So wife and I are beginning to look at moving. Moving from a new house to an older house, but in a better part of town. Buying with the intention of A) living for a long time there and B) buying and willing to fix it up.

I have watched (or been forced to watch) HGTV and know some of the ballpark values for fixing things. Is there a site that would give better, local numbers for work? Most of the things would be down to the studs to fix; i.e., gut kitchen, guy master bath, flooring, etc.

I am handy and plan on doing some of the work, but I know for other things, I have no desire. Windows, roofing, etc. NE Houston is the area. I did not know if there were better sites than reading other TA threads.

~egon

I'm not going to be much help, but would only say I would not use TV for ballpark pricing.

IMO their pricing is total crap. Maybe if you're doing a lot of business with someone over the years and get a deal that way, but otherwise it's all dependent upon local conditions at the moment. If things are busy and you don't know anyone, good luck.

Sites like Homewyse and HomeAdvisor purport to give ballpark estimates, and Angie's List will occasionally throw out some numbers, but they should all be taken with a Lot's wife-sized chunk of salt.

I remember seeing shows (probably Fixer upper, whatever is in Waco) state:

$25,000 for a kitchen (to the studs)
$15,000 for master bath
etc...

I know most of the houses we have looked at have single pane aluminum windows. I would like to change that out; I see window world offering $189 per window. But I am a bit skeptical on that price. I guess I was thinking more along the lines of $400-$600. But $25k for a kitchen seems reasonable to me, assuming I'm not going with gold plated sinks and marble for countertops.

I also put a discount on shows from CA or Canada, as labor is probably a bit more than down here in Houston (although if they start building again...)

~egon

IMO half the fun in a kitchen is moving utilities. Keep everything in the same place and you'll cut costs there significantly.

I'm not saying these numbers are correct, but they are numbers.

http://www.remodelingcalculator.org/remodeling-costs/

You're going to have trouble using those sites. They're not really reliable. What I'd do is price with multiple contractors and research all of them heavily and then once you get in closer get a detailed bid pricing on materials and counter check that.

I know I would have to go to several contractors and such. But this is more of "look at the house and see how much it would cost to upgrade".

Dr. Doctor said:

---

I remember seeing shows (probably Fixer upper, whatever is in Waco) state:

$25,000 for a kitchen (to the studs)
$15,000 for master bath
etc...

I know most of the houses we have looked at have single pane aluminum windows. I would like to change that out; I see window world offering $189 per window. But I am a bit skeptical on that price. I guess I was thinking more along the lines of $400-$600. But $25k for a kitchen seems reasonable to me, assuming I'm not going with gold plated sinks and marble for countertops.

I also put a discount on shows from CA or Canada, as labor is probably a bit more than down here in Houston (although if they start building again...)

~egon

---

Keep in mind, those figures in the show also account for the furnishings in those rooms. If you have custom cabinets installed, you could easily get that high. We used cabinets from Lowes, and will have put about 8k into our kitchen when all is said and done (small kitchen, we do all the work). With labor that easily would have been 10-15k.


best place to get a quote would be to talk to a contractor in the area, or even a friend who is a contractor. For windows, get quotes from several different places. The size of the window could play in as well. We have an old house, and our windows are not a standard size, so we have to special order most of our windows.

Get a per sq ft quote from a drywall and paint company. It will at least knock that out for you.

Just be careful if you're inside the Houston city limits... I think they require a permit for talking about doing renovations at this point.

The contractor my grandmother found through home advisor.com stole thousands of dollars from her and did crap work. I wouldn't trust any kind of online bid