Your favorite Great-Aunt Pat, or Great-Uncle Pat, won an Indonesian sandwich contest and got
to go on a free cruise around the world for a couple of weeks. While she/he is on the cruise
someone has to go take care of her/his house from time to time. Your parents always say that a
person should help take care of their elders, so they volunteered you to go take care of the mail
and plants and cleaning every couple of days.
When you go visit Aunt/Uncle Pat’s house, you notice that it’s not as pretty as it used to be. The
house was built in 1990 and everything is original from when it was built. Since GreatAunt/Uncle Pat can’t see that well she/he was not aware (or just didn’t care) that the paint on the
walls is faded and stained, the carpets are worn and stained, the kitchen has ugly, stained
countertops… everything seems to work, but the house itself looks run-down and unattractive.
But luckily for your favorite Great-Aunt/Uncle Pat, she/he also won a free home remodeling
from The Home Despot. Someone needs to work with The Home Despot to pick out the new
flooring and cabinets and paint and so forth. Your parents always say that a person should help
take care of their elders, so they volunteered you to be in charge of the house remodeling.
When you talk to the Home Despot people they say that Great-Aunt/Uncle Pat won $40,000
worth of remodeling. After you talk to them for a while, they suggest that Great-Aunt/Uncle Pat
should do a thorough “remod”: put new “flooring” (tile or carpet) down in every room, replace
kitchen cabinets and countertops, re-paint all of the interior walls (the outside actually looks
okay), and install new “window treatments” (blinds or drapes) for each room. The garage looks
pretty okay and can be left alone. Closets rarely need refurbishing. And Uncle Bill did the
bathrooms and kitchen “fixtures” (sink and faucets) last year, so those arefine, too.
You decide that it will be fun to remodel the house. You talk to your mom and dad about it. You
tell them about your plans for black ceilings, bright pink paint on every wall, doorknobs shaped
like skulls, cabinets with smiley faces painted on them, concrete countertops, etc. Your parents’
faces turn funny colors. They talk with each other for a few minutes, then they volunteer another
new project for you. Before you start scheduling things with the Home Despot people, your
parents want to approve your final plans first (yeah, that is, like, so lame!). They write down
what you need to do:
1) Look at your floorplan and make a list of every room that you’ll need to remodel. This will
include the bedrooms, kitchen, living room, dining room, study… probably every room that isn’t
a garage or patio or closet or bathroom. Most of the lists will be pretty similar. Here is an
example:
A) Bedroom One
B) Bedroom Two
C) Bedroom Three
D) Bedroom Four
E) Kitchen
F) “Great Room” or living room
G) Dining Room
2) For each room you will need to determine some measurements:
a) How many windows does it have?
b) What is its area in square feet? (Look at the floorplan and multiply length times width.)
c) What is the total area of its walls? (Add the lengths of all of the walls together to get a total
perimeter, then multiply that by eight feet [the height of most ceilings] to get the surface area of
its walls.)
3) For each room, write the measurements next to the room name on your list. Here is an
example:
Bedroom One
Flooring
300 square feet
Walls
2400 square feet
Windows
three
Bedroom Two
Flooring
150 square feet
Walls
400 square feet
Windows
one
4) Now you will have to decide what each room should look like. Search online for pictures of
rooms that are decorated in ways that you like. Pick a picture to represent each room that you are
remodeling. The picture should look like the room it’s representing. The small bedrooms on your
floorplan should be represented by pictures of small bedrooms. If the kitchen on your floorplan
doesn’t have an “island”, you can’t use a picture of a kitchen with an island. So look around until
you find a picture to properly represent each room on your floorplan. Attach the picture to your
list. Here is an example:
Bedroom One
Flooring
300 square feet
Walls
640 square feet
Windows
three
Bedroom Two
Flooring
150 square feet
Walls
400 square feet
Windows
one
Now you’ll start finding the things you’ll need from The Home Despot to make the rooms look
like the pictures. Every room will need “flooring” (carpet or tile or whatever), paint for the walls
(Great-Aunt/Uncle Pat doesn’t like wallpaper), and “window treatment”, meaning blinds or
curtains or shades. The kitchen will also need cabinets and countertops.
A)Flooring For each room you will have to figure out how much the flooring will cost.
The Home Despot has a flooring calculator. http://www.homedepot.com/c/IS_Flooring
All you need to know is the size of the room (in square feet), then you pick the kind of flooring,
and it will tell you how much it would cost to have that kind of flooring installed in that room.
After you’ve made the calculations, add the cost of the flooring to each room, thusly:
Bedroom One
Flooring
Area - 300 square feet
Style – sku 5537000 (grey stone tile)
Cost - $1669.83
Walls 640 square feet
Windows three
B)Painting – The Home Despot has a lot of paint colors. Just pick the brand and color that you
want to use. By the terms of the contest you can use any paint that costs $30.00 per gallon or
less. Each gallon of paint will cover about 350 square feet of wall. (You have to buy gallons, so
for example, if you have 400 square feet of wall in a room, you have to buy two gallons because
one wouldn’t be enough). The Home Despot people are offering you a special contest deal. They
will prime and paint your walls for twenty cents per square foot of wall.
After you have picked the paint out you can add that information to your list for each room:
Bedroom One
Flooring
Area - 300 square feet
Style – sku 5537000 (grey stone tile)
Cost - $1669.83
Walls
Area- 640 square feet
Style – model #GLD3000-01 (Glidden white interior paint)
Costs - $27.47 per gallon x 2 gallons = $54.94 for paint
- .20 x 640 square feet = $128 for painting
- $54.99 + $128 = $182.99 total
Windows three
C) “Window Treatments” – This means curtains or blinds or shades. You’re lucky that all of
the windows in the house are exactly the same size. They are all 24” x 64”. The nice Home
Despot people will install them for the cost of the drapes or blinds themselves. So if your blinds
cost $80 on the website, you pay $80 for the blinds and $80 for the installation, for a total of
$160. (The installation will include the cost of all rods, rings, fasteners, etc.)
After you pick out drapes or curtains or blinds for the room, just add the information and cost
thusly:
Bedroom One
Flooring
Area - 300 square feet
Style – sku 5537000 (grey stone tile)
Cost - $1669.83
Walls
Area- 640 square feet
Style – model #GLD3000-01 (Glidden white interior paint)
Costs - $27.47 per gallon x 2 gallons = $54.94 for paint
- .20 x 640 square feet = $128 for painting
- $54.99 + $128 = $182.99 total
Windows
Quantity - Three
Style – model#BPO34224-30 (green bamboo curtains)
Cost - $46.97 per curtain x 3 windows = $140.91 x 2 (for installation) = $281.82 total
That is all that you need to do for the bedrooms, living room, dining room, study, etc. The
kitchen will also need cabinets and countertops. (The sink and faucets are okay.)
D)Cabinets –The cabinets will have to be installed before the sinks and countertops, because the
sinks and countertops go on top of the cabinets. You will need to figure out some measurements.
Figure out the total length (in feet) of all of your countertops added together. You will need to
buy enough cabinets so that the width of your cabinets all added together equals the total length
of all of your cabinets added together. The nice Home Despot people will install the cabinets for
$50 each.
Kitchen
Flooring
225 square feet
Walls
1800 square feet
Windows
Two
Cabinets
Countertops Length – 30’ (360”)
Style – model #KSB36-MO (Hampton Bay medium oak cabinet, 36” long)
Cost - $159 x 10 cabinets = $1,590 + $500 (10 cabinets x $50 installation) = $2,090 total
E)Countertops – The Home Despot has a countertop installation cost calculator
http://ext.homedepot.com/shopping-tools/countertops/web/wizard/measurements. You will need
to figure out some measurements. Figure out the total length (in feet) of all of your countertops
added together. Multiply the total length of the countertops in feet by two (the average
countertop is about two feet “deep”). That will give you the total square footage of countertops.
Great Aunt/Uncle Pat prefers an “eased” edge on her/his countertops with ¾” radius corners. The
“backsplash”, sink, and faucet are fine and don’t need to be replaced. The result will look like
this:
Kitchen
Flooring
Area - 225 square feet
Style – sku 5538000 (oak wood laminate)
Cost - $1421.36
Walls
Area- 480 square feet
Style – model #GLD3000-01 (Glidden white interior paint)
Costs - $27.47 per gallon x two gallons = $54.94 for paint
- .20 x 480 square feet = $96
- $54.94 + $96 = $150.94 total
Windows
Quantity - Two
Style – model#BPO34225-35 (white sashay curtains)
Cost - $48.95 per curtain x 2 windows = $97.90 x 2 (for installation) = $195.80 total
Cabinets
Countertop Length – 30’ (360”)
Style – model #KSB36-MO (Hampton Bay medium oak cabinet, 36” long)
Cost - $159 x 10 cabinets = $1,590 + $500 (10 cabinets x $50 installation) = $2,090 total
Countertops
Countertop Length – 30’ (360”)
Countertop square feet – 60 ft² (8,640 in²)
Style – Stonemark Granite Azul Platino
Cost - $2,440
You are almost finished. All you need to do is figure up the total cost for each room, then
the total cost for the whole remodeling project. It will look like this:
Bedroom One
Flooring
Area - 300 square feet
Style – sku 5537000 (grey stone tile)
Cost - $1669.83
Walls
Area- 640 square feet
Style – model #GLD3000-01 (Glidden white interior paint)
Costs - $27.47 per gallon x 2 gallons = $54.94 for paint
- .20 x 640 square feet = $128 for painting
- $54.99 + $128 = $182.99 total
Windows
Quantity - Three
Style – model#BPO34224-30 (green bamboo curtains)
Cost - $46.97 per curtain x 3 windows = $140.91 x 2 (for installation) = $281.82 total
Total cost for Bedroom One
$1669.83 + $182.99 + $281.82 = $2134.64
Kitchen
Flooring
Area - 225 square feet
Style – sku 5538000 (oak wood laminate)
Cost - $1421.36
Walls
Area- 480 square feet
Style – model #GLD3000-01 (Glidden white interior paint)
Costs - $27.47 per gallon x two gallons = $54.94 for paint
- .20 x 480 square feet = $96
- $54.94 + $96 = $150.94 total
Windows
Quantity - Two
Style – model#BPO34225-35 (white sashay curtains)
Cost - $48.95 per curtain x 2 windows = $97.90 x 2 (for installation) = $195.80 total
Cabinets
Countertop Length – 30’ (360”)
Style – model #KSB36-MO (Hampton Bay medium oak cabinet, 36” long)
Cost - $159 x 10 cabinets = $1,590 + $500 (10 cabinets x $50 installation) = $2,090 total
Countertops
Countertop Length – 30’ (360”)
Countertop square feet – 60 ft² (8,640 in²)
Style – Stonemark Granite Azul Platino
Cost - $2,440
Total cost for kitchen
$1421.36 + $150.94 + $195.80 + $2090 + $2440 = $6298.10
Once you have a total for each room, just add them together for your total bill. In this case
it would be like this:
$2134.64 + $6298.10 = $8432.74 total for the whole house
Yours will have more rooms, of course, but that’s how you finish the project.
Have fun! 