For Kirana, who asked about building a house
Hey Kirana...
I took the liberty of posting the questions you asked in Eve's "Update" post to a new thread so everyone could see it and share their advice. Your original post read:
Author: kk
Date: 08-30-04 16:46
Dear HC,
We are hoping to move it STX and build a small place. One of your messages made it seem like you bought a house. This message sounds like you are building or maybe building-on. I'm wondering if you could share what it's been like to build a house there if that's the case? The books say $150/sq foot. Is that what you have found to be true? (I know it all depends on how its all trimmed out etc.) Any other info on your building/remodeling experience would be really appreciated.
Tom is wanting to come to the island site unseen and trust that we can handle any thing that comes along. Yikes, I have alot of trepidation about that, but I am warming up to the idea!
Peace...
Kirana
And now, my reply:
We bought a house , and are in the process of doing some major renovations to fix safety/poor construction issues (like our spliced on roof and a gallery made completely of plywood) and redesigning the interior to make it more wheelchair friendly and improve upon the choppy layout that resulted from turning the house into a duplex and then back into a single family dwelling again. Unfortunately, this project doesn't give me any experience with the answers you need about building a house from the ground up.
However, a poster going by the handle of 'Afriend' left this excellent reply in Roger D's post called "Real Estate Question." which also asked about the cost of building a home in the USVI. Hope that it helps you!
Author: Afriend
Date: 08-30-04 08:30
The numbers you see, read and are given out by realtors are only guidelines and often "dated". As a rule of thumb $150 per Sq.Ft. will get you four walls and some very basic finishes. Everything else is going to be extra. If your tastes run toward anything even slightly better than "builder's standard" finish material plan on spending plan on adding at least $50 more to your sq.ft. price. If you are thinking "designer upscale" well then you are looking at adding $100 to $150 per sq. ft. Do your homework. Talk to your architect and builder, have them come up with their best estimates for the type of house you desire. Now comes the eye opening (and difficult) part, add 50% to that number. The result will gve you an fairly close idea of what your final out of pocket costs will be. Everything is going to cost you a lot more than you originally plan. The voice of experience talking. Good luck.
Dear HC,
Thanks for the info and for the posting. I'm still getting the hang of how the message board works. It's a great source of information and good will!
Kirana
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