First major home remodeling project: advice requested

In My Humble Opinion
61

Finally got to talk to my old boss today. He is still awesome! He says we should definitely talk to multiple HVAC contractors, and said he will send me some recs. His gut feeling is that all other things being equal (which, of course, they never are), given that we intend to stay in the house for a long time, he recommends keeping the radiators and adding a separate AC/filtration system, and high efficiency boiler/hot water heater that can vent out the side of the building. I know we would both like to ditch the radiators, but he says they are more efficient than forced air, plus there would be much less to do in the way of duct work. He told me he’d be glad to review written contractor proposals for old times’ sake, even though I offered to pay him for his time.

He also says that living in a house while the chimney is being removed is something to be avoided if at all possible, especially if one has respiratory issues.

So now we just need to figure out how to coordinate getting estimates, preferably before we actually close on the house so that we can start the work right away. Never boring!

62

I re-wired (the original service was usable)
Re-pllumbed (it had already been converted to copper)
Moved walls
Added bath
replaced flooring.

All I hired out was the cast iron plumbing work.

My observation?

ARE YOU NUTS?

These kinds of projects cost up of $10K each.
The second-floor bedroom is great for the young.
Figure on a chair lift if you plan to age out in it.

Make sure you really, really love the house and location before comitting to that kind of project list.

Reminds me of the person looking at a wrecked yacht and imaging all he has to do is re-float and re-paint it.

There’s more to it than that.
There is ALWAYS more to it than that!

63

No, I’m not nuts, and I am aware of the possible cost. And yes, we love the house and are closing in a couple of weeks, so that horse has left the barn.

And I will talk to the professionals about the cost, but other than building out the second floor, which we can do at our leisure, the professionals I have already spoken to think the only portion of the work above that is going to anywhere near cost that much is the HVAC work (in total, not any single portion of it), and that we would recoup the cost within a few years because of the improved energy efficiency of newer equipment.

And estimating conservatively, an equivalent house with an additional master bedroom, master bath, and another 1300 square feet would cost at least $150k more in the same neighborhood. Everyone familiar with the local market and the plan thinks the work is worth the investment even if we were planning to flip the house, which we’re not.

64

Last finding. A couple of days after the electricians had left, after rewiring the entire basement, we noticed some oddities. Some of the breakers did not appear to be set as firmly as they ought, and the ceiling lights were on 2 breakers. They’re coming back next week to correct it.

Even with reputable workers, you have to check EVERY LITTLE DETAIL!

I didn’t notice that you gave us any hint of the neighborhood. Maybe just the nearest major intersection? Pretty please? (Hopefully not one of those BS cutesy faux neighborhood names!)

65

Albany Park. Definitely not cutesy :slight_smile:

66

:: bump ::

Since the last update, your intrepid Dopers have:

  • closed on the house;
  • upgraded the electrical panel to 200-amp service;
  • removed the chimney;
  • removed the radiators;
  • installed high-efficiency gas forced air, water heater, and central AC (all 5 HVAC contractors we spoke with recommended this approach);
  • painted all the finished living space;
  • moved in;
  • mostly unpacked;
  • closed the condo sale;
  • moved all the crap that was in the storage locker while the condo was on the market, mostly into the basement of the house because there’s no wall space for all those bookcases; and
  • planted a bunch of stuff in the garden.

Today I finally got to talk to my former boss, the architect (he was out of town for 1 of the 2 weeks since we closed on the condo). Unfortunately, he tells me that although he is happy to give us pointers for free, we are outside the geographic area he normally works in, and that he has learned through experience that if he doesn’t stick to a compact geographic area, his jobs all suffer and nobody is happy.

So it looks like we are going to have to hire someone else. I will ask around, but this is the kind of thing that will definitely call for multiple bids - I have one guy lined up so far to come on Thursday to take a look at the attic and give his impressions (recommended by my friends the real estate brokers). But we are going to have to hire someone who we don’t know personally. (Though my old boss said that he’d consider doing just the design portion of the job if we can line up a GC, and I could definitely see that happening.) He also said that the permitting process in Chicago is a gigantic PITA, which I can believe, and is often the reason why some people do work without permits.

So…wo here has hired an architect/GC for this kind of job? Other than word of mouth, how does one identify/screen people like that?

67

I missed this thread the first time around but there’s something glaringly missing: ethernet. It’s probably too late, though.

68

Eh, not really, I don’t think - the attic is nothing but bare floorboards at this point. There’s no electricity up there yet even.

69

I think it’s less important today to run Ethernet cable all over the house; WiFi is fast enough that it should be enough just to locate the router centrally.

70

For this native NW sider and Lane Tech alum, Albany Park borders on being a “cutesy faux” name. Growing up, with several friends living in the area, I NEVER heard the name. Even today, I had to google to see exactly where on the NW side it was. I far prefer the older tradition of giving the nearest major intersection. Or the nearest large park. Mine was Belmont and Central - even though I had some awareness that some folk called the area Belmont-Craigin. But, that is beside the point.

Should be a really great neighborhood, with the access to the expressways, lake, river, etc.

We just got redone completely redoing our suburban house over the past 3 years, and there is no foolproof way to hire your workers. The best I can recommend is to go with recommendations of people you know, who have had similar work done and have been pleased with the results. Think of it as a way to get to know your neighbors. Folk are generally happy to talk about their projects and experiences good or bad.

Barring that, make sure your bidders give you references, and make sure you contact them.

But prepare for a frustrating experience. You’ll get wildly different proposals - both in terms of scope of the project, and cost. And you will have no real why to tell whether one or the other is completely bullshitting you. At some point, you will be making a leap of faith. You have to decide when to stop getting quotes, or you’ll never get your project started.

Another frustration - don’t be shocked should you have a hard time getting folk out to GIVE you quotes - or even return your phone calls! Many of the best tradesmen are quite busy, and can be selective about the jobs they take.

A couple of our experiences:

-We had some work (including design/build) by a very well respected and pricey firm. Yet were very underwhelmed by the building process, and the results were less than the near perfection we expected given the price.

-We had other work done by a couple of “handymen.” While the price was very reasonable and the results OK, it clearly is different if you have - say - tile work done by a handyman vs a specialist.

-Much of our best experience was having work done by specialist tradesmen on an hourly + materials basis. Get a good plumber/HVAC/electrician in there, and just have him do your house up the way he would do his own.

-For some projects, we benefitted from going to a higher price store that provided design services. For example, we were driving ourselves crazy wandering the aisles of discount tile stores. So we went to a higher end place, where we sat down and drank coffee, while someone with more experience and a better eye than us brought out samples and combinations.

Prepare for the process being a hugely expensive PITA. But also, realize that if you do it the way you want it done, you’ll be thrilled with the results.

The permitting is - IMO - a curious thing. If you do EVERYTHING by the book, your project will take forever and cost a fortune. IME, there can be some room for interpretation as to whether a specific project is remodeling vs redecorating/repair. We got a lot of permits, but if we’d had the city in, I’m sure they would’ve said we ought to have gotten a couple more.