All Forum Posts by: Benjamin Ervin

 Thank you!

 Sure, I have no idea what labor rates are anywhere other than in my market.  We used a GC since we needed permits pulled.  He provided no other service to us beyond a few checkups to ensure he was satisfied with the quality of work.  We selected the subs, each of whom were licensed and insured and pulled their own permits under the building permit obtained by the GC.  

Personally, we did the flooring, painting, some demo, landscaping, a lot of trim work, and many of the smaller aesthetic projects (floating shelves in the guest bath and laundry room, sliding barn door, etc.) on our own which cut costs a good bit.  We only take on what we want to and what we know we are capable of doing well. The rest is done by professionals and formally inspected to ensure things are done well and up to code.   

 Haha! Yeah the pink tiles just missed the final cut!

 Hey, Andrew.  It is really impossible to answer the question of "leverage or pay off debts now" in a vacuum.  You'll have to really evaluate how expensive your debt is, what your risk and reward levels are with both keeping and eliminating that debt, and your overall personal financial position as a whole.  In our case, we decided we really needed to take measures to stabilize our personal financial position.  Good luck in whatever you decide to do moving forward!

 Thanks, James! Not the most conventional exit strategy, but it worked this time!

 Thanks, Kyle.  Stay diligent in your research and preparation. BP is a good resource.  

Good luck!

 Hi, Drey. The finished product was a 3/2.  I know it runs contrary to traditionally understood norms to have lowered the total number of beds/baths, but in this situation is just made sense.  My wife was truly the architect behind the change in floor plan.  In fact, I didn't want to even buy the house when I first saw it because it just looked like a bunch of tiny, disparate and unlivable rooms that had zero connection or flow between them.  The new floor plan meant cannibalizing 1 bedroom to effectively enlarge the living room, expand the master bathroom, and frame in a new laundry room so we didn't have to leave the w/d hookups in the carport.  Doing this also increased the size of the master closet to a true walk-in size, and required us to shift a closet in one of the bedrooms to a different side of the same room.  Then, we also removed the walls separating Kitchen from living room and kitchen from dining room to make the entire space one large living area.  The house now has a great synergy between spaces and flow to it that works.  Just my opinion, but the floor plan change is probably what I am most proud of my wife for on the entire project (which is saying something considering how her design turned out). 

 Thank you!

 Interesting first post... Sounds like it was a really nice shell.

The below isn't to the penny, but it is a slightly more detailed breakdown of the rehab.

 Thank you.  I really thought we were taking some risks with the exterior colors, but I really love how it came together in the end.  We were initially planning to do "charcoal-ish" color on the brick with a more traditional trim/door color and stain all the wood for the front porch and carport as its a little more "neutral/normal" for buyers, but once we decided we were going to move into the house, my wife went a little more bold with the colors.