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Follyn Builders | Chicago and Northshore Custom Home Builders

Chicago and Northshore Custom Homes and Renovations | Luxury made simple.

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Cost Per Square Foot

How much will my new home cost per square foot? I want to add an addition on to my home, how much will it cost per square foot? I want to gut this whole place and rebuild it from the inside out, how much will it cost per square foot?

We get multiple phone calls per week asking how much a new home costs per square foot. Or how much renovations cost, per square foot. And you will find some websites that will tell you the cost of construction by the square foot, by market. I am here to tell you they are are full of baloney.

There is no accurate, fair or reliable way to give a cost per square foot. So much of building new custom homes “depends”. Finish selections (tile, appliances, cabinetry, etc) will swing a price hundreds of thousands of dollars. And every single person we have every talked to over 20 years of building homes wants middle of the road, nothing fancy. And then they spend $5,000 of their budget of the kitchen sink alone. If you want that kitchen sink, by all means get it! But your cost per square foot goes right out the window. So does that mean the homeowner should forego those items to keep that almighty cost per sq ft in order? Heck no.

If we could figure costs that easily we’d have every home estimated in 10 minutes. It just does not work that way. I do not care what you saw on HGTV – the cost for a home cannot or maybe more accurately SHOULD NOT be calculated on a per square foot basis.

When you truly price a custom project, each line item from lumber to doorknobs should be looked at, evaluated and assigned a value. Before beginning your project, have an idea if you want a high end $20,000 oven or a standard $3,000 model. Can you change your mind? Of course! When you are looking at a true cost model and not an arbitrary cost assigned to the whole project without any detail, you actually have more freedom to make choices and then change them.

Moral of the story? Cost per square foot is not an accurate reflection of the cost to build YOUR house. Find a general contractor that prices your project based on your project, not an imaginary number that may or not be correct! You’ll be happy you did when you want that $5,000 sink!

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A custom home – what will it cost me?

It happens more than you think. We get an email or a phone call or a text – I am thinking of building a new home.  Can you give me a ballpark price? The short answer? No, we really don’t have a ballpark price. Because sometimes we are talking about 2 very different ballparks, hell sometimes we are playing 2 completely different sports! There is such a huge variety of options and finishes and designs in building a truly custom home you have a few hurdles to clear before you are ready to build your new dream home.

First of all throw away every preconceived notion you have about new construction pricing. $80 a square foot does not happen in the Chicago market (yes, we have gotten inquiries with that number in mind!). I don’t care what Google tells you or what report you read – it does not happen. Yippee for the lady that built a whole house with YouTube tutorials, $25 and some duct tape, in the real world, that’s not happening. For the most part – $100 or $150 per square foot for a custom home does not happen in the Chicago market.

A quick Google search yielded a national average of about $125 per square foot for new construction.  Like all things, location matters and those numbers are not realistic in a hot Chicago real estate market. If you ever want a hope of selling your house you have to provide finishes commiserate with your neighborhood. You cannot build a basic Chevy house and expect to sell it in 5 years for Maserati prices just because your neighbors are getting top dollar for their houses. If they put the money in, they may get the money out. If you put in less expensive finishes, you will not get top dollar. In today’s market where everyone can look at every property available for a 100 mile radius and see 75 pictures of each, a house with less expensive finishes will not stack up. It just doesn’t work that way.

The really big problem is all of the averages used to compute “price per square foot” for construction are just that — averages. And with averages come lots of situations that do not apply to our market.

For instance, those averages take into account big old housing tracts that build 1,450 identical homes on acres of land somewhere. They call them Shady Acres or Rolling Glens and you can “customize” by picking out window color or upgrading to blue siding. That is not custom. In those instances when the same house is built over and over with only a change in siding color, the price to build is much lower. That is great for someone looking for a ready-built neighborhood pretty far out of the urban core, it is a completely unrealistic, almost comical comparison to a true custom home in a sought after location.

Tract homes are not all that possible in Chicago. There are still a few areas that open up when old factories close down in a neighborhood and larger parcels of land become available, but in the really “popular” neighborhoods, we see more individual older homes going on the market (or being sold before they ever hit the open market). The majority of these old homes a tear-downs and are sold for their land value alone. With this, the custom home process in Chicago begins.

Finding an available “lot” (a.k.a. tear-down) in a hot neighborhood in Chicago is a competitive business. If it is a great neighborhood, on a great block it is going to sell and sell fast. If it an oversize lot – get ready for a bidding war! A standard lot in Chicago is 25’ wide x 125’ deep, anything wider or deeper in a great neighborhood is going to be in demand and sell for a premium. If that is something you want, have your checkbook ready and your loan pre-approved!

So the moral of the story? Your location matters. Your location will affect your price per square foot in construction AND in resale. Your home is your biggest investment; build something that reflects that investment. Don’t under build for your neighborhood (but don’t bother over-building either). Do your homework, be ready and then the process has a lot fewer surprises.

Next up, financing and architects and designers (oh my).

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Paint picking (better than other kinds of picking)

So things are moving along pretty quickly and now the fun stuff starts. THE FINISHES!!! You know, trim and tile and light fixtures and door knobs. But first comes… the paint.

The thing everyone loves to hate. Picking out the perfect paint color.

Walk into a paint store and hyperventilate from all the color choices. So, first step? Take a breath.

Next step, narrow it down.

Eliminate all those oranges and yellows and baby blues that are just not going to work for you. If you know you love a neutral gray – head for the grays. Now think about undertones. Blueish gray? Or beigeish gray? Or whiteish gray? That will help you narrow down the possibilities in a big hurry.

Now take your 2 or 3 contenders and bring the samples home.

Do not paint a 2 inch x 2 inch square on the wall and run with it. Wrong!

Paint multiple big patches – like 2 FOOT x 3 FOOT swatches. Now label that patch (you think you will remember, but you won’t). Now do the same thing in 2 other places in that room. How the color looks will change even in the same room depending on proximity to windows and lights and other furnishings.

Now, pick the color you love best in EVERY location and get painting.

See? Easy. Now do that in all the other rooms and we can move on! It is your custom home – make it your custom colorsa (or wallpaper, I am loving wallpaper).

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Whole Lotta Fixin Going On!

Well folks, things have moved into hyper-drive on this custom home in Andersonville. I visited this “old home to new home” project this past week and could not believe the amount of activity and the number of contractors all working at the same time. If I saw it on TV I would think it was staged! How they don’t all bump into each other I do not know, but they were all there working hard and listening to 80’s rock. I kid you not.

Honestly — so much was going on I think I will have to break it into 2 posts. Hey, if it worked for the Harry Potter movies it can work for me.

By my quick count this is the list of contractors in the house on Friday, some on Saturday and one on SUNDAY last week:

  • the fearless general contractor (aka the hubby)
  • the hardwood floor installers
  • the HVAC contractor
  • the painters
  • the electrician
  • the tilers
  • That my friend is a whole lot of action! So let’s take a look at the hardwood floors.

As previously mentioned this is an old grey stone 2-flat in Andersonville that is in the process of becoming a new single family home. So for a lot of years it was 2 separate units, with 2 kitchens, 2 baths, 2 bedroom upstairs, 2 bedrooms downstairs, etc. And throughout both units were hardwoods floors.

The plan was to keep those old hardwood floors. As with many things in life – it was a great idea but not so good for implementing. Once we got in there and started removing walls and rearranging fixtures, it became apparent; those old floors were not something we could salvage. They were too damaged and too thin. New hardwood floors throughout were ordered. Install is almost complete and they look stunning!

Next up is the HVAC systems. Who knows what that is? Anyone? Anyone? The heating air conditioning and cooling systems. Again when this was 2 separate units, it had 2 separate (and really old) heating and cooling systems. Not only do you need newer, more efficient heating and cooling units, with all new walls and floors – you need all new duct work.

One of the most important piece of any HVAC system is making sure it is properly balanced. Having units that are too big or too small for your home is going to cost you every month in heating and cooling bills. Make sure everything is sized accurately for maximum efficiency. Not glamorous, but every month when you pay that gas bill you will thank me for your spray foam insulation, good quality windows and efficient, properly sized HVAC units. And you are welcome.

I think that is enough custom home information for this post (I know most of you are saying TMI), next up we have electricians and painters and tilers…oh my!

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DRYWALL – ok, still not too exciting, but we are getting there.

To date on our quest for a spectacular new custom home in Andersonville: we have ripped everything out, added new walls and sub-floors, installed all new mechanicals in the walls, and sprayed in insulation. Along with about 100 other little projects along the way…and now we have…DRYWALL!

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Now those of you with no vision, you know who you are, can see where all these new rooms are going to be. Start imagining all your interior designs, you need kitchen designs and bathroom designs and overall home designs. So now there are walls, all the designs should be well under way. At this pint our homeowners have picked out every piece of tile, all the appliances, every plumbing fixture and piece of trim.

When building (or remodeling) a custom home, there are about 10,000 decisions that need to be made, fairly quickly. Before you start, have a good idea of what you like (or what you hate). I have found a list of “must haves” and a list of “it would be nice to haves” helps when making decisions. Know the items you are willing to go over budget on and those that are just not that big a deal to you. When you prioritize you make decisions a little easier – and there are lots of decisions in building a new custom home!

If you are not doing a complete gut re-hab to create your new dream custom home – what is the one area of your house you would re-do to get closer to your custom dream home? Most would say a kitchen remodel. Or maybe remodeling the master bath. For lots of folks with kids, a basement remodel tops the list. What’s on your dream home list?

 

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New Homes In Chicago : we’ve got studs

The first step in building a new custom home in Chicago from an existing 2-flat – remove all the existing interior. And we mean everything: walls, ceilings, floors, windows, bathtubs, toilets, kitchen sinks and countertops. Everything must go.

Then you have a clean slate.

To put it all back together.

So here we are now – putting it all back together. We have new floors! With no holes! How about that for progress.

We also have whole new rooms and floor configrurations – 4 bedrooms and 2 baths upstairs, a big kitchen, family room, buters pantry and living room on the first floor. Oh, and a room just for the baby grand piano. And yes, I am serious. How cool is that?

This one is shaping up to be a spectaulr new custom home in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood.

Next up…windows!

 

Building and Renovating Custom
Homes In Chicago and the Suburbs

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Contact Information

Call us at: 773-457-0291

Email us at: info@follynbuilders.com