This is us, Rae & Drew. We're in our late twenties (OKOK Drew just tipped the 3-0 scale!) AND new homeowners in Philadelphia. Drew has a construction background (extremely helpful) but he can't quite do the work himself due to some newfound health limitations. That said, he's at the helm of this ship and me, I'm kind of the Gilligan of the duo. We bought our home 'as is', which meant we waived all inspections and agreed to take on whatever lay beyond its doors. This is probably the first rule NOT to break when buying a home, but we knew this was going to be a gut job and Drew's insight plus a walk-through with another construction friend gave us the courage to make the leap. We have 3 main goals while renovating:

1. efficiency
2. greenness
3. on budget

We want the house to be as efficient as possible. This includes use of space (goodbye traditional dining room we'll never use) & regulating temperatures (what's the point of have a new heating system done if it's too expensive to actually run all winter?!). Our greenness goal is tied to efficiency, but also includes the type of materials we'll choose as we go. We want to make our home as healthy and clean as possible. We've made heaps of health-oriented changes in the past year, and well, what's the point of eating organic lettuce if our house walls are leaking chemicals? As far as staying on budget, that's kinda a no-brainer. We want to be able to actually live here and enjoy it when this is all said and done! We've bitten off A LOT more than we anticipated when our house hunt began but something about this house just felt right...