What does it cost to furnish a house

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FFFollower
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Joined: Tue Oct 08, 2013 8:59 am

What does it cost to furnish a house

Post by FFFollower »

I'm doing some planning for the day we move out of the city (3-5 years). We have an 1100 sq ft apartment with a fully furnished bedroom, living room (apartment sized), all the kitchen stuff we need, and that's about it for what we would keep. If we purchased a 2500-3000 sq ft house with what we own how much would we need to spend on furniture? NO Ikea quality. But also not all like pottery barn ( although probably some ). If I budgeted about $20k would that be all good?

Second question. How much should I expect to pay for minor renovations? Clearly I would replace all carpets and do painting. Anything else would be on a case by case basis. So another $15k?
mud
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Re: What does it cost to furnish a house

Post by mud »

Quite honestly, it all depends on how much stuff you decide you need. I'm of the persuasion to buy nice, solid, long-lasting furniture, but I don't buy designer stuff…not worth the money to me. And I also don't buy everything all at once. But 2-3 pieces (nice sofa, kitchen table & chairs, etc) that will get the most use right away, and then slowly add to those pieces with other items as you get used to your new home and figure out what really makes sense to have. For some folks, having a dining room table that will seat 12 is a "must-have", because "that's what everybody does", not because they'll use it frequently. Decide what your priorities are, and build a list of stuff to get with ballpark figures to attach to each. That'll give you a better idea of budget than anyone here could.

good luck!
123
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Re: What does it cost to furnish a house

Post by 123 »

I agree with the previous comment about buying only what you need to get started. You won't know until you're moved in what configuration of furniture works best for you in each room. Keep your options open to move stuff around. There's nothing worse then buying too much furniture and finding out that some pieces don't fit your way of using rooms, which will probably change over time. As a single person years ago I had bought a 4 bedroom house (2000 square feet). I used the master bedroom and bought a bed for one of the other bedrooms for guests. Some of the rooms I just left mostly empty. Everyone who came over was really envious of all the extra space I had. The empty rooms made it seem like a much, much larger a house.

If large appliances for the house are on your list you can easily spend from $2k to $5K to maybe $10K or more for refrigerator, stove, dishwasher (maybe), washer and dryer. It depends on what you needs and wants in those areas are. Consumer Reports is your friend in that area for information, they evalaute many aspects of appliance features.

Drapes and window covering can costs a bundle as well, again it depends on your tastes.

A big house could mean a big yard. Even garage basics like a lawn mower, edger, garden tools, hoses, ladder(s), and basic shelving could result in costs of $500 - $1,000 to "furnish" a garage.
Last edited by 123 on Mon Nov 04, 2013 11:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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sport
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Re: What does it cost to furnish a house

Post by sport »

Furniture comes in all prices and qualities. There is no generalization. The cost also can depend a lot on what store you buy from. The best you can do is to make a rough list of what you think you will want, and then start doing some shopping. You don't have to buy anything now, but you will start to become educated as to what you want to consider and what you want to avoid. The last time we bought furniture, we went to a small town, about 75 miles away from our city. The quality was good, the prices were a lot lower, and delivery to our area was free.
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stan1
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Re: What does it cost to furnish a house

Post by stan1 »

I just did some work on my mom's house in a relatively low cost of labor area. Carpeting was $5300 installed including tax for 1600 square feet plus pad (rest of house is tile). List price of carpet was $23/sq yard and I got it for $19/sq yard. Painting interior and exterior trim of 2500 square foot stucco house (including a large wood balcony covered by a trellis) was about $4700, which I thought was a very good price. Interior was painted off-white and exterior was a dark brown. Other color combinations such as color on the walls with white trim or light colored exterior trim painted over the existing dark colored trim would have cost more.
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ryuns
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Re: What does it cost to furnish a house

Post by ryuns »

jsl11 wrote:Furniture comes in all prices and qualities. There is no generalization.
Agreed. I'd even add that there is no generalization about Ikea, which varies from <$100 press board to real wood, nice couches, etc. Particularly easy to find decent rugs and drapes there for a fraction of Pottery Barn-type places. Still, $20k may not be a terrible goal, since, as 123 mentioned, you might also be looking at garden equipment. (Granted, if it's not a huge yard, you can get pretty inexpensive, all-electric stuff.) Add to that things like power tools if owning a house means having a garage and doing your own repairs, as well as any initial upgrades you'll want to do on the landscaping. (This is all coming from someone who spent MAYBE $5k on furniture, lawn equipment, tools, everything, so it's doesn't have to be too pricey.

Also hard to know what to start saving for minor renovations. There's no way to know that you'll need new paint and carpet. What if the house you move into has fine carpet? When we moved in our carpets got shampooed and are ot and we've painted about half our rooms gradually over the past 3 years. For reno's, I'd just build that into the cost of buying the house on an individual basis. I.e., set a whole house budget for a house you'll be happy with, not separate house and reno budgets.
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livesoft
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Re: What does it cost to furnish a house

Post by livesoft »

Don't forget window treatments: Drapes and blinds. Or are you going to nail up some old sheets?
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