Order of priorities in major house rehab

Factual Questions
1

Let’s say you are buying a house that is structurally sound, but extremely dated. You figure it will be close to a complete gut job: kitchen and baths to be completely gutted; wood floors refinished, wood trim painted or replaced, walls painted, all windows and most doors replaced, new roof/gutters/soffit/fascia… While the plumbing and electric seem pretty solid, you’d just as soon tweak/improve anything while the dust is flying. Floor plan is really good with the exception of one wall (non support) you might remove to open the LR/DR/Kitch into 1 big room.

How do you go about prioritizing which jobs you do in what order?

2

I think you should look into the cost for bulldozing the current house and building a new house instead.

Do you plan to live in the house while it is being redone?

3

Doing all you work at once will save alot of time and money.
You want to start with the most important things first, foundation, structure, roof, and building envelope. This will protect any future work you do.
If you’re talking about a room to room reno, it’s a question of functionality.

4

I guess I was unclear. Structurally, the house is sound. This is a 50 yr old house that has not been abused, but it certainly has been well used. The old owner just moved into a nursing home, and no undating had been done in at least a couple of decades.

If we wanted, we could live in the house now - and into the indefinite future. However, we wish to make this into the home we enjoy for the next couple of decades. It has exactly the floorplan we want, on the type of lot we want, in the location we want. We should be able to get it for a very good price, and can afford to redo it to our personal preferences.

So the windows all appear to work (well, one sliding door has clearly seen better days) - but they are 50 years old - and aren’t something classic that needs to be saved.

Interior doors are all there and work - but are old and cheap.

No apparent leaks in the roof/major gutter problems presently - just thinking that we might wish to refresh the facad - perhaps replace aluminum siding w/ cedar or composite.

AFAIK, kitchen and baths are fully functional - just ugly and tired as hell.

Rooms all need paint. Trim is nothing special, and has been painted poorly. Suspect the easiest thing will be to simply replace it - which I can do myself. Entire interior needs paint - again, we are happy to do.

Also AFAIK, furnace, water heater, AC all work - but again, I’m expecting they could go out at any time.

So I’m thinking the first thing to do to make it as liveable as possible is to hit the kitchen, then the baths. That will make us look hard at the electric/plumbing. After we move any walls for that, we can do all the floors. Everything else is cosmetic, and can be done at our leisure.

Windows and siding - we’ve had that done before in a house we were living in.

Right now the house is full of an old lady’s junk. Just about the only decorating thing that is of any interest/value is the blue Tiki bar in the family room! gotta figure out how to incorporate that badboy into our vision! :cool:

I guess another thing I’m wondering is, if we are going to be doing quite a bit of work like this, are there any special things you would do now, that you would enjoy having had done later? I dunno - work on the ducts. Upping the elect to 200 amp…

5

We had a similar house, and before moving in we took off the wallpaper (texturized paper that someone had painted over. !!!.) and painted everywhere. First job after moving in was replacing all the windows as they leaked air and dirt and noise. New windows made a remarkable difference. Next we did one bathroom. Over the next few years we did the second bathroom, furnace, and the kitchen was last, except that we had replaced the stove before moving in. If you are not living there while working your priorities will no doubt be different. I was glad we did the bathroom first because for me being able to shower in a new space instead of with someone else’s ground in dirt was really lovely. YMMV.

6

Thanks. Isn’t it unbelievable when folk paint over wallpaper? Fortunately no wallpaper in this house.

We are very fortunate in that we are very flexible as to our living situation, so we could move in there at any time.

Just writing this down has made me feel better about the process. We submitted an offer - hope it gets accepted (or countered reasonably). No I gotta try to stop thinking about it and get some work done.

We are fortunate in that just last month there was a MONSTER rain, and much flooding in the general area - but this house took no damage. In addition to the disclosure of no water issues, believe me, there is PLENTY of stuff in the basement that would have shown water damage, and - to put it mildly - there is NO fresh paint or signs of a recent attempt to coverup! :wink:

7

They accepted our offer. Let’s see how much money and effort we can toss into this pit! :stuck_out_tongue:

8

This sounds like so much fun! We’ve redone 3 1/2 houses (this one isn’t finished yet) and nothing beats getting to put your own stamp on your living space.

Although it’s not structural per se I would suggest going ahead and replacing the A/C. First, you don’t want it to go out in the heat of the summer while you’re trying to work, and some ductwork could need to be rerouted or something, affecting what you have to work with later.

Then, like kayT said, I’d finish one bathroom so you have an oasis of modern amenities to escape to.

9

(I meant heat AND air.)

10

Yes, start with the utilities. You may need to replace the electrical panel if it’s old. Make sure you have good water, and septic or sewer. Make sure you have heat, an old furnace is worth replacing, it could save you money in just a year or two from better efficiency. If you have significant exterior work like the roof it has to be done in good weather. Gutting everything and re-doing it all at once is a good idea, if you can get it finished short term, otherwise plan a room to room schedule. If you have to windows or interior doors you want to get them done at the same time, but if you can’t at least order them all together so they’ll match. And leave the cosmetic stuff for last.

11

And since the electric may come up while you’re doing the heat and air, check to see if the rooms have enough plugs, especially in the bathrooms. (And if there’s a porch etc.)

In our last house we replaced every bit of trim and doors, interior and exterior, over months time. I went to the same mill distributor each time and picked out what I wanted so I knew it matched. As an aside, I chose Luann (sp) for the baseboards because it’s wider at the bottom and dust falls off rather than collecting on a top edge.

12

That’s brilliant, Becky 2844. I loathe dusting baseboards.

13

Lauan is just a species of wood - nothing to do with the molding profile.

That profile that curves to a near nothing-edge at the top is usually called “streamline”

14

Thanks, I didn’t know that. That “streamline” really does work.

15

It’s been a long time since I’ve helped rehab a house, but if you’re not going to move in right away, I would begin with the windows, then progress to the electrical, plumbing, heat/AC/ductwork, baths and kitchen in that order. After the stuff that’s intregal to the running of the place, do the floors, paint, trim and siding.

Sounds like you’ve found a gem. :slight_smile:

16

Walked through it again on Sunday. It really is more solid than I had thought the first time around. Roof looks sufficiently solid - one area looks a little rough, but no evidence of leaks, and should have at least a few good years left. Brick, siding/soffit all look very clean. Maybe some gutter sagging - I imagine they haven’t been cleaned out for at least a couple of years. Furnace, AC, and water heater are all pretty new - less than 5 yrs old.

So essentially what we will be doing is a total cosmetic overhaul. Essentially it is a blank slate, both inside and out.

It is a split level with a sub-basement, so we will be able to fix-up and “live in” the top 2 floors, while using the lower 2 levels as storage/prep space. The sub is going to remain unfinishes, so probably the first thing I’ll want to do is blast that clean just to make sure I’m not bringing things in and storing them amidst the previous owners decades of dust.

The kitchen is going to be one of our first priorities, along with one of the 2 upstairs bathrooms. No question but that we will install a new electric panel when they are doing the kitchen.

The wood floors are going to need some pretty major attention. We already have a great floor guy, so we’ll ask him in what order he recommends that the walls be painted and/or the baseboard/shoe be removed/replaced.

Meanwhile, the outside is a complete blank slate. We have a really good lanscape guy we’ve worked with in the past. We’ll have him draw up some plans for planting beds and hardscape, and probably have him plant any large trees this fall, after which we can work on smaller plantings and hardscape at our leisure.

Meanwhile, we’ll be researching and considering windows and doors…

SO exciting! :cool:

17

Do the windows and doors first. The energy savings will pay off. Rekey the place so you don’t have to carry a ring full of keys. At my house 1 key opens all the doors and the garage and is a master for the gates. There is a gate key that opens just the gates but not the house.
Leave one bathroom functional while doing the kitchen and other bath.
Upgrade electrical when starting the kitchen.
You can not have too many electrical outlets in the kitchen.

18

Good ideas all.

We had a single key for all exterior doors in our last house - IMO the only way to go.

Anyone have specific window recommendations? (I guess I could start a new thread.) In our last home we went with a lesser known brand. Overall, we were very pleased with the windows themselves. However, when one or 2 things went wrong, our installers had gone out of business, and it was not as easy as we might have hoped to locate replacement parts. And, altho we plan on staying in this house until we die or need assisted living, a no-name brand did not add to marketing for resale.

So, if you were living in the Chicago area and were replacing all of your windows - including one sliding door, any brands you recommend looking into or avoiding?

19

When we replaced our outlets, we added new USBones near the beds and the kitchen counter for iPhone/iPad recharging.

20

Procrustus, great idea.
Dinsdale just a thought…would French doors fit in with the feel of the house instead of replacing the sliding glass door?