It’s Not Quite Apples To Apples, But It’s Still An Interesting Comparison Spanning 11 Years

Last night, as Cooper and I were out for our evening stroll before bed, I was thinking about how glad I was to have the closet/laundry area finished, how convenient it has been to have everything in one place (clothing, shoes, handbags, jewelry, etc.), and how much I love having my washer and dryer in that same room. And then my thoughts went to the cost of the whole project of turning a bedroom into a walk-in closet with a laundry area.

I broke down the cost by category in this post if you want more specific details, but the total cost came to $10,698.88. I did include the cost of having the old subfloor and floor removed and replaced, but I took the overall flooring cost for the whole bedroom suite and then estimated what portion of that total cost would be for this room alone. And I’ll be honest. I didn’t realize I had spent that much money on this project, so that final total cost did shock me a bit.

But as Cooper and I were walking and I was thinking about all of that, I realized that that number is actually still in line with the other two extensive remodels that I’ve done in this house that have been almost completely DIY remodels. And what’s fascinating is that the three rooms that came to mind have spanned 11 years.

Obviously, I’m not including our master bathroom remodel or my studio remodel in those comparisons. While I did a lot of DIYing in my studio, the entire first half of that project required a whole lot of work by a hired contractor because we were creating a studio out of a garage. And entire new floor had to be built, new windows and doors installed, the ceiling area required all new framing, and a huge beam had to be installed spanning the width of the whole room. Those things weren’t DIYable by me. And that alone cost a lot of money.

Same with our bathroom. Turning a bedroom into a large bathroom required some very extensive work that I couldn’t have done by myself — all new plumbing, tearing out old walls, building new walls, adding a new doorway, a new window on the stone side of the house, a huge shower pan, etc. All of that was hired out, so that project was very expensive even by the time I got my hands on it and finished it with all of my DIY projects.

But the two other rooms that I could compare my closet to — the rooms that were almost completely DIY from start to finish with a bit of hired help here and there — are the kitchen and the hallway bathroom.

The first complete room remodel I did in our house as our kitchen 11 years ago. It’s probably the closest equivalent to the closet/laundry area in terms of room size and project scope. In that original remodel, I took this original kitchen…

And I turned it into this…

This was definitely an extensive down-to-the-studs project. But unlike the closet, I didn’t replace the subfloor in the kitchen. This room still has the original subfloor. I regret not taking the opportunity to replace that when I had the chance, but I was new to extensive remodels at the time, and replacing it seemed too daunting to me.

Both the kitchen and the closet required new plumbing, although the kitchen required more plumbing than the closet. Both rooms required a lot of cabinets. The cabinets in the kitchen were stock cabinets while the cabinets in the closet were all built from scratch.

One of the biggest costs in kitchens can be countertops, but I didn’t have to pay for the concrete countertops in our kitchen. Those were sponsored by the concrete countertop company that I worked with (back when I still did sponsored posts from time to time). So back in 2014, eleven years ago, that kitchen came to $9,941. So it was right in that $10,000 range, eleven years ago, and long before all of the price increases that came with the world shutting down for a year and supply chains being disrupted worldwide. One caveat, though. That total price did include new appliances, but as you can see, I didn’t go with high-end appliances.

And then there’s the original hallway bathroom remodel where I took this original bathroom…

And I turned it into this…

That as another down-to-the-studs remodel, and in that one, I did replace the subfloor. I did this remodel back in 2015, so again, long before the cost of everything went up so much. But this room is tiny, at about 7.5′ x 7′ (or close to that). And the cost of this remodel came to right at $4000.

So looking back at those and remembering the gool ‘ole days when building materials cost so much less, I have to say that I’m actually quite surprised at the cost of my closet. And I’m surprised in a good way. Of all three rooms, this room is the largest. (Yes, my closet is bigger than my kitchen. 😀 )

It has more cabinets than the kitchen, and just like the bathroom, it required a new subfloor as well as new flooring. And it definitely has more special, decorative touches in it than the other two.

So in comparison, I think that $10,000 price range is actually really good considering everything I packed into this room, and considering that we live in a different world today than we did pre-2020 when the costs of building materials were so much lower. I’m glad I remembered those other projects and thought to go back and look at those costs. I went from being a little disappointed in my extravagant spending on this room to realizing that it really wasn’t extravagant at all considering everything that was done in this room. I went from being disappointed in myself to being pretty proud of the fact that today, in 2025, I could keep such an extensive project in line with the costs of those other two projects from eleven years ago.

And again, I know those are not exactly apples-to-apples comparisons. But I don’t think they’re apples-to-oranges comparisons, either. I think they’re more of an apples-to-Asian pears comparison, right? 😀