If you’re just joining the story, my husband and I decided to renovate our circa 1950’s home on the Westside. The project kicked off about this time last year. The renovation we planned had us back in our home by Christmas; but we ended up needing to tear down the entire house, which took a year+ to complete—read Part 3 to learn why we had to tear the house down. So, fast forward to getting through all the demolition, building, finalizing and preparing to move back in. Needless to say, we were extremely excited to move back into our home…but not so fast. 

Lesson #1 – Paying for the Punch List. Once the house is all “done,” it’s time to walk through with the contractor to create the punch list of items to be addressed before moving in. What I learned later is that you have to pay for the labor to address most of the items on the punch list. For instance, every nit-picky issue with the drywall I wanted fixed, we had to pay for… I didn’t realize that. And I didn’t realize how fast those little things add up.

Lesson #2 – Inspections take forever. Along the way, subcontractors—like plumbing, HVAC, electrical, etc.—call in city inspectors check and approve the work. It takes 3-4 days for the inspector to show up, then if there’s something wrong, it takes another week to fix the problem and get another inspection. After the entire house is done, the “final” inspector shows up. Typically, I’m told, this final inspection takes 30 minutes and the inspector is making sure things haven’t changed since the other inspections were completed. Well, this guy shows up with a stack of paper and took two hours to examine our home. He ended up flagging a couple additional issues that all the inspectors before him didn’t see fit to flag. A week later, we finally get full approval. You just have to roll with it, or it will drive you insane.

Lesson #3 – The lender’s process to convert the loan takes time too… and costs more money. The lender has their own laundry list of requirements to finalize and convert the construction loan to the mortgage. They needed the final inspection approval; a final ‘as built’ survey with the surveyor’s signature and seal, which is $600 and two weeks; proof of homeowner’s insurance policy paid in full for one year, more $$$; proof of termite soil treatment before and after construction; and the final invoice.

Once all those items are given to the lender, she overnights a check for the builder and the loan package for us to have signed by the builder and notarized. The signed docs have to be sent back within two days, with a check from us to fund the escrow account for the mortgage. Now, as a Realtor, I expected we’d have to fund the escrow account, but I didn’t know how much that would be until the loan package arrived. Shocking!

Lesson #4 – Make sure you have extra funds to pay missing invoices. Turns out, we still had some loan funds available, which the lender disbursed to us. Good thing, because that will just about cover all the vendors that didn’t bill us during construction, like the gutter vendor and dumpster provider.

My final few nuggets of wisdom for you, should you ever decide to renovate your home, is to remember to cancel your renters insurance, get back your rental security deposit, and cancel the builders risk policy. All the things we’ve already paid for but almost forgot about. And last, but not least, moving is a huge expense and it will take 8 hours, no less, even if you’re moving back into your own home.

Is it even worth it, you ask? Resoundingly, yes, absolutely! I think of it somewhat like childbirth, you go into it thinking it’s going one way but how it actually goes is largely out of your control. There’s a lot of pain involved—and screaming and yelling, ;)—but you have to let go of your expectations, roll with it, and once it’s over, you have a beautiful work of art that will be part of you for the rest of your life.

Cheers,

Michelle

P.S. – I’ve started an online photo album of before and after photos. I’ll add more images as I find them. Check it out!