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Wow - how much did that all cost?

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By Natalie
I finally had a chance to sit down and update the budget spreadsheet with the purchases from the past year.


I've been keeping a spreadsheet from the moment Harris said, "ok, let's talk about it..." that realistically laid out how much everything could possibly cost.


Originally, we estimated that the total restoration of the house would cost about $269,000 based on previous work, sqft, general guesses, and hope.  This project was costed by us after spending about 60 minutes in the house. After almost 1000 days, we ended up spending about $315,000 to restore the house. Seems like a nice round place to stop for now.


Where were our estimates wrong (off by 25% or more)?

Electrical work - why? More wires had to be fished through walls, the whole house amps had to be increased, etc.
Plaster - Ed was wonderful, but he ended up taking about an additional 3 weeks to do the whole house and his lower cost helper went on vacation at some point...
Interior woodwork - Mainly because we needed a couple more knives cut and more specialized trim once we removed the drop ceilings. We had two custom pocket doors made to match the existing one. Also, the house is just huge with a lot of detailed trim work.
Kitchen - our original idea was appliances and make do. We changed our mind to actual kitchen once we started. It's still probably 1/5 the cost of what most people spend on a kitchen but our original number was less than $6,000 all inclusive.
Painting - it's just expensive to get a great paint job. We got a great one, but, it was, expensive.


This takes the whole project to $455,000 or about $126/sqft. We claimed tax credits on the first $275k (ish I think) which, if we're fully able to claim them will bring back $82,500.

What's left - the girls bathroom, master suite, sunroom, tile patching in 2 bathrooms, butler pantry. Summer kitchen. Landscaping.

Now the little house needs our attention. Seems much more manageable after this.
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