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I am not an owner… but a residential architect. I’ve worked on several DC row home projects over the years. If you can afford it, I would do the whole renovation at once. If you want to phase it I would start with the pop up and new roof/insulation while you’re at it. If you aren’t planning on moving any major walls then you might be able to live in the construction. It really depends on the scale of the project. Full gut renovations can reveal hidden issues that may take longer to resolve. We have projects that are complete at or near the deadline but there are definitely many that go over by a few months. Some cases 6mo-1yr. It may be stressful for a while but getting your own custom house the way you want it is super rewarding.

Sorry, what's the "pop-up"? Rooftop extension?

This is a great response, thank you! From your experience, are you able to share your guesstimate for cost of a 2-level 10 ft extension and a pop up master suite that includes a small roof deck? I know materials etc would make it vary, but structurally?

Another floor addition/roof deck!

I haven’t done exactly what you described but I did renovate a house up in Takoma ten years or so ago. We went piecemeal and it was its own challenge. I did a lot of the work myself but we hired a contractor for some of the stuff that required skill.

Contractors always take longer than they estimate. Always. You might end up paying more than the initial estimate too. Especially with a full gut job.

Older houses tend to have asbestos and lead paint so that’s fun.

I don’t regret not buying a renovated home but that also wasn’t really an option for us. If you have the money it’ll be much less of a headache.

It’ll also have an impact on your relationship if you live there through the renovation. It puts a lot of stress on two people.

Expect the unexpected. These houses are old and as they tear it open they may find some more expensive problems to solve.

Good luck!

Thank you!! Love hearing other’s experiences :) What type of projects were you able to tackle on your own? And can I ask what your rough contracting costs were?

Nice! I mean, depending on your vision, architect, and contractor I guess! :)

i just lived in my house while renovating the kitchen and basement and would 10/10 NOT recommend. besides the usual disruptions there were a ton of additional plumbing and electrical issues, delays, etc. very stressful.

No one knows until a professional get inside and evaluates. I’d probably say $500k.

Thank you for your response! Those disruptions do not sound fun

Totally, but it’s nice to imagine at this point 😜

There was a poster on here last year that broke down their whole Bloomingdale rowhouse reno on costs/etc. Might be worth searching for it and DM'ing the OP on it.

What's your appetite for living in chaos. The popup, you'll have to move out since it will open your house to the elements. I've lived through a basement, kitchen, laundry room/bathroom remodel. We did it both before and with kids. Our house didn't require a gut renovation, so we could do it in sections. If you need to do a gut (e.g. new electric/plumbing) I'd have moved out.

Great idea! Thanks for the idea- I’ll try to find the post.

My wife is a residential architect here, and as an ‘outside independent’ commentator/observer I’d recommend finding someone like her and paying for an hour or two of their time to ask a million questions and get the truth with no expectation on your side to use them and no expectation on their side to ‘not scare you off’.

The stories I hear on a daily basis are pretty crazy sometimes, especially concerning DCRA, historical districts codes vs regular DC codes, and stories of how unrealistic or irrational customers are.

Paying $100-$200 (idk what they’d charge or if this is even a thing) but paying that to make sure you even know the things you don’t know would have a huge ROI if you’re talking a $500k renovation, which is what it sounds like.

Circa 2015 I had a neighbor get quotes for a 1-level pop up on their Hill East rowhouse and it was $200k.

Great idea!! Is this a common request she receives?

Super helpful; thanks :)

I did the painting, some drywall, refinishing the wood floors, repainting the cabinets. In the basement we had asbestos flooring so we just encapsulated it with an absorbent underlayment and a floating laminate floor. The contractor ripped out the drop ceiling in the basement and put up drywall, they also framed out the unfinished basement and enlarged a small window by knocking out some bricks. They moved gas lines and had to move some plumbing for a kitchenette. It was 10 year ago but I think all in it was around $25,000 for the contractor and at least another 5 for the stuff I did.

We got lucky and mostly kept the existing floors and walls. Lead paint, foundation or roof issues would’ve dramatically increased the cost. No lead paint and the hardwood was in decent shape after a good sanding.

That sounds like the estimate we got in 2017. We ended up not popping up and I kind of regret it now.

No. She’s never done it and She probably wouldn’t even agree with my comment or think there’s a market for it. I was literally answering as an unbiased observer as if I was giving my mom advice or something like that, purely based on the patterns of problems I hear about in my wife’s line of work.

Can you please make your pop up not hideous and stylistically comparable to the rest of the rowhouse? That’s my only request.

It’s really hard to say without more info. $750K maybe Edit: I do super high-end homes so my pricing knowledge is skewed.

Bought NE rowhouse. Then took it down to party wall brick and joists (some of which we also removed), ripped off rear wall and added 20x20 extension on 3 levels and underpinned basement to get extra 3 feet of ceiling height. It was a MASSIVE project. It was a lot of work. It was stressful. I do not for a moment regret it.

1. No regrets at all. We worked with an architect and then I made tons of changes throughout the process to get exactly what I wanted. Dream kitchen (400 square feet), 10x3 foot island in single piece of stone, switches exactly where I want them, massive windows, killer insulation throughout, reclaimed red oak floors sanded and stained in place in a color I created myself, power everywhere and precisely where I wanted, network cables home runned to my server room, built in speakers, etc.
2. Broke ground as planned...and that was the last time we were on schedule. Fortunately we were living in our old house while the work was done. Quoted time was 6 months. Was almost 11 months from breaking ground to when we occupied.

It is WAYYYY cheaper to do all the renos at once. Trades are expensive to bring in one at a time; you get much more for your money at scale. You can also do the reno the way you want without having to make concessions to living there.

Happy to provide more context and info if you want to PM me.

I'm currently in the process of renovating a 1920s rowhouse, living there while we do. If your house is livable as is, I'd recommend considering not gutting it. Obviously this depends on personal preference, but the quality of the woodwork and plaster walls in these old houses is so good, if they've been reasonably maintained they're so durable. We've also found that our house is better insulated than we expected, we suspect due to the plaster and brick construction. Our plan is to not touch most walls. We updated a lot of the electrical, refinished the floors, and updated some plumbing without moving any fixtures before or as soon as we moved in. Over time we plan to make some exterior repairs, replace the kitchen cabinets and countertops and take out part of the wall dividing the kitchen and dining room, replace most bathroom fixtures, and add mini-splits for AC. It's a lot cheaper than gutting the house, but we also like it because it preserves the integrity of the home and leaves things be that have stood for 100 years. And I love our plaster walls and radiator heat. Just my two cents from a different perspective.

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Several huge variables make it impossible to answer your question with much precision. Biggest ones are 1) are you underpinning the basement to get the height you want?, 2) are you in the historic district?, 3) how much work (not swinging a hammer, but more coordination and daily involvement re permits and decision making) are you prepared to put in?

Regardless of the answers to the above, you'll need a team on your side. You can either find a design/build firm you like, or punt on the build portion and find an architect/designer you like who will later help you find a builder.

The bottom line is that if you don't already own the house to be renovated, you will not come out ahead financially on the deal. So unless you already own a house that needs to be gutted, or you have very special design needs (kids, the house to live in forever, ADA compliant, etc), if it's just about economics, you are better off buying a completed home, and waiting until prices drop to do that.

My husband and I did a full gut job and renovation starting in 2019 which started with us purchasing a small 1000 sq ft home / lot that we built on. We kept a wall or two and demolished the rest. Included digging out a basement and building a much bigger home in its place. We hired a design company who essentially subs out all of the trades. I think that is quite common in this field.

A few things I would tell myself if I were to go through this process again :

1. tack on an extra 15-20% on top of your total cost for unforeseen items
2. pick out finishes and have a good sense of what you want before you start the contracting process so that you don’t have inaccurate allowances/contract costs
3. tack on an extra 4-6 months on build time depending on the extent of the renovation
4. depending on the size and scope of the project, be prepared to be your own project manager. As much as your design firm or main general contractor should be responsible for this, no one will do it as well as you.
5. if you can afford it, do it all at once. In the end, it will end up costing less because much of the labor costs will be a bit less if they do it all at the same time versus doing it a little at a time.

All that said, a custom built home to your own specifications is really awesome. Moreover, it’s very hard to find non speck homes in the DC area so our house automatically gained 20-30-% (if not more) i. Equity if we were to sell it. We also wouldn’t have been able to afford our home if we were able to buy it after it was complete.

It is a very stressful experience. Things will go wrong. You will be over budget and over the time estimates they give you, etc. but if you are prepared for these things ahead of time, take the time to find a contractor/build company who you like and whose references are solid.

Finally, I would highly highly recommend against living in the house with renovations. It is not only stressful, but the amount of dust/messiness that gets created from construction is a bit insane. We moved in towards the tail end of our house being done and it was a miserable three months. If you can afford to live somewhere else, do it. It will be well worth it!

Good luck. If you have any other questions, feel free to PM me.

In the early 80's, the DC government sold rowhouses on Capitol Hill, 14th ST and East Dupont for $1 with the promise to renovate and move in for 2 years.

My husband bought and gutted a NE (Hill East) row house before we got married. I was dating him throughout so got a front row seat to all of it. It’s on a historic block.

$180k or so all in. Did use an architect, which was money well spent. Overall, though, mid range contractors. He and his dad did some work on their own, ie painting mostly (but painting a whole house is awful!! They had a terrible time). There were unfinished bits for years. Upside was a stunning kitchen, great heating (keep! your! radiators!), and he was displaced for only about 4 months (he lived with me during that time). He has a high tolerance for chaos and things were not totally done when he moved back in.

Happy to discuss! We don’t live there anymore and when we did, all I saw were the imperfections (you get what you pay for and I’m a little ocd on details), but we now rent it out for a very good price and know we’ll one day resell at significant profit. The kitchen really is amazing. We refinished the original floors btw, they’re cool looking but slightly impractical.

Thanks for sharing your experience!!

For comparison, this guy renovated his three-story townhouse and the cost was ~$750k.

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We bought a completely unrenovated house in 2017 and have been slowly updating it. We’ve never moved out for a renovation thus far, including adding HVAC, renovating (in separate projects) kitchen, front porch, sleeper porch, and a full basement gut. It’s totally doable but you have to take your time saving and planning. And you probably would save money doing it all at once but if you don’t have the money now, I don’t regret doing it bit by bit. We have spent about 200k thus far and still have about another 100-150k to go.

Pop-ups are very expensive. In the hundreds of thousands.

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Nimby

Renovating your own home sounds more romantic than it is. I gutted a 3 lvl (4 with basement” town house adjacent to Eastern Market about 13 years ago.

Some things to be aware of:

Historic overlays. Even if you technically aren’t in one,if you are close the city will scrutinize your permit applications even more, and neighbors tend to insert themselves into your business.

Structural work. If you are replacing a roof or digging out the basement, or anything that involves the structural party walls between you and the neighbor, be prepared for hell. Your neighbors will be pissed because of the noise and intrusion and potential damage to their house. You will have to hire a company to inspect and monitor settlement of your neighed structural supports. Thousands extra.

Be prepared to have a lot of shit “take a walk”. Construction sites attract thieves. We had some appliances, copper pipe and a tool chest belonging to the contractor “take a walk”.

DCRA is worse than dealing with the DMV. Your contractor will call for inspections and It frequently took 5-7 business days for them to show up. A different inspector will show up each time, one will pass you and then you will go to get your electrical final (for example) and the different inspector will countermand the original inspector, costing money and time to redo. I’ve built and or renovated homes in 4 other places not in DC in my life and DCRA is hands down the worst permitting authority.

For a full gut you should add 3 months to whatever time frame the contractor gives you.

And we moved out. It allowed the contractor to move quicker and saved us the stress and headache of living through a renovation. It did add budget stress because we were paying for two places.

I’m a YIMBY-but-please-not-ugly.

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lol my wife had to have her 500 sq ft condo almost completely renovated and that took over a year. 4 months for a whole-ass house plus an addition seems extremely optimistic to me!