Renovations can be EXPENSIVE – A fact that we are quickly finding out for ourselves! But we have been steadily searching for the steals and deals that have helped us save THOUSANDS of dollars.
While we have an amazing contractor, who is handling a majority of the renovation, a lot of the details have been left up to us – door knobs, faucets, toilets, bathtubs, tiles and flooring, which also meant we had to purchase all of these things as well. Needless to say, we had A LOT of decisions to make and quickly!
After creating our mood board, scouring Pinterest for inspiration, and deciding what the overall feel of the house was going to be, we needed to get a handle on our budget. First, we had to take inventory of things that would be necessity – light fixtures, door knobs, doors, ceilings fans, appliances, etc. We made a simple spreadsheet in excel, created line items, and allotted a budget to each line item. This would give us a baseline of how much we could spend, and as we made purchases, we updated the budget to make sure we were in the green. Of course, this all sounds like pretty logical stuff – but you’d be surprised how easy it is to start buying all.the.things without really tracking how much you’re spending! So, to prevent overspending and to ensure that we had enough money in a contingency fund, we tracked EVERYTHING!
So…after the budget was created and tracking systems in place, the fun part could begin: SHOPPING SPREE!!! We knew we had a finite budget but had to buy SO much stuff. So, we shopped around, priced compared, and did some research. Here are the tools we found most valuable!
Facebook Market Place, Yard Sales, Estate Sales
THIS was our number one cost saver! We scored amazing deals on light fixtures, ceiling fans, and furniture too! The great part about this option is 1) you can haggle the price down, 2) it’s local and in stock – you just have to schedule a time to pick up, and my personal favorite part 3) there is always a family with a story behind each piece you snag. I have met families who are downsizing because of personal situations, a sweet lady who is a cancer warrior, families who are transition because their kids are getting older, fellow DIY-ers like ourselves – it’s been such a fun journey meeting so many people and having their stories now be a part of ours!
PRO TIP: Be smart about your purchases. If purchasing from Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, don’t pay a head of time. If they have electronic means to receive payment (like Zelle or Venmo) ask for those options. It’s easier to protect yourself should something go awry. (Venmo offers purchase protection!) Vet the person you’re meeting. Check their Facebook profile. Look them up – you can never be too careful in this day and age. Also, take someone with you to pick up, and if you are able, schedule during the day time!
Architectural Salvages
These places can be SO much fun! Architectural Salvages are warehouse filled with items that have been saved from a home that’s going through renovation (or tear down) that the owners no longer wanted. This could range from doors, mantles, lighting fixtures, sconces all the wall to an entire quite of kitchen cabinets. Anything worth saving in good condition is typically what you will find, and it is SO fun to sift through all these treasures! A bonus to this type of supply seeking is that typically it is much cheaper than big box stores. We needed to replace all the doors in our home, and the cheapest we could find was $93/slab door, which meant it didn’t include a door frame! We visited a local architectural salvage and found beautiful doors for $45/door WITH a door frame! Talk about score! Another huge bonus for me is that a majority of these pieces come from older homes. So, you will find pieces with character and craftsmanship that you just don’t seen anymore! With our home being 100 years old, this was a PERFECT place for us to go supply hunting!
Local Resources:
Builder Surplus Stores
Surplus Stores are another great way to find a deal! These are stores that purchase surplus items from the manufacturer, and because they are overages, the manufacturers typically want to get rid of them and do so at a much lower cost than market value, and those savings are passed on to you! Supplies here were considerably cheaper than market value and usually you can find items right on the showroom floor to take home! We found our quartz countertops here and based cabinets for our kitchen and master bath. The counters are sold in pre-slabs that are 120” x 26” – we were able to purchase enough countertop for our entire kitchen for around $24/square foot, and if you’ve ever shopped for stone counters, you know that is a STEAL!
Local Resources:
Amazon
Oh, trusty, Amazon! I mean how could have NOT looked here! The benefit here is 1) prime delivery – you can get it FAST, 2) great way to price comparison shop and typically Amazon prices were cheaper than big box stores and even online sites like Wayfair and Overstock. The only downside for us so far: some of the items we purchased were damaged upon arrival. We did have some items cancel on us, and we were scrambling to get back to the drawing board. But overall, we were able to find SO many great deals!
PRO TIP: Read the reviews! I cannot say it enough!
Big Box Discount Stores
When we started our search for textiles – flooring, backsplashes, accent tiles, we search high and low to the deals, and some of the biggest we found were at local big box discount stores like Floor and Décor. They have a LARGE selection and very far pricing. They also have a lot of in-trend choices as well! Even more, they typically had a lot of things in stock, which was a bonus! Our only qualm is that they had very limited choices in term of luxury vinyl tile, which is what we needed for a majority of the non-wood floors in our home.
Just a random side note: Our home is current on a pier and beam foundation, which was typical of houses built in the early 1900’s. Because of this, we decided to put luxury vinyl tile (LVT) in the bathrooms versus porcelain/ceramic tile. Over time, the home is bound to shift on that pier and beam foundation, which meant cracking in the tile or grout if we went that route. LVT offered us the opportunity to have a stone look but with much more give and flexibility to last over the years!
Scouring all these resources helped us save THOUSANDS in our budget, which in the long run means more moolah in our pocket! It has been a journey to get everything prepped and ready for the renovation, and we are almost there! Knowing that we have a little extra cushion in our budget should any major things need to be addressed has been a BIG blessing, and we hope that these resources are a blessing to you too!
Sincerely,
Tim & Heather
The Kostka’s
We are Tim and Heather Kostka, and we are the friendly faces behind Kasa de Kostka (KDK or the House of Kostka)!
