Remodeling costs are wildly variable; Houzz crowdsources some estimates

It's easier to estimate the cost of new construction than a remodel because it has fewer unknowns.

With a new house, you won't uncover concealed dry rot, twisted framing or a colony of yellow jackets, buzzing behind the lath. In a remodel, you just might.

That said, the home improvement site Houzz has compiled data from its community of users around the country to arrive at average costs for various remodels.

Houzz says, for example, the average cost to remodel a kitchen in Portland runs about $35,275. In Little Rock, Ark., it's $13,913.

For a whole house remodel in Portland, Houzz says the average runs about $221,999 -- a figure that still can buy an attractive house in this market.

As it happens, $221,999 is a little more than Eric and Gretta Marchek paid for a full remodel of their Multnomah Village home, described in Friday's Oregonian: Portlanders like the Marcheks find payoffs in their own houses

The Marcheks qualified for a rehabilitation loan, because they had built up some equity in their house and had improvement plans drawn up by an architect. In the end, Eric Marchek said, the family came out ahead by remodeling.

-Mike Francis

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Remodeling costs are wildly variable; Houzz crowdsources some estimates