203k, Go!

I closed on a quaint little home a week ago in San Jose; a modest 3 bedroom 2 bath single family home.  It's not a unique house design by any means in the older areas of Santa Clara County; a hybrid between traditional American Craftsman and Foursquare architecture is the best I can describe it.  Regardless, I got it for an amazing price and will be renovating it with the help of a 203k renovation loan.

The home was an REO that wasn't in the best of conditions, but reasonable...
Some safety and foundation issues existed, but since I had been dabbling with the idea of a full 203k since my home buying started, went ahead with it.  My real estate agent, Oscar Lopez, was extremely supportive throughout the entire process, and while it was his first 203k, he did everything in his power to make the process as smooth as possible.  All in all, while we did hit a few hiccups along the way, it didn't seem to be any greater than the typical home buying process. Having Ed Rogers from Wells Fargo guiding us through the process helped us greatly, and without him, the challenge of buying a home with a full 203k may have overwhelmed me.

Fast forward to today, my general contractor, Bakker Construction, came out to do a pre-start walk through of the scope of work.  We had a quick discussion about what other renovation work I might want to have done.  Fortunately, there isn't much I want done at this point beyond the scope of work.

In no particular order:

• Remove back door and replace window with sliding glass door
• Change kitchen cabinet doors and/or change counter top to butcher block
• Add soffit and ridge venting for attic

A clawfoot tub would be nice, but I think that would require too much demolition work to get the tub through to the bathroom :)

Construction will start in about a week and a half, but in the meanwhile, I've started swapping out the room lights to a ceiling fan/light combination.  Some of the old ceiling light boxes were loose to the point, I couldn't believe I had been walking under them repeatedly...