What does your wife want to do?

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This post was edited by balor123 on Tue, Feb 4, 14 at 15:00

The main question in my mind is once you've done the remodel, will the house look like a traditional house that's been stripped down and upgraded, and will you be happy with it?
There's a huge difference in the condo shown in the link and the 'new homes' that are to be built. The condo has beautiful contemporary architecture and the 'new home' example looks like a traditional design stripped down (sorry, just MHO).
Since it sounds as though you really want a contemporary home, both inside and out, I think you should keep looking, especially if you want to stay the area long term and enjoy the house you're living in.
Otherwise, find a lot and build the house of your dreams.

I think your estimates are low, especially the tile work...... but I have no idea of the sq ft cost of the tile you've selected.

Yes, homes can be lived in while being remodeled as long as the contractor is willing to do the work in phases, such as having a bathroom to wash dishes in while the kitchen is being worked on. Most importantly, can you live with the upheaval, noise and dust?

I hate it when people edit their original posts so the conversation makes no sense. So, I copied your original post so that any future people can benefit from the conversation.

I have a 3500sf home w/10ft ceilings and 5br/4ba in Austin. The location is fine. The lot is fine. I don't love the architecture but it's fine. We have a good rate on the mortgage (3.6%). Mostly what's not fine is the finishings.
We spec built the home but I won't go into how it got to this point. It's a traditional home with lots of charm and strong earth tones. I would like to replace all those earth tones with cool colors, mostly grays and whites and modern fixtures. I figure to do this basically every design selection needs to change. Here's what I've got:

- Replace floors w/light bamboo: $20k
- Reface cabinets w/shaker: $5k. Should I change color too? They're dark red.
- Pull off all the crown molding. Bad idea?
- Repaint walls and ceiling: $7k. Trim needs to be repainted too since it has a warm tone.
- Replace tile in bathrooms: $5k
- Replace countertops : $10k
- Replace backsplash: $2k
- Replace fireplace surround w/tile: $2k
- Replace fixtures (lights, faucets, etc): $5k

I really hate it the way it is now and have been pretty miserable in it for the past 6mo (I really hate traditional homes, I'd much rather be living in a large condo if it were possible). So these items need to be done in the next few months. Past that I'd like to:

- Repaint the exterior where painted (gray)
- Replace the exterior stone
- Replace the doors and doorknobs
- Replace the ceiling fans (modern but want plain steel)
- Do some nice modern landscaping in the backyard
- Replace the front door, garage doors, and remove all the traditional trim in the front.

Honestly, I was (and would be) much happier renting a 3br modern apartment except my wife would not. The area has very few new construction opportunities and everything is generally 50+ years older but if we changed neighborhood / schools we could probably find what we want but never again near this size. We're only a family of 4 so we don't need it anyway except everything is bigger in Texas so why not.

The house is worth ~$700k so we'd be looking at $60k in fees to sell it I think. We got the house for $600k so we have plenty of gains in it right now. Lots of money but if we'd followed conventional advice and rented for a year after moving we'd still have been worse off.

For reference, here's an example of a home that sold recently nearby which I'd consider a dream home, other than schools (also good but not the ones we want) and floorplan.

Another builder is going to be building nearby. No firm details yet but what I expect is 2900sf for $650k, same size lot, modern architecture, upgrades I like but no customization other than colors, and a smaller but entirely sufficient floorplan (lose media + 1br but keep office). Lot won't be ideal anymore since builder and 2 employees are buying the better lots but it'd be ok. They do a much better job with community landscaping since they keep architects on staff. We have master/guest down now and I think it'd be up in the new house since they'll be setup as detached condos. We interviewed a few previous buyers and they were all extremely happy with the builder (one rated 9/10). Timeframe doesn't quite match up for buying it so we'd probably sell this one and pay capital gains tax too (up to $20k, if we can sell w/o Realtors). I've loved every house of theirs that I've seen. Resale probably not as easy but it'd be more fulfilling. Assuming we can get it of course, as we have to beat other buyers to it.

The questions are:
- Do we remodel or look for something else?
- How do my estimates look?
- Any other changes you'd recommend from what you see?
- Is it possible to remodel while living in it or do we have to move everything out again?
- Logical part of me says I know I'll love it when remodeled. Anxious side of me says what if I hate it again, especially having to spend $60k to get it. Any advice?
- Logical part of me says its the same price either way, just remodel and it'll be fine. Anxious side of me says just sell the house now, build the new one, and put it all behind you. Thoughts?

Yeah, 60K to do what you're talking about is about half light for all of that. Double it. Maybe even worse. Austin is a boomtown and good tradespeople are Busy with that capital B. If you are that unhappy with the home, sell it and move somewhere else.

Also, here's a piece of advice. Learn to develop your own style sense independent of what's popular. Chasing what's popular is expensive, and you never catch up.

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This post was edited by balor123 on Tue, Feb 4, 14 at 15:01

What kind of ''abuse'' are you talking about? Deleting the original post is not cool. It takes away pertinent info from a PUBLIC forum.

Aas far as your questions go, get some actual qotes. They aren't gonna be as cheap as you think. I do't get why you paid a lt of money for a house you don't seem to like very much.

There is no point to only one side of a conversation. Other people glean information from these forums that helps them. And that's the whole point of quoting the original post. The OP has done this before, where it was "selectively edited" and the resultant post wasted bandwidth and the time of the responders.

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This post was edited by balor123 on Tue, Feb 4, 14 at 15:02

@bal0r123: Not only was the original post laughable - then you delete it - and lie about it - claiming abuse - then make some kind of trumped up charge about copyrights.

You are wasting other people's time!

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This post was edited by balor123 on Fri, Feb 28, 14 at 14:21

It sounds like you're not happy in Austin, and should consider moving (back) to California. Plenty of stripped down condos available for you in the same price range.