Man, did we ever need to get creative about our finances and in a hurry.
Buying this house was more than just a bit of a stretch for us.
Not only did we sink just about all our savings into the place but the costs of owning this house were steep. We had to replace the entire heating and cooling system along with redoing the kitchen completely. That was not an inexpensive pair of projects. And the mortgage was steep. While we had it covered, we didn’t have it covered by miles. So when my wife lost her job during the pandemic, we lost half our income. Things got real in a hurry. We chopped everything but essentials from our spending. Working from home that summer came with a lot less HVAC cooling as we targeted HVAC utility costs for savings as well. Still, we just weren’t quite making it. Then it sort of hit us at the same time. We realized that we had a money maker right underneath our feet. The house came with an almost finished basement. There was a shower and toilet down there along with a separate entrance. So we decided to turn that into a really nice one bedroom apartment. Most of the work like putting in a vanity and putting up interior walls was stuff that we could do. But when it came to the heating and cooling, we called the HVAC professionals for help. They put in two smaller ductless heat pumps at either end of the apartment to provide even heating and cooling to the whole space. So now, my wife has a new job and we’ve got 70 percent of our mortgage covered with the new apartment.