Dear AT,
My husband and I are finally looking at buying a condo in Chicago. We're down to two choices. The first space is a condo that's currently under construction, we'd be buying it as is. The second one is in an artists community (my husband is a photographer and I'm a designer.) The second condo was operating as an art gallery space and would require us to have to build our own bathroom and kitchen...
We're trying to get an idea of how much it would cost to build these out. The space is set up to be residential, so it already has plumbing and sewage lines running into the condo. Has anyone in Chicago done a recent bathroom/kitchen installation? How much did it cost? Are there any contractors you can reccomend that I could get a quote from?
Thanks for any advice/suggestions you can offer!
Bridgett
Can anyone help out Bridgett??
(photo via YoChicago)
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Unless Bridgett knows a trusted contractor, she ought to buy something in move-in condition.
There are too many pitfalls in either of the situations she describes for a rookie to tackle.
I don't have any experience in home building. However, one of the benefits of getting older is being able to draw from unrelated experience, whether it applies or not, and annoy everyone.
So, here's one of those times...let's say you have a choice of a ready-to-drive car. And it's a good car. There's another car, that maybe you like a little bit better, but it needs extensive work.
Ya gotta get someone who knows how to do that stuff. There are parts. There are things that need to be ordered. There are problems getting this or that.
Meanwhile, you've got a car that doesn't run and it's not something you can drive. So you're renting a car to get by.
You can't LIVE in a home without the necessary things. It may be ZONED residential, but so may that empty lot next door. That doesn't mean you can legally live in it. So, while the stuff is being added or built, you STILL are paying for it, AND the place you will have to live in until it's ready.
Chicago has it's own set of rules, but they are based on international rules of some kind. And a habitable residence has to include many things...like kitchens or bathrooms or outlets or insulation or amount of light that must reach certain rooms.
It's different for retail spaces, they can be dark holes underground with no outside light. Your space was a retail space.
If you've visited the AT-NY site, you may have noticed Jonathan and his ongoing headaches with his renovation. Oh, it's coming along BEAUTIFULLY, and the end result when each space is completed is STUNNING.
But there are delays. There is the "it's going to take longer than the estimate and cost a lot more" problems. Scroll down here to the 4:20 pm post from Jonathan to see links to one of the bathrooms, before, during, after:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/open-threads/open-thread-205-008982
Other pictures are in the renovation slideshow. I wouldn't even hazard a guess at the cost of the things he's had done. I get vaguely nauseated at the cost of groceries and gasoline.
So, your next job is to simply rent the Tom Hanks movie "The Money Pit". That'll cost you a buck or so.
Oh, another freebie, check out this thread on "What do you mean by high-end?" posted on AT-NY in April:
http://tinyurl.com/mywfw
Feel free to skip over my dental problems at the bottom of the thread.
One more link, this time from AT-LA:
http://tinyurl.com/hq3j5
To an LA Times story on a renovation, that ended up costing more than $800,000. YIKES!
Other things I thought about, because these are things that I may have to go through too. While I'm enamoured with old places, and love the various kinds of workmanship that went into some places, I think I'd have to choose a generic box.
I don't have the money for unexpected developments, as seen in the LA story. Even on a small scale. All you want to do is tap into an existing line (plumbing/electrical) only to find out the wall is full of asbestos and will require a costly, time consuming extraction.
Mold. Insect damage. Structural problems. Having to bring it up to code.
The generic box, assuming (which is a big assumption) that all the work was done properly, you KNOW your pipes are good. Your wiring is good. Your walls are asbestos-, mold-, and insect-free.
If it's in the process of being built, you may even be able to add on the extras you'd like. Have the walls finished a certain way or painted a certain color. Choose your flooring. Change kitchen cabinets or the layout to suit you. All before moving in. Giving you a custom home.
I mean, if they are going to install cabinets, they might as well install the ones you want. They have to do it anyway.
They might have "just plug in" kinds of things for your internet and all the modern conveniences.
The only way I would dare a renovation would be if I had a valuable skill that I could do my OWN work, like plumbing or electrical...and that skill could be used to barter with others in the contracting/construction trade. Swap my knowledge and skill and labor for theirs.
Either way, I'd love to hear which you choose, and if you do choose the one needing renovation, it would be GREAT if you could do pictures and have us all follow along during the process. We could all learn a lot!
Andree
Just to let you know...we have put in an offer on the artists community...still anxiously waiting to hear back. And I should've clarified...the whole building was redone 4 years ago, it just happens to be that the space we're looking at was being used as a commercial space and therefore doesn't have the necessaries for living. And...i'm actually an architect (but i've never worked on small residential projects, so i had no clue where to begin my research...other than the website i've become addicted to) and my husband has the same education albeit he chose a different path, and he happened to have worked construction while pursuing his archiecture degree...so we plan on building everything ourselves and subcontracting the plumbing and electrical. but trust me, if we get the space (please, please cross your fingers) there will be LOTS of photographs...i'm married to an architectural photographer...he LOVES taking photos!