Purchasing Woodmont was a year and a half in the making. Between issues with the out-of-town bank who owned the property and COVID delays, we really started to think it wasn’t going to happen. We decided if we didn’t get it before it went through another winter, we were moving on. It had been empty four years and never was winterized so you can only imagine the damage. Not only that, but purchasing a home out of foreclosure at a sheriff sale means sight unseen. It is hard to prepare for something when you don’t exactly know what you are preparing for. We had never purchased sight unseen before, but we loved the home from what we COULD see. So each month we would sock away money to go towards home renovations. As disappointing as it was to continually have the sale delayed, it ended up working to our benefit. We were able to save a lot in that year and a half which has helped tremendously.

They always say add an additional 10% to your expected costs for a project to account for the unknown, but honestly if its your own home I would say just keep saving. This is by far our largest and most expensive home renovation yet, and I don’t think there is any real way to prepare for what you may encounter until you jump into it.

We went in with high hopes, as anyone who just purchased their dream home out of foreclosure would. Our first weekend of demo and we got all the carpet and radiant heat ripped out. It was here that we found our first problem- termites. The beautiful hardwood floors hiding under the carpet that we were so excited to refinish were very very damaged. We’ve treated termites in our rentals before, but never this bad. I’ve never actually seen legit termite damage, until now. They literally ate holes through the sub floor and the hardwood floors but you never saw anything because the whole house was covered in carpet.

Next step? Call the exterminators. We got the exterminators out there as soon as we could and they sprayed everything. I then had them come out again two weeks later after I saw one alive. I’m paranoid. So now the house is termite free, but we’re going to continue to treat it for the next couple of years just to be safe. The structural integrity of the home is still sound, but we did have to replace some of the sub floor and all of the hardwood floors on the first floor need replaced. Such a bummer. On the plus side, the new hardwood we’re putting in will be beautiful. Another plus, we will have a medallion inlay in the entry and that’s going to be awesome. I can’t wait.

The termites are just one of many unexpected things that have come up so far during this project. But I think that’s all part of the journey. You need to expect the unexpected, things rarely go as planned. I think the biggest thing prior to jumping into a whole home renovation is to determine where you draw the line. Obviously, there are things that need addressed such as the termites, but other areas may have some wiggle room. For example, since we had to open walls up to do plumbing, electrical and hvac we used that as an opportunity to insulate. Then the thought was well if we have two of the four walls open, why not do the other two so everything is done. As a result, we’ve ripped down all the walls on the second floor (not my idea lol). Now all the walls will be insulated and new and won’t require patch work, but its definitely an additional cost when you decide to go that route. Its almost a domino effect. Once you start on one thing, its easy to go down the rabbit hole.

For us, its been worth it. We plan to live here for many many years. We want to make sure to do everything correctly up front so that we can save money in the future. If were going to spend the money to put a whole new ducted hvac system in, we want to make sure the home is insulated well so were not throwing money away. The home will essentially be a NEW-OLD home when we are done with it. We are still weeks away from moving in, but we are making some real progress!