Need some information on a home remodel.

[jc0481]

Hello all!!! This is not my house by the way. It's my mother's-in-law house. She has numerous projects that she wants done to her house. Her house is a two-level house built in 1978 by the way. She is getting new windows installed the first week of May. It was pricey. If you are curious about the windows they cost her $11,000. She does not have standard window sizes. She has unusually larger windows. That's what the salesman told her anyways. They are triple-pane, low-e on both sides with Argon gas. Sadly no Krypton gas put in. She is afraid to change it to Krypton gas because she already has signed the agreement. Not sure if she can change much at all with her windows.
Almost forgot to mention she has fifteen windows that will get replaced.

She wonders if she can get it cheaper but she keeps telling me she already signed the contract and thinks not much can change from that. Any help with this?

To put this in perspective she has not done any remodel since she has bought the house fifteen years ago. She wants new carpet,hardwood floors (she wants to get Bamboo flooring for her kitchen) new siding, and a full remodel of her kitchen with new appliances.

Since I am the "tech guy" in the family. I get asked a lot of tech questions from different family members. I wish I could charge you know. I could make some money. I am in charge of researching this huge undertaking. She wants to know cost, pros and cons of materials and appliances. She wants to get a Consumer Reports online subscription to help her with this by the way.

Her and her son are kinda big do-it-yourself kind of people. Her budget is $65,000. She wants to avoid the professionals if she can. She wants to put in the hardwood flooring with her and her son.

Can anyone point out any good websites, forums, books, magazines or even good software. I dual-boot with Windows (bleh) and Leopard. So I can run various types of software. I just think calling all these local companies in the state will take a lot of time just to get a quote. Probably also the time to have them come in to take a look at her house.

So any help will be appreciated. Thank you.

JC0481

 

[xxBURT0Nxx]

so she already bought the windows but wants to know if she can get em cheaper? If they haven't been installed yet call around to some other window companies and ask them to come out and provide an estimate. You won't find this info online because the odds of you finding someone in the same area as you who knows window prices is slim, and obviously each estimate is going to be different unless you find someone with the exact same house/windows as your mother in laws.

Hardwood floors are really easy to do yourself now a days, go to home depot, lowes, etc and go to the hardwood section. There are tons of options she can figure out what type of wood she wants, how much she wants to pay, etc. they have books and stuff on how to install it too....

Carpet is a PITA to install yourself, if she wants to do it herself i'd look into those square carpet systems, just glue down a square of carpet at a time and piece it together like tile. Though around here if you buy carpet from lowes they install it for ridiculously cheap, like $100 a floor or something like that.

New siding, you are going to have to have someone come out and do an estimate, if it's over budget you may consider repairing any damaged siding and just repainting what you have now. Will take time but definitely a money saver.

Kitchens the most expensive part will be appliances. Go to sears and pick out what you want in your budget. If you have someone come out and install cabinets it's going to be expensive. If you buy cabinets at lowes they are pretty cheap, you can stain or paint them yourself and install hardware if you please. If you are ok with formica you can probably install counter tops yourself, it's not that hard, even granite if you can get it for a good price. Really just depends if you have odd sized countertops or an oversized island that is going to need custom sized pieces, it will get more costly.

 

[RafaelT]

I just wanted to add that when it comes to the floors they can certainly be done by the home owner... just don't go with the cheapest option out there, take your time and if you run into trouble don't try to make it work, get help. When you put a floor in, if it is anything but perfect it will look really bad and will not last long at all.

I highly recommend a floor system with the backing attached to the flooring, pergo is a great option.