Adding a dormer with a bathroom? (Chicago: for sale, real estate, how much)

[becwells]

How much did you spend if you did it? What are the general estimates?

We looked at a gorgeous bungalow in Portage Park yesterday, but the top floor needs a dormer to be really useful. We would love to make the floor a large master suite with a bathroom and walk-in closet. The selling realtor said that the current owners had an estimate to make a half dormer (the length of one side of the house) and that it was only $7k. That seemed pretty low to us, but is that about right? How much would you estimate for a half dormer and additional bathroom? Would we need a full dormer to make the floor what we want? Any thoughts are appreciated!

[chet everett]

Between roofing, insulation and drywall for even a modest dormer that would easily be far more than $7k. I assume there will need to electric changes as well as furnace/ air conditioning, if you need plumbing changes I cannot think of a way this would not be at least $35k...

[gomexico]

Originally Posted by becwells

How much did you spend if you did it? What are the general estimates?

We looked at a gorgeous bungalow in Portage Park yesterday, but the top floor needs a dormer to be really useful. We would love to make the floor a large master suite with a bathroom and walk-in closet. The selling realtor said that the current owners had an estimate to make a half dormer (the length of one side of the house) and that it was only $7k. That seemed pretty low to us, but is that about right? How much would you estimate for a half dormer and additional bathroom? Would we need a full dormer to make the floor what we want? Any thoughts are appreciated!

Have a contractor of your choice look at the owner's plan, or make an estimate of his/her own based on an inspection ... before you make your offer. $7,000 won't get you much. Certainly not the dormer you're describing.

[becwells]

Originally Posted by chet everett

Between roofing, insulation and drywall for even a modest dormer that would easily be far more than $7k. I assume there will need to electric changes as well as furnace/ air conditioning, if you need plumbing changes I cannot think of a way this would not be at least $35k...

Yeah, we were thinking about $30k+ for the master suite with a bathroom. The house doesn't have central AC/heat.

I was also surprised when he said $7k although, like I said, that was just for one side and without adding plumbing etc. I was just curious if that was totally crazy. Sounds like he may have been pulling our leg a little...silly realtors.

[JacksonPanther]

Originally Posted by chet everett

Between roofing, insulation and drywall for even a modest dormer that would easily be far more than $7k. I assume there will need to electric changes as well as furnace/ air conditioning, if you need plumbing changes I cannot think of a way this would not be at least $35k...

A good thing about living in Chicago was the easy availability of "immigrant" contractors willing to work cheap for cash. Of course this means No Permits and No Inspections, and No Recourse if you're unhappy, so choose wisely!

[becwells]

Originally Posted by gomexico

Have a contractor of your choice look at the owner's plan, or make an estimate of his/her own based on an inspection ... before you make your offer. $7,000 won't get you much. Certainly not the dormer you're describing.

We're planning on offering on the house regardless. The dormer would be our addition in a year or so. The house is already 3 bedroom as is, and the attic space is definitely useable to some extent as an office or play space for the munchkin, it's just not what we would love it to be. I'm really just curious as to whether we would be completely crazy to even consider adding the suite. Sounds like it's totally doable. Initially I was thinking adding what we wanted would be closer to $100k (ha!). That's how clueless I am about this stuff.

[becwells]

Originally Posted by JacksonPanther

A good thing about living in Chicago was the easy availability of "immigrant" contractors willing to work cheap for cash. Of course this means No Permits and No Inspections, and No Recourse if you're unhappy, so choose wisely!

LOL. This is NOT what we'll be doing. If estimates end up much higher than we anticipate, we'll just put it off for another year. No worries. The house is pretty perfect as is, so we can live with it as is for a few years and then invest the cash to make it the home of our dreams.

[chet everett]

In the "old days" you could maybe hire a neighbor that was a fireman with a a 24 on/ 48 off schedule and his lay about brother-in-law to rip off your roof, hammer in some new framing and then close it up against weather. That might have been $7k during the Reagan administration...

You can find some actual skilled contractors that do not advertise and really do hire subcontractors that know what they are doing and get actual permits (which is an absolute must as the city takes this much more seriously after well publicized disasters) with no electric changes and no windows for maybe something less that $15K but if the place has no A/C you will literally need to hospitalized the first night we have temps in the 90s...

For $100K you could get a "magazine quality" build-out with top of the line plumbing and high-end features like a balcony. I think that would really "price you beyond the market" in Portage Park but I have seen people do it...

[Attrill]

I could see $7,000-10,000 covering the framing and roof for a dormer, but nothing more than that. When we put an addition on our house in Logan Square the carpentry portion of the estimates was very reasonable. The foundation, electrical, plumbing, and heating work was much pricier.

If you're going to stay in a place for awhile now is a great time to buy, especially if you plan on fixing a place up. We lived in our place for a year before we started any large construction projects, and having the experience of living in the house helped us make smarter decisions when we redid portions of it. The work we did ended up being completely different than what we envisioned doing when we moved in.

[becwells]

Thanks for the input!

Another house we're considering is $30k more upfront. Has the dormer done, but no finished basement (which this place has, and it's a really great basement).

Heck, I'll just show you our 2 top options:

5352 W Pensacola Ave, Chicago, IL 60641 - Home For Sale and Real Estate Listing - realtor.com®

5526 W Agatite Ave, Chicago, IL 60630 - Home For Sale and Real Estate Listing - realtor.com®

The one on Agatite is the one we're considering putting in the offer on. Better value, right? I think so. We haven't seen the one of Pensacola yet, but it looks nice as well, but likely out of our initial price range.