I love a good day, when everything falls into place, there’s no real problems / difficulties.
And, after previously deciding to tell CBA to shove it, I’ve since changed my mind and took up a Personal Loan with them for the renovation work. When you consider the discounts we get for bundling all the products, the interest rate at 15% over 7 years is pretty high.
But, being a variable loan we can pay it down, play with redraw a bit so that we take full advantage of the redraw on the personal loan, and avoid paying the loan off in 2 years, and we could theoretically come out near interest free (well, nearly.)
This works out massively cheaper than the refinancing costs, even after reducing the amount of the increase to $15000 because of the refinancing costs alone.
The downside is we don’t get near as much done. I’m still waiting on updated quotes from our builder (I hate waiting), on the exterior being done in “Classic Ruff Sawn” Weathertex. This will allow for paint to be changed in the future, which PVC would not allow for.
New Windows, and we’ll add Crimsafe’s Safe S Cape after as suitable replacements for the jailhouse bars currently on the windows.
As part of the Green Loan, I plan on insulating the ceiling and walls – this will improve temperature and reduce heating / cooling requirements. One of the quotes for exterior removal was a third of the builders price, and offers sarking and insulation as well. We are going to toss up on their skills, insurance and licensing, to ensure nothing nasty comes of it.
We also have the solar power going in, a quote outstanding for another meter from Energy Australia for the workshop, which will allow for better expansion of the solar system there too, and hot water.
That will leave Air Conditioning as the one remaining item, which will need to wait til we can get the interior quoted and done, which, depending on circumstances will be around 18 months or so away (depends on how aggressively the loan is paid off).
Hopefully, there’ll be a gap in the middle, where the bathroom finds itself.