Budget Breakdown: Two Designers Lean on Friends to Build a $740K Home During The Pandemic
When construction was slated to start in March of 2020, Kyle Hovenkotter and Tiffany Rattray relied on common materials and loved ones to get the job done.
When construction was slated to start in March of 2020, Kyle Hovenkotter and Tiffany Rattray relied on common materials and loved ones to get the job done.
Kyle Hovenkotter and Tiffany Rattray had been living in New York City for a decade when they stubbornly accepted an all-too-familiar fact: they couldn’t afford to buy a home.
"We both went to grad school at Columbia and lived in different neighborhoods across Manhattan and Brooklyn, and we were always thinking about how to put down roots," Hovenkotter says. "We were dreaming of brownstones but looking at tiny one-bedroom apartments, and finally we started talking about how both of our families are in Seattle."
"We did splurge in certain areas, but we made sure to be careful about where we did," Hovenkotter says.
Photo by Sozinho Imagery
As a married couple working as interior designers, they always had the intention to leave the East Coast eventually, even if they didn’t think the future would come so soon. Given that Seattle real estate costs a pretty penny in its own right, Hovenkotter and Rattray thought they'd have better luck buying an irregular plot of land that developers couldn't see potential in.
"Because the city is so built out, any vacant lot that a buyer can find probably has something wrong with it," Rattray says.
| $16,900 Permits & Engineering | $16,000 Site Prep | $90,900 Groundwork |
| $49,200 Concrete | $60,000 Structural Framing | $17,000 Roofing |
| $26,000 Siding & Trim | $24,900 Windows | $9,100 Doors |
| $3,100 Gutters & Flashing | $26,700 Paint | $27,100 Plumbing |
| $25,200 Electrical | $5,500 Decorative Lighting | $19,200 HVAC |
| $12,000 Fireplaces | $7,300 Insulation | $23,400 Drywall |
| $14,000 Countertops | $55,000 Cabinetry | $12,300 Wood Floors |
| $8,700 Interior Trim/Millwork | $10,000 Tile | $2,100 Glass |
| $700 Hardware | $16,400 Appliances | $31,200 Architectural Steel |
| $2,300 Landscaping | $47,700 Supervision & Administration | $80,100 Contractor Markup |
| Grand Total:$740,000 | ||
A wall of storage in the living area has become a revolving display of souvenirs and found objects, either from their travels or shopping trips around the city. A wide window was installed to make the room feel like a treehouse alongside Douglas fir floors. "I really wanted the home to feel bright and serene," Rattray says. All of the windows cost $24,900 in total.
Photo by Alana Morgan
"We really strove to keep the ceiling exposed in the kitchen" Rattray says. "It's much more interesting than drywall, and it makes this cool division between the living room and the bedroom." Soapstone was picked for the custom island, to offset it from the rest of the marble countertops.
Photo by Alana Morgan
See the full story on Dwell.com: Budget Breakdown: Two Designers Lean on Friends to Build a $740K Home During The Pandemic
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