I have decided to post the saga of the major remodel of the igloo so that ya'll can tell me how nuts I am on a regular basis.

We've worked through a budget, and while conventional wisdom says if you're spending more than 30% of your home's value on a remodel you should buy another home...we continue along with our project, with a projected budget of 45% of the home's eventual value.

Tomorrow the appraisor comes to visit. I have to twist his arm to understand my value ideas, without visably twisting his arm (cuz I'm from compliance and that's against the rules) :p

Today the contractor of my dreams took a job working for a large company, leaving me without a General Contractor. After a bottle of wine, and much discussion with the hubby, I have decided to become "general".

Let the comment hour begin...how stupid am I? heh heh (Ray be quiet) :p

Ah, the remodel! I have lost count of how many of these projects I have done! My wife wanted to do a large addition to our home last year. For the first time, I called a contractor (I have always done my own work since I was a carpenter in my youth). The price for just an unfinished shell of an addition was nearly twice the cost of our home when we bought it 18 years ago.

We have moved to plan B which involves me finishing our presently unfinished basement. The most difficult part will be getting rid of the 18 years of junk down there. I then get to waterproof the basement which will involve busting concrete and hand digging sump holes. Then upgrading our "emergency" bathroom down there to a full finished bath (More busted concrete and digging). Sectioning off a furnace room and family room, electrical work, flooring, painting, etc.

You may be right, we ARE crazy!

Building from scratch was enough for me. My mom's in the middle of a major remodel due to water and termite damage.

You guys are NUTS!!!

Major remodel - ewwwww - bad memories. We've done it twice. Just thinking about it gives me chills. I had dry-wall dust floating around my house for months. It's like Christmas tree needles or Easter basket 'grass' - months later you are still finding it no matter what you do.

My last major project was a 3 car garage that I built from the ground up, but that was different from remodeling the space you are currently living in.

My craziest remodel was redoing two bedrooms at the same time with a baby on the way. It involved tearing out walls and some major demolition. Turned out that my wife had health problems along the way and to make a long story short, my newborn son ended up sleeping in our living room for nearly a year before it was completed!

At least we are not using the basement right now, so it shouldn't be a major inconvenience. (knock on wood)

Ewww, is right. We redid our entire condo, but thank heavens, we were in an apartment while it was being done. The dust was horrific and we had to pull down all of the plaster and lath to put up insulation and drywall. My back hurts just thinging about it. Then the floors had to be sanded and varnished... what a mess. Pulling down wall paper, stripping paint.. oh what fun.



Dawnie, you really are a nut.

I have been thinking about buying an old historic house to re-do. I know it must be a pain and we were thinking of living in it while we remodeled it. I think right now it sounds fun to redo a house like that, but I know if we decide to and get started I will wish it was already the way I want it.


Good Luck!!!

Dawnie, sweetie, where is the baby going to be when your condo is in a shambles? Is the dust, etc., a good idea at this particular time? I mean, if this is something to do because he's doing better now maybe you should consider scrapbooking. That's building something without the upheaval or the debris!!!

When my son was a new born we lived with inlaws for about 2 months before I decided I couldn't take it and we moved into our not completely finished house. Scott has asthma so about a week later we moved back in with the inlaws. They only lived a block away so it wasn't a big deal. The sheet rock dust was so awful I thought it would make Scott worse.

Don't do it! But if you do, plan on spending 3x as much money and it taking 4x as much time.

I totally agree. I watched a DIY show over the weekend. They said to expect a remodel to cost at least 1-1/2 to 2 times what you think and take twice as long. Their conclusion on self-done work was it rarely looks professional. The owner will be proud of what they did and think that it's great, but when they go to sell, buyers will find the work not up to par.

Good Luck. We built our home ourselves, and even with my hubby being a contractor I am AMAZED we stayed married during the process. Plus we started when I was about 3 months pregnant and we lived with his parents until the baby was 3 months old (Yes for 9 months!) so we could have the home finished before we moved in. All I can say is Good Luck, and have a construction cushion (like an escrow cushion but MUCH bigger!)

Is your house one of those round ones? I was just wondering about the igloo reference

I have not done a full remodel. I find it easier to buy a nice new shiny house when I don't like the one I have.

Actually, I am ready for a nice new shiny baubel of a house once again! Just have to find affordable dirt to put it on.

BQ, how funny you should mention your marriage. I'm married to an engineer who made me sign off on the silly deck plan. He said "I know you too well. I'll start digging post holes and you'll change your mind and want them all moved a foot!"

We decided long ago that building a house was not an option for us. I look at things aesthetically while he keeps being logical and telling me that the pipes won't work that way.

Dawnie, with all you and Big J have been through, I'd bet a remodel would be easy. It you toasted it and believe in it, then go for it!

I think the igloo reference is more to do with location than shape!

Dawnie, we've pretty much redone our entire house over the last 8 years. I've done almost none of the actual work myself, but we've served as sort of the general on 3 of the 4 stages. From what I know of you, I'm guessing you'll manage just fine. Realize that delays and cost overruns are inevitable (once you open stuff up in the house, you'll discover all sorts of changes and additional work you may need) and roll with the punches, but stay on top of everyone doing their part. (I love how every trade likes to talk about how much better they could do the other guy's work - the plumbers criticize the tile guys, the tile guys criticize the electricians, etc.) And yes, the dust is a killer. If you're not staging it and you'll just move out of the house, fine. If you are staging it and trying to stay in the house during the work, I would be potentially concerned for Eljay - no matter how carefully you try to seal off the rest of the house, there's no way to keep the dust completely out.

Good luck!

On decisions like this, I pull out the old legal pad, draw a line down the middle and write pros and cons on each side.

I'm confident you know exactly what you want in the finished product, so perhaps one of the pros would be that you would have the opportunity to control the finished product better as the general contractor than you would if you had another layer under you. Another entry in the pro column might be that you would derive enjoyment and satisfaction out of the project.

On the other hand, an entry in the con column might be stress. Another, as mentioned by others, would be mess.

How would the finished project (assuming it gets done, doesn't crater your marriage, your health, your budget) enhance your life? What are the other alternatives? (Are there dwellings to be had that would meet your needs as well for the right cost, without the hassle factor?)

Dawnie, Didn't you just buy this house before the baby and marriage thing came up? I thought you put a lot of work into it then.

I agree with all that was said above. I redid mine in two phases and was miserable thru both. It was so dirty and I was so glad to have it done.

Also, didn't you have like multiple levels, maybe you should consider moving before Eljay gets mobile.

Start by renting the movie "The Money Pit" with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long.

I've seen the Money Pit :p and to take care of that part of the problem, I'm sending my husband on vacation for a couple of weeks during our 3 months in the first level.

I did talk to the doctor and we've worked all of that out. We are going to build a temporary wall to wall off the 1st and 2nd level (the 1st level is a family room, full bath, bedroom and laundry and the 2nd is the garage and a landing). The wall will take care of the majority of the dust issues. We also installed a new furnace with a special air cleaner to help. And we'll be covering all other furnace access during the remodel so that we're not recirculating the dusty air from upstairs. We'll move our kitchen into the garage, and the cat box to the landing :p and live in our 650 "apartment" in the basement.

I'm not doing ANY work (ok some special painting but that's it). I'd just be supervising the work. (Part of the wall includes a door for access for me).

The general contractor is lending me his license and working with me as a consultant throughout the process (he's feeling MAJOR guilt about this at this point) and it was his idea that I general the job, using all of his subcontractors. He'll even make sure they give me the price they gave him.

My husband's project manager on construction jobs gave me his budget worksheet, which is ten times the worksheet that most people use. He then went through it after I did the budgeting and told me it was very good, and we've added in a 20% contingency cost on the whole job (which is generous since you don't need a contingency cost normally on things like appliances...some $20,000 of the budget).

We've already cut into walls to see about suprises (we're moving two support beams and cutting into a support wall). The engineer has signed off on those. We also cut into the floor to look at those potential suprises and our contractor felt that all the major suprises were out of the equasion (but we still are keeping the contingency amount in the budget).

(I'm scrolling up as I answer questions). Yes the igloo is just a reference to where I live since most people think we live in one :p Those are less dusty to remodel

When the budget started kissing the $200M mark we did go house hunting. The only other place on a lake available was $900M and needed remodeling. At minimum we'd have to spend $500M and that would be expected to need major work.

Let's see, what else came up...oh ElJay is already the best stair crawler in the US (all 50 states I'm sure). So we're comfy staying in the five level for now :p

I did do a bunch of work on the top level when I was prego as well as painting and misc other stuff on the other levels. We added a master closet, took a tub out of our bedroom (yes it was IN the bedroom) and added a washer and dryer to the top floor (since laundry was five levels down and I had a baby coming). But that was just a start. We always planned on gutting the kitchen at some point.

So now the top level will get finished (a major gut on the bathroom and extension of it's size to accomodate a Japenese soaking tub and walk in shower). And the bedroom and "closet" (currently nursery) will get bamboo flooring. The stairs down to the next level will get walnut risers and treads. The living room level will get all new lighting and paint as well as a support beam removed. The next level down is the major work. Gutting the kitchen, adding a powder room, tearing out about 20 can lights and replacing with new ceilings and lighting, china nieches built into the diningroom wall....window seats etc. Oh and the flooring will be refinished or replaced (we have ugly tile at the entry that will be slate).

Then when that's all done (they say two months, so I figure 3 to 4) we'll move out of the first level and give the stairs their walnut treads, walnut on the landing, new carpet in the first level, and gut that bathroom and build ElJay the bathroom of a kid's dream (we're getting him an air jet tub...so many bubbles!).

I've thought about it sober and "enhanced" heh heh and I think I can do it. But I'll let ya'll be the judge of that as we go forward :p

Can I come and live with you in the igloo? Sounds beautiful!

We'll rent you the 1st level :p Lovely lake view, but you have to ask permission to get outside since it's going to have that wall....heh heh It's fun down on that level. The moose use our yard as their path across the lake and they walk so close that they often brush the picture window on the way past. It's kind of fun...and scary :p They're awfully big up that close.

Ok I guess I should plan on "wall removal" as the last step shouldn't I?

You know my biggest fears aren't what they should be about this job...they're "can I get up on time" and how will ElJay sleep in the same room as us! So much for ignoring him on occasion...

"Let's see, what else came up...oh ElJay is already the best stair crawler in the US (all 50 states I'm sure)."

The Grasshpper would take offense at this. He's so pleased with himself, he taught himself how to go DOWN the stairs right after New Year's. Now a great deal of our weekends are spent doing 'touch and gos'.

But your darling can take three stairs at a time Poor little ElJay has to hop down one

Actually I tried to teach him the way mom taught us (on our butt, sitting down step by step). But he's far too small (about the size of your average 4 month old) One day he just turned himself around and skootched backwards and down he went. He sort of slithers step by step down on his belly It's a hoot to watch as he gets started...sometimes as he heads down backwards his aim is off and he gets a post between his legs...I hate to laugh, but it's rather funny when he gets stuck