I sketched out an initial floorplan for our main floor reno- I used actual length and width dimensions of the space (21ft x 34ft) but had to guess/ use memory for how things were spaced out on the interior ie. length of staircase, fireplace location, exact window locations etc. I came up with a plan that Kirk and I both loved that included removing most of the inside walls and creating a spacious kitchen with island, double glass doors to a walk out deck and large windows along the back wall of the house, a t.v room, dining room, powder room and living room PLUS a front hall with closet and area for a bench to sit on etc. Ahhhh, space!
Here’s a photo of the floor plan:
We then sat down with Spencer Dennis to review and discuss first steps. It was helpful to have a general layout prepared as well as a budget established for Spencer to give us an idea (without having seen the house yet) as to whether or not our budget was adequate or if we were totally pie in the sky. Probably the scariest thing about venturing into a home reno is going way over budget! Our plan included:
Mainfloor:
Taking down all interior walls and replacing all of the lathe and plaster walls with drywall. Paint and new trim.
Replacing all of the Knob and Tube with new wiring (whole house)
Refinish existing hardwood floors and laying down new hardwood
Refinish main staircase/ wainscotting
Replacing windows and doors (some reconfiguration needed)
New Kitchen
Relocating main floor powder room
building a front hall closet
replace radiator heating with HVAC throughout house
removal of dilapidated back porch to make room for a deck (reno phase II next year)
2nd and 3rd Floors:
Refinish existing hardwood floors and lay broadloom on 2nd floor staircase and 3rd floor bedrooms
Replace windows
Paint
After our meeting with Spencer we felt confident that our idea to open up the whole main floor was a good one. We decided to keep the rad heating as switching over to HVAC would eat up too much of our budget. We would simply have to relocate some of the rads on the main floor. Next step is to get into the house to start taking actual measurements!
10 responses so far ↓
1 Stewart // Nov 6, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Just wondering what the cost was to remove your existing rads and replace with an HVAC system? I too own an older house and am thinking of removing our rads.
Thank you
2 anke // Nov 7, 2007 at 12:55 am
We got a ballpark figure of about $20,000 to convert everything over to HVAC. We have never lived with radiators before and did some asking around to those who have and many commented that it’s a clean, warm heat, no dust and not as drying to the skin (our son has mild eczema). We’ve decided to keep the radiators and are investigating some of the newer styles out there that aren’t as big and bulky. Will keep you posted.
3 Stewart // Nov 7, 2007 at 2:53 pm
Thank you Anke. I really appreciate the feedback.
This is a great forum for those of us who have never gone thru a reno before. Thank you for sharing this with everyone.
Good luck with the reno. Stewart
4 anke // Nov 7, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Thanks Stewart. That’s exactly what we had hoped it would be.
Actual quotes are starting to come in so I will be posting these shortly.
5 Hi Stewart // Nov 16, 2007 at 8:26 pm
How much was it to remove all the walls. How did that work having a 2 story?
6 Kirk // Nov 16, 2007 at 11:17 pm
Hi Stewart
That’s a tough question to answer since everything is kind of connected. We spent two full days of demo’ing the first floor. There were 9 guys the first day and 4 guys the second day. In total it was probably 70 - 80 man hours of work. Lucky for us everybody volunteered their time.
We spent about $1,600 on the demo when you count waste disposal, pizza, beer and the occasional run to home depot.
The house is actually a three story so a big beam has to be put into the main floor in order to take the walls down. It is a costly exercise.
If I were to estimate the costs based on the quotes we are receiving the whole thing (demo, re-build, insert beam, move pipes, drywall etc…) taking down the walls and starting from scratch is probably costing us $30,000 - $35,000 but that is a ballpark.
Hope that helps.
7 David // Jan 4, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Hi guys, just to tell you that i’m very happy that you guys created a web site on your ongoing renovations, it’s such a helper!
Thanks again!
8 anke // Jan 5, 2008 at 1:53 am
Thanks for saying so David. We’re happy that the information that we’re posting is useful.
9 Trang // Jan 16, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Hello, I was wondering if you guys do the demo yourselves? And if you did how much did you save? As we are also deciding if its worth doing ourselves.
Thanks for the great site!
10 anke // Jan 17, 2008 at 12:45 pm
We did do the initial demo ourselves- Kirk and a crew of 8 friends and family. We rented a garbage removal bin (you can find them under our resource tab) and had to use 3 full bins. In all we estimate saving about $5000 by doing it ourselves.
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