Blog
February 2014
Love & Money
Planning a renovation involves thinking with your head as well as your heart
Planning Your Budget: Estimating Price Per Square Foot
Home renovation is—at the heart of it—a labor of love. It also represents a significant investment of time and financial resources.
At Design Development NYC, we know that successful transformations require thoughtful advance planning and a team of professionals you can trust to interpret your dreams into reality. We’re dedicated to helping you design and build interiors that express your style—whether it’s traditional, transitional, or contemporary. And we’re committed to delivering your project on budget and on time.
Recently, Design Development’s cofounders, Chip Brian and Mike Daddio, talked to the team from the Sweeten network —a new online matchmaking service for home renovators and contracting professionals—about some of the factors involved in calculating a budget for a New York City renovation project. “How do homeowners decide how much to invest in their properties?” they wondered. “And how do the pros they hire come up with an accurate estimate of ‘How much will this all cost?’”
We’re glad you asked: At Design Development, we tell clients that developing a realistic budget is “Step 1” of a successful renovation, and we like to make the “numbers” process completely transparent. All honest contractors follow a few basic rules of thumb to help them determine the base costs of a project—and then there are factors that can drive your costs up (changed minds lead to change orders and changes to the bottom line) or help your dollars stretch further (like placing the more costly bells in whistles in places where they really get noticed and simplifying things in low-visibility areas, like children’s bathrooms and laundry areas).
You can read the full article here. And if you have any specific questions about your labor of love, just ask us. We’d love to bring your dream renovation to reality.
Things We Do for
Design Development NYC is proud to be a sponsor of the Christo Rey Work Study Program. Five students from this great Brooklyn high school are spending a day a week in our Long Island City offices, learning everything from accounting best practices to interior design. We’re happy to have them on our team!
From Lifting Spirits to Lifting Houses, it’s all in a day’s work for the team from Design Development. Have a look at this Sandy rebuild—a project scheduled to appear in the pages of Traditional Home magazine later this year. To protect this historic home from future storm damage, the owner needed to elevate the entire structure. It looks easy in the video—and it really is a marvel of engineering—but it was a tough decision that took a lot of confidence on the part of the homeowners, who are doing it all for love.
You can watch the house lift, here.
Design Development’s own Operations/Logistics Manager, Rich Ferraioli, also happens to be the co-artistic director of Long Island City’s innovative Chain Theatre, a black-box performance space that numbers among the neighborhood’s many artistic endeavors. How does he find the time? Well…it’s a quick commute: Situated in the former US Chain Company on 45th Road, the Chain Theatre happens to be housed right next door to Design Development NYC’s custom millwork and finishing shops in the historic Hunter’s Point neighborhood, a 10-minute hop from Manhattan. In fact, we helped to renovate the nonprofit’s industrial interior. March 1 is the last (Sold Out) performance of the theater company’s well-received production of David Rabe’s dark comedy Hurlyburly, directed by Rich. See what’s up next, here. And don’t forget to explore what else is new in one of New York City’s up-and-coming neighborhoods, where artistry and industry have traditionally worked as a team.
Chain Theatre featured in nydailynews.com.