I have been lurking for a few weeks looking for answers to some of my remodeling questions and learning all sorts of good stuff about remodeling.

I/we are a family of 3 who have lived in our small Madison, WI home for 2.5 years. We love the house and the neighborhood and are committed to changing the house to make it what we want rather than looking for something else. Our house was built in the '20's and last worked on in the 90's. I want to gut most of the first floor for a more open and flexible floor plan, totally redo the kitchen, put a wall of book cases that run from livingroom to dining room (neither of which is very big) and into the 3 season porch that we also want to convert to full time use. We are also going to be trying to squeeze in a tiny (but up to code) powder room.

I have been talking to contractors, architects, window people, cabinet designers, and design/build teams. And my question is about budget.

Of course, we have one that is just a little smaller than we need. And I am trying to get as much as I can from every dollar. So generally, what is the best course of action, considering using mid priced services and products.

Design/build team who can get product, like cabinents, at whole sale price, and does all the designing from floor plan to cabinent and wall unit designs, and can at the end guarantee a price for the entire job. OR, an architect who wlil do the floorplant, then I go to the cabinent maker for a kitchen design, then to a contractor to get it all fone.

OR

Architect > kitchen designer > contractor who will be my general.

I know there is no absolute answer, but any hints or advice will be ever so helpful.

And thanks for reading this longwinded message.

All the best,
Suzanne

If, however, your changes don't significantly alter the building, I think a GC will do just fine managing the whole project. It is really up to you, and it is not easy to decide.

We did our first remodel in our 1920 bungalow kitchen. We didn't make any significant changes and acted as our own GCs. We used Ikea cabinets and Sears appliances. Our project came in at around 30K, and that was 10 years ago.

Our current remodel involved gutting our entire 1956 ranch, revising the roof and moving one wall. We are using some premium materials and appliances, some mid-level. We hired an architect, engineer and designer, and then got 3 bids from GCs. Our budget for this remodel is ~250K and so far we're within it. My DH wants to be the GC, and is in fact bringing the cabinet, tile and low-voltage guys into the job so we can save on that 28% fee from our GC. The design professionals have been paid around 10K, which I think is a pretty small fee for what they have done for us. I have also done a lot of the detail design work, but used our professionals to provide the broad strokes and formal drawings.

My brother is a framing carpenter and often says disparaging things about "crazy architects;" I think that's a theme among framers. Our GC doesn't seem to pay much attention to the drawings and elevations our design team provided, and that is frustrating. I don't know if it would be different if we'd used the GC's design services - maybe they would have been more amenable to the ideas if they came from within, KWIM?

I wish you luck and look forward to hearing about your project!