Comments on: Interior design is harder than it looks

By: Kristen

Kristen — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:42:37 +0000

I enjoyed your article on interior design. Great advice from NB on decorating bathrooms! Thanks for the post, and good luck finishing your place.

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:05:53 +0000

I looked at the “choice” comments on Build’s site as well as yours above, and I agree it can be overwhelming. I think part of it is because we have a much different view of ourselves than previous generations did–longer lifespans, a culture of self-empowerment/personal development, and access to more information–that gives us the impression that we can do it all, be it all, and experience it all! This comes up in “home design as self-identity”–e.g. am I really expressing my true self with this Tuscan tile and artisan sink, and if so, what about the “me” who is also a minimalist and loves perfectly machined edges and pure white? How can you make a choice when choosing one means giving something else up? Maybe not everyone gets caught with this, but I know I have. Now I get around it by reminding myself that I am not my house; it may reflect me but it doesn’t define me. (And I buy lottery tickets so that maybe I can build ALL the houses I want someday!)

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 04:00:41 +0000

Toronto Modern: The numbers I quoted — if you go off of Build’s cheatsheet — actually include everything in their first box and their second box. To me, this is the true cost per square foot, from the client’s perspective. Build’s first box is essentially “everything Build controls, as a builder” and their second box is “other shit you need to purchase, as a client”.

By: Kevin E.

Kevin E. — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:47:51 +0000

Toronto Modern-
The elusive standard for cost per square foot has been a sore subject with us for over a decade, so last year we took it upon ourselves to offer a standard. Our intention is to get “apples to apples” comparison, and so we took what appears to be the somewhat (barely) consistent and emerging way industry folks are calculating this
Check out our Construction Cost Cheat Sheet at:
http://blog.buildllc.com/2009/02/residential-construction-cost-cheat-sheet/

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:38:44 +0000

Toronto Modern: We’re about 95% nailed down on budget at this point and it’s right on track so far. Time wise, we’re only a few weeks behind schedule, which is pretty much right on schedule in my book. As for cost per square foot, it’s going to be about $218/sqft if you include the finished daylight basement and garage… $346/sqft if you don’t include those areas. And those are *all in* numbers, including design fees, construction costs, taxes, and everything else. Overall outflow, in other words.

By: Toronto Modern

Toronto Modern — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:47:31 +0000

Mike

The house looks wonderful.

Thank you for making the time to update your website. I am sure that you are overwhelmed with work, life and your house, so I appreciate the effort you are putting into keeping your readers up to date. It sounds as if you are in the home stretch. Our experience was that this was when things got the toughest. Final decisions had to be made on the fly and the dollars kept flowing out at an alarming and even accelerating pace.

Do you think you will finish on budget, or is it too early to tell? Do you have a sense of where you will finish on a cost per square foot basis? Mind you, the cost per square foot is a very mysterious figure – there seems to be no consistent methodology for calculating it. Some people only include construction cost (leaving out professional fees); some people include only livable space (leaving out areas like furnace rooms and garages). This made it very difficult for us to estimate at the beginning of our project how much we should reasonably budget.

I have to say that I chuckle everytime I see the line about the “honey bucket rental”. Until we did our project, I never gave any thought to how much one of the portable toilets cost. It did startle me once I realized that we had spent about $1500 in rental fees.

Can’t wait to see the finished kitchen and bathrooms!

By: Rich

Rich — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:33:11 +0000

Mike, Re: tile to the ceiling. It is a good idea to tile the ceiling in the shower and or bathtub shower combination. The steam always causes paint on the ceiling to eventually peel and I very rarely see people repaint soon after the peeling starts.
Tile the ceiling no peeling.
As far as lighting in the bathroom it is always good to have a light on each side of the mirror at about 60 inches above the floor.
Rich

By: Darin

Darin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:53:37 +0000

Ah – thanks Mike!

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:12:56 +0000

Darin: Thanks for bringing this up. I will edit the text of the article. We actually did end up taking Build’s advice for a good deal of the interior stuff. It was mainly the bathrooms that needed extra support. For some reason, we were just hitting a dead end there and needed a third party who specializes in interior design to provide inspiration and guidance.

By: Darin

Darin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:36:51 +0000

I’m really curious why didn’t you use your design/build team? Interior and exterior space is so integral it would seem the team who had the vision for the spaces from the beginning to have the most intimate knowledge of what the finishes should be.