Here Are My Remodeling Costs
Dollar-by-Dollar

Surely you've seen, on TV and Internet home improvement sites, those fabulous green building projects where funds seem unlimited, where remodeling costs are astronomical, where the houses are so grandiose they look like castles.

Well, this isn't one of those.

If you're looking for granite counters and marble bathrooms, you won't find them here.

On the green side, I have to confess that my green home isn't going to be 100% green.

There are several reasons for this, one of them being that many green materials are not available in the small village where I live. Even if they were, there might not be anyone qualified to install them - assuming that I could afford them. NOTE: The availability situation has changed somewhat since I first wrote those lines, but most of the work was completed under those limitations.

Another obstacle in my green path is the sheer cost of transport: for example, it costs over $3,000 to ship a $1,000 rainwater storage tank to New Brunswick (Canada) from New York state, and that's practically next door. (See this quote.) So, for now I will only be harvesting rainwater for the gardens.

What Happens When Every Penny Counts?

On the other hand, we lower-income folks have every right to energy efficient homes, lower energy bills, and the pride that goes with doing our bit for the planet.

So, modest though it is in money terms and in environmental terms, I want to share this project and its remodeling costs with you, dollar by dollar, in the hope that it will encourage you to undertake your own green remodeling project - however small. If you're remodeling on a budget, you've come to the right place.

And if you can afford to go all the way, you will still find some very useful hints here.

In this section, I will be sharing the financial aspects of my green home makeover.

The Green Home Project So Far

If you haven't been here before, please refer to the navigation buttons for a list of the phases that have already been completed and documented.

Do come back and visit often!

The Green Home Project Bookkeeping

When it comes to accounting, I'm strictly an amateur. Worse than that, though I love my Mac I hate spreadsheets! Therefore, the book-keeping system I use for keeping track of my remodeling costs is mostly manual and it goes like this:

1. As soon as they're paid, all invoices are dropped into a dedicated drawer. (That's my secret for never losing anything.)
2. Once in a while, I gather them up and enter them on a Detailed Account Sheet. For the first few years, I designed, customized and printed out my own sheets. They were similar to the book-keeping sheets you buy in the store (unless you live in this village, that is!)
   

   This was the template that I used -- I printed it out in green ink on legal size paper:

1. These Detailed Account Sheets showed every transaction by date and expense category. As the project progressed, the headings changed -- easy to do with word processing software. All invoices got stapled to their corresponding sheet. It made them easier to find later, if necessary. (It's the same system I use for my business; it helps tremendously at income tax time.)
   

2. From the Detailed Account Sheet, I would transfer the expenses, minus the details, to a home-made Quarterly Summary Sheet. This showed the remodeling costs for that month, by a dfferent set of categories, and the running total of remodeling costs to date.
3. Then I transferred all the figures to the the same forms on the computer and saved them as PDFs so that they can be consulted here.
4. Later, I purchased Microsoft Office for Mac, and started using some of the Excel forms included in that software. This allowed me to skip steps, and made it easier too. Once a category was entered, it remained in the sheet's memory.

To see all the reports, just click on the appropriate PDF link at the bottom of this page.

(Please note that invoices are entered only once paid, which explains the discrepancies between estimates and actual expenses.)

What, No Budget?

I wish I could tell you what my budget is for this project, but I have no idea how much it's going to cost because I have decided to be my own contractor.

Anyway, I don't have a choice. In my village there is only one electrician and one plumber and the other tradesmen also prefer to work for an hourly rate.

Let's just say I hope it will be under $50,000. (Excluding the $10,000 purchase price of the house.)

What If You Need A Mortgage Loan?

I was lucky to have sufficient funds from the proceeds of the sale of my previous house, but what if you need a mortgage loan for your green remodeling project? If you live in Canada your bank or credit union is the place to go, and if you live in the U.S. be sure to check out this HUD website before signing on the dotted line.

If you live in New Zealand, they tell me that before making any decision wise homeowners head for Abacus Finance for information and advice about home improvement financing.

Getting Estimates

I often read advice about getting three quotes before deciding on the contractor.

I wish!

As you can see if you've been following this story, I'm usually grateful if someone is willing to spend one day on my job site, and ecstatic if he happens to have a crew of two or three men, because then I really get my money's worth.

This means that I don't have any choice but to pay for nearly everything by the hour.

But if you're in the enviable situation of being able to get several estimates, do not hesitate for a moment. It's really frustrating to work the way I do.

No Cheating Here!

Have you ever wondered how, on TV interior design makeover shows, they manage to completely redo a room for under $2,000 in remodeling costs? They can do that because they cheat by only listing the cost of materials. No labor costs!

I promise you that there will not be any cheating here. (However, I have omitted most names to protect the privacy of those involved.)

This section is not about showing how clever I am with money (I'm not - as you'll find out soon enough!); it's meant to reflect reality. I make mistakes, and you're going to make mistakes, and mistakes are costly but they have to be factored into your remodeling costs.

Hopefully, though, you won't repeat my mistakes and that may help you save thousands of dollars.

Green Home Project Expense Reports

The following reports are available as PDF documents:

• Detailed Expenses Sheet No. 1
• Detailed Expenses Sheet No. 2
• Detailed Expenses Sheet No. 3
• Detailed Expenses Sheet No. 4

  I finally broke down and purchased the Microsoft Office Suite for Mac (how could I resist? It was on sale for $99!), so from now on, the reports will be on these fabulous new templates that remember everything for you.

• Detailed Expense Sheet No. 5
• Detailed Expense Sheet No. 6
• Detailed Expense Sheet No. 7
• Detailed Expense Sheet No. 8
• Detailed Expense Sheet No. 9
• Detailed Expense Sheet No. 10
• Detailed Expense Sheet No. 11
• Detailed Expense Sheet No. 12
• Quarterly Summary No. 1
• Quarterly Summary No. 2
• Quarterly Summary No. 3
• Quarterly Summary No. 4
• Quarterly Summary No. 5

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