It?ll likely cost much more than you expect When my partner and I renovated our Brooklyn apartment in 2017, we budgeted carefully for the project. We did research on the price per square foot for similar projects in New York City, and we talked to several architects about what would be realistic. So we were surprised when the project ran 30% over budget (and didn?t include everything we originally wanted).
It?s a truism that most renovations cost a lot more than the homeowners expect?and architects and general contractors say that it?s not uncommon for people to simply run out of money before a project is done. My partner and I were able to use some savings we hadn?t wanted to touch to avoid that kind of hell. But we shouldn?t have had serious cost overruns at all. Here?s what we did that worked, along with things I wish we?d known before we started. Create a detailed budget and revise as you go. In our case, we were working with a contractor and an architect. The contractor?s fees included some materials (including paint) but not most fixtures and finishes?that?s the grab-bag term for tile, flooring, countertops, kitchen cabinets, faucets, lighting, door knobs, appliances and more). We made a room-by-room spreadsheet of all the things we?d have to buy, and then did initial research on prices. We labeled that column ?Budget.? As the project progressed and some of the prices seemed too low or too high, we adjusted them in a column called ?Projection.? Finally, as we o...