TLDR: We hired contractors we trust and are still in the estimation process for our construction loan (it’s tedious/exhausting/stressful/crucial).

Hurdle #1

As soon as we bought this house, we knew the first big hurdle would be hiring a general contractor team to help bring our vision to life. In our dream of dreams, we would’ve asked a contractor to do a walk-through with us before purchasing the house so we’d have a sense of overall budget. But who has time for that in this real estate market? No one, unless you live locally and already have one in your back pocket.

And so we were left with the intimidating task of finding a contractor in a new city as soon as possible (at that point we were still planning to live upstairs, so time was of the essence). We asked our realtor for recommendations and spent a bunch of time reading reviews online. And while we knew it’d be dreamy to find a team who’d completed house renovations in the same style as ours, it wasn’t crucial.

What was most important for us was finding a team that shared our values.

Given that I would be in charge of the overall aesthetic and design choices, we sought out a team that believed in honesty, integrity, communicated well, enjoyed collaboration, and believed in our project. 

Over the summer we met in person with three contractors, which is all we honestly could handle with Andrew’s end-of-residency schedule, packing, moving, etc. It was an emotional rollercoaster (as I shared in this Instagram post). The first guy was cool and casual about the entire project, then dropped a ballpark estimate on us that brought me to tears behind my sunglasses. I felt like such a fool for buying the house and then thinking we wouldn’t have to spend so much. We knew the number would be high, but not *that* high. And I wasn’t sure whether to trust him because this was our first meeting. He was nice enough but he also had zero marketing of his work and no clear idea of when he could start. 

Contractor 2 wanted to tear off some pieces of the house and do a bit of digging before he could give us any answers, and we just didn’t get the best feeling about that process. 

On our third try, we met with the team at Lynwood Builders (pictured below) and decided to move forward with them. Our project manager, Norm, has been building houses for decades and his son David is a custom cabinetmaker. They were experienced and seemed to really like each other. They also had availability to work with us and genuinely seemed excited about the project.

We’ve had friends and family experience horror stories when it comes to contractors stealing their money, being impossible to communicate with, etc. This doesn’t seem to be the case with this team, and luckily, because we’re getting a bank loan, we’ll be protected throughout the process. We certainly could have spent even more time speaking to references, but we also had heard this crew has a solid reputation. It’s certainly a risk we’ve taken (and one that has kept me up at night), but so far, so good.

Bills, Bills, Bills

Given the size of this project, we knew the only way we’d be able to pay for it is to secure a construction loan. Construction loans are loans that cover the costs of construction, and oftentimes banks will combine them with your mortgage so you end up paying both in one simple payment. Because we bought our home at a lower price given its condition, our mortgage is relatively low and we have room in our monthly budget to add on the construction loan.

In order for the bank to grant a construction loan, an applicant needs to provide an overall scope of the project that lies ahead. And in order to do that, you need to have plans drawn and have thought through all of the labor and materials, supplies, etc.

Reality Bites

To be honest, this part of the project has taken so much longer than we’d anticipated and has really thrown me for a loop. I had thought we could make most of the selections down the road after we’d determined an overall budget, but more needed to be done upfront than I’d realized. Through our talks with Norm, I realized that the more we can determine now, the more accurate our estimate will be. We need to come up with a general floor plan for the house, make design decisions about where we need everything from windows to custom cabinetry, and then have all of our subcontractors provide quotes on how much it’ll cost. 

It should shock no one that the process of collecting quotes has been backed up given that subs are all so busy and short on workers and supplies etc. But once we have real numbers, we’ll examine each line item to determine our overall loan request.

It’s still unclear to us exactly how money will get dispersed, how all of the materials are purchased since I’ll be placing some orders as the designer, etc. But I’ll be sharing that once we know more. AND we’re zeroing in on a floor plan we love (5-ish versions later!), which I can’t wait to share with you soon!

PS: This chart via Emily Henderson feels so damn accurate already. See that second big dip about 5 months into the project? That’s where we are as we collect bids from subs. It all feels overwhelming and far away and scary. But at least we have no where to go but up?!