You may want to stay close by during the renovation. There are always questions and changes which come up along the way. It would be better if you could see any issues in person rather than having the contractor describe them over the phone.
You also want to keep an eye on their work as well to make sure things are done correctly. If you’re not there to oversee things, the workers may take shortcuts or do things differently than you want.
Travel trailer rentals here in the Phoenix area start at about $100 a night, a rate easily beaten by hotels, never mind long-term stay places.
Minority view - but depending on the size of the rooms and the finishes selected, $80k is not necessarily out of line. Custom cabinetry can add up really quickly, as can tile if you are using a lot of it and choose a pricey tile. And the sky’s pretty much the limit if you want to go crazy w/ plumbing/lighting fixtures. Hell, I’ve seen $100k STOVES! :eek:
Even with a gut bathroom job, you should be able to arrange it that your toilet is not out of commission for more than a day at a time. And don’t decommission both kitchen and bathroom sinks at the same time.
We used our kitchen gut as an excuse to compare all of the local pizza joints! 
I agree with whomever said you don’t want to be out of town throughout the process. Even if you pay a pricey contractor, you’ll be amazed at the little things they screw up, or the countless decisions that have to be made throughout the job.
True. But all that happens if you decide to go to a pricey kitchen store. You’ll be treated like royalty there. And you’ll pay about 70 K for that treatment, and get preciously little to show for it.
We, that is me as user, and my uncle-in-law who’s a professional kitchen installer, sing the praise of IKEA kitchens. Very good, pretty, and affordable. Nowhere near 80 K for a kitchen. Closer to 3 - 9 K.
Yes, you can get a kitchen and bathroom renovated for much less than $80,000. And if the condo itself is only worth a small amount (say, $150,000), you probably don’t want to put that much money into it. But if that $80,000 represents only a small fraction of the value of the condo, it might be worth it. It might even be expected. Would you, for instance, put an IKEA kitchen in a multi-million dollar Park Avenue apartment?
Does your condo community have common areas with bathrooms? Sometimes the pool will have showers. That may be an option if your bathroom is out of service.
8-10 weeks!!!???!!!
I did a half bath, replaced the toilet, took out the pedestal sink, put in a new vanity, new marble countertop, undermount sink, new faucet, new lighting, and new mirror…all in about 9 hours.
Good point.
I wonder how Home Depot works for contracting it out. I assume Ikea is a cheaper brand for all the stuff. But you can get decent stuff at Home Depot.
So if we were talking about a kitchen of the size and shape of the open floor L shaped model ones, and a small bath, (plus window and closet treatments) how much do you reckon that would run from Ikea?
Home Depot contracts the work out to anonymous local workers, and then adds on a percentage to the price you pay.
You’re better off finding a local contractor yourself. Mostly the same people that Home Depot subcontracts to do the work, but you know their names and can get local references (Angies List, etc.) to choose one with a good reputation.
Well the result of that search is that this first guy must be the very high end. Haven’t seen anyone else yet. Not sure why he upsold me so much when I’m going to have to stagger this job at the very least. The issue can’t be new to him.
Since the OP is looking for advice, let’s move this to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Yeah, this man! What kind of Cowboy Builder did you hire?
Me? I’d just move to my home in Tahoe, Cannes, Hawaii, Aruba, Wabuska or Rio. Whichever had the best weather at the time.
Our complete kitchen remodel was 2 weeks (including the attached family room). We used the microwave and ate salads and sandwiches. Our complete bathroom remodel, including moving a wall, was one. There was one day when the toilet was unusable.
You can use a tool on the IKEA site do do a quick mock-up of the kitchen and appliances you’d want, and the tool will give you the exact price list. See here. And IKEA is affordable, not cheap. They have the advantage of scale, and they have a reputation to uphold. They basically have one good basic kitchen set, the METHOD series. But with a gazillion different styles and finishings, ranging from utterly basic to very luxurious. But the bare bones of the material of the kitchen is good and strong and tested and perfected to the hilt, and affordable because they sell so many of them. And everything fits and matches. IKEA is design in the best way possible.
Recently my Dutch consumer’s magazine confirmed that IKEA is good quality and that the stores do not try to upsell you. But you WILL have to do more work yourself in the planning stage. It will be the most money you’ve earned/saved per hour, if you look at it later. Or you can just give up and walk into a kitchen store and have them pamper yu and take all worries out of your hands and then… you’ll pay 50 K more for the same kitchen and work years to repay that.
I think you need to do more research to learn what a high-end kitchen and bathroom offer versus a budget job from IKEA, Home Depot or the like. Neither is wrong, really, but what you get is different. And really, there are many ways to either blow up the budget or keep it affordable. For instance, you can get cabinet and drawer pulls that cost a dollar or two each, or ones that cost ten or twenty bucks each.
There are kitchen and plumbing showrooms that have stock at different price points and I’m sure they’re used to the need to educate people on the differences.
If this doesn’t make much sense, think about car shopping. The Honda Fit I drive cost about $20,000 new and it’s a fine car. But you can spend $100,000 or $200,000 on a car as well. Both will get you from point A to point B. But there are reasons why they cost different amounts.
The one problem with IKEA is that if you need to do any rewiring, plumbing, etc. they don’t do that (they’ll change plugs or put under-cupboard lighting). But most kitchens can be remodeled without needing to go that deep.
Without the plumbing and lighting and electric I can’t see it as a useful service for me in my position now.
I just sold the moms condo. So I am good with costs that are fair no matter what. It’s the displacement that’s the bigger issue.
I wasn’t talking about whether you could afford a high-end kitchen and bath, but that you need to understand why, for example, one kitchen remodel might cost $50,000 while another approach might cost only $15,000. Certainly some costs are going to be the same either way. But other things, like countertops vary in cost from perhaps $15 per square foot for Formica to $100 per square foot for granite or marble.