First time Home Reno (finished)

A couple before Pics

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Athletix

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Have a feeling you’re going to hate yourself in about 2 months...

I’m confused on the 1099/W9 for the roofing. If you hire a licensed contractor, why would you need this?

Flooring: Specialty store. Are you self-installing? Most contractors also get a discount on the flooring.

Paint: Sherwin Williams is best, but it’s expensive. A lot of pros use Farrell-Calhoun for a cheaper alternative to SW.

Countertops: Why Formica? Granite is not that expensive, easy to keep clean, and may attract a better buyer/renter.

Appliances: Any place. Most places will price match as well, so keep an eye out. I ended going through Stines for all mine (same place as building materials) and they priced match anywhere.

Sinks/Fixtures: Specialty places will have a much better selection, but the box stores are fine if you can find what you like. I used specialty places and price matched the box stores when they were cheaper. Undergoing sinks were purchased from countertop fabricator.

Good luck buddy. Sounds like some work ahead of you.

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I'm in a formica counter-top market. Granite would be over doing it, and I'm not convinced it will bring higher rent in the area.

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I replied before the pics were up. Formica makes sense here.

Also agree with above, go cheap and reliable. The floors looked in okay shape as well, not sure why you’d go after them unless there’s some water damage or something not seen.

Paint is expensive good quality paint is worth every penny the PPG at HD is good and little cheaper than S&W pick 1 color stick to it so you can always touch up.
Sprayer? That is a tricky one they are great but you need to move with it it lays down a lot of paint, learn about tips pressure etc Tips wear out & get a extension for it and you will use a lot more paint than you will with a roller. Buy the 3m making tool for tape and paper. Replace the facia boards and gutters when you do the roof that can cause leaks and issues down the road that you won’t see many times until it’s to late. Collect rent in person Change the hvac filter yourself. Inspect the property each month, use quality connection hoses for your ice maker and washing machine put a pan under the clothes washer that has a drain. Get the commercial grade LVP buy a box or two extra. Charge extra for mowing and do it yourself. Diy pest control

Roofs are easy, especially at a pitch like you have. You could save close to 50% if you want to do it yourself. That looks like a 4/12 or 5/12 with no dormers, etc. You could buy beer for a few friends and strip it and have a new roof over a weekend to a week, 2k-3k. You may not even need to strip the shingles that are there.

My first house was a 10/12 pitch, built in 1945, so I (WE) had to strip three layers of asphalt shingles and also lay MDF over the original gapped slats. The pitch was crazy and was a ton of work, but in two weeks I had a new roof at a significant savings for a poor, new college grad.

You've got a flat pitch, no countervailing lines and no major flashings to deal with, so I would consider it if I were in your shoes.

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You may not even need to strip the shingles that are there.

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He certainly should. 2nd layer of shingles always turn out poorly and it's and absolute cluster frick to remove 2 layers. Most importantly, stripping down to bare wood allows you to nail your sheathing down. In some cases for the first time lol. Unsure if that's required in Louisiana, but in Florida it is. Regardless, wouldn't live in hurricane country and not do that.

Congrats.

I’d buy flooring at a speciality store like Floor & Decor. I’d buy paint from Sherwin Williams. Eider White is a nice basic & popular color. I like a product called rockwol as a good insulator and sound damper and wrap your hot water pipes with pipe insulation to get hotter showers quicker.

Forgot I made this thread, but glad I found it so I can post the results.

This project was difficult. My first home purchase to renovate was... challenging.

I really took on too much solo. I can do alot of stuff myself, but not alot of stuff by myself concurrently. Between work, family and this project I stretched myself pretty thin. Pretty bad timing because I was chasing a pretty big step up in my career while tackling the house. So, what did I actually do??

Roof cost me $5800 for a contactor to do

I installed Lowe's brand LVP up until the very end when I just needed to get it finished. Payed a guy $600 to finish the edges of the rooms and about 200 sqft. Had to replaced some rotten subfloor in a couple spots.

I painted the ceiling and primed the entire house. Then realized I despised painting and paid a painter to paint everything for $3000.

I left the countertops. Actually liked the old wood look, and the old tops were very durable.

I put in recessed lighting in living room/kitchen, changed out all the outlets with a couple having usb ports. New bifold doors, changed out all appliances except fridge. New fixtures everywhere.

Issues I ran into. The stove/dishwasher/cabinet corner was screwed up. Don't have a before picture, but the stove didn't sit flush under the hood vent. The stove and lowers were shifted about 6 inches off center. Never noticed it until we started working in the house. Once I noticed it we had to fix it. Jees... That project was a real stressor and pain in the arse. Once I cut the counter top and started altering the cabinets, I began to worry that my measurements might be off a bit. With each cut I was moving the stove and top drawer closer to the dishwasher. Well the first dishwasher I bought had a handle about a half inch to far out and everything was colliding. Eventually, I found a dishwasher with a recessed handle and all drawers and appliances could be opened without issue.

There were about 1100 water leaks under the house. Fortunately they weren't too bad to work with, because the house is elevated enough to crawl under. However, I ran into 2 snakes while working under the house (lost about 12 years off my life span).

My initial renovation cost estimate wasn't bad, but I was way off. I thought my top end renovation costs would be about 15k with 18k being worse case scenario. I finished up at about 22-23k spent during this renovation. The painter labor, tool costs, and random home items (fixtures, mini blinds, stuff...) were my big misses in the initial estimate. A couple thousand was spent on tools I bought that won't need to be bought again.

I started working on the house in July and finished in January. I think this project should have been done in about 3 months. The next house I purchase will go much quicker. I've identified what work I can efficiently do, and I will contract out the rest. Renters are in the house and it's renting for more than my initial guess.