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We have a lot of things coming down the pipe this year for the house!  Unlike a lot of our projects, these require a lot more professional help.  We're working to add a second bathroom to our basement, upgrade our HVAC from a conventional A/C and gas-fired furnace to a heat pump and electric blower equipped with back-up heat, and replacing our asphalt roof with a metal one.  It's a lot of work to coordinate between four different contractors, and a lot of financial investment in our house.  Luckily, pretty much every dollar of this project we'll recoup in equity.  Second bathrooms alone are a big boost around here!  

The bathroom is really a huge boost to our house.  But the space we have to make it happen is pretty tiny.  It's only about a 8' x 7' space... and the electrical panel is in the corner.  So, we're shifting our laundry into a closet next to the electrical panel, and adding a teeny three-piece bath behind it.  I have a vintage cast-iron sink that will fit next to my favorite toilet, and I'm adding a little shower stall in the back corner.  

The space has a lot of random electrical lines going through it, plus the refrigerant line for the old A/C condenser.  So, first things first, we're doing a decent amount of demo.  The floors in here and in part of the basement library are going to get pulled to add plumbing, and the old electrical and refrigerant lines are coming out of the ceiling to make way for updated circuits.  Electrical begins... today!  

How We're Making It Happen

​The big thing with major renovations is financing.  
We are refinancing our house in order to make these improvements.  We have a conventional loan, so we aren't bound by the requirements of an FHA or VA loan, and won't speak to those programs here.  Since we purchased several years ago at a price below the market, we have always had the ability to use the equity we have in our house to make other financial investments.  Every time you refinance your home, it does incur closing costs and a new interest rate on your mortgage.  So if you have a really good interest rate, a cash-out refinance may not be the best option for you. Because we can get a better interest rate and take care of a lot of major projects all at once, this is the best option for us right now.  

The other option for us would have been a HELOC - or Home Equity Line of Credit. This is a second mortgage that uses rolling credit with a portion of your equity as collateral. You then use that line of credit more like a credit card and less like cash: as you pay it down, you can re-tap the line of credit if needed.

I really can't wait to get these projects going.  Even though I would love to be the one doing the bulk of the work, I'm so excited to see these come together, it really is covering a lot of our long-term and biggest plans for our house. I can't wait to write more about going gas-free and all the ways these changes are bringing our little bungalow into a more electrified future.