This
is the story of which Warren is most proud. Warren married
his Beautiful Lady and moved into a 1700 sqft house.
To keep Mrs Beautiful happy and to keep a little privacy,
we'll not discuss all the numbers, but the increase
in value was over 50%. We actually did three significant
remodeling projects. Now begins a quick rendition of
nightmares, successes and exciting times. It does not
cover everything that happened.
New Addition
Bottom Line:
We turned a 1700 sqft house into a 5400 sqft home and
saved 35-50% in the process, depending on how you value
things.
We hired an
architect who planned an exciting new roof design which
would have cost $50,000 just for the roof. He didn't
keep his end of the agreement, billing an extra $400
for engineering and we decided to buy an $89 cad program
and create our own blueprints. The City accepted our
plans and we started with about $10,000 in the bank
and the promise of a loan.
We saved
$5500 on digging the basement and installing the sewer
line. We got a place to dump the dirt for free. The
truckers weren't careful to stay on the road, potentially
costing us several thousand in road repairs so after
several warnings we rolled a huge rock that would damage
their trucks if they didn't stay on the road. We also
cut them off before all the dirt was gone and saved
another $200. We used the excess dirt to build a mound
along the side of our property where the phone, electric
and cable lines are buried.
