By Dr. James M. Dahle, WCI Founder
A few weeks ago we published a post about our upcoming home renovation. Since this is almost surely the largest purchase of our lives, I figured we've got to milk it for at least a few blog posts. When we last left you, we had figured out what we wanted to do, we saved up the money to do it, we hired a general contractor, and we had plans drafted up by an architect and engineer.
The Move
One of the most painful parts of the experience was moving out. Why was it so painful? Well, let's start with the obvious. It's a lot of work. Somebody has got to box all that stuff up and carry it around. Aside from the physical labor, there's a lot of opportunity cost there.
The time we spent moving was time I couldn't spend seeing patients, writing blog posts, or arranging partnerships. Plus, it's really expensive. We needed a truck, pods, tape, blankets, and plenty of boxes. But most importantly, we needed someplace to live. You see, it's been 9 years since we wrote a rent check, and 2 1/2 since we made a mortgage payment. Going back to having to pay for housing is painful!
Luckily for us, thanks to a little luck, good friends, and smart planning, we were able to limit the pain quite a bit. You see, we only moved about 200 yards. Granted, you have to do almost as much work to move 200 yards as 2000 miles, but it isn't quite the same.
It was nice to be able to just rent a little Uhaul truck and make four or five trips with it half full rather than trying to pack it all up into one big truck and haul it across the country. We are also able to stay in the same neighborhood, schools, carpools, and church congregation, nearly eliminating the effects on our children and social lives. We're in a friend's “spare house” they've been meaning to rent out for a while, but it's wonderful to not only be close but also have a month to month rental at an extremely fair price.
Moving Day!
Another great move for us was to use a couple of “pods.” Pods are loaded once, then hauled away to a warehouse by the company. They are then returned whenever you request it for you to empty. But they are less than half the work of renting a truck, loading the truck, renting a storage unit, driving to the storage unit and unloading the truck, renting the truck again, reloading the truck, closing the storage unit, driving the stuff back to your house, and then unloading the truck again. Since our rental house was partially furnished and there were a lot of things we didn't need there or during the Winter, we simply put those things into the pods.
The Purge
After removing 125 trees from the property
The best part about moving, and the reason we outsourced almost none of it, was what I like to call The Purge. No, not that purge. Over the last nine years as we have gone from 3 kids between one and six years old to 4 kids between four and fifteen years old we have accumulated a ton of stuff. I was amazed to see us not only fill our gigantic house but then to run out of room!
Those of you who have moved your parents out of a place they lived for their last 3 or 4 decades know exactly what I'm talking about. The purge is the process of reversing that trend. We had too much stuff and we needed to get rid of a lot of it. Where did that stuff go?
- A lot simply went in the garbage. Luckily our move coincided with bulk trash day for our city!
- We sold a few items. Always nice to swap something you don't want for a little extra cash.
- We donated a ton of stuff to charity. Not even counting the cabinets, fixtures, and appliances from the house, we had over $12,000 in donations. I don't think there was more than $5,000 in any one category, so no need for a professional appraiser in order to get that tax deduction.
Demolition by Neighborhood Kids
At any rate, it was really nice to get rid of so much stuff. It's amazing how everything you own ends up owning a little piece of you.
House Demolition
Given the extensive renovation planned, demolition was quite the ordeal. We kicked it off with a fun activity for the youth in our neighborhood. We let them come over and run through the doors (and when I say run through I mean run THROUGH), kick apart the banister, punch holes in the walls, and impale the banister pieces into the drywall. My son got a little carried away and took out one section of drywall we weren't planning on replacing, but other than that it was pretty good fun and nobody got hurt.
The next day the pros showed up and things got serious. Within a week it was pretty clear there was no going back on this project! You haven't lived until you've seen an excavator go to town on your house.
Excavator vs House = No Contest
Within 2 or 3 weeks nearly all the trees on the property, the lawn, the sprinkler system, the stucco, the carpet, the wood floors, the shelves, the drywall, the porches, the garage floor, the appliances, the fixtures, the cabinets, the windows, the doors, several walls, entire bathrooms, 1/3 of the garage, part of the roof, and I'm sure a lot of other things I've forgotten about were gone. Simply gone. 5 or 6 dumpster loads had been hauled away, and that doesn't include what was donated to Habitat for Humanity.
New Foundation
The Bunker!
We are adding some square footage to the house. Most of it is the new WCI office space, but we're also replacing the space the expanded pantry and kitchen are taking out of the living area. There's also “The Bunker”, a half-buried concrete-walled storage area under the garage on the back of the house. The Bunker isn't any sort of a “Prepper Paradise”; mostly it's a storage area for the lawnmower, gas cans, and gear, but it's probably a good place to be in the event of earthquake or small nuclear warhead.
So the next step after demolition was digging the holes for the foundation for these new areas and laying that foundation. The concrete has to sit for a week before you can put the dirt up against it again and really start framing above it. Hopefully, we'll have it all closed in by the time the snow really starts accumulating.
Making Choices
Our next really big chore is to make a bunch of choices — where to put electrical outlets and lights, window sizes and window frame colors, shingles, fixtures, etc. Luckily, most of this stuff matters more to one of us than the other, so she gets the privilege and responsibility of most of that work.
Surprises
Kids love destroying houses it turns out
As you start tearing down a house, it isn't uncommon to find a few surprises. There were several areas of the house with significant water damage beneath an apparently fine exterior. So those boards were ripped out and replaced. We had a colonoscopy done on the sewer line and found a $3,000 problem too. On the city's recommendation, we enlarged the water valve coming into the house to improve flow. We discovered a bend/kink in that water pipe too, thanks to the original shoddy construction. We also found out that our walls were not 6 inches thick as expected, but only 4. So in a couple of areas of the home that get hot when the sun is baking on them we thickened them up a bit. Demolition also revealed a few areas where the original house was not constructed according to plan. Hopefully, we've found most of the surprises now that the house demolition is complete.
Tax Savings
When we started talking about such an extensive project, I asked several times if bulldozing it would be cheaper. It wasn't, not only because we preserve a lot of walls and foundation this way, but also because by systematically taking the house apart we can donate a lot of the material to charity, specifically Habitat for Humanity. At our marginal tax rate (42%), that's a pretty nice little deduction. Other people doing renovations may also qualify for tax credits available for improving energy efficiency.
Dealing with Guilt
Post Demolition Shot
One of the things I have run into with this project has been the guilt of doing it. This doesn't seem to bother Katie, the kids, the contractor, or anyone else but me though. The night demolition started, I woke up long before dawn thinking about some verses in Luke 12, where Christ recounts The Parable of the Rich Fool.
And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And he spake a parable unto them, saying,
The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, aSoul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
Watching that excavator pull a wall off my house for an addition sure feels like “pulling down my barns and building greater.” Maybe we should have just donated the entire sum to charity. While it has caused me to work to ensure I am also rich “toward God” (and my fellow man), I wondered if this was a common issue for renovators. I asked my contractor about it. He said he absolutely has run into it with many projects. Lots of people feel guilty ripping out a perfectly good 10-year-old kitchen, even if they can afford to do so, just because they don't like something about it. Apparently lots of them get over it when they realize the appliances are going to Habitat for Humanity.
There is also the environmental issue. Not only will my larger house use more energy and resources to build, but it may require additional planetary resources to maintain, heat, and cool. Watching dumpster after dumpster of material being hauled off really gives you a sense of what “being a consumer” really means. We think of houses as being permanent, but the truth is everything we own is disposable and slowly being consumed and renovations are not particularly environmentally friendly, especially when renovating a completely functional house. No answers here, but it's an issue I didn't think much about beforehand.
What do you think? Have you done a big renovation? Did you move out? What was demolition like? Did you encounter “decision fatigue”, have any surprises, or feel any guilt? Comment below!
Thanks for this post!
Have been going back and forth with my husband about doing a big renovation on our house.
I’m struggling with just what you said! The need for more, consuming, the environmental cost. Completely unnecessary in a fully functional house. But, still, we are getting bids from contractors! Husband is not bothered by any of it. If I do it, it will solely be to make him happy! Thanks for showing me that I’m not alone. I’d rather *build a couple more partnerships*. Thanks for all!
Congratulations on embarking on this pretty impressive project. The short term pains you are going through now will more than be compensated once you get to go back into a place you have designed with your needs in mind (especially a well deserved dedicated space for your wci empire).
I think renovating rather than tearing it all down and starting from scratch has a lot of benefits that you mentionded and didn’t even think about the potential contributions to habitat for humanity.
Hopefully no big surprises along the way and can’t wait to see the updates
It is fine to go ahead with additions if they are needed and great to muse about the environmental consequences and wonderful that you donated a lot of the material to Habitat for Humanity, but I am appalled that you couldn’t find a way to save more of the trees while doing so: 125 trees, really? Couldn’t go around some of them? That is sad for the environment…
Bear in mind 95% of the trees were Gambel Oak, more of a bush really.
http://healthyhomegardening.com/Plant.php?pid=403&ss=1440
and 4% were quaking aspens that were reaching the end of their life and dying a couple of year.
We kept 2 of the 3 trees on the property that were anything else.
We’ll be replanting something besides quakies and “utah scrub oak” (really gambel oak).
And no, I couldn’t go around them. I hated them and it was a major motivation for the project to clear out the scrub oak. Don’t worry, 1/3 of the property is still covered with them.
I am glad this comment was already addressed. It sounds like clearing cedar in Texas, but even small brush-trees can play an important role for birds and other wildlife. It could be an interesting project to get some of your property designated a certified wildlife habitat or Monarch Waystation.
Ha ha. Trust me, there’s plenty of scrub oak around. Taking out a few square yards of it isn’t going to be a significant loss. 1/3 of my land is still covered with it and it’s solid scrub oak for 200 yards behind the house.
Is there a tax advantage to find that?
I have not been through a big demo like this but I recently moved out of a house that I had lived in since 1992. The purge was cathartic!! I had no storage to arrange but moving is very expensive. I would not recommend trading house too often. When you do it think about what you need very carefully. I love my new place and it was worth it.
Congratulation, you have done well for yourself!
Let’s quantify your life success with the 1DesignerLife Framework
Financially – top 5% – 10% percentile compare to the general population – you have earned it!
Relationship – you have a team that supports you in the moving endeavor. The same team will stand behind you all the way in anything if you continue to invest your time and effort – it is no different than financial investing.
Health – mind & body, since you are a doctor I assumed you are doing a good job of keep the hypertension, cholesterol and diabetes at bay. We all will get one of this physical symptom some day. Mindfully, you will need to work on the stress management!
Have fun with the move – first and foremost, take care yourself, then your family, then your patients!
Nice! Looking forward to seeing the finished product!
Whenever demolition is done, you have to worry about lead paint and asbestos, as well as aerosolizing certain types of mold that could be hazardous.
I would not let my kids destroy walls that may have had lead paint on them, without having it tested. (and I’m sure it was)
Lead abatement and asbestos abatement can be very expensive in an older house. Lead paint was used in housing through the late 70s. Although the amount of lead in paint decreased substantially in the early 70s; really old paint can be up to 50% lead.
I guess that residency in Occupational and Environmental Medicine pays off sometimes. LOL.
No asbestos or lead in this house. Not that old.
I’m happy to hear that you wrestled a bit with the guilt, certainly something I can relate to even though I’ve never even owned a home. Why no guilt from any other members of the household?
They’re mostly just excited about the firepole. Plus, the kids really don’t understand how much we’re spending nor how many dumpster loads have been hauled off.
Hi Jim, thank you for all you do. I can understand how the consumerism of renovating your house can tear at the heart of the Christian soul. We are left to wonder if we are being gluttonous and hoarding up treasures. Certainly the biblical Authors of the day would have never been able to imagine what type of comforts that we would have today. My wife and I are also undergoing renovation. In some ways it can be a way of improving what we have already done to Gods creation. We were able to update the electrical and plumbing to make it safer, and use higher quality insulation as well as more efficient appliances which all help reduce the overall burden we put on the environment. Even so I could’ve always make the argument that we could have gotten by with a much smaller house. At what point though are we becoming legalistic and splitting hairs? At what point do we overcome that threshold greed and gluttony? If taken to the extreme I’m afraid we become irrelevant to those around us and loose the ability to be a good conduit for the spirit to work through us and influence others to have a better relationship with God. However, I would like to offer you a word of encouragement. Even Paul had his thorns in his flesh and could not overcome his sin. Maybe your renovation is gluttonous or sinful in some way. I certainly have no room to judge and would not tell you that. But what I can say is that whatever you decide in your own heart and whatever your prayer and the spirit leads you to believe you can find rest in knowing that you are not perfect but you have already “won the game” because of your faith. I suppose it is no different than financial planning and stewardship. The goal is to win the game. The rest is just form and style points. At the end of the day we are all left to the same need for repentance for our imperfection, faith in our forgiveness, and a desire to always keep improving. Not because we it gains us anything extra, but because He deserves our effort. So, when it’s time for our race to be over, I hope we’ll look to our side and see each other both as winners, and we’ll both hear the sweet phrase, “we’ll done my good and faithful servant.” And finally, Jim, thank you for all you do and for your faith and conviction to always keep improving.
I don’t understand why people feel the need to apologize for spending money that they have earned themselves through hard work and sacrifice.
If you want your family to have a higher standard of living, go for it. That’s what capitalism is all about.
No apologies necessary for spending your own money . I don’t buy the war on wealthy people.
When I was a kid, the town doctor lived in a big house up on the hill. I was poor. Some other poor kids resented the doctor and basically wanted to burn his house down. Me… I want to work hard and someday buy that house. Which do y’all think is a better mindset?
Going through exact same thing. Similar feelings about the guilt. Similar feelings about the moving! Similar feelings about the impact of seeing the excavator!!!
We are in my in laws basement with two little ones rather than spending on a rental. They have nice home so we are lucky, but still will be an interesting 8-12 months.
I think scariest part is the fact that there is no going back, to a certain extent. For example, they demolished the kitchen, the deck, the driveway, the garage, and excavated for the new addition….we ran into soft soil in one spot and incurred 20k additional costs for concrete. Felt lucky it was only 20k and prior to knowing the cost we had to try and figure out our number where we would just turn back and put it back together and cut our losses. That number was high.
Best of luck to you guys!
Oh also felt good about donating our appliances and stuff to the local goodwill!
Please keep these reno posts coming. Having started the process with just designs etc I appreciate your point of view. All good info.
Thanks,
Glad you’re enjoying them.
I understand the guilt. I’m a brand new PA who is currently job hunting and has never made six figures before, not even close. In recognizing the kind of funds that will be available to me, I could feel the greed and the desire start to take hold, which I hated. Then I realized I’m happier when I live simply, so my new plan is to learn as much as I can about finances and growing my wealth so I can benefit others as well as live debt free. You’re renovating your house, but also helping others like me. It’s all a balancing act.
I put my family through the same sort of adventure. I took the roof off a completely functional house and had a second story added to the structure. I had the contractor frame up and enclose the structure and I finished the rest of the interior with the help of my kids. We lived in the first story during the year long adventure…. When it was all done my kids had learned a lot about construction and have gone on to build or remodel their own homes as adults. I to had that sinking feeling when the roof came off the house and a huge blue tarp was temporary protection from summer rain (which we did survive through). As I am less than a year from retirement, I am looking for a smaller home to put our own touches on. It should be another adventure of destruction and construction!! And it will give an excuse to rent a backhoe!!