Life's Lessons Learned...

It has been a week of thinking, usually between 2 and 4 a.m. as to how we should proceed from here.  While my building team was looking at the quote and trying to find areas where we could save money, I was feeling as if I were hurling down a slippery slope without direction, going faster and faster.  Losing control was very real and, as most of you who know me realize, very difficult for me!  What to do? 

The bank is telling me that because of my earnings to debt ratio, I am not eligible for a home equity line of credit and my mother is not eligible because she has only charged her Cape Cod Times subscription in the last few years.  A lesson learned, if you pay cash for things, your credit history is skimpy and you cannot borrow money.  I really worry about the state of our economy if my mother and I are risks.  We have investments, own the condo outright, have money in the bank and have never been late on bills.  To whom, I ask you, is the bank loaning money?

 First lesson learned: if you have a home equity line of credit keep it as getting another one would be difficult at best!

I had hoped that this process would be easy and fun: get the line of credit, put on an addition or build a new house, and then sell the condo.  Nope!

Needless to say, there has been much advice coming my way.  All this while, I was reading a book where the heroine asked the question, “What do I want versus what do I need?”  You can imagine that I began to ask the same question.   During these difficult financial times, that might be the best advice to get.  Certainly, I would love to build the cottage that was designed for me.  It is a great house.  It has an unbelievable price tag.  Do I really need it?  I still am not sure but I do know this, I cannot move forward before I have the money in my hand.  Then and only then will I be able to relax and enjoy the experience. 

So, the condo will go on the market and we will wait to see when it sells.  That will become my budget and we will revisit the options.  Do I build the new cottage or do I go back to the drawing board and design a more modest addition giving me what I need, a water view from my bedroom and three bedrooms?

Second lesson learned:  As seductive as it is to do what you want, it might be better to do what is needed.

Making the phone call to Toby was the next step.  The Toby Leary team had given me just what I had asked for and having to tell them that I was putting the project on hold was difficult. He was very understanding telling me that they had already cut about $90,000 and were able to keep the great windows.  He also suggested that we keep the two appointments with the Board of Health and the Conservation Committee to see if they would approve the plans and issue their permits.  I agreed with him on this as these permits are good for a year.  Hopefully the condo will have sold within the year and we all will have a better idea of the budget and the vision. 

2012 was getting crazy for me and now things have settled down.  I am breathing easier already.  Getting the condo sold and one less property for me to manage will make life simpler anyway.   I don’t have to empty out the cottage right now, I can get the condo ready for the market, I can now go to Florida for most of the winter, I can enjoy a girls’ trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons in June and my 65^th birthday celebration with college friends in September. 

Third lesson learned:  If you have too much on your plate, remove what is making you crazy.  Life is too short to be stressed.

I am going to continue writing the blog to keep a record of the experience and keep you updated on the little things I do to get ready for whatever I do with the property.  

I went to Falmouth yesterday looking for fabric to recover the Haywood-Wakefield furniture my mother has in her condo.  Found fabulous raspberry linen with white embroidered coral for the cushions and a multi stripe for the barrel chairs I got at the swap shop.  I am off this morning to the reupholster to start updating furnishings.  Will put the finished items in the condo to update and brighten it before putting it on the market. 

Now The Real Work Begins!

When you design your dream house with your wish list in front of you, it gets very hard to then go back and have to cut or settle for less.  And believe me when I tell you that all on my wish list was not in the original estimate!  There never was radiant heat in the bathrooms!  Since we are over budget at this point and I haven't price appliances, sound systems or furnishings, we are having to revisit many things on my list. 
Already gone are the cedar shake roof, all of the built-in with the exception of the fireplace and surrounding bookcases, the Ipe decking, and most disturbing, the fabulous Ultimate windows and doors. 
Today we spent the morning looking at other window options and there are many.  As of this moment we are getting prices on the Anderson "A" Series to see what the savings would be.  The nice feature of this series is that they come in black and since we are not having shutters on the new cottage, this might be a beautiful architectural feature.  The best part is that the black is no more expensive than white!
Then it was a stop at the kitchen and bath shop.  I had originally wanted vanities in all the bathrooms but that too is not cost effective.  So, guests, you will have to deal with pedestal sinks in the guest bath and the powder room.  Then we get to the hardware.  Thank goodness I love the look of chrome as it is the least expensive finish you can buy.  Having this vision of wanting the cottage to look vintage only adds to the cost of everything.  We picked out fixtures for the baths and the kitchen sink that hopefully will be under the allotment bid and one thing can be checked off.
So we now have Phase I and Phase II for the building of "The Cottage".  When the dust settles - both literally and figuratively -  and the condo gets sold, I will see what monies are left to revisit the built-ins. 
An another topic entirely, I want to mention the difficulty I have had in trying to get a home equity line of credit on the condo my mother and I own.  I thought it would make a lot of sense to use the banks money to build the cottage and then when the cottage was almost finished I could sell the condo.  NOOOO!  Even though we own the condo outright, have what I consider a substantial amount of money in investments, have a balloon payment coming from the sale of the Blue Anchor in December 2012, and both my mother and I have good credit ratings, the bank will not give us a line of credit.  Now I ask you, if I cannot get a line of credit who can?  
 Needless to say it makes me very nervous to be spending my money during this financial downturn, but I am going on the old adage that you only go around once so for now we are moving forward.  Wish me luck!