Thanks!
My wife and I were budgeting about $36K for the renovations, but ended up spending around $48K. Ultimately I was being a little short on the kitchen. We were planning on just replacing the cabinets and appliances, but after getting the old cabinets down, the plaster was in really bad shape. So that had to go, then we noticed the nearly 100 years old framing needed to be replaced. And then the subfloor under the sink folded in half. Thankfully none of the joist were damaged. We also had to rewire the house, replace all major plumbing, a radiator, and repaint the entire interior, which needed about 35 gallons of paint. You don't quite realize how expensive paint is until you need to repaint the entire building.
We were expecting a lot of work when we put in the bid, so this was not a surprise. Also, the house is in good shape from a foundation and engineering standpoint, it was just cosmetically nothing was done to it since the 70s. We were the only bidders too, so we got them down a pretty decent amount, and bought the house about $100K lower then market value for a house that is now in the shape that ours is. Also, we'd rather have it this way, especially with the kitchen. So many kitchens done by flipper make no sense.
I wish I could insulate my two exterior walls, but they are double wythe baring brick and you should never insulate baring brick walls except with closed cell foam. We looked into this, and the cost is just not worth what I would save in the long run.