October 1, 2009 - The Point of No Return

I originally entitled this blog "How to Ruin a Marriage in 120 Days (or More, If It's Raining), but this blog page would not let me have a title that long, so I have had to condense it. So, why am I writing this blog anyway? I am writing this blog so you, too, can follow along with our home remodeling trials and tribulations as we embark on a two-story addition to our house (main level and basement). I may send out a reminder or two here or there, especially when I write something I find particularly humorous. Doesn’t really matter if anyone else finds it funny. I learned a long time ago that I am my own best audience. So if you want to keep up with this continuing saga, you have to remember where to find it...in the Notes under my Profile tab. I will try to update everyday, so check back often, scroll to the bottom of the page for the latest, and comment every now and then that your kids are keeping us in their bedtime prayers. Or ignore me altogether and call me boring...that will be okay, too.Cara and I are in the process of adding 1,200 square feet of space to our existing residence. After renting the house in 2001-2002, we were able to convince the owners that the house was falling apart and they were either going to have to drop a lot of money into repairs before they could rent it out again, or they could sell it to us and let us bear the burden of that cost. So, after passing a piece of paper with scribbled numbers back and forth a couple of times, they agreed to sell the house to us for next to nothing in July 2002. Since really nothing had been updated since the ‘60s, it has been a work in progress ever since: we have replaced the roof, replaced all windows, remodeled one bathroom, rid the house of all carpet, demolished down to the studs and remodeled the family room and kitchen, painted rooms way too many times to recall, removed about a dozen trees, and installed a fence. Now comes the addition of a master suite and a basement, which we will use as a fourth bedroom, but certainly could have alternative uses as a mother-in-law suite, a home theater, or a man cave. I prefer the latter two options, but don't tell Cara...or her mother. Sure, the whole thing could have been renovated in a more timely manner had we simply relocated for a short period of time, but our love of dust, the thrill of electricity flowing through one's body when uninsulated wire is accidently touched, and wondering if the water will work the next morning is half the fun, right? The process for our most recent project started slowly. We had hoped to begin as soon as school was out in May 2009, but we struggled to get our architectural drawings just right, although the struggle wasn’t really on our end. When you give your architect a budget and he designs something so grand and nice that all of the contractor bids come in as high as twice the budget, then you know it will be many trips back to the drawing board to get things right where you need them to be. In the end, we were pleased with the drawings and put it back out to bid before finally selecting a contractor. During that time, however, all of the big banks to whom we had been speaking about a loan decided that due to the risk involved with construction/renovation loans they were not going to offer a loan consideration any longer. Can I tell you how tempting it is to want to place the whole thing on a 0%-for-six-months credit card, then roll the whole thing into a new 30-year loan once the renovation is completed, just for the ease of it…and to do so without closing costs on the front-end? But, I came to my senses and quickly found a small, local bank to loan us the money at surprisingly favorable terms. The house appraisal went well, closing went without a hitch, and construction to nearly double the size of our house was scheduled to start on October 5, 2009. Although we wanted to start in May, we suffered through a surprisingly wet…very wet…summer and early fall, include record rainfall amounts in September. So hopefully all the rain has gone away and we will have a very dry fall with no delays or setbacks….yeah, right!