Getting the heck out of the way (aka finding a rental)

Many people told us that THE most important thing to do (for the sake of our marriage anyway) was find someplace else to live while the major construction was happening. Mind you, we have two small kids and a dog, so this wasn't much of a debate for us. The trick was - how the heck to find a place?

Here's some things I didn't know:

1. Finding a place that will rent for less than a year is really hard (at least in the 'burbs)
2. Finding a place that will accept a pet is even harder
3. Finding a realtor who will really help out - hardest yet. I highly recommend finding a realtor who specializes in rentals intead of home sales. They seem to be from totally different planets.
4. You really want to find a place close to your renovation project so you can go often and on the spur of the moment.

It ended up taking us about two months and much effort to find the house we are renting. (* We never would have found this place if our truly awesome realtor hadn't worked really hard on our behalf. Thanks again Mary Ellen!)

Short version: You probably won't forget to budget for a rental, but don't also forget to budget the time to find a place. One friend mentioned that they got stuck in a tiny apartment above a restaurant for 8 months - not fun.

As for moving costs, I'll pass along great tips given to us: tell movers that it is a two way move and ask for discount and sort & sell big items that you don't want post-renovation rather than paying to move or store.

Landscaping considerations when renovating

If you are renovating and messing with the outside of your house, it stands to reason you'll need to do some landscaping. Here's what I knew:

- Get a quote from a trusted landscaper before the project starts to include in your budget. Be sure to ask for any of these that apply to your project:

- - Cost to move any plants you want to save to a safe location on your property

-- Cost to move those plants back and add new landscaping when done

-- Cost to cut down or trim any trees in the way of new building

Here's a few things I didn't know:

- Be sure to ask your landscaper what he is going to do with any plants you cannot save. If he plans on dumping them, give your neighbors a chance to dig up and take any they want. It saves plants, makes neighbors happy, and saves on dumping fees.

- Be sure your construction won't affect your ability to water the plants. If it does, you may not want to spent to move plants to "save" as those have high watering requirements.

- Ask your landscaper about timing. In my area (Northeast / MidAtlantic Region) the rule seems to be that you should move plants on cool Fall days or early Spring.

- Ask your contractor about what types of machines the project requires and what access they need. I discovered the day before work started that that several bushes were getting run over by the excavator and our apple tree had to be cut basically in half for the foundation work.

- Don't forget to add sprinkler repair to your budget.

Filling the information void

I'm a type A person. Not being a contractor myself, I tried my best to be informed before we started this renovation. But despite reading two books cover to cover and scanning a bunch more I still have discovered a bunch of hidden (but important!) nuggets and we are only two months in.

This blog is an attempt to share this hard earned knowledge with others so you can learn from it before you are already knee deep.

Before we begin, let me just state who I am: I'm a working parent who knows nothing about construction and design other than what I have read and am now learning. I have no desire to know everything our contractors know, but as homeowners it turns out that we should know more than what contractors and books would seem to want to share.

Here's hoping we can shift that balance a bit :)