Boy, did Alice and Pete ever need to get creative about their finances and fast.
- Buying their home was more than just a bit of a stretch for them.
Not only did Alice and Pete sink 70% of their savings into the house, the costs of owning this house aren’t low. They had to update the entire heating and cooling plan along with redoing the kitchen completely. Those weren’t small projects. And the mortgage was also expensive. While Alice and Pete had it covered, they didn’t have it covered by a huge percentage. So when Pete lost his job during the pandemic, they lost half their income. Things got real fast. They had to cut all the non essentials from their spending. Working from home that Summer came with reduced Heating and Air Conditioning cooling as they targeted Heating & Air Conditioning utility costs for savings as well. Still, Alice and Pete just weren’t quite making it. Then it sort of hit them at the same time. They realized that they had a money maker right underneath their feet. The house came with an almost finished basement. There was a shower and toilet down there along with a separate entrance. So Alice and Pete decided to turn that into a studio apartment. Most work like putting in a vanity and adding interior walls was stuff that Pete could do. But when it came to the HVAC systems, they contacted the Heating & Air Conditioning professionals for help. They put in several smaller ductless heat pumps at either end of the apartment to supply even heating and cooling to the whole space. So now, Pete has a new job and they’ve got 50 percent of their mortgage covered with the new apartment.