2nd - Find a Pot o' Gold

Financing can be a tricky endeavor. Get your application in earlier rather than later.

We tried to get ours LAST June and almost had things lined up when they realized we'd not owned the house for a year (some banks/credit unions have a rule about this). So they told us to just wait. As you know, that's not really my strong suit.

So after much cursing, gnashing of teeth, and cooling down, I researched other options. USAA handles our insurance and they were more than happy to let us borrow money (Home Equity Line of Credit). Now we could have gotten a Home Loan or Mortgage or whatever but the HELOC seemed like the best fit for us since we weren't exactly sure how much money we needed and wanted some flexibility. Thanks USAA!

Now it can take 6 weeks or more to nail down financing, so plan accordingly. By end of March we had our money. Once the money was available, it was time to nail down contractors.

1st Renovation Tip - Start with a Plan

Helps to know what you want it to look like and how much it'll cost. Sometimes the whole cost thing determines how you want it to look.


So I'd highly recommend finding an architect to help with this process. They'll be able to give rough drawings that you can take to contractors for bids. Allyson McCarthy is a neighbor and worked with us to figure out what we could build at a reasonable cost. This began in October I believe. We finished our drawings in May.  I'm sure we took longer than most but Allyson was patient. Give yourself lots of time to think this part through well.

Then you can go to bank and say, "I want $1 million to add a bathroom." All negotiations begin this way.