MUCH bigger, and MUCH more expensive than you think. 6-9 months, and almost as much as you paid for the house.

that is a lot. you might be taking "nesting" to a whole new level. (smile)

we are doing a basic gut/remodel and it is taking about 5 months. we did not move entire rooms like your kitchen. that is actual work time, not counting a few months with the architect and designer.

good luck and congrats on your pregnancy.

How long does your contractor say it will take.Just to many variables to answer this question reasonably.Will he have a 2 man crew and a bunch of subs or maybe a 6 man crew,or 8?

Nobody on the internet can answer this question reasonably with the info provided.It is a large project and the time frame does sound tight but can be done with the right contractor.Good luck with it and the new one.

Good. Fast. Cheap.

Pick two. All 3 is impossible to achieve.

You've already given a difficult to achieve deadline, and self selected fast, for a massive amount of work. (A teardown might be cheaper, BTW.)

That only leaves good or cheap to choose. If you pick cheap it won't be cheap for long as you'll end up rapidly replacing the low quality components and redoing the poorly done labor.

It would be much more beneficial to the end result if you spent more time in the planning phase with the architect. And explored doing a teardown as well. Of all of the 3 components to pick, fast is never the one that ends up being the better choice. Good work takes time. Your baby is taking 9 months. The renovation, not rushed, and done properly, will take even longer. If you choose the quality and cheap route, that usually means years of DIY.

Our contractor originally said it should be done by Thanksgiving.. but that was a month ago and we still haven't started since we were waiting on a few documents. I'd still be happy if it was done by New Year. It's going to be hard with a new baby around though.

I don't know how many people he will have working with him but im assuming atleast two. My father in law is an electrical engineer so he will be helping out with what he can on that part. We will do as much as we can ourselves to help the process along.

It really depends on how large the crew is and whether they're working solely on your project or juggling multiple jobs and giving you a few hours a week. I'd ask your contractor for a detailed project schedule and then review it (or post it here) to see if it seems reasonable.

That does seem ambitious to accomplish in 4 months, though, unless you've got a team of subs.

Is this first baby? (If so, wait to do it until you are sleeping well again.)

This is the 2nd baby. I have a almost 4 year old. Although he will be in school most of the day

So you want to redo the entire house.

Maybe reading what you typed from a different person, it might make more sense how much you want done. Now when I say 'new' below I mean everything new including plumbing and electric.

1. New kitchen and laundry room

2. New bath and bed

3. New flooring throughout

4. Update current bath

5. Update closets

6. Turn porch into living space

7. Landscape the yard and new patio

8. Paint entire exterior

Each one of those requests is a large expense except 5 and 8. You would be better off selling and moving to a house that fit your needs.

This makes me think of Love it or List it, and you will be taking things off your list left and right due to budget unless you have a vault of gold coins you like to swim in.

As far as the question you asked, how long, well... time = money. You want it done faster it will cost more. If you want it to cost less it will take longer.

90 days? No chance! 6 months maybe.

It depends on the contractor and the scope of work. If a GC is juggling multiple subs on differnt jobs all at the same time, every project will slow down. Ideally you want one contractor personally handling any specialized trade (such as plumbing) while dovetailing the sub into the work flow so there is no interruption. That's how we run our jobs. No job starts until we have all the materials in hand. One customer at a time, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. You'd be surprised how fast things get done when people show up on time every day. On a recent 6th floor condo full bath remodel we discovered the other owners had a betting pool on how long we would over run our 21 day working schedule. It was pretty amusing. We finished in 17 working days without damaging the hallways, blocking the garage, or hogging the elevator. The customer was thrilled and now we have a whole building full of new clients.

Only on TV can you remodel a kitchen in 29 minutes with 2 commercial breaks. I never figured out how they paint the walls the same day they hang curtains and art work.

You already have a child, so you know babies don't take up much room. You probably don't "need" another bedroom - Baby can sleep in your room for a few months.

We don't know exactly the shape your house is in now, but you're talking about "update, new flooring, bigger laundry, walk-in closet, patio" - these sound more like wants than needs.

My big concern with a massive project like this, at this time, is that there would be pregnancy complications, or the baby is born early, that would require all my time, energy, and money. Of course most pregnancies are uneventful - but I would not want to take the risk.

Is there any way the project can be broken into phases, with only one or two big things getting done this summer?

We are in month 4 of a similar renovation, maybe a bit larger. I suspect it will be another 2 months for us. It took us four years to save the money and for the architect to draw the plans. I can't imagine tackling what you want whilst pregnant. Take the time to plan it out (and I mean down to the doorknobs) and save up money because this is more stressful than either of my pregnancies or anything else I've done! We've spent double our contingency so far and half of that is due to not knowing every choice (as suggested above) and scope creep. Perhaps you've thought of all this already but this process is not for those who are not flexible or fully prepared. Good luck!

It has been said before and those who said it will take longer and cost more than you think are correct. There is this small, insignificant factor that always occurs. I call it "creeping elegance." It's what happens when something is almost done and you ask, "What if we added this?" What if we changed that?" Time and money are now extended. I suggest you do only what needs to be done prior to the birth of your baby. The rest can wait, and it will. Babies are exhausting! Adorable, but you have no idea how much time they need.

I would not start this project now. In fact, if your house needs this much work to be adequate for your family, I would be moving -- but not until after the baby is a few months old. Living inside a project is extremely trying -- and unhealthy. If you can't move, can you live elsewhere while this is done?

I would not do it and hope you haven't started. When I gutted our condo, our GC told us he'd be done and out of our place in 3 months tops. And that was during the recession when ours was pretty much his and his sub's only job. Six months later we moved in without the punch list having been done yet. And it definitely was quite a bit over budget. And we had gotten rock bottom prices because he just wanted to keep his subs employed.

Do you really want your new baby breathing in all that dust etc? Do you really want your new baby trying to sleep with all the tumult a remodel will create? We were lucky in that we rented an apartment to live in while our remodel was being done. I can't think of how we would have lived there and we're just two people.

I agree with the others. You might be better off moving.

The renovation on our old house when my second child was 9 weeks old. DS #1 was 2. My husband and I both worked fulltime, I commuted 45 minutes with children where they were in in office day care. bumped out the back of the house, kitchen gut, full bath gut, new MBR with ensuite.

We all camped in the full finished basement and used the 1 floor powder, we ate take out, micro'd meals, at my parents, or in the case of the infant, breastmilk. Work was staggeered so we had a shower but for a few days and those we went to friends place. So it CAN be done. But is this what you really want?

I came home from work with the kiddos one day to have my 2 year old toddle off and start oohing and aaahing over a nail gun that they had left on the floor, plugged in. Tragedy averted, but NOT a good environment for children!!!

I really think you should wait. I also think that pregnant women and post partum women dont make great longterm decisions, that is my own personal experience YMMV

We lived in an apartment while our home was being remodeled and I was pregnant. The project wasn't done by the time the baby was born (6th month of a 3 month project) but we were basically out of money for our "time and materials" project. We moved back in when the baby was 10 days old, let the contractors continue to work for another month or so, and then essentially told them they were done (they said "but we're not done" and we said "oh yes, you are"). It was just not workable, and they were mostly done. I had the baby's cradle in a closet for naps.