It just occurred to me our remodel on our current(Retire/Expire) home was done backwards.

We bought/lived in a mobile home for several years to allow us to help our sons through college. When we decided to buy a house, I had already retired(got lucky and went at 55), had years of remodeling experience(and most of the tools), and the time to work on the house we chose. To stretch our $$$, we decided a repossession would give us the most bang for the $$(this was in 2007).

We knew some of the things we wanted, types and kinds of furniture, flooring, lot size, number of bedrooms, full basement. Plus, we had time and did not need to sell.

In the process, the wife found a deal on exactly the types of living room furniture she wanted---and bought it. Luckily, we had a place to store the pieces almost indefinitely. Then, I found a super deal on the flooring, and the seller agreed to hold my order for two months. A good price for the kitchen appliances came up and we found a storage place for those.

So, we had furniture, appliances, and flooring, but no house. We found the house(after several months), then had to survive several glitches.

Had 45 days to work on the remodeling before needing to move in, which was wonderful.