These funds would be drawn down as work is completed but landscaping wouldn't necessarily be included.As well most lenders won't do anything under 100k..

I'm happy to share my experience on that end as well.

My wife and I have been doing that the last couple of years. 

Calgary is going through a bit of a boom right now with house prices 10% higher than they were last year, everyones trying to flock from Toronto or Vancouver and find value there.

Well, I called all sorts of people and really couldn't get a solid answer from any of them (septic guys, city guys, county guys, rental guys).

He them procede to tell me it had hair line crack and that possibly the water was leaking from there and that it was a wear and tear because those pans only last so long. 

We have a specialist do that and they are relativley cheap, but it still adds up.So we have started using a very similar grey carpet tile in a few new houses last year for the basement, both finished and unfinished areas.

Could be some good small palce down there as well.

I'm a newbie as well.

I imagine DSTs initiated durning 2014-2017 did well, and those created the last 2 years…not so well.