Dolla, dolla bills....



Some might say you should have your finances in order before taking on a second mortgage. Jose and I don't really like to overthink things, and being adult children we decided to take another approach. When we went to see the little cabin in the woods, I knew as soon as we pulled into the driveway we were buying it and would just have to figure the whole paying for it thing out. So we went to the bar after our showing, and used the mortgage calculator on zillow.com to see what the monthly payment might look like (it was fairly accurate I might add). Ok- we can make that number work. So the next math we had to do was figuring out how much it would cost to renovate the entire place. Instead of doing too much research, we made a list of all the projects on my phone and took a stab in the dark at how much each of those things would cost to rehab. Ok- we had more than that in the bank so what the F, let's buy it. That was all the financial planning we did, about 30 minutes and 3 beers.  Luckily it worked out ok. After we got the keys and really looked at what needed to be done, I made a spreadsheet, and shockingly our numbers weren't too far off. We have gone over on a few things and under on others, but at the moment are on track in terms of our reno budget. We are doing our best to stay under $20,000 for the entire renovation. Only time will tell if that happens. So far, so good. 

You might be shocked to learn this based on how seriously I took buying a second house, but my actual numbers here are not 100% accurate, I try to keep track but receipts are hard. The figures are pretty close though. Here is our rough reno budget, and proof you can in fact renovate a house without a whole lot of money.

Item

Est.

Cost

Foundation

Seller to pay

900

Rim Joists

1,000

800

Deck

3,500

 

Ex. Paint

500

400

Int. Paint

300

300

Flooring

1500

1700

Cabinets

2500

1600

Counters

700

 

Toilet

100

 

Fridge

1200

1000

Stove 

550

599

Heater(s)

500

200

Shed Materials

500

200

Lighting

300

 

Molding

500

 

Interior doors

500

 

Shelving

250

 

Door knobs

100

 

Fan

100

 

Shower head

100

0

Electric plates

20

 

Heater bathroom

250

 

Window

100

 

Door wall

1000

1700

Exterior doors

0

500

Shutters

500

0

Window treatments

300

 

Driveway

0

2300

Backsplash

500

350

Bath vanity

300

 

Bath fan

150

 

Bath cabinet

200

 

 

18020

9899



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