(Erica Sweeney ) We splurged in the kitchen with a farmhouse sink and quartz countertops. The early stages of our kitchen construction My husband and I both like to cook, so we spent more there, choosing a pricey farmhouse sink and quartz countertops. To prioritize, figure out which rooms or items are most important to you. Shop for everything upfrontīuilding a house comes with countless decisions-everything from door hinges to flooring, tiles, paint color, windows, and more. Make as many decisions as you can early in the process, and that will give you a better idea of how much the project will cost. Tearing down and rebuilding meant we could build the home of our dreams. That way, we could have done just one building plan rather than two. I wish someone had encouraged us to step back and think carefully about what we really wanted upfront, taking into account current and future needs, and budget.

So we met with the architect again, and got another set of plans. That’s when we talked to our builder again and realized that demolishing the old house and starting over wasn’t that much more expensive. So, we met with an architect and had plans drawn up. But because the bathroom shared a wall with the kitchen and we’d have to redo all the plumbing and electrical anyway, it “made sense” to redo the kitchen as well. While we were at it, we figured we could add a master suite. Figure out what you want and determine the total costĪt the outset, we’d met with our building contractor about a bathroom remodel and possible extension-because that’s all we thought we needed. Our ’40s-era home needed so many repairs and updates, we decided to tear it down. So if you’re thinking of going this route and wondering about the costs, here’s my advice for surviving it all. It was all worth it, but if I had to do it again, I’d definitely do a few things differently. But now we have a beautiful, brand-new home. The whole process took a stressful and exhausting eight months. Once we added up all the small jobs we wanted to do, we realized that tearing the house down and starting from scratch would cost about the same price as a renovation.

Tear down in real estate lingo