Remodeling, or rebuilding really, a home is not easy. I can say with all certainty that the stress of the entire process has consumed mine and my family’s life—even our dog is stressed—for many years because we started the project in spring of 2015.

Now that we’re prepping to move back into our new home, I wanted to share with you what we learned during this process so that if you choose this path, hopefully our experiences will help make your path a little straighter, shorter and less treacherous.

This series of posts will stretch out through the month of June. This first installment is about the lessons we learned early in the process.

Lesson #1: Whatever you think your budget is, double it. And then add to that.

We keep re-learning this lesson.

The first time we learned it was back in June 2015 when the architect designed our dream house and the builders’ quotes came back double the amount of money we wanted to spend! It was so much more money, that we knew we needed to save cash so we wouldn’t have to finance the entire amount.

It was about the same time our amazing contractor warned us that the bank will not disburse construction loan funds until the foundation of the home was complete. What does that mean? It means we would have to pay for demolition, cinder blocks, concrete, labor, and more, out-of-pocket. This isn’t chump change; it’s 10s of thousands of dollars.

Fast forward two years of saving, the project became even more expensive—if you can imagine that— because labor and materials were more expensive.

Lesson #2: Ask to see the actual materials that are being quoted in the budget.

This goes hand-in-hand with Lesson #1. After demolition and rebuilding of the foundation, we started choosing door hardware, light fixtures, plumbing fixtures, and other finishes. I started to panic—again—because the cost of the items we were selecting didn’t fit into our budget. How could this happen???

Well, because of our initial sticker shock, we made the mistake of “trimming” the budget on a few line items to make the bottom line seemingly more acceptable. For example, we opted to budget $1,200 for “Callan” door hardware instead of “Custom” door hardware to keep costs down. In reality, the $1,200 door hardware isn’t anything anyone would want to install in their beautiful home because it’s hideous, and screamed “cheap!” We ended up spending $3,500, of which $2,300 was paid out-of-pocket because the bank only pays for what is budgeted.

Do not be skimp on the budget because you’re having a panic attack! Ask to see the actual materials that are being quoted so you can make informed decisions on each line item BEFORE applying for the construction loan.

Lesson #3: Permitting, oh permitting. The most difficult process ever.

It’s not my intention to trash anyone in the permitting bureaucracy, so if that’s you, I’m sorry. However, permitting our project took FOUR months, despite having hired an “expediter.” $$$$$ I don’t have enough space in this blog post to explain what happened, but give me a call and I’m happy to share the gruesome details.

Lesson #4: A circa 1950s home cannot be remodeled, it must be torn down.

See Lesson#1. 🙂 Our plan was to remodel, modernize, and add a second floor. No big deal, right? Wrong. We’ll tell you the story of how we found out that fact later; but you can imagine how this lesson snowballed, affecting our budget, financing, permitting, design, etc.

It’s best I leave the story here, although I could go on and on, but this summarizes our early stage lessons. In the next installment, I’ll share with you the moment we realized our remodel would become a tear-down and why you should expect everything to go wrong.