Inspectors and contractors and subs, oh my!

Tuesday (8/8) was a BIG day. My home inspector came down from a city about 2 hours north, but it was worth getting him to do it because he's also a HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development - and yes, the HUD website says "Secretary Ben Carson" on it) consultant and any time you do a Fannie Mae Homestyle Loan or an FHA 203K loan, you need a HUD consultant. Basically, I was able to kill two birds with one stone because, having seen the house in its current condition, he can now conduct the feasibility study - basically what needs to be done to bring the house up to standard. The feasibility study is focused HUD minimum standards - so what does the house need to be safe and does it make financial sense to do so. It focuses less on the fancy kitchen you plan to put in.

The HUD consultant also monitors progress of the renovations and works with the lender and the contractor to issue "draws" on the renovation funds for payments. You pay a fee to the HUD consultant based on the cost of renovations. For me, assuming something around $60k-$65k (I hope!), that fee will be around 800 bucks. You can read more about the role of the HUD consultant here.

The consultant (who by the way, looked like he'd stepped out of a 70s art class) took about an hour to go through - it was pretty quick since we plan on replacing and fixing the bad stuff. The good news is that while he identified lots of major issues, they were all things I was aware of and all things I plan on fixing. We did discover, in turning the water on at the street, that there are a couple of leaks we have to fix.

The better news is that the house is structurally sound.

The even better news is that the roof is trussed, which means that the inner walls can come down without us needing to have a beam! Open floor plan anyone? This means I can modify my floor plan to make the kitchen/living/dining even more open. I can go from this

to this

Originally I thought I would have to keep some of the wall that's currently separating the kitchen from the living room and have an L shaped kitchen.

Later that same day we had a lot of the subs come through so they could see what needed to be done and work on their bids. We had plumbing, electrical, windows, drywall, and the framer. It was pretty exciting and very cool to sit around with my contractor (who is in his 70s) and his subs, shooting the breeze and hearing their stories.

Now I am waiting on the subs to get their bids in to my contractor so he can pull it all together and give me a final price. I'm a little nervous. If it's a lot higher than expected, I'll have to modify my plans. Of course, what I can borrow also depends on the ARV appraisal, but we can't order that until the bid is in and the appraiser knows what we plan to do! It's all a little chicken and egg. Seems to me that if we propose a plan, but the ARV doesn't support it and we have to scale back, that the scale-back itself might change the ARV . . . .

The other thing I did (today): I found a little house to rent since it's becoming very clear that trying to move the cats into a construction zone for 2-3 months is a bad idea. I've found a cheap(ish) little house just down the street from "The Boyfriend" that I can get on a short-term rental. So basically the cats and my stuff will live there and I will live and work at/from The Boyfriend's house.