Although we haven't made any concrete progress, we've progressed in the planning stages.
We met with a contractor last week. He walked through the bathroom and kitchen and talked over our plans, gave his opinion of what fixes would be most important. He understands that saving money is one of our biggest priorities. He'll send us some quotes in a week or two and we'll see if he's affordable. (He's also open to us sourcing some of the items/doing some of the work, so we could always end up using him for just part of the job.)
He made some suggestions about our plan that we agreed with, so we've made the following changes to it:
- We probably won't renovate the bathroom until we move out. He said he can do it in a little over 2 weeks if we're out of the house. We also don't want to be living here without a functioning bathroom if we don't have to.
- We won't get a microwave to mount over the stove. He said the trend is moving back toward countertop, so we just won't include a microwave in our staged final product. He also said our current oven hood will be fine with just a cleaning.
- We'll get a new undermount sink for the kitchen. He said these are big selling points because not as much dirt gets trapped (it's true, so much gunk gets trapped around the lip of our sink).
- We may not get new stainless steel appliances for the kitchen. A lot of his example photos didn't have them. In that case I think we'd only need to replace the stove and maybe get the dishwasher cleaned/serviced. The fridge will be fine with a cleaning that we can do ourselves. The fridge was the most expensive appliance by far on our price list, so that would be a big savings.
- We may replace the bathroom floor instead of trying to save it. He says it would be an inexpensive upgrade since the square footage of our bathroom's floor is so small.
- We won't replace the vinyl on the living room built-in. He said it was in great shape and probably no one would be bothered by it (we think it's ugly because it's black and nothing else is except the window frames, but to tell the truth I didn't really notice it when we bought the place).
Everything else we discussed he was right on board with. I look forward to getting his quotes. We've also asked a friend with an Angie's List membership to search for reviews of his work, because he has little to no web presence. But it's the second time we've met him, and we get a REALLY good feeling about him. Not flashy or aggressive, not a hard-sell guy, but definitely has opinions and experience.
So our May calendar no longer has bathroom renovation on it, though we may still get started on the kitchen once we hear back from the contractor. It would be easier to deal with an out-of-commission kitchen than a bathroom.
Also still on the May calendar is to try and fix the balcony and living room curtains (AS's job) and to start painting. AS and I found a palette of paint colors we think would be good, so we'll probably get some samples soon and start trying them out. Painting may run into June too. The other big May thing is to put as many of our belongings as possible in our friend's garage sale at the end of the month.
We're still trying to nail down a date to meet with our realtor. My friend is still saying we might not need a buying realtor, but we're leaning toward it. We'll definitely use our realtor to sell, and maybe to buy. We'll probably meet with her near the end of May.
No updates on the WV land deal, so we're still saving like mad and assuming we won't be able to buy until early next year. We shall see, though. A couple of promising homes cheaper than our estimate have popped up. Also some more expensive than our estimate. It will depend on a lot of factors.
Right now we only have enough money saved for the US reno and UK reno plus an additional $3600, which isn't enough for a down payment on ANY house, no matter how cheap. By the end of July we should have about $10K, but that's still not enough to put a down payment on anything. We might have more like $15K-$20K by October, which is getting closer to at least a small down payment, depending on home prices.
More reno/moving planning progress
May 10th, 2014 at 08:15 pm
May 10th, 2014 at 08:43 pm 1399754622
I'm surprised at his comment about the microwave hood. Condos don't have a lot of kitchen counter space, and a microwave/hood would free up a lot.
May 10th, 2014 at 09:11 pm 1399756269
May 10th, 2014 at 09:39 pm 1399757974
Two weeks is an incredible amount of time to renovate regular sized bathrm. In one day an inexperienced DIY can remove taps, commode pulled up, sink removed & vanity doors off, cabinet and electric plates . Taking down a mirrored wall is difficult and nasty...often can't be used again or re-purposed. If the floor is quality ceramic tiles it takes muscle to break up and most of the time is spent sweeping up chards and bits. Day 3 take down the tile covered wallboard/blue board shouldn't take more than an hour each. Are you having the tub replaced? Is the ceiling to come down as well? How is the contractors disposing of debris?
Day 4 two experienced dry wallers can install, tape and mud the walls and ceiling 1st coat. Add new, modern. electric outlets. Pick up new cabinets, shower enclosure, tap sets, flooring etc. By the time they return they might be able to sand the taping material and possibly add 2nd coat mud...sorry need to help DH
May 11th, 2014 at 01:13 am 1399770794
Will you three help with demolition? Is it part of your plan that you 3 or 2 of you will undercoat and paint your newly drywalled bathrm? Are you adding a stand alone shower kit? What parts of the bathrm will be tiled?
Day 4 is tiled installation and grout on. Excess grout sponged off later in that day. In the few upgrades we've done, we've always found new product installation went so much faster than the earlier steps. A whole line of cabinets went in and the longest time spent was my role of adding the cabinet pulls.
May 11th, 2014 at 01:14 am 1399770846
I personaly like built in microwaves...because it does save on the counter space. Microwaves are the least expensive appliance to buy though, so I can see it being a non issue when selling.