How much money would you spend on Design Center?

Tom_Irvine_Guy said:
We are thinking about upgrading flooring, from standard tiles/carpet,  to Laminate in the living/kitchen and dinning.

Also thinking about getting fans, and can lights in the bedrooms.

I thought about updating counter tops in master bathroom, but will see how much above items would cost.  Our budget is <10K for upgrades.
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I honestly can't see a way to upgrade a new construction for less than $10k. 
 
thatOSguy said:
NewIrvineBee said:
Tom_Irvine_Guy said:
We are thinking about upgrading flooring, from standard tiles/carpet,  to Laminate in the living/kitchen and dinning.

Also thinking about getting fans, and can lights in the bedrooms.

I thought about updating counter tops in master bathroom, but will see how much above items would cost.  Our budget is <10K for upgrades.
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Upgrade flooring can be a lot, it's almost $5xxx, maybe more. It depends on your house sq ft. So do it outside contractor.
If I were you, maybe upgrade the countertop and install lights only.
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Fans and cans.

Prewire on the fans is fine. It's one of the easiest DIY jobs to do.
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We had the builders do the prewire for the surround sound and fans...it was about $1000 in total. 
 
AA said:
Does anyone know if there is a price list available for upgrades for prospective buyers?
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For Irvine Pacific Homes, they do provide home buyer a list of all available upgrades and prices.  Only the counter tops and flooring does not have a price list readily available since these options varies widely between material and sizes.
 
NewIrvineBee said:
Tom_Irvine_Guy said:
We are thinking about upgrading flooring, from standard tiles/carpet,  to Laminate in the living/kitchen and dinning.

Also thinking about getting fans, and can lights in the bedrooms.

I thought about updating counter tops in master bathroom, but will see how much above items would cost.  Our budget is <10K for upgrades.
Click to expand...

Upgrade flooring can be a lot, it's almost $5xxx, maybe more. It depends on your house sq ft. So do it outside contractor.
If I were you, maybe upgrade the countertop and install lights only.
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Best way to decide between builder and outside contractor is to get quotes from outside contractors prior to your final decision.

For flooring, majority of the time, outside contractor is significantly cheaper, but some builder do have very reasonable prices on flooring upgrades. 

It also depend on the sq.ft. too.  If the area is not that big, the price difference between the builder's and outside contractor's might not be that big and might as well stick with the builder.
 
Does anyone have recommendations for decently prices flooring companies?

But the, they would have to charge labor for ripping out existing tiles and carpets, which adds costs.
 
If you have a homebuilder with great customer service, I think that paying a bit extra for having things done through the builder is well-worth it. We did a large number of upgrades through the builder for our new home, and dealing with any problems has been a breeze. The stuff we didn't do through the builder, any issues that come up have been sometimes quite problematic to deal with. Unless there's an outrageous, ridiculous price difference, I'm a big fan of sticking with the builder. Now, if your builder's customer service sucks, then it's a whole different situation altogether.
 
I just think upgrade options are not enough. Whatever I asked them the style or pattern or colors, they don't have it.  :eek:
 
This thread cost me $1000. I went back and added recessed lighting in two bedrooms. Didn't opt for LED, I figure that can be done later.
 
One thing i haven't seen mentioned is that if you go with the builder, they roll a majority of the cost of upgrades into your mortgage. That's huge, because you can pay it off over 30 years at historically low interest rates. Irvine Pacific rolled 75% of the cost of our upgrades into the mortgage, except for structural upgrades which were all up front. This usually has no effect on your property taxes despite the higher purchase price.

Everything from outside contractors is much harder to finance.
 
eclipxe said:
This thread cost me $1000. I went back and added recessed lighting in two bedrooms. Didn't opt for LED, I figure that can be done later.
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Heh.

But electrical stuff is good to get through the builder.

And yes, since LEDs are available as regular light bulbs, no need to "upgrade" to those.
 
Celing fan outlets is 325$ , is this good price or over the board? Thinking about having fans in bedrooms and living room, good idea?
 
What a coincidence....  I was just looking for ceiling fans right before I saw this post.  As for the upgrades, I just had to go through this as I closed in June.  I opted to go with a contractor for flooring.  In the end it, it saved me $3000 + 4 days to install ($15.5K vs $12.5K).
 
Joe61022 said:
One thing i haven't seen mentioned is that if you go with the builder, they roll a majority of the cost of upgrades into your mortgage. That's huge, because you can pay it off over 30 years at historically low interest rates. Irvine Pacific rolled 75% of the cost of our upgrades into the mortgage, except for structural upgrades which were all up front. This usually has no effect on your property taxes despite the higher purchase price.

Everything from outside contractors is much harder to finance.
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Upgrades add to your property tax. It might be minimal, but it's ts still there....every single year.
 
NewIrvineBee said:
Upgrade flooring can be a lot, it's almost $5xxx, maybe more. It depends on your house sq ft. So do it outside contractor.
If I were you, maybe upgrade the countertop and install lights only.
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For perspective, I recently stopped by Tompkins Flooring showroom to get gauge on pricing and decent wood floor will probably cost ~$7+ sq ft for the wood and then ~$4+ sq ft for install. Laminate options would be cheaper, ~$3 + $2 sq ft maybe?

So estimating ~$10 sq ft for 800 sq ft is already $8,000+. And that's for a pretty small size coverage
 
thezeb00 said:
Celing fan outlets is 325$ , is this good price or over the board? Thinking about having fans in bedrooms and living room, good idea?
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That's about the same through our builder's design studio.

Fyi also, when they gave us the upgrade price list some of the upgrade prices seemed ridiculously high (even by builder's standard). We questioned them and eventually got reductions on some of them. And in one case, it was because it was a price entry type (e.g. single basin kitchen sink was listed as $1,000+ upgrade! Eventually they corrected it and it was $250 upgrade). If we hadn't questioned it, we would have skipped it. Basically, question/challenge them on the price if it seems unreasonable. Sometimes the designer that's working with you can get approvals for exceptions or find out that it was a mistake on pricing.
 
AA said:
Does anyone know if there is a price list available for upgrades for prospective buyers?
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Price sheet differs per plan as well because materials needed for some upgrades will differ based on each plan's design. For example, surface area needed for backsplash differs for each kitchen layout and each bathroom size. Even something simple as cabinet hardware depends on the total number of cabinet doors for the plan.

So you really have to get the price upgrade price sheet for the specific plan and not just for the specific builder. This is readily provided by the builder once you sign a sales contract.
 
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