People have asked me for updates and quite honestly, there wasn’t much to update anyone on until the last month.
Given that this was our personal home, there was a lot of back and forth between us and our architect.
Once we approved the plans plans, we had to submit them to the township, which took about 1 month to get approved. While we were getting our plans approved, we worked with our lender- Direct Mortgage Loans. If you need a contact for a renovation loan, hit me up! My girl Shannon Rose is over there now and her team is responsive and knows their shit! Ha!
For something like this it’s ideal to have funds on hand to get the project moving- whether it’s your own cash or from a partner. Some unforeseen expenses thus far have been the poison ivy removal and the tree removal. Given that the property has been vacant for a long time, the poison ivy was out of control. Cisco found a legit guy that removes poison ivy from the source- so if you’re in the Philly/Lower Merion area, let me know! Back in March when we had a wind/ice storm, a tree came down and almost hit our house. Since that tree came down, the chances of the 2 trees beside it coming down increased because there was nothing protecting them- so we had to remove all the trees in the back, which I was sort of bummed about. The trees offered a level of privacy that we liked.
Work didn’t start until early September and we closed on the loan earlier this week. So all the progress is quite boring! See all the stuff they don’t share with you on HGTV??!
Here is an album with all the pics- including items that were found amongst the piles and piles of stuff. New pics will be added here so you can go back to this link to check the progress. The most recent pics will be towards the bottom. Enjoy!
