How to Deal with Housing Costs and Remodeling

I have an older home, been living there since 1955 and there are things that need to be fixed and or remodeled to keep it feeling young, vibrant and modern. My husband and I had looked at new homes, but ours is paid for and we are comfortable so remodeling was the option that we had chosen to pursue. Home remodeling is a multi billion-dollar industry in the United States. We discovered that while remodeling proved to be less expensive than buying a new home, it still represented a considerable investment. Planning was essential in our quest to renovate our home. We dealt with a qualified and reliable remodeling contractor. Before we started we obtained three estimates. I checked each contractor's references with our local homebuilding association and I checked with some of their previous customers,

I guess this was an act of my previous job as a Contract Specialist with the Army, always check references. Avoid contractors who can't furnish a list of satisfied customers. When talking to the references the contractor had given me I wanted answers to whether or not the work done on budget, was the work done on time, was the contractor tidy, did the contractor finish all the contracted work in a timely manner without over runs or other charges that were unreasonable.

We did not sign a contract until we were absolutely confident that we understood all the fine print. Because I worked with contracts I knew that a default on a legal contract could result in a lien on our property, and, even worse, possible loss of our home to satisfy the debt. We arranged for the financing in advance, we took a small loan and paid the rest in cash. There was the possibility of getting a second mortgages or home equity loans but we did not want to go that route.