Our Landscaping Progress + Get The Project Money You Need

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Our landscaping progress is getting me excited for Summer. It’s been a lot of hard work and honestly a lot of money. I took on all the flower beds (with the help of a local high school boy) and lawn in order to save the money to put towards the tree removal and lawn extension that we decided to do earlier last month. Today I am going to share with you our landscaping progress + how you too can get the project money you need for your own home renovations or landscaping projects. I partnered a while back with LightStream, an online lending division of SunTrust Bank, to share Home Improvements Made Easy  and today I am going to share their 2018 Home Improvement Survey. The results are so fascinating as only 7% surveyed are renovating their home to move. The majority of home owners are renovating their home to stay put, accommodate extended family (in-law) or simply fix up their yard or add that pool they have always wanted. 

As many of you know, we moved into our new house just about 90 days ago and we have a few items on our bucket list to make the home, our own. Mother Nature kind of dictated our first home project this past winter by leveling out trees and destroying many of the ornamental shrubs and bushes. We planned on extending the back yard at some point to enlarge the backyard as there was a significant amount of brush crowding the pool area. If you have been following along, you know that we had a tremendous amount of tree work and brush removal done a couple weeks ago. The snow and ice storms this past winter destroyed so many trees so we decided to have the dead trees removed along with the brush. Do you know how much money tree removal is? It’s not cheap. In fact, I was really surprised what it was going to cost to have the area excavated and hydro-seeded.  Many of the trees were in danger of falling into the house or the pool so we sucked it up and got busy. 

Image Source: LightStream | Outdoor Living Room 

Whether you are doing indoor home renovations (bath/kitchen/flooring) , exterior landscaping (patios/decks) or adding a gorgeous pool, LightStream has you covered. Below is a picture of the excavator ripping out all the old roots from the trees we had removed. Excavation work is very time consuming and expensive and honestly, we hire out for this sort of thing. We do not have the machinery nor the man power to do this kind of work. We did the majority of the raking and clean up after the trees, but digging up the soil and removing roots in preparation for seed is an entirely different project. 

Our Landscaping Progress + Get The Project Money You Need

 

I can tell you first hand, my husband and I recently applied for a loan through LightStream and the online application process was crazy fast (like 10 minutes) and we had our approval in less than two hours. The best part, you can have the money deposited to your account
the same day! The rates were great and there was no pre- payment penalty. For me, that was key.(You can see more details, here)

In January this year, LightStream asked Harris Poll to survey homeowners to discover what they have in mind for renovations in the coming year. They found that if you own a home in the U.S., chances are you’re planning a renovation, as 58% of those surveyed say they’ll spend money on a project this year. 45%  indicated they will spend roughly $5000 on projects while other said upwards of $35,000.

 

So where do people get the money to do these projects? Well unless you have a money tree, you drain your savings, take out a Home Equity Loan if you have equity in your home, put it on a credit card or take out a personal renovation loan. For me, I kind of like the idea of a low interest rate personal loan spread out over a few years. The option to pay it off sooner is always available but when you have kids and life things that get in the way, it’s best to not drain your savings in case of an emergency. That’s just my two cents though. 

Image Source: LightStream 

LightStream believes that people who have responsibly managed their finances over the years deserve to have their good credit rewarded with a better loan experience.  Since March 2013, LightStream has financed more than $7.5 billion in unsecured (no collateral!), fixed–rate loans to people who have good credit.  They don’t just have home renovation loans either. They have debt consolidation loans, tiny houses to timeshares and preK-12 tuition to medical expenses. 

Next year we plan to tackle the front of the house and replace all the dead trees and shrubs that Mother Nature destroyed. We did have the large Alaskan Cedar removed last week that hid the entire left side of the house. As you can see below, we have a few bare spots that need attention but that is a project for next year. 

We would love to hear what home projects you are working on indoors or outdoors. Once our landscaping project is complete (fingers crossed it will be done in the next couple weeks), we are planning to do some flooring projects. All in due time right? Home Renovations can be overwhelming and stressful. Be sure to check out the LightStream online loan process and see what they have to offer. I was really impressed and am thrilled to be putting our good credit to use. LightStream is a national online lending division of SunTrust Bank, providing loans for practically any purpose. Financing is available in all 50 states (people need not have a SunTrust account in order to apply). And, they plant a tree with every loan — more than 1,500 acres and counting!

 

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of LightStream, an online lending division of SunTrust Bank. The opinions and text are all mine.