Cost to Remodel a House

Assuming you have 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom 1100 square foot investment property, following is a breakdown of costs to remodel it relatively cheaply and quickly using neutral colors.

Floor Plan

Using Live Home 3D, this is an example of a 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car garage house. The kitchen is U-shaped. The bedrooms are almost all the same size. Two of the three bedrooms have walk-in closets. The laundry is central to the house. There is a small patio next to the kitchen and living room.

Colors

Here are the neutral colors we’ll be choosing.

• Floor – beige or light gray
• Wall – beige (Roman Plaster PPU7-10U) Behr / Home Depot
• Ceiling – same as wall color for simplicity or Swiss Coffee
• Baseboard – pure white
• Kitchen cabinets – light gray
• Kitchen appliances – stainless steel
• Kitchen countertop – white
• Bathroom vanity – light gray
• Bathroom sink – white
• Doors – pure white

Wall

Replace all outlets and switches with Dekora ones

Ceiling

Spray walls and ceiling same color for simplicity. Or, spray ceiling Swiss Coffee.

Floor

Choose large 12”x24” tiles for fewer grout lines and quicker completion.

Kitchen

• Get cabinets from IKEA. They deliver.
• Average 10×10 kitchen

Bathroom

Laundry

Landscaping

Garage Floor and Driveway

Whole House Renovation Plan

1. Turn on water, gas and electricity
2. Use laser measure to measure each room
3. Use Live Home 3D to draw floor plan
4. Print multiple copies of floor plan and staple to wall
5. Demolition – Day 1 – 2
   1. Wear coveralls / protective clothing
   2. Lay down large tarp in driveway to make debris cleanup easier
   3. Demolish kitchen using Bosch jackhammer, monster sawzall and pry bar
   1. Remove both bathroom toilets and and vanities
   1. Remove all flooring.
   2. Rent floor surface prep tool to smoothen floor. Include the garage floor.
   3. Remove all outlets and switch covers
   4. Remove all interior door knobs, if necessary
   5. Put all debris in driveway
   6. Vacuum all dust using cyclone filter to minimize filter clogs and simplify disposal
6. Drywall – Day 3
   1. Add drywall where necessary
   2. Patch holes in walls where necessary
   3. Texture walls where necessary
7. Paint – Day 4
   1. If reusing baseboard, label each baseboard with a number and label corresponding wall in the floorplan with the same number
   2. Remove baseboard and put on floor and cover with plastic
   3. For each area that needs to be covered, e.g. outlets, ceiling lights, registers, vents, etc, cut painter’s plastic to size
   4. Spray glue around the area that needs to be cover and stick plastic to it
   5. Wear coveralls / protective clothing
   6. Use air sprayer to spray paint on walls and ceilings.
   7. If necessary, spray paint doors white
8. Floor and Wall Fixtures – Day 5 – Day 9
   1. Pay someone to install tile flooring on all floors
   2. While floor tiles are being installed, do following
      1. Replace outlets, switches and plates with Dekora ones
      2. Install bathroom lights
      3. Install bathroom towel hangers
      4. Replace all door knobs, if necessary
      5. Paint baseboard
9. Kitchen – Day 10 – Day 13
   1. Pay someone to install IKEA kitchen
   2. Install kitchen appliances
   3. Pay someone to install quartz countertop
10. Bathrooms – Day 13
    1. Install toilets
    2. Install vanity
    3. Install vanity faucet
11. Landscaping – Day 14 – 18
    1. Remove trees
    2. Rent mini skid steer to remove 3 inches of dirt
    3. Rent excavator to dig holes for Cypress trees
    4. Plants Cypress trees
    5. Lay down weed fabric
    6. Lay down cement board
    7. Pour and level Ginger rocks
12. Debris removal – Day 19
    1. Rent dumpster
    2. Transfer all debris from driveway to dumpster for haulaway
13. Fence, garage floor, driveway, and exterior cement walkways – Day 20 – Day 21
    1. Pressure wash the garage floor, driveway and fence
    2. Spray tan Granite Grip using air compressor
    3. Paint fence

Cost Breakdown

Using a spreadsheet, create a cost breakdown like below.

Based on this, we can estimate that including labor and other items, the total cost for a whole house renovation would be around $20K.