Home Improvement Thread 2: Electric Redo the Loo

I been investigating getting a home equity line of credit for emergencies and things that we have to repair around the house. How do you guys finance your improvements or emergency situations?
 
Dtknuckles said:
I been investigating getting a home equity line of credit for emergencies and things that we have to repair around the house. How do you guys finance your improvements or emergency situations?
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To be honest, I'm debt averse so I don't finance. We've had a 6-month cash reserve that we dip into when emergency stuff comes up like the AC or roof, but we typically keep that amount off limits for fun stuff.

If you want to take a deeper dive, you may be able to refinance your home loan since rates have been taking a nose dive. I've never explored home equity loans, but I know that if we refinanced our home loan right now (even though we've only been here 3 years) we could be making the same payment amount but pay off the loan 5 years sooner. You might be able to lump the home equity loan in with refinancing?
 
folsom_lives said:
To be honest, I'm debt averse so I don't finance. We've had a 6-month cash reserve that we dip into when emergency stuff comes up like the AC or roof, but we typically keep that amount off limits for fun stuff.

If you want to take a deeper dive, you may be able to refinance your home loan since rates have been taking a nose dive. I've never explored home equity loans, but I know that if we refinanced our home loan right now (even though we've only been here 3 years) we could be making the same payment amount but pay off the loan 5 years sooner. You might be able to lump the home equity loan in with refinancing?
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my wife is working part time because of the Pandemic so a refinance is out of the question right now. We were hoping for that. The repairs we have to do are kind of major, Roof being one of them. We have other more cosmetic, gates and fencing are falling apart, exterior painting, some sod/irrigation, and some minor electrical work. Oh yea we need air conditioning (I think just a new compressor). It was over 99 in our house this summer. We were hoping to get most of this done this year, but not now.
 
Dtknuckles said:
I been investigating getting a home equity line of credit for emergencies and things that we have to repair around the house. How do you guys finance your improvements or emergency situations?
Click to expand...
Yeah same as Folsom above, I don't finance, I just save. I know not everyone can do this, but I put 10% of my salary into shares and my work matches it. I use that money for renos.
 
Spent most of my Christmas break painting the kitchen and dining room. Now my wife wants to put laminate floor down. Anyone ever done that themselves? Would you advise getting a pro or is it pretty simple? Neither of us are particularly handy.
 
dbarila said:
Spent most of my Christmas break painting the kitchen and dining room. Now my wife wants to put laminate floor down. Anyone ever done that themselves? Would you advise getting a pro or is it pretty simple? Neither of us are particularly handy.
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What kind of laminate? Click planks?
 
Mather said:
What kind of laminate? Click planks?
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Pergo whatever they call their system that clicks together. My concern isn't so much laying it all down. I'm more concerned about tricky places like around cabinetry and around a toilet and sink in the half bath off the kitchen.
 
dbarila said:
Spent most of my Christmas break painting the kitchen and dining room. Now my wife wants to put laminate floor down. Anyone ever done that themselves? Would you advise getting a pro or is it pretty simple? Neither of us are particularly handy.
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I’ve done the click ones with my Father in law, they are easy if you have someone they knows what they are doing. I just played assistant. He was the foreman.
 
dbarila said:
Pergo whatever they call their system that clicks together. My concern isn't so much laying it all down. I'm more concerned about tricky places like around cabinetry and around a toilet and sink in the half bath off the kitchen.
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Largely depends on how flush your walls are. If they aren’t the first row is hell on Earth but then it’s really easy!
 
dbarila said:
Pergo whatever they call their system that clicks together. My concern isn't so much laying it all down. I'm more concerned about tricky places like around cabinetry and around a toilet and sink in the half bath off the kitchen.
Click to expand...
It's really the cuts that are the hard part, as you mentioned. You need to get it close enough to the walls to allow for you to cover the edges with quarter round or baseboards. If you have the right tools to make the cuts, like a circular, table or miter saw them you can do it. But personally I pay the pros to do that stuff.
 
Joe Mac said:
Largely depends on how flush your walls are. If they aren’t the first row is hell on Earth but then it’s really easy!
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The walls are all surrounded by baseboard so they should be flush. All walls are square except one 45 degree angle where it goes out towards the steps.

The current floor is those stick on vinyl tiles so I'm told I can just install over those.
 
dbarila said:
The walls are all surrounded by baseboard so they should be flush. All walls are square except one 45 degree angle where it goes out towards the steps.

The current floor is those stick on vinyl tiles so I'm told I can just install over those.
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Not sure but I think it may be a little tough to click in under the existing baseboards. But I've never done it myself, so I could be wrong. I'm sure there's a technique for that.
 
If it's vinyl, you'll need to account for shrink/swell from temperature changes. read up on the product manufacturers recommended install and see. Most need some gap around the edge so you might need quarter-round to cover the gap regardless of if you have a baseboard.
 
Dtknuckles said:
I been investigating getting a home equity line of credit for emergencies and things that we have to repair around the house. How do you guys finance your improvements or emergency situations?
Click to expand...
If you have good credit, a lot of places have zero interest loans you can take out. When we needed a new AC, we got financing through Traine via our local AC installer. We have an emergency fund, but it made no sense to dip into that when we got zero interest on the loan.
 
nolalady said:
If you have good credit, a lot of places have zero interest loans you can take out. When we needed a new AC, we got financing through Traine via our local AC installer. We have an emergency fund, but it made no sense to dip into that when we got zero interest on the loan.
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This is what I did. Last year when I was still getting slapped around by hospital bills, my furnace/ac took a dive. I was able to get 0% over 18mo. for it. No penalty for paying it off early, but paying over 6-8 months made it a bit more manageable.
 
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