The vent line for one bathroom fan turned into eleven days of electrical

Scope creep story, since people keep asking me for one.

Upstairs bath had no fan, just a window. Cheap fix, cut in a fan, run four inch flex to a roof cap. My guy opens the ceiling and calls me over because there's cloth wire running through the joist bay he needs to cross. Knob and tube, still hot, feeding two bedrooms and the hall.

So now I'm standing in a hallway deciding whether I'm the guy who runs a new circuit for the fan around live cloth wire, or the guy who rewires the second floor. I called my insurance broker before I called the electrician, and that conversation made the decision for me.

Budget on that house was 34k. Landed at 51k. Eleven extra days of labor and about 3k of drywall and paint I had already paid for once. Every bedroom ceiling opened up and closed again.

Here's the part that actually cost me. My refi appraisal was scheduled off the original timeline, and I pushed it twice. By the time it happened, rate quote I had been working off was gone and the new one was most of a point higher. Same value, smaller loan I was willing to carry against the rent, and I left about 14k in.

The house is safer than it was and I'd do it again. But nobody warns you that the rehab overrun and the financing hit are the same event.