Adhere to a Ranch House Renovation
Follow the progress of Mike and Leann Rowe of Lutz, Florida, as they purchase, renovate and move into a 1970s-era ranch Home in St. Pete Beach, Florida. Here and over the next few months, I’ll show how they:
Found the right home
Assembled a project teamEstablished a budgetDecided what to keep and what to jettisonHandled surprises and handled the chaos of building from begin to finishFor this initial installment, see why Mike and Leann picked the home they did and how they constructed the group. You will also get a feeling of how they budgeted the project and how that will inform their decisions going forward.
Before Photo
Bud Dietrich
Make the decision. Mike and Leann currently reside in a home that is more than 4,000 square feet (not pictured; this picture shows the brand new one), and their children are in their early 20s. As opposed to waiting for the children to completely go out, Mike and Leann chose to locate a smaller home now they can make distinctively their own and transition into.
Remodeling tip 1: Look for a home with”good bones,” meaning that it doesn’t suffer with extensive neglect and disrepair and the inevitable resulting damage. It ought to be structurally sound and have the ability to be renovated without completely rebuilding it. Sure, anything can be repaired and rebuilt, but when the renovation is too extensive, it just might be better tearing down the home and building new. So getting an architect, a builder or both to help evaluate the state of the existing home before buying is critical.
Look past the makeup. The Rowes didn’t let all this wood and stone or even the”fast-food-restaurant storefront” frighten them. Let’s face it, that has not been on a home search and walked into a home and wondered,”What were they thinking?” But in this home — a case in which the 1970s has lots of explaining to do — the dimensions, location and overall Florida split-plan arrangement made too much sense to take a pass on.
Remodeling tip 2: With your architect and builder in tow, take a careful look at the present house. Climb into the loft, check for signs of settling, examine how difficult or easy it will be to segregate the chambers, assess the status of the heating system and cooling , and suppose nothing meets current code so that it’ll all need to be brought current. Do not, as they say, have your eyes wide closed.
Before Photo
Bud Dietrich
Build the group. Before finishing the purchase of the home, Mike and Leann engaged a builder that they understood and me as their architect to start the design stage and determine what might reasonably be accomplished with the home.
Remodeling tip 3: Locate an architect who practices in your town. Ask friends, scour the Internet and appear on ‘s professionals listings for someone with expertise in projects like yours. Ask about the architect’s expertise, workload and capability to listen to you. Ask the architect for references and contact those individuals to see how the architect worked and whether or not the architect did a fantastic job listening.
Bud Dietrich
Establish a preliminary budget. Mike and Leann, like all people, have a budget that has to be adhered . So, again before closing on the purchase, Mike and Leann fulfilled their architect and builder at the home to throw out ideas and likely prices. Doing this enabled them to walk into the project with their eyes wide open.
Remodeling tip 4: Do not wait till after the design is done in order to learn what the project will cost. The benefit of assembling the group early is having the ability to control likely costs from the onset. The builder then doesn’t draw a design that will not have built, and you won’t become frustrated and upset.
Remember that there will be unforeseen items and changes throughout the course of this project, which means you will want to include a healthy contingency with this budget.
Practice patience. Mike and Leann spent two years searching for just the correct house. It was a search for a home that had good bones and a prime location, and they found it in the small town of St. Pete Beach, Florida. Possessing a home on the water is a fantasy come true for Mike and Leann, equally enthusiastic fishers and boaters. In only a couple of weeks they will have the ability to walk outside their back door, climb aboard their boat and head off into the Gulf of Mexico.
Remodeling tip 5: Remodeling a home can be messy and fraught with distress. In the excitement in the start to the distress and angst of this building to the absolute joy when it is all done, a renovation project is not unlike having a child. So make sure you keep your eyes on the prize, knowing that the joy of living in your new home for several years will likely more than sufficient compensation for the distress of this renovation.
Next, Part 2: Ways to Get the Drawings Underway