Color Consultant

My wonderful painter, Painting 512, included a free color consultation and today was the day to pick colors. It took us two hours to pick five different colors of paint. I was a little shocked when the consultant said the appointment would be 90 minutes but couldn’t believe it when 2 hours past us by.

I shared with the consultant my vision and ideas for paint colors and my inspiration tile. Here is the tile I found at the Restore for about $0.50 a tile. There are only about 80 tiles, so not enough for a full back splash but enough for two accent rows below some shiplap.

We worked with this tile and the plan for white cabinets to select the back accent wall in the kitchen which will be Iron Ore from Sherwin Williams.

Next we moved to the wall color for the rest of the house. I wanted a soft grey but not something that is being over done. I also want it to run throughout the whole house and be neutral enough to appeal to maybe buyers. So with that criteria we landed on Egret White from Sherwin Williams. Then adding a simple white for the trim and doors in the house, High Reflective White from Sherwin Williams.

For the bathrooms, I had found a paint brochure for the most popular colors and had my eye on this year’s winner, Reflecting Pool from Sherwin Williams.

Next we moved outside to decide on the exterior colors for the house. I am all in favor of painting the brick. It is not in great shape and not very pretty of a color to start, so paint away.

I again was thinking gray and black possibly. I wanted to add in some wood tones but after some time and consultation, I came to realize four colors is too many for the exterior of a house. We were looking at gray, black, and white trim. The windows will be trimmed white so we need to consider that when planning the colors. I really like the Iron Ore, so we brought that outside and will use it for the front door and the trim. I decided on Essential Gray from Sherwin Williams for the house and Alabaster White from Sherwin Williams for the eaves. My color pallets are now complete!

I also hired a cabinet company today, Troo Designs, and I am committed to moving forward with our kitchen design plan to expand the kitchen into the dinning area by adding an eat-at peninsula counter. This rearrangement will cost extra because it requires moving the door out to the garage to the adjacent wall and relocating the refrigerator plug and water line. However, kitchens and bathrooms sell houses, so I am crossing my fingers and taking the plunge that these extra expenses will pay off in the end.

My contractor, Catalyst Construction, is already starting on projects at the house. The crew finished the demo work on the hall bathroom removing the tub and toilet. Things are starting to move along. Let’s keep it rolling!

It’s a numbers game

You are possibly wondering what we paid for the house. Maybe you are wondering what is our reno budget. Or you are wondering how much do you think we can get for the house when we sell it. So here are the numbers so far for this project.

List price: $274,000

Purchase price: $276,960

After closing costs: $285,507

Reno budget: $75,000

Resale price: $380,000

Possible profit: $19,493

The estimate for work on the house is currently over our $75,000 budget. I am working to find ways to trim the reno cost at every turn, but it is going to be a real challenge. We are going to have to cut some things off of our work list. The big projects to be done are to add a shower to the 1/2 bath, rearrange the kitchen to create a peninsula for more counter space, repair the foundation, move the A/C unit into the attic and replace the unit, replace all windows, lay all new flooring, repair the walls throughout the house and in the garage, paint the whole house, replace the back sliding door, and landscape to add curb appeal.

All of these projects seem very necessary, but all of the projects do not fit into our budget. We have looked at comps in the neighborhood and creating two full bathrooms seems like a must. Also moving the A/C into the attic to raise the ceiling in the hall and bathroom also seems like a must. We know kitchens sell but, I am rethinking the need to rearrange the layout. In order to stay within our budget, we may need to keep the layout the same and just update the cabinets, counters, and backsplash.

New windows, flooring, and paint is a must but to help save money we have already pulled up all the flooring ourselves. That saved us around $2,600 in demo labor costs. Another way to save money was to hire a separate window company than my general contractor. I found someone who was just a few hundred dollars cheaper but every little penny counts in this business. I have also hired a separate house painter as well to save some money. We will do the interior painting ourselves and possibly install the flooring ourselves to save money as well.

This weekend I plan to do some shopping around for materials. I will also be purchasing all the materials myself to save money. My contractor could purchase all the materials for me, but this cost would be added to his bill which would increase his total cost. Anything I can do myself will help me not have to pay him to do it. I am very lucky to have found a great general contractor who is willing to work with me on my budget and let me do some of these things on my own. He also has experience flipping houses and has been providing me with very helpful advice along the way.

Finally, I thought after all this money talk I would leave you with some design ideas. Here are two pictures I am using for inspiration for the two bathrooms. Let me know your thoughts.

Demo is done man!

That is it! I can’t scrap any more floors, pull up any more tile, sweep up any more debris. I am done and so is my husband and my mom. We have worked like champions this past week. We were over at the house almost every night after our normal 9 to 5 jobs. Then over there again all day Saturday to finish the demo job. My husband chipped away at the tile and the filler with the jack hammer like a boss! Mom pulled down plastic shower wall liner, chiseled out mortar from the base of the wall, and hauled out trash to the dumpster like Wonder Women! I can’t tell you how many wheelbarrow loads of busted up tile I carted out to the dumpster. It feels like a thousand! Or how many scraps with a heavy duty razor blade I made across the concrete floor to get every spec of glue and filler off of the floor.

I realize HGTV does movie magic and those home owners really do not do the demo work themselves. It is one thing to break apart a cabinet or two, bust a wall with a sledge, it is a whole other thing to clear a whole house that was tiled wall to wall of every spec of tile fragment there is. And honestly, we could not even remove all of the tile in the house. The master bathroom’s sink is busted, we can’t shut the water off below the sink so we can’t remove it at this time or finish removing the tile under the sink. But really, that is okay. I removed enough tile for one house and if I have to pay our contractor to finish removing the last 10 tiles in that bathroom, I can live with that.

We have saved around $2,600 of demo costs by doing the job ourselves. Of course we paid that money and then some in sweat and muscle ache but that is all part of the job. If you are not willing to get dirty, and I mean really dirty, then this is not the endeavor for you.

The house after demo work has been wrapped up. You can see the one bathroom with leftover tile and sink.

This week I will meet with more contractors to continue to collect bids on the work. I am continuing to try to get the cost of the remodel down to a lower price. I am meeting with a plumber, cabinet salesperson, and foundation repair company this week. All of these will be second or third bids for each of these projects. Fingers crossed someone will have good news for us.

My next blog I promise to begin to share costs and budget. You may be wondering now how much did we purchase the house for, how much is our remodeling budget, what other costs have sneaked into the equation. Trust me there has been plenty of extra costs so far and I happy to share that with you in my next post. Stayed tuned!