My first priority is to renovate the upstairs of the house to get it ready to rent out. This is the priority because as soon as the upstairs is ready to be rented out, the rental income should roughly cover the mortgage. So, at that point, I can breathe easy, as I won't be covering the mortgage.

The upstairs renovation is going to include painting the interior and exterior, replacing the windows, converting over to PEX piping, adding a dedicated electrical panel for the upstairs, converting from baseboard heating to ductless minisplit, insulating the attic, changing the carpet to vinyl flooring, adding a 1/4" layer of drywall to the textured ceiling, and swapping out the plumbing and lighting fixtures.

We're also going to alter the entry landing area to add a dedicated water heater and washer/dryer that will be for the upstairs unit. Then, we'll partition off the upstairs. Once I have the upstairs portion isolated, I can retain access to ground floor from the garage area in order to do work on the ADU as needed, even once the upstairs unit has been rented out.