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I'm wondering how everyone plans and budgets for home improvements?
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my planning starts with looking at my energy bills and my budget.
When we were DINKs, we paid for our home improvements (bringing home features in an old house up to code, energy efficiency upgrades and replacing old appliances mostly) with cash. I did use a home equity line of credit for our latest home improvement project, with a ninety-day payoff plan. It wasn't an impulse project: we'd planned it for a few years but the tax credits and rebates our state and nation currently offer made our consumer debt more bearable, and we want to time our improvements to take optimal advantage of tax credits and relax our budget somewhat. Perhaps if the timing hadn't coincided with being released from a long-term childcare financial burden I would have paid for our project in cash.
I don't know how I budget. When I peruse online information, a close estimate of cost is never available and the estimate varies by material, labor, and location. If a project is under $5000 I pay for it in cash. If I expect a payback within five years, or a 10%+ savings on energy bills, then I'll use the HELOC. If someone comments that they start planning at X months or years into the future, and sets Y% of income aside regularly, that would be helpful for me.
And for things like removing oil tanks, installing replacement windows, changing heat sources from oil to gas, or upping the voltage in a circuit, I do hire contractors.
