January 18th, 2010

Any opinions on remodeling in Palmdale, CA?

dubbrollin asked:


i want to completely redo my entire home. i want new cabinets flooring and painting.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 1:34 pm and is filed under Home Improvement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “Any opinions on remodeling in Palmdale, CA?”

  1. Karin C Says:
    January 21st, 2010 at 6:35 pm

    Caffeinated Content

    I used to live in Lancaster, CA. Hot in the summer and cold in the winter, and wind wind wind wind blowing! I don’t envy you.

    You don’t say how extensive your planned remodel is. If all you’re doing is painting and replacing flooring, it shouldn’t be that bad. Cabinets are a big-ticket item, though. And if you’re doing REAL remodelling, with walls being moved and plumbing and electrical wiring being redone, then I think what you have to do is weigh the cost of remodelling against the cost of selling your current home and buying an upgrade.

    What we found out was true in remodelling our house, which we basically gutted and completely rebuilt, adding over 1000 square feet of space, is that when you get the bids for what you want done from your contractor, add half again to the cost (e.g., if the contractor bids $100,000 for the remodel, figure the actual cost will be about $150,000) and double the amount of time he says it will take (e.g., he says 6 months, figure a year from the time he first starts until you get the final buy-off from the city and call it done).

    The good thing about remodelling is that you get to choose pretty much how you want your house to be from the ground up, within the limitations of your budget; and there is no denying that that is a nice feeling. The downside is the aggravation you go through to get there. I have never known anyone who has had a remodel that was completely smooth and uneventful. Ours involved the psycho electrician from hell who eventually bailed on the job to go to Antarctica (we wished him well and were glad to see him go) and things like the cost of wood increasing in price by 50% between the time we got bids on the job and the time our contractor bought the wood.

    Also true: the payback on remodelling is never anything close to 100%. In other words, if you spend $100,000 on remodelling, it will not add $100,000 to the value of your home. It might add $50-60,000 or so.

    So you have to ask yourself: if you take the amount of money you plan to invest in a remodel and add to that the value you would realize from sale of your existing home, will that allow you to buy a home that is as good or better than your home would be after remodelling?

    I would say that if you’re thinking of a major remodel, unless you plan on living in the remodelled home for 5 years or longer, you’re better off selling your current home and buying an upgrade.