Opening up floor plan - Moving stairs, electrical, ductwork and adding beam

[Anonymous]

I'm the OP of the thread about possibly moving when we retire (in the Real Estate forum). Over the weekend, I had my HGTV fix and I'm now wondering if we could ever transform our house into my dream home. Has anyone here opened up their floor plan? The only way it would work in my house is if we relocated the stairwell, which would involve moving ductwork, electrical, and adding a beam, and since our basement is finished, I'm sure we would need to rework it too.

Has anyone here done this? How much did it cost? Our kitchen would need to be redone but I'm not interested in those costs right now.

[Anonymous]

Cheaper to build your dream home from the ground up than alter an exiting building. Like, much cheaper.

[Anonymous]

I don't think it costs $600K to do this. That's how much my neighbor spent to build their NDI home. Plus, I don't want/need 6000 ft^2.

[Anonymous]

It depends on the size but it would be a few hundred thousand. Structural is very expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends on the size but it would be a few hundred thousand. Structural is very expensive.

That's crazy! It would cost less to have an addition with a new stairwell.

[Anonymous]

Why go through all this to turn a non-dream home into a semi-dream home. Plenty of homes out there just keep looking until you find it.

[Anonymous]

Moving and rebuilding stairs are very expensive. Maybe work with an architect to see if you could open up your home without that kind of drastic surgery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why go through all this to turn a non-dream home into a semi-dream home. Plenty of homes out there just keep looking until you find it.

Because none of the homes on the market are my dream home. They would all involve some kind of compromise. I downloaded the Redfin app and now check out what's available when we're around town. It's depressing to see the bad layouts and floor plans. Even in the new builds. They just have bigger non-functioning rooms.

I'm hoping we can avoid the transaction costs of moving. Plus, I don't really want to leave our neighborhood. If the costs to open up the floor plan are only marginally higher than the transaction costs, I would prefer to stay. Real estate fees alone would be ~$50K. How much does a beam cost? $5K?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Moving and rebuilding stairs are very expensive. Maybe work with an architect to see if you could open up your home without that kind of drastic surgery.

Have you done this? What was the cost?

[Anonymous]

OP here. I have a feeling no one on this board has done this type of renovation. Please respond if you have!

They do this kind of thing all the time on the HGTV shows. Property Brothers, Love it or List it, Flip or Flop. I'm sure the construction costs are more here. Just want to get a sense (effort & $) for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moving and rebuilding stairs are very expensive. Maybe work with an architect to see if you could open up your home without that kind of drastic surgery.

Have you done this? What was the cost?

No, we wanted to for our basement but it is crazy expensive as we've have to redo joists. It would be a lot as you have to deal with the structural issues and then stairs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I have a feeling no one on this board has done this type of renovation. Please respond if you have!

They do this kind of thing all the time on the HGTV shows. Property Brothers, Love it or List it, Flip or Flop. I'm sure the construction costs are more here. Just want to get a sense (effort & $) for it.

We DIY most things. We've done doors, windows, hardwood, trim, painting, redid the drywall in the basement after the contractor screwed it up, leveled the basement floor, electrical and plumbing so yes we know. We pieced out our basement with some DIY some paid. Its very very expensive and those shows are all fake. Nothing is like what they describe. Replacing our ductwork in the basement of a tiny house was $2K. Electrical for the basement was $8K. You need to call contractors. Anything structural will be very very costly.

[Anonymous]

Neighbors do this all the time. I'd at least call in some contractors for advice and estimates. Saving $50K on sale is a good point. Don't be discouraged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I have a feeling no one on this board has done this type of renovation. Please respond if you have!

They do this kind of thing all the time on the HGTV shows. Property Brothers, Love it or List it, Flip or Flop. I'm sure the construction costs are more here. Just want to get a sense (effort & $) for it.

We DIY most things. We've done doors, windows, hardwood, trim, painting, redid the drywall in the basement after the contractor screwed it up, leveled the basement floor, electrical and plumbing so yes we know. We pieced out our basement with some DIY some paid. Its very very expensive and those shows are all fake. Nothing is like what they describe. Replacing our ductwork in the basement of a tiny house was $2K. Electrical for the basement was $8K. You need to call contractors. Anything structural will be very very costly.

Thank you! This is exactly what I was hoping to see. We're pretty handy and do a lot of DIY stuff but not to the degree that you all have! Did you hire a HVAC guy for the ductwork or was that partly DIY?

I'm prepared for significant costs for this. Might need several beams and new columns and new footings and then the stair/rails. Just want to have ballpark numbers in mind. I'm thinking it's in the 10's of thousands, not 100's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Neighbors do this all the time. I'd at least call in some contractors for advice and estimates. Saving $50K on sale is a good point. Don't be discouraged.

Thank you! I may give some contractors a call but I hate to have them do a full estimate when we're not ready to go forward.