In article , lid says...

When you say "way higher", are you referencing the "bids" you received
vs. the actual cost in the end?
Can you post some pictures of the before/after?
Anything you can share from your experience would be greatly appreciated.

Cathy


OK, I put up a few pictures. My case will be much different from yours. Except
for the original demolition and rough framing, I did everything myself, single
handed, from trenching over 200 feet of sewer lines, installing the plumbing,
electrical, and HVAC, roofing, siding, even carrying 40 sheets of drywall
upstairs and around the corner! It's just the way I like to do things, and I
have the background to do it. I retired last year and this was my hobby for
quite awhile to ease myself into retirement. I'm a retired engineer so I do all
my own designs, calculations, and blueprints (by hand, no cad program) with one
professional sign-off on a non-standard part of my roof framing.

For the demo and rough framing I had help from my son and one or two day
laborers as required. I used them for only about a week, by that time we were
dried in. My city has very strict building requirements, a full schedule of
inspections covering 22 areas was required. Plus, since it was an extensive
remodel, the entire house had to come up to code including meeting the strict
Model Energy Code for energy efficiency. I passed every inspection the first
time except for one change that had to be made to the existing portion of the
waste system.

My original house was a 80 year old cottage that was added onto twice in its
life. It had a ugly roof line, the original hip roof and two very shallow
pitched additions. It had three layers of siding - the original Dutch lap,
Insulbrick from the 1940's, and finally cedar wall shingles. I removed the
outer two layers and resided with vinyl Dutch lap siding. Total size was 1060
square feet. The inside is nice, I've been remodeling for 15 years, Corian
kitchen, vaulted pine ceilings.

We inspected the original footers to make sure they would carry a two story
load, they were up to code in width. A bit more shallow then is now code in my
area, but no heaving in 80 years. To begin with I added a 4 foot wide
foundation to accommodate the stairway.

Then we tore down the back third of the house, a 24 x 13 foot section. We took
it down all the way to the block foundation, since the walls needed to match
the height of the remaining structure and it was simply better to start over
from scratch. Framed the new walls, which are now 28 x 13 because of the width
of the new stairway. Framed the second story, 28 x 14 feet (one foot overhang
to accommodate the length of the stairway). Then tore off the complete roof
structure of the remainder of the home, 30 x 25 feet. Framed the new roof
structure - quickly! We lived under a giant blue tarp for a few days until
dried in.

Then I just started in one job at a time. As you can see, I added a 54 foot
long porch around two sides, with a Trex deck with fluted columns. The upstairs
addition is a master bedroom suite, of 400 square feet. Bamboo hardwood
flooring for the bedroom, all marble bathroom with heated floors. All old
windows were replaced with LowE argon filled units, except for a few that I had
already changed. The walls are insulated to R 16 , the ceilings to R 30. This
is in northern Ohio, my gas bills this winter were no higher than before the
40% increase in area.

The final home size is 1514 square feet, up from the original 1060, plus the
54' x 6' porch.

Costs were very reasonable since I did it all myself. My draft budget was
$25,000, I came in at around $35,000. Yeah, a 40% overrun! Although I have
built several garages and small structures, there were lots of things I
overlooked on a more complex project.

Here are some pictures. Now, I'm no architect, but I like it and everyone that
hasn't been over in awhile thinks they are at the wrong address! I forgot to
take pictures before we started. In the ‘before shot' the old porch has been
removed and all the nice shrubs and bushes are gone, it wasn't as plain looking
as it seems. This summer I'll do the garage to match.

http://home.wideopenwest.com/~dthomp.../remodel01.jpg

http://home.wideopenwest.com/~dthomp...eoutside01.jpg

http://home.wideopenwest.com/~dthomp...eoutside02.jpg

http://home.wideopenwest.com/~dthomp...eoutside03.jpg

--
Dennis