Opportunity
Friday May 8, 2026
Well, I’m about to look like a real dweeb. Last week I wrote about finding humility and modesty in this whole rebuilding-after-a-fire thing, but this week we’ve done a complete 180°. Ostentation, baby!!!!!!! Infinity pool!!! Indoor basketball court!!!!! Greed, baby, greed!!!!!
I kid, of course, but after meeting with our contractor, Scott Jones, on Monday and Thursday, I’ve been persuaded to see this as a legitimate opportunity rather than just something we have to do to avoid financial ruin.
Lindsay and I were first introduced to Scott through Joe Ciccarello, the Melrose resident (and former Revere teacher) whose house burned down in 2021. Scott worked with Westchester Modular to rebuild Joe’s house, which is beautiful and almost twice the size it was before. When we first spoke to Joe, he said he used his GoFundMe money to dig out and redo the foundation. When I first spoke to Scott, he said, unprompted, that it’s usually most cost-effective to redo the foundation with modular homes to make something specific to the house you’re building, rather than trying to fit the house to the foundation. However, replacing a foundation is probably like $70,000+, and we’ve chewed through a big chunk of our GoFundMe money just rebuilding our lives. (Thank you, again, people, we literally couldn’t even consider building a forever home without this buffer.)
That said, the right foundation can lower the cost of the build by ensuring the right shape and reducing the complexity of customization and delivery logistics needed.
Our existing concrete and block foundation basically makes up that vaguely Z-shaped Tetris piece, turned on its side, except the right side doesn’t have a footing, so we can’t put significant weight on it. Bonnie Hobbs did an amazing job with the plans. Scott has cleared it with Westchester that they can accommodate such a unique design. But one of the reasons the cost per square foot is so high ($355) is that it’s so custom.
Looking at our 76-year-old foundation on Monday, Scott reiterated that new builds last longer and require less maintenance when put on new foundations. Per the zoning requirements, we have space in the front to extend the foundation and make it a perfect rectangle. Doing that could substantially increase the house's square footage up to about 3,000 (with finished basement) — a major increase from the current plan’s 2,610 (with finished basement), and almost doubling the original 1,800. The project cost would, without a doubt, increase, but the cost per square foot would drop.
Let me be very clear about this: I don’t believe anyone needs a 3,100-square-foot house. The house I grew up in was a little more than 2,500, and it always felt very big to me. Scott’s working on a quote for a plan that brings the house in by about six feet from either side. We’ll start there, but we may wind up taking a few of those feet back, because when Lindsay and I talked about it earlier this week, we kept coming back to opportunity cost.
This property is our only major asset, and we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do a significantly subsidized improvement to it. This is not the time to be cheap. We can afford to borrow some money to maximize this build. We probably don’t need a 3,000-square-foot house, but I can’t help but think smart financial people would do whatever they could to build the biggest house in the budget. It’s not about needing the space — it’s about not leaving money on the table. When we’re ready to retire in 30 years, selling this house could pay for our retirement, so we can just travel the world on our 401(k)s. Lindsay’s more financially risk-averse than I am, and it took next to no convincing to get her on board with ditching humility and getting aggressive with this project. That tells me it’s the right thing to do.
As usual, everything comes back to the budget. I write about financial strategy and literacy for a living, and it’s kind of fun to be living out such a complex scenario in my real life.
Last week, I shared that our budget, as it stands, is about $650,000. That includes $150,000 of our own money. Scott is now the third contractor to say it’s fucking nonsense that USAA hasn’t declared the property a total loss, and is working directly with Dan Davison to help push them that way.
On Thursday, there was an interesting development on this front. When we were at the house on Monday, Scott remarked that the basement ceiling seemed unusually low. For some reason, that stuck with me, and so on Wednesday, I texted him to ask if USAA would have to pay to replace the foundation if it was nonconforming. He said it’s a gray area, and that 7 feet (not 8, as I had thought) was technically habitable and compliant, but he’d come over on Thursday to measure anyway. Turns out, the basement height ranges between 6’4” and 6’8”, which explains why Brandon Boyd has looked so incredibly uncomfortable down there.
It may not mean anything. It may mean a lot. The maximum code payment we can get is $60,000, and both Scott and Dan feel confident we’ll get to that number. Dan doesn’t think USAA would agree to pay for the foundation, but they also probably don’t want to insure a new house standing on a nearly 80-year-old foundation. He’s just gonna have to keep harassing our adjuster until he relents. All that said, I’m cautiously optimistic we may be able to squeeze another $50,000-$100,000 out of them. Between that, our out-of-pocket commitment, and a generous gift from my grandfather, we may be able to do this thing with minimal debt. But there’s still a world in which we can afford a construction loan and pay it off with a home equity loan. It’s a bit of a puzzle, but it will all become clearer when we get the building quotes.
Life has a way of making things feel bigger than they are. We didn’t seriously think we could buy a house until Lindsay found one in Melrose she really liked, we went to see it, and thought, “Could we buy this?” Some paperwork and conversations with strangers later, we learned that we probably could buy it, and maybe we should actually try. (We got outbid on that house, but it got us in the process.)
Eventually, it just kind of happened. We sent a text to family that we bought a house, and that was that. We were homeowners. There’s no montage or soundtrack when this is happening; it’s just you doing some stuff.
I think I’ve subscribed so fervently to the banality of life’s milestones that I’ve treated this simply as a task that needs doing, like mowing the lawn or painting the bulkhead. I needed an outside perspective to help me see the potential for serious regret. If there ever comes a time when we think, “We need a bigger kitchen,” we should just punch ourselves in the faces. This is the chance to do everything we want in a house, plus some things we never planned for. Starting on a new foundation is a contingency against expensive home improvement projects in the future as much as it is an investment.
We need to see Scott’s quote, but what once seemed completely unobtainable is becoming increasingly real.
One Body Part: Right Ears
Earlier this week, Desi suddenly became fascinated by my right ear. Practically every time I picked him up, he’d reach straight for my right ear. Sometimes he’d just hold it, like a stress toy. Sometimes he’d tug it and play with it. Sometimes he’d dig his nails into it like it owed him money and he wanted to teach it a lesson. If I offered the left ear instead, he’d smack my face, tell me to act right, and reach for the right one. Mostly it’s cute, but it’s starting to get annoying. But last night, Lindsay’s right ear entered his crosshairs, so perhaps my ear is free at last.
One Book: Dream Animals by Emily Winfield Martin
This is Desi’s favorite book. We read this and Sandra Boynton’s The Going to Bed Book before bed every night, but Dream Animals is the headliner. Even if he’s already passed out, his eyes shoot open, and he locks in for Dream Animals. It’s a really beautiful thing to watch your kid discover things he enjoys.
One Hollywood: Trust Me: The False Prophet, Netflix
It’s sad and gross that there’s a sequel to Keep Sweet, Pray, and Obey, Netflix’s explosive docuseries about polygamist prophet Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), but there is. Because there always is. These poor people are born into cults, raised sheltered and dumb, and remain vulnerable as lambs for their entire lives, just waiting to be devoured by narcissistic, delusional wolves. I have no problems spoiling that this one has at least a moderately happy ending. Good watch, though. Thanks for the recommendation, Erin London.
One Song: Gorillaz (feat. Lou Reed) - Some Kind of Nature
This was one of my favorite songs to work out to at Oberlin. I’d hit the grav bong at 2:45, go to the gym at 3, talk to absolutely no one while I lifted for 30 minutes, then head to the basketball courts to play for a couple hours. I listened to a lot of Plastic Beach my senior year, and this is probably my favorite song on the album.