Renovation costs in Southern Westchester? (Bath: house, refrigerators, buying)

[allank143]

We are considering buying a 100 year old house in Southern Westchester that needs to be renovated. What would ballpark cost be to redo three bathrooms and a kitchen. I am not sure if the plumbing and electricity have been updated recently, although I did see a few circuit breakers. The floors and walls are in excellent shape but the whole house looks "tired." I am not sure how to make it look fresher -- is that simply a matter of repainting? House is around 4000 SF.

Can anyone give a ballpark figure? Are we talking $200K, $400K or even more?

[KensingtonPark]

Really depends on how nice an upgrade you want. Just freshen or modernize, or go super nice with SubZero builtin refrigerators, Viking ranges, etc. If the latter, I think you need to budget at least $200K just for the kitchen. Bathrooms are similar. If you're talking high-end cabinetry, fixtures, etc., then you're talking $60K per bathroom in my experience. Pick a budget that is 60%-70% of your max spend, because in a house that old you're likely to run into code problems that you won't have a choice but to fix, and you don't know what they are until then.

[allank143]

Hi,

I am certainly NOT looking for $200K kitchen. What I really want to know is the following:

1. Given the fact that I saw circuit breakers, does that mean the electric has been upgraded? If not, what would the cost be to do so?
2. What would the cost be to upgrade the plumbing?
3. how would one go about freshening up the house -- putting aside the kitchen and the bathrooms, the rooms like "tired" and "old." I cant really explain it. The floors are in excellent shape; the walls are in good shape. The rooms just don't strike you as really nice. How do you fix that? Is it simply a new coat of paint, refinishing the floors and adding your own furniture? Or is there something more?

thanks!

[ponytrekker]

Depends what you need. Impossible to tell through the internet.

Here's what my costs have been:

Plumbing
$5k for a new highly efficient gas furnace which paid for itself within a year.
$1500 for(I am not sure of the exact price -- likely less) for a new HW heater and tank.

Bathrooms
To do a mild update to two bathrooms (floors and fixtures) it cost me about $7500 for both and that was being frugal, but using a good contractor though I bought the materials myself but left the original tub and showers because I didn't have any more money.

Electrical
To install new breaker panel and new outlets throughout the house (without redoing all the house wiring, which was OK) was about $1500.

Kitchen
A kitchen I think is between $15k and $50k unless you're really rich. I would price it out at home depot or some other big box store which would sell you the stuff and sub out the work.

[Shify]

Originally Posted by allank143

how would one go about freshening up the house -- putting aside the kitchen and the bathrooms, the rooms like "tired" and "old." I cant really explain it. The floors are in excellent shape; the walls are in good shape. The rooms just don't strike you as really nice. How do you fix that? Is it simply a new coat of paint, refinishing the floors and adding your own furniture? Or is there something more?

thanks!

Could be just about anything, you give nothing to go on. Maybe you just need paint. Maybe you need to skim coat the walls and ceiling before you paint. Maybe the walls and ceiling no longer meet at 90 degree angles. Maybe there isn't enough lighting, maybe not enough windows. Maybe the style of the home and thus the room lends itself to looking more tired in your eyes.

[sdcity]

Here is a question for you. If you have 200-400k extra cash around, why not get a better house that doesn't need so many updates? Easier to finance an extra 400k than to put 200k cash on repairs if you ask me.