Renovating the Main House: Phase One
So, a quick recap of our Palisade adventure thus far… In September after four false closing starts, we finally closed on our dream property in Palisade. Unfortunately, the underwriter of the last ‘false closing’ for lack of a better word, screwed us over big time and to close on our target date we had to work with a private lender to get a bridge loan. We then officially closed on the property in October with a 30-year fixed mortgage. With…. Yes, an astronomically high interest rate! That ‘hiccup’ also cost us an additional $13,000 that we had earmarked for getting the farm up and running and doing renovations on the main house.
The Plot Thickens!
Fast forward to December, Andy and I are now working on lining up a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) loan. Our home is a Prefab house (aka a modular home) that was built in 1988. Turns out many traditional banks and credit unions, will not do a HELOC for a modular home even if it meets the current building codes, which ours does!
If you are considering buying a Prefab home, you want to make sure it was built after 1976. Homes built before 1976 were not held to any kind of building code standards. You also want to make sure that your Prefab home is built on a foundation. The foundation identifies it as a permanent structure verse a mobile home which is what many Prefab homes are, banks are even less keen on funding loans for mobile homes! Prior to us going forward on the purchase of our property, I made sure the main house met both criteria. I wouldn’t even look at a property if it had a modular home that was not on a foundation or built prior to 1976. I am very glad I did my homework on that point.
The lender who did a number on us credit on one point, she insisted the seller add what is called ‘tie downs’ to the foundation to further ensure stability of the structure. This apparently is what homes situated in Hurricane prone areas must include. As Colorado is a landlock state I’m not really sure why they required the seller to do this but it was at no cost to us so I appreciate the added security.
After US Bank and the Credit Union declined to give us a loan, we reached out to our mortgage company, and they referred us to another lender that would fund Prefab homes on a case-by-case bases. She also forwarded our paperwork from our mortgage loan so they could see the house was of solid construction, not mobile and the property as a whole a good investment; they reviewed the paperwork and are moving forward on the loan process. I am hoping by the time this blog posts, the loan will be secure. With that in place, our first line of business will be phase one of remodeling the main house!
Phase One
I’ve decided to play it safe and only focus on one remodel project at a time, while the guest house is being built and we work to get the farm up and running. I need to make sure I have funding available for irrigation and contingency money in case something unexpected comes up in the building of the guest house. With that in mind, ‘Phase One’ includes redoing the floors in Andy’s office and adding heat and AC. We will also renovate a portion of the garage that is next to Andy’s office and build my art studio. Knowing that there will be some down time in the building of the Guest house while we wait on permits, I reached out to my contractor Eric Carlton owner of Innovative Expressions to see if he and his team would be interested in this small renovation project. I’m happy to report they are! I gave them my budget for the project, and we walked through the spaces talking about what was needed and what I was envisioning. Andy’s office should be easy peasy because that room is basically finished, he just wants different flooring and heat, AC too as it gets hot in Palisade in the summer.
For my studio, I created another vision board, so they have a clear idea of what I’m thinking and thus we again are all on the same page. Eric is working on his proposal and once we nail down the loan we can start moving forward. Given that three of the garage walls were already insulated and had drywall I’m hoping his proposal will fall within my budget. Luckily the garage we will be converting into my art studio already has a sink in it! That was one of the many selling points of the property, I’d already been eyeing that space for a studio.
The rest of the house will just have to wait to be remodeled, as funds become available, we will tackle one room at a time, I’m thinking the library might be next on the list. Until then, the house is most definitely livable, and I’ve decided I can take on repainting the walls and baseboards. I also think I will paint the cabinets in the kitchen and the bathrooms, they look a little tired. I’m no stranger to a paint brush after all!
