Iamwaytoostressedouttobemakingdecisionsonthisscale

[the_siobhan]

For faithful readers who have not been to my house, it's a brick building in one of the older working-class neighbourhoods of Toronto, now very gentrified. I say "brick", but that excludes the kitchen, which is actually is a 107 year-old wooden shack barely hanging onto the back wall.

The kitchen is the last part of the building that has not yet been renovated. It has no insulation and no wiring, so our fridge, microwave, and coffee maker all run off extension cords. There are two species of ants in the walls and a paper wasp colony living in the ceiling. (Every once in a while a very confused wasp will fall out of the light fixture and have to be shooed outside.) The shingles on the outside are peeling off because the wood is literally too rotted to stick to and this past summer I discovered a yellow-jacket colony had made a home under one of them. So when we do deal with it, that will mean a complete tear down and rebuild, which we expect to fall into the approximate realm of 2.8 truckloads of money.

If we're doing that anyway, we figure we can make it a bit bigger (it's currently only half the width of the rest of the house) and that will mean we can do some flood mitigation in the basement while we have the walls opened up. Given that the entire back wall will be open while the work is being done, it seems likely we won't actually be able to live here while it's happening.

We've talked tentatively about the idea that the work should best happen between Basement DJ moving out and Axe's girlfriend moving in, logic-ing that figuring out housing for 2 people would be cheaper than 3.

Well now Basement DJ has announced that he and his gf are thinking of getting a place together in the spring / early summer.

On the one hand -

1. Axel's only been employed full time for about six months and we don't have nearly enough money saved up. This would mean dipping into debt
2. We're in a fucking pandemic

On the other hand -

1. If we're not in the house anyway, having workman bringing their poison breath into the house is less of a big deal
2. There's no tourism so getting a B&B for both us plus the cats for two months (or whatever) will be way cheaper.

Arrgh.

Comments

[elusis]

I don't know how much of your mortgage is paid off but taking a small loan against your equity isn't the worst thing you could do, by a long shot, especially if your credit history will allow you to get a good interest rate. Sounds like you'll also improve the value of the house a good bit if you do the project.

[the_siobhan]

Everything you say makes absolute sense. We do have a line of credit to use and the interest is relatively low.

I'm just really reactive because after the last round of renos Axel lost his job and was on-an-off unemployed for several years. After coming out of having my entire paycheque paying our bills with no wriggle room for anything else I'm more than a little bit twitchy about going back into debt.

[elusis]

Boy does that ever make total sense.

We are trying to plunge into ownership within the next few days/weeks. I am having many, many sympathetic pangs for you.

[china_shop]

*hugs* Good luck!!

[the_siobhan]

Thanks.

No doubt I will stress about this for lots of posts before finally biting the bullet.

[greylock]

Good luck (although I am worried about the paper wasps. So friendly!).

There are worse times for a loan, with interest so cheap. I have a friend who is doing something similar, and getting quotes just now.

Of course, our government is throwing money at builders to stimulate the economy... so you can imagine that is not making it easy to get tradies.

Given that the entire back wall will be open while the work is being done, it seems likely we won't actually be able to live here while it's happening.

Could they whack up a temp interior wall to seal off the rest of the house so you can still use it?
IDK.

[the_siobhan]

Yeah, I like paper wasps. Hopefully they'll just relocate to one of the trees or something.

[greylock]

I looks like (after a quick google), that Canadian paper wasps build much larger nest than ours.

The ones I am familiar with usually build nests about the size of a 50c piece (sometimes a tad bigger), and they don't return to them year after year (even if I don't remove them).

They seem to look the same, though.

[the_siobhan]

Canadian paper wasps never stop building as long as there is food and space.

When we moved in, the original insulation was cellulose fibre - basically mulched paper. The entire space above the top floor window had been converted to a nest by paper wasps. The whole thing was five feet across, three feet tall and two feet deep and probably housed close to a quarter million wasps. We figured they'd been building it for the entire life of the house.

[disastrid]

I will never ever forget that thing.

[the_siobhan]

It was pretty memorable.

[silentq]

I am listening to compressors and nail guns and saws and hammers right now as my deck tear down and replacement limps on to the end. Having two other condo owners (and the trust) to help defray costs has been great, I haven't had to go into debt for it. It will be safe! and pretty! once it's done. But please can it be done now?
We kind of dove in head first when it was deemed very unsafe, so I didn't have a lot of dithering time, but I will say that the process dragged out enough that the money outgoing was spread over a few months. Pandemic wise, they've had to be in the shared front stairs though each unit has a locked door off the stairs, so risk has been minimal. I'll agree that if you're not living in the house, it's moot.
Honestly, I'd encourage you to start the process now and go at the rate that makes sense money wise - building supply chains are still fucked here so we've had a few delays waiting for wood to come in. Getting the plans drawn up and permits sorted took weeks/months which spread out the financial burden a bit as well. Looking into a home equity loan and seeing if you can wrangle one with a rate of repayment that works for you might take some time that will help in being comfortable with the process.
All that said: not an expert, I've just gained a lot of ad hoc knowledge of how a big home project can go. We're at about $30K now I think, and it's fixing a tonne of stuff that's come up on all the recent home inspections as condos have transferred ownership. Keeping the end goal in mind has helped a bit, in your case: a kitchen that you can use will be great! :-)

[the_siobhan]

Our kitchen is awful, and the idea of having a better one one is definitely appealing.

[solo]

I think those bright-side things - being out of the house, cheap hotels in a pandemic - are actually pointing in the direction of 'do it now'.

[the_siobhan]

Well hello stranger. Been a while since you've been around these parts - how are you?

[the_siobhan]

I just realized this may have been a baffling response - your username is one letter away from a long-time friend who hasn't used DW for a while.

[solo]

Ahh I was wondering. But it felt nice to be missed! ♥♥♥

[the_siobhan]

Well in that case, welcome back! :-D

[houseof9cats]

Relate. Seven years ago we chose sell it as-is and goodbye over dealing with that kind of shit during an otherwise stressful time. Buyer got a decent deal and did the work themselves bc no contractor would go near it ... >.>

[the_siobhan]

A number of people have suggested we do the same. I'd consider it but my job still hasn't told us if WFH is going to be made permanent so there's a chance I'd be stuck commuting and that always makes me want to commit a felony. Plus I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to pry BC out of the city with a crowbar.

[houseof9cats]

Hoping for some clarity on WFH over here, too.