but nothing beyond that). Maybe add some recessed lightings. No gut renovations.

Could this be done in a couple of months or is that overly optimistic? How often would we have to go check on progress? Will this all be a huge pain?

Assuming you will use the same contractor to do all the work, it will take time to figure out who’s going to do the work, and the plans to do the work. That in itself will take months.
And then once you secure a contractor you’ll have to get all the parts and pieces, the finishes, and that in itself is a second job and time consuming. Just to put things in perspective it took us 5 months to plan for our kitchen Reno (met with about 4 different contractors to get bids) then and additional 8 months for the cabinets to come in. I’d say realistically for the work you’d want done, it would take 4-6 months.

[Anonymous]

I strongly suggest you be in person minimum twice per day. We're renovating our fourth house now. We renovated our beach house from afar and it took forever and a day. Contractors just don't put in full days or even show up if you're not there. Your project will always be the one they push aside when they get busy.

We renovated three kitchens and this is the most complicated project. There will be a million decisions each day. They'll ask you if you're there, but they won't risk slowing things down by trying to reach you if you're not. Plus you may think you're just going to pull and replace, but inevitably you will want to move things around, add stuff, etc.

Is there a deadline for when you have to be moved in? Say the start of the school year? Even if you move fast and a contractor could start in 3-4 weeks, it would likely be another 4-8 weeks for them to complete the kitchen. It could be longer if they don't show up and put in full days every day. Plus lead times to order cabinets, which must be installed before they can come measure for countertops.

Definitely do the floors before you move in. Otherwise you'll have to move everything out again.

Like a pp said, renovating one bathroom at a time is not a huge inconvenience to live through.

[Anonymous]

Flooring yes, bathrooms and kitchens no depending on how old they are and what you’re doing. Cabinets? No.

[Anonymous]

Op - thanks for the responses. As I’m looking for a house I want to know how less than move-in ready it can be, such that we can do some upgrades before moving in without it taking too long or being too much of a hassle. But if one of us would have to be on-site twice a day per a PP, that’s probably not doable. I’ll probably not rely on being able renovate before move too much then. Noted on needing to do floors beforehand, though.

[Anonymous]

OP, seems like you're jumping the gun.

Why are you worried about replacing the flooring? Most floors don't need to be replaced with every new owner. My 1930s floors are still going strong. You can refinish them but that's an easy job and easily outsourced prior to moving in. A week at the most if contractors start day after closing.

Kitchen remodels vary greatly depending on need and what can be done. We know people who had completely new kitchens installed in two weeks but that was because it was replacing an existing kitchen footprint. And their kitchens look great! High quality cabinets and appliances.

[Anonymous]

My kitchen remodel took a little over a month, but the design an planning stage took around a month before they started work. I would plan on it taking at least 6 months to do all of the renovations.