Getting estimates right now for full deck replacement with Trex or similar. ~500 square feet. Estimates are 40,000 to 52,000 so far. If we’d followed through two years ago, could have had it done for half that.

Anonymous wrote:$10k for a new bluestone walkway and 10x20 patio

This seems like a great price. Where are you and who did the work?

25x23 sports court with basketball hoop - $18k
Replacement walkway and front steps - $15k

Hoping for costs to come down for other projects on the next few months.

80 foot, 2 tier retaining wall with drainage and regrading 16k
Built in book shelves 2500

Just got our old wooden windows repaired in a rowhouse in an historic district. $175 a pop for 6 windows. Haven't paid him yet, but the thing is I can't open any of them. Which is sort of the reason I wanted them repaired? Sigh.

$10k for a new bluestone walkway and 10x20 patio

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are doing a whole house renovation and addition to a 1930s colonial in NW. $950K

what size addition,how many floors, etc?

Digging out new basement space, expanding on first and second floor including new kitchen, fanmily room and mudroom, new hardwood through the whole house, master suite, rip and replace existing 2.5 bathrooms, and adding bathroom in attic. Major project but we just decided to do everything at once.

How long do you suggest waiting? I am looking to get new kitchen cabinets and our humid basement figured out.

We have done a TON of home improvements since the beginning of COVID:

1) Turned small dining room into a pretty good size office for DH who was working from home 100% and now working from home 2-3 days a week. Put in full desk plus lots of cabinets and built two custom bookshelves - total cost $8000
2) Turned old formal living room into a large dining room with built in custom cabinets, marble serving top and a large built in wine fridge. Total cost around $10,000 plus a new $5000 dining room table
3) Redoing our master bathroom - total gut job down to the studs. Large bathroom 14' x 12' space. Total cost $45,000

Thank you for this thread. It's made me feel better about the cost of my improvements. I'm in PG County

Spring-summer 2020 - painted living, dining, kitchen, upstairs common area and 3 bedrooms. Cost was a few hundred for paint and supplies. I think the labor I put into this helped me cope a bit with COVID shutdowns.

Summer 2021 - Converted a small (10x20) detached garage into a gym. This cost about almost $9,000 for labor and materials and that included the cost of bringing electricity (lots of digging) into the space, getting the walls and ceiling insulated and drywalled. I waterproofed the concrete foundation and patched up the concrete floor just enough to put rubber mats on top and I also painted. As someone who works out religiously, it was absolutely worth it.

Currently - I'm having the main bathroom renovated (slightly bigger than standard size and with high ceilings). It's a complete gut. Labor is $15,000, building materials is prob going to be about $4000 by the end. Tile and fixtures were about $5000 (kind of high end). This included demo, reframing of the floor (to fix a crappy previous job), relocating all fixtures, and replacing old rusty main drain pipe.

My next project is the basement, which I'll probably have to do piecemeal or do a lot of the finishing work myself to get within budget.

Anonymous wrote:We are doing a whole house renovation and addition to a 1930s colonial in NW. $950K

what size addition,how many floors, etc?

We are doing a whole house renovation and addition to a 1930s colonial in NW. $950K

Since the start of the pandemic:
Installed quartz countertops in kitchen 9k
Redid our masterbath ourselves- 7k in materials
Replaced all cabinet doors with solid cherry slab door - 7k
Replaced wood stair balusters with solid wrought iron ones and refinished the stairs ourselves - 1k
Repainted whole house (no trims) two coats, three floors, total 4000 sqft- 9400
Installed new fans throughout the house - 1 k
Ordered some new furniture pieces for master bedroom and living room 9k

Anonymous wrote:Arlington, all since covid:

New trex deck 15 by 22 and taking out a window to put in french doors out to the deck - total 22K (including door)

New basement finish and remodel, added egress window, full bath (had to jackhammer in the foundation), electric, walls, carpet, paint, etc. 56K (it is gorgeous)

Laundry room - LVT floor, plumbing to add utility sink and a laundry trap, custom cabinets and pantry, floor to ceiling (room is approximately 9 by 12) 10K

Added front porch with overhang roof, electric, and fans. 22K

Interior paint for front entry, living room and bathrooms - cost of BM and SW paint and supplies, we did that ourselves.

I'm also in Arlington and really want to add a front porch to our house! This seems like a great price to me. How was it dealing with the county? I'm a little concerned about our setbacks (we are on a corner lot).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Post-covid projects.. 70k for two full bathrooms. We’re ab to start a total renovation of our downstairs rec/family room for 56k which will involve breaking the room down to its bones. The next step is finishing the basement for 110k.

WT? 70k for two bathrooms? Are these magic bathrooms?

This is what we paid as well. We live in a >100 year old house. One of the bathrooms was original. Demolition is complex, sizes are usual and many things need to be custom made to fit. We used a designer to get all these details right. We also went with high quality fixtures so we didn’t have to do this again for a while and the results are worth it. Very happy with the results.

For comparison: we also live in a >100 year old home. In the last 6 months we renovated 2 bathrooms ourselves. We demolished everything down to the studs and replaced all electrical and plumbing back to the entry into the house. We used high end finishes and fixtures. Our out of pocket cost for materials was $28K. We are lucky in that both DH and I have design degrees and DH grew up building houses so we did not need to higher anyone for the projects. The trade off is that the projects took up all of our free time for 6 months and at times progress was very slow.