So, the background: We have a 1911 Victorian. We bought it as a fixer-upper, and have done some work on it, but much of the structure is still original. There is zero insulation, and with cedar shake siding, and no heat, winters are cold (although cold here is not below freezing). 
So we're at the stage of needing to reside the house. At the same time, we can have the house insulated (while the siding is down, it's a minor expense to add insulation in all the walls - much cheaper than tearing down the inside just to insulate). Last winter DS and I spent the whole winter in 1 room (the warmest in the house). Well, now he's mobile that isn't going to fly, so we need to figure something out.
I had the contractor out yesterday to give us a rough quote on tearing down the siding, insulating, fireproofing, waterproofing, doing the shear paneling (earthquake safety), and putting in new siding (concrete shingles, which are a 50 yr product). This would include the cost of doing whatever minor repairs cropped up as they were doing this, but would include fixing the 6 windows that were installed incorrectly (which he pointed out to me - I didn't know they were the wrong type of window). I about had a heart attack when he quoted me $60-70K - that was about 3x what I was expecting.
DHs knee-jerk reaction was no. But in reality, we have the equity in the house to cover it (we wouldn't be upside down, I mean), and doing this is important for the integrity of the house, and getting it to last another 50 years (this is probably our lifetime house). The problem is coming up with the cash.
If we took that much out of the HELOC, we would max it out and still probably have to come out of pocket a bit - and then worry about the HELOC payment every month, and not having that to fall back on in case something blew up (no way we're going to do that, IOW). The other option is to cash out our stocks which are actually doing good right now, and that would give us about $30K cash (according to today's stock market quote) and take the rest out of the HELOC.
My problem is deciding if it's worth it. Those stocks have been our fall back plan for years. And we were very lucky that they didn't tank like the rest of the country. If we do this, we have nothing else to fall back on (we wouldn't be touching our savings, but the stocks have always been the "untouchable" nest egg).
I mean realistically, this would make winter (and summer) much more comfortable in the house, we wouldn't be freezing our butts off, and we also wouldn't have to worry about the exterior for another 15 years (when it would need another coat of paint - we've already done the roof). But is it worth wiping out reserves to do this?
And please don't tell me to go get another quote - that is in the plan, but the first step is deciding if we're willing/able to pay this much or whether we shelve this project for another few years down the road. I don't want to waste anyone's time if we're not seriously planning on doing this.
So - anyone have any thoughts on that?
So we're at the stage of needing to reside the house. At the same time, we can have the house insulated (while the siding is down, it's a minor expense to add insulation in all the walls - much cheaper than tearing down the inside just to insulate). Last winter DS and I spent the whole winter in 1 room (the warmest in the house). Well, now he's mobile that isn't going to fly, so we need to figure something out.
I had the contractor out yesterday to give us a rough quote on tearing down the siding, insulating, fireproofing, waterproofing, doing the shear paneling (earthquake safety), and putting in new siding (concrete shingles, which are a 50 yr product). This would include the cost of doing whatever minor repairs cropped up as they were doing this, but would include fixing the 6 windows that were installed incorrectly (which he pointed out to me - I didn't know they were the wrong type of window). I about had a heart attack when he quoted me $60-70K - that was about 3x what I was expecting.
DHs knee-jerk reaction was no. But in reality, we have the equity in the house to cover it (we wouldn't be upside down, I mean), and doing this is important for the integrity of the house, and getting it to last another 50 years (this is probably our lifetime house). The problem is coming up with the cash.
If we took that much out of the HELOC, we would max it out and still probably have to come out of pocket a bit - and then worry about the HELOC payment every month, and not having that to fall back on in case something blew up (no way we're going to do that, IOW). The other option is to cash out our stocks which are actually doing good right now, and that would give us about $30K cash (according to today's stock market quote) and take the rest out of the HELOC.
My problem is deciding if it's worth it. Those stocks have been our fall back plan for years. And we were very lucky that they didn't tank like the rest of the country. If we do this, we have nothing else to fall back on (we wouldn't be touching our savings, but the stocks have always been the "untouchable" nest egg).
I mean realistically, this would make winter (and summer) much more comfortable in the house, we wouldn't be freezing our butts off, and we also wouldn't have to worry about the exterior for another 15 years (when it would need another coat of paint - we've already done the roof). But is it worth wiping out reserves to do this?
And please don't tell me to go get another quote - that is in the plan, but the first step is deciding if we're willing/able to pay this much or whether we shelve this project for another few years down the road. I don't want to waste anyone's time if we're not seriously planning on doing this.
So - anyone have any thoughts on that?
