Approximately how much would it cost and how long would it take to renovate this Chevy Chase home?
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Anonymous
| I agree with the contractor. That house is a money pit. Almost a teardown unless you want to live like a poor person (old falling apart home) for $1M. I think in the neighborhood of 200-300K to bring into the 21st century. The floors are a come on. They are the easy fix. It is the rest of the house that needs expensive work. For 400K you could have a new home without all the problems. |
Anonymous
| I live nearby and this house is incredibly overpriced. |
Anonymous
| The builder does not live in this area. Restoring 1970s homes in our area (which do not have the structural issues that house has, and the ancient wiring) costs 100K. Minimum. |
Anonymous
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It looks like it might need new HVAC too -- are those electric heaters I spy?
Nevertheless, I really like it. I wish I had $$ to redo an old house like that!! |
Anonymous
In this market, that is absolutely not true. Sellers list as is because they can. |
Anonymous
WTF. Seriously? 30k for cabinets? 50k for windows?!? Our kitchen was renovated when we moved in, but there was one empty wall begging for more storage. We ordered a floor to ceiling pantry which was 2 feet wide, a set of cabinets, and a set of drawers to match everything else, plus a granite slab. We had our handyman and his carpenter friend install it. We installed the hardware ourselves. Total cost: $2200 including installation. (march 2013) We also had 15 windows replaced. High quality windows. That was 7k. (sept 2011) |
Anonymous
Do you live in the 1930's? For those of us who don't do our cooking on woodstoves...we got a Wolf oven, microwave, cooktop an warming drawer an it was more than $10k. Subzero fridge was $10k over a decade ago. Dishwasher was $1,200. Could we have spent less? Of course. But that's not what we chose to do. Our kitchen is not for show - we cook every day and entertain frequently, so we put in it things we wanted. |
Anonymous
| OP never said she wanted top-of-the-line everything, though. |
Anonymous
| OP, without knowing the extent of the structural/ electrical work it is hard to say. But ignore the PPs who are throwing around these crazy numbers for a kitchen remodel. There are tons of prior threads on this. Of course, you COULD spend $75k-$100k, but you do not need to. There aren't any pics of the kitchen so I'm not sure if anything needs to be moved. We did our kitchen for $40k and it could have been less. |
Anonymous
| What exactly does that wolf oven do that makes it worth so much? Ditto the expensive fridge? I have a very nice LG bottom freezer that cost maybe 2k and it works fine. I cook daily. From scratch, feeding at least 6 people a meal. Everything works, nothing cost near that much. |
Anonymous
| Does it need central air, too? Thought i saw some window units in some of the pictures. Adding air-conditioning will probably run you around $20K and would also be something I would recommend doing before you move in if possible (adding ductwork creates a lot of dust). And I'd say you could re-do that kitchen for $50K if you don't go high end. Agree that it would be impossible to get everything done before the fall, so you should be prepared to having some ongoing renovation work. |
Anonymous
I have an LG bottom freezer in my second house and it's fine, but I like the subzero better for two primary reasons. First, you can adjust freezer and fridge temps separately as they are on separate compressors, not one for the whole unit. And second, it's counter depth. When we bought it (15 years ago) it was the only brand that was counter depth and we have a narrow kitchen and needed that. Cosmetically I like that it has a built-in look with wood panels on the door that match the cabinets. In a narrow kitchen it is a much better look. While our LG is fine I have to say I really don't like the bottom freezer. It's hard to find things and I feel like I have to rummage around to see what's on the bottom. Luckily we haven't had any repair problems with our LG yet - after we bought it we saw in consumer's reports that it has terrible service ratings. Maybe that's improved since. |
Anonymous
| That house has 2 buyers. The person that has enough money to fully renovate it prior to moving in. Or the person that is handy enough to do the work over time by themselves. That house would be a royal PIA to renovate project by project. What I see is all of the unknowns. It's great to talk about the cosmetic renovations--the floors, the bathrooms, the kitchen. But let's talk about what's behind those walls. What type of plumbing, electrical wiring, and HVAC is there? Until you know that, you are walking into the great unknown which could end up costing you thousands and in the end you'll end up with some open walls, loose insulation and a still to be renovated bathroom and kitchen. But you'll have spent your renovation budget already. |
Anonymous
| See, I've lived in those old foursquares. The plumbing may well work fine. The plumbing in the turn of the century house that was added in pipe chases built into the corners of the room works fine. The electric, not so much. That's radiator heat and shouldn't be an issue. Central air is a luxury, not a necessity. |
Anonymous
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