Testing local market - how much do you think I should pay for a good remodel design? (house)

[curious1111]

What we need is to have an architect/designer develop a remodel design for us, including interior of home and exterior. We want a master plan that we can work off, to do the remodeling in stages. We prefer to pay cash as we go vs. take out debt, so need a plan that we can work off in chunks. Example - remodel master bathroom, repaint entire interior of home, convert guest bedroom to home office, etc. I would say that I estimate we will spend several hundred thousand $ when it is all said and done, but want to do so in $50k-$100k incremements.

Back to the design, my understand is that best approach is to have an independent architect/designer develop the master plan to the remodel, and then either have a master contractor manage process, or bid out separately, etc. To give an idea of our plans, here are the big buckets.

- Exterior to be stucco or paint over existing bricks, add some stone accenting
- Landscape design, including remodel pool
- Master bathroom remodel
- Kitchen light remodel
- Repaint home
- Convert wetbar to walk in pantry
- Remove old ceiling fans/lighting put new, etc.

How much should I expect to pay for a remodel design that covers these kinds of things? $5k? $10k? Any rule of thumb it should be x% of total remodel estimate, etc.? Is there some way to avoid this charge and still have an independent/objective design process?

Thanks for any advice!

ps. not sure it matters, but house was built in early 90s, 5k square feet, 1 acre

[centralaustinite]

Closer to 20-40K would be my guess.

[curious1111]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

Closer to 20-40K would be my guess.

Really? For just the plan? Ugh.

This is why I wanted to get some opinions, we may need to take a different path if those numbers are true. I dont see us spending 10% (I am just taking a guess) of our remodel cost on just the design...

But getting educated here, thanks again

[clarksvillemom]

You might be able to see if CGS will do it cheaper. I know they have architects, but they also have "design-build" people who might do plans for less. Also check out Marsh Vorspan. Or maybe even Professor Almy at the UT Architecture School and his designer wife, at Atelier Hines Almy.

[gpurcell]

I'm deeply confused.

For "several hundred thousand dollars" you shouldn't be "changing ceiling fans"--you should be talking about adding an entire story. Not remodeling a pool but putting a pool in.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by gpurcell

I'm deeply confused.

For "several hundred thousand dollars" you shouldn't be "changing ceiling fans"--you should be talking about adding an entire story. Not remodeling a pool but putting a pool in.

agreed, these are what I would think remodel costs might be

- Exterior to be stucco or paint over existing bricks, add some stone accenting - 20K
- Landscape design, including remodel pool - 20K
- Master bathroom remodel - 20K
- Kitchen light remodel - 2K
- Repaint home- 3K
- Convert wetbar to walk in pantry - 5K
- Remove old ceiling fans/lighting put new, etc. - 200 per.

[scottsheehan026]

I am not sure about the plan. But I do like the above post about contacting UT. The professor should be able to get you a last year student that can do it as a project and make some extra money or at the least give you the contact information of a few past students that in his mind where gifted.

As far as the contractor. Don't worry with the over all cost. If money is your primary concern then don't be upset when you get what you pay for. You can have the best or you can have the cheapest. You can't have both. Mainly you just want to weed out contractors. Invite some to bid on the plan when you get it. Pay close attention to the way they bid and ask questions. For instance I would ask certain questions about the bid I received. I would ask about how they got their bid together. For instance materials, estimated hours, overhead %, net profit%, Job costs. You will weed out a lot of so called contractors this way. I would look for his overhead to be about 24% and net profit to be about 8%.
Chances are if the contractor knows how to bid a job properly then he knows how to do or get the rest done.