What does $350,000 actually buy? Here’s a full line-item walkthrough of a real-shaped garden suite budget, from design drawings to the final coat of paint.
A Worked Budget, Not a Range
Rather than talking purely in broad ranges, it’s often far more useful to see exactly where a specific budget actually goes line by line, so here’s a worked, real-shaped walkthrough of a $350,000 garden suite budget for a one-bedroom, single-storey suite sitting near the top of Toronto’s 60-square-metre bylaw limit. This isn’t a formal quote for any specific project, since your own lot, soil, and access conditions will inevitably move these particular numbers up or down somewhat, but it clearly shows the actual categories and rough proportions a well-planned budget at this exact price point typically breaks into, from the very first survey and design drawing all the way through to the final coat of paint and the completed walkthrough with your builder.
Design and Permits: Roughly $28,000
Design and permits claim roughly $28,000 of this particular budget: a current property survey, full architectural and structural drawings, SB-12 energy compliance documentation, a civil servicing drawing showing utility connections, and the municipal permit fees themselves once everything is submitted for review. This is genuinely the smallest dollar category in the whole overall budget, but it’s the one every other category ultimately depends on entirely, since construction simply can’t legally start until this work is fully complete, properly submitted, and formally approved, a process that typically takes two to four months to move through municipal review from initial submission all the way to an issued, buildable permit in most GTA municipalities working through a normal application queue.
Site and Servicing: Roughly $75,000
Site and servicing work takes roughly $75,000 of this particular worked budget: a helical pile foundation suited to typical GTA soil conditions found on most suburban lots, and a combined water, sewer, and electrical trench running an estimated 25 metres from the main house over to the new suite, a distance that’s fairly common on mid-depth suburban lots across much of the region. This category is genuinely the most site-specific line item in the entire budget by a wide margin, and a lot with a longer trench run, noticeably more difficult soil conditions, or a required 200-amp electrical panel upgrade would push this particular figure meaningfully higher than the number shown in this specific worked example for what is a fairly typical, cooperative suburban lot.
Structure and Envelope: Roughly $115,000
Structure and envelope, meaning framing, roofing, windows, doors, insulation, and exterior cladding taken together as one category, account for roughly $115,000 of the total budget, making it comfortably the largest single category and the part of the overall budget that scales most directly with the suite’s total square footage as the design grows larger. This is precisely where a smaller studio design and a near-max one-bedroom design diverge most sharply in raw total dollars, even though both suite types carry nearly identical fixed costs in the design, servicing, and finishing categories that surround this structural core of the entire project regardless of the suite’s eventual final size or layout chosen.
Interior Finishes: Roughly $95,000
Interior finishes, meaning the kitchen, bathroom, flooring, trim, paint, and a solid mid-range appliance package taken together, run roughly $95,000 in this particular worked example, landing it solidly in our good-to-better finish tier discussed elsewhere rather than in premium territory at the very top end of the market. This is also the specific category where a homeowner genuinely has the most discretion to adjust the overall number up or down: trimming roughly $20,000 to $30,000 here by deliberately selecting standard-tier finishes over upgraded ones is a realistic, entirely practical lever to pull if a project needs to come in comfortably below $350,000 overall, all without touching the structural or servicing categories above that carry far less flexibility to shrink safely without real consequences.
Mechanical, Electrical & Contingency: Roughly $37,000
The remaining roughly $37,000 in this worked budget splits between mechanical and electrical rough-in work and fixtures, at about $22,000, and a genuine contingency held back specifically for the unexpected, at around $15,000, landing reasonably close to our recommended 10 percent guideline once rounded against the total project cost shown throughout this example. Skipping or quietly shrinking this contingency just to make the final headline number look smaller on paper is exactly the kind of shortcut that turns a perfectly manageable soil surprise or permit delay into a genuinely stalled project partway through construction, so it deliberately stays in this worked budget as a real, protected line item rather than an easy, tempting place to trim when costs feel tight.
What $350,000 Actually Buys
Add every one of these categories together and $350,000 buys a genuinely complete, fully permitted, one-bedroom garden suite sitting near the top of the allowable size, built to a solid mid-tier finish level throughout, with a real contingency actively protecting the final number against ordinary construction surprises along the way. Your own specific project will inevitably move some of these individual figures based on your particular lot, soil conditions, and finish choices, which is exactly why this worked example works best as a general framework for understanding where the money genuinely goes, not as an actual quote you can rely on directly for your own specific property and address. A free feasibility assessment turns this same general framework into real, specific numbers tailored to your address before you commit a single dollar to formal drawings.
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