Renovators - what surprised you as being signifantly cheaper or more expensive than you expected?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're preparing for our architect meeting and trying to get an idea of changes that significantly impact budget. For example, we expect that opening up the kitchen will be expensive because of the load bearing wall, and that will still be a priority. But we also are trying to think of smaller changes throughout the house that may be cheaper but impactful. Did any changes end up being surprisingly "cheap"/ relatively inexpensive? Adding a moulding/ wood detail to a dining room, adding a built-in desk to a bedroom, replacing bathroom floor and wall tile etc?

Hopefully thr architect knows your budget, and stayed within your limit.

Hopefully, you have a 10-20% contingency budget (for real - between what you find when you open up the walls and the, "oh, we really should do this now," you WILL go over by that much)

If it's over, ask the architect to value engineer it down. Eg, we wanted a cherry kitchen. Cabinets in our large new kitchen were coming in way over budget. We went with maple cabinets, stained in a cherry color. Win/win

[Anonymous]

Patio. I'll continue to sit on the grass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The thing I realized in renovation that the cost to do something was really high if it was being added, and much lower when it was subtracted. So how much to put in a sink in the little kitchenette area? $5k. A month later, looking to save costs, let’s nix the sink from the plan. Ok, that will save $750. Taught me that contractors make up a lot of numbers.

This is due to how change orders are structured. If something is in the bid, the contractors are planning on that income flow and incorporated supply, staff, etc in their schedule. So they will not subtract what something is "worth" when it's deducted from the project - they will deduct much less. And adds to change orders will be priced much higher than they're "worth." They're not necessarily making up numbers, that's how bids and contracts work. "What you're contractor can't tell you" has a helpful explanation of this.

[Anonymous]

We didn’t have any fancy moldings to deal with, but even just replacing old trim around the doors and windows with new trim was expensive. It’s just a labor-intensive process.

Agree with a prior poster that custom cabinets were a pleasant surprise in our bathroom renos, bonus if you can find odd pieces of leftover slab for the tops. You can spend a ton for tile or get similar knockoffs for a fraction of the price. We also wallpapered a large powder room for what I thought was a very reasonable labor price—$450 for2 guys who spent about 6 hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Add outlets behind toilets for heated bidets! #Lifechanging

Not code.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Add outlets behind toilets for heated bidets! #Lifechanging

Not code.

The 2020 NEC contains specific authorization:

"Exception No. 2: In a dwelling unit, a single receptacle shall be permitted for an electronic toilet or personal hygiene device such as an electronic bidet seat. The receptacle shall be readily accessible and located on one of the following: (1) The wall behind the toilet but not behind the tank (2) The opposite side of the toilet from the bathtub or shower."

[Anonymous]

I can't think of a single thing that made us say, "wow that was cheaper than we thought." Nothing. We've begun to joke(cry) that "hmm, wouldn't it be nice if we ... " means write me another check for $20K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing I realized in renovation that the cost to do something was really high if it was being added, and much lower when it was subtracted. So how much to put in a sink in the little kitchenette area? $5k. A month later, looking to save costs, let’s nix the sink from the plan. Ok, that will save $750. Taught me that contractors make up a lot of numbers.

This is due to how change orders are structured. If something is in the bid, the contractors are planning on that income flow and incorporated supply, staff, etc in their schedule. So they will not subtract what something is "worth" when it's deducted from the project - they will deduct much less. And adds to change orders will be priced much higher than they're "worth." They're not necessarily making up numbers, that's how bids and contracts work. "What you're contractor can't tell you" has a helpful explanation of this.

I don't care. It sucks and makes you feel cheated.

[Anonymous]

The prices of faucets, shower heads, drain stoppers, etc.

Our designer said, “don’t you love this metal tone?” without telling me that the same piece has a huge difference in price based on the metal. We kept the metal i liked but I still think it was a bit of bait and switch.

We kept the heated floor. We dropped the heated towel rod, and the auto thermostat for the shower water temperature.

Toward the end of the project, we replaced all the doorknobs on both floors so the house would look more updated throughout.

The Baldwin Hardware handsets/door sets added up!

[Anonymous]

Ah, this thread makes me feel seen! Agree with everything said here, almost everything is eye-watering expensive. The one thing that I was surprised that was cheaper than I expected: heated floors. It still shocks me that our front fence cost 7k in a small DC rowhouse. I stopped judging people who buy flipped homes a long time ago...