Budget Breakdown: A Santa Barbara Ranch House Gets a Sophisticated New Look for $626K

Achieving a high-end look on a modest budget—in one of the country’s most expensive regions—was made possible by the owner’s expertise.

Sep 2, 2020 - 01:00

Budget Breakdown: A Santa Barbara Ranch House Gets a Sophisticated New Look for $626K

Achieving a high-end look on a modest budget—in one of the country’s most expensive regions—was made possible by the owner’s expertise.

Homeowner and general contractor Clint Unander redesigned his dated Santa Barbara ranch to be a bright, airy home that combines classic California style with Scandinavian minimalism.

As a project manager at a high-end homebuilder in the Santa Barbara region, Clint Unander is used to working on projects that involve 70 subcontractors with budgets as high as $20 million. So when it came to renovating his own home—a 1,936-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom ranch in the San Roque neighborhood—he was more than prepared to meet the challenge of a strict, four-month timeline (he and his wife, Corinne, had a baby on the way) and a modest budget.

In fact, Clint’s professional expertise ensured that the project was able to be completed within the timeframe for a total hard cost of $625,867.

$6,000 Permits	$250 Plans & Prints	$22,000 Supervision & Management
$9,750 Miscellaneous Construction	$25,000 Landscape & Irrigation	$19,780 Demolition
$8,000 Trenching & Utilities	$5,500 Fences & Gates	$2,000 Landscape Lighting
$14,050 Miscellaneous Site Work	$39,500 Foundation	$32,000 Concrete Flatwork
$5,000 Structural Steel	$58,700 Rough Framing	$6,500 Finish Carpentry & Millwork
$25,000 Cabinetry	$500 Cabinetry Hardwood	$4,500 Insulation
$16,500 Roofing	$3,500 Gutters & Downspouts	$2,780 Flashing & Sheet Metal
$41,370 Windows & Doors	$1,900 Shower Enclosures	$2,470 Shades
$700 Skylights	$26,000 Drywall & Plaster	$18,250 Tile, Slab, & Stone
$22,500 Wood Flooring	$25,500 Painting & Staining	$500 Mirrors
$5,500 Fireplaces	$500 Bath Accessories	$150 Mail Box
$10,500 Appliances	$28,440 Plumbing & Fixtures	$2,800 Water Treatment
$12,700 HVAC	$19,100 Rough & Finish Electrical	$500 Decorative Lighting
$10,000 Contingency	$80,420 Contractor's Fee	$9,259 Cost of Insurance
Grand Total: $625,867

"It’s hard to get high-quality design completed and executed on a small budget," says architect Dan Weber of Anacapa, who assisted on the project. He notes that his firm does a lot of projects in this range, but the clients often have design goals beyond what their budget can achieve.

For these parameters to work, he says, "you need a team that has a really strong creative design sense from the owner’s side, and you need a contractor who can fill in the gaps and make good design decisions."

Clint and one of his three children hang out on the spacious patio that he added in the backyard.

Erin Feinblatt

And that’s the secret sauce of this project: Clint brings both those elements to the table. "This was his vision, his design," says Weber, who met Clint while working on a house in Montecito. "He was the leader of this whole project. We just helped him get a building permit, really."

The modest budget is even more impressive when you consider that the project was essentially a rebuild: They only kept 70% of the original slab and 50% of the framing.