The throne is in!!

Finally got the toilet installed. Geez.... I managed to put that off for way too long. In this picture, you can see the surround up (with it's blue protective membrane) for a dry fit.

For those that have asked, yes - the tub is tan. It's going to be refinished white as soon as the surround is up. The refinishers said to do everything else in the bathroom, and the tub should be done last (not what I would have thought, but they are the experts).

Got most of the trim and baseboards painted in the living room. Finally having a handyman (licensed) to come in on Friday to do the misc plumbing and electrical stuff. Or at least they are supposed to be coming......

New light fixtures

Got the upstairs bedroom light fixtures done. Took down the old ceiling fans. I am not sure how people didn't bonk their heads on these fans. They were quite low. I suppose these fans have their charm, the date on the sticker was from 1989 - which is not as old as I thought they were! Anyway, going to give them away for free, since they are functional. I chose not to replace the fans, as this house has central air.

Also dry fit the tub surround. Looks excellent!

Old lights


New lights

Rehab goals for this week

Short week due to the Memorial Day holiday. Plans include:

- Painting trim and final color in living room
- painting ceilings
- grouting tile
- installing toilet
- installing shower surround
- working on landscaping

All in all, progress is going well. The roofer is meeting with me at the end of the week to get the shingle colors picked out and get a scheduled time to start work.

House rehab week in review

This week's projects include:

- Drywall repair to basement entry
- cement board put up in shower area
- removed a platoon of lily of the valley flowers from the front yard (smell great, though!)
- Dining room trim completed and one coat of final color on the walls
- Living room primed
- laid most of the tile in the bathroom (need to get some more)
- Picked up all the final paint for the interior

Here is a pic of the dining room. The paint is Olympic "Heavy Cream".




The grass seeds have now sprouted in the front yard, so that will be looking much better soon.

Wall patching

Took a break from the endless monotony of painting today and fixed the walls in the basement entry. This is where the fridge used to be, and the walls were very damaged. All done and patched, they will need sanding and painting. Looks soooo much better.

Before:



After



Today I also laid the rest of the tile in the bathroom that doesn't need cutting. Plus started measuring for the wall repair in the shower. Having trouble with the hole saw, it doesn't cut very well. Not sure why, so that's a puzzle to figure out tomorrow.

Never ending paint!

Painting again, and again. Of course, we painted the kitchen and office of our own home this weekend, and here I am painting again.
Got the bathroom, dining room and living room primed, the bathroom trim mostly done and the dining room ceiling painted.

Here is a living room progress shot from original to today:


-----------------------------------
Bathroom is really starting to come along. Pics of the backer board, and the dry run of tiles. Today I started installing the tiles.



Tonight is a trip to the big box for a lot of big stuff. Getting some dry wall, plywood, backer board, shower surround and more paint.

Rehab goals for this week

Plans for this week include:

- priming living room and dining room
- putting up green board in bathroom
- picking up shower surround, and possibly installing it
- finishing up the kitchen cabinets and measuring for counter top tile
- picking out paint colors for upstairs bedrooms and bath

Still waiting on the handyman who is coming to do a bit of electrical and plumbing work. Was supposed to get back with me last week, but hasn't. Gotta love it.

House rehab week in review

Got a good chunk of work done this week.
- tiled kitchen floor
- primed and painted kitchen
- installed most of the upper cabinets
- put underlayment in the bathroom
- removed plywood from the shower area
- planted grass seed

The shower was a real pain. For whatever reason, the previous owners put up plywood instead of backer board on the plumbing wall. So, that had to be taken out. The faucets were very difficult to remove, but with a good chunk of swearing and elbow grease, they finally gave way. They are back in place again in the picture, since we need water access for cleaning and such.


Now we need to put up new green board and then the shower will be ready for a surround.

Kitchen is really coming along nicely.

Before


After!!

My new ladder!

I got my ladder the other day, and have been playing around with it. Found a great price on QVC for this - only $198

24-in-1 MultiFunction 17'Ladder w/ Leg Leveler by Little Giant



These are some of the functions:
Positions include four A-frame ladders, six staircase ladders, three 90-degree ladders, seven extension ladders, and two trestles for four levels of scaffolding
and a leg leveler for stability

It's very sturdy, and surprisingly lightweight (looks like it would be heavier). I had debated about getting this, but now I am really glad I did. Going to be useful for our own house, let alone the investment properties.

Kitchen floor done

Making progress this week. The kitchen floor is done, and it really looks nice! We got a tile from Lowes - the new natural stone vinyl tile line. It has a nice texture and a matte finish - really looks like stone, with beveled edges.
The trim in the kitchen is just about finished, and then the wall paint. I am going to paint around the cabinet area before hanging them, so that I don't have to tape off the cabinets later (I hate taping).

The backerboard is down for the bathroom ceramic tile. Should begin tiling later this week.

Rehab house schedule this week

Schedule for this week includes:

- Priming kitchen walls
- laying kitchen floor tile
- installing kitchen cabinets
- putting down underlayment in bathroom
- some landscape work

Rehab week in review

This week went pretty well.
Work done:
- driveway sealcoated
- painted columns outside
- removed overgrown bushes
- primed all 3 bedrooms
- finished painting the kitchen cabinets
- kitchen walls repaired
- lawn mowed

Did not get the bathroom floor done, so that is on the list for next week.

Pics of the back of house and large yard:




This is before any work done, such as debris removal and mowing. It's a really large back yard, larger than most in the neighborhood by far.
-------------------

Kitchen wall repairs:

Outside work

The overgrown shrubs are now gone from outside the house. Also, I sanded and painted the columns since it was so warm out. We had someone seal coat the 2 driveways. He was working on the neighbor's houses, and we got him to do ours too. Found out he does junk outs as well, and quoted us a price way less than getting a dumpster would have been to clean out the garage.
Worked out well!


Complete with snow - weird to look at this pic when it is 83 degrees out!

-----------


One of the driveways is sealcoated. You can see the guys working on the other one. This is post bush, and pre-paint.

------------


Columns now white (they need another coat). Still have to do the top, but it looks so much better already. We will be planting some stella doro daylilies in front of the house in a week or so.

Great windows

Today I spent time cleaning the windows. I have to admit some jealousy over these windows. There are nice vinyl tilt-in windows. Super easy to clean. Way better than the 100 year old windows in our own house!

I do feel some real irritation towards the previous owners of this house. This is really a nice house with nice features, and they did not treat it very well.

All 3 bedrooms are now primed and ready for painting in the future. The kitchen is now ready for some wall repair and flooring, then the cabinets (probably next week).

With the beautiful weather this week, I hope to get started painting the columns outside and mowing the lawn.

Off to the big box store tonight to get underlayment for the bathroom, and some drywall.

Demo pics

Here are some miscellaneous pictures of pre and post demo.



-----------------------


------------------



---------------

Week in review

All the things done this week:

- Removed both toilets and bathroom vanity
- Removed kitchen cabinets and counters
- Patched walls and primed the master bedroom
- Patched walls in other 2 bedrooms
- Removed bathroom flooring and flooring in toilet closet
- Patched ceiling cracks upstairs
- Continued painting the cabinets
- Started removing some of the overgrown juniper bushes in front of the house
- Continued cleaning
- Scheduled a roofer

Felt pretty good about what was accomplished this week. After removing the bathroom flooring, the area under the toilet is rotten, which is no surprise. You could see the sagging floor before even removing the toilet. The flange looks to be fine, PVC - so it was replaced sometime after 1920 :)

Goals for next week:

- Fix floor and install new underlayment in bathroom
- Prime other bedrooms
- Mow the lawn and take stock of what yard work needs doing
- Fix damaged walls in kitchen
- Prepare kitchen floor for tile

Toilets are gone!

Both toilets are out of the house! Yay! The kitchen closet toilet was nasty, nasty, nasty. There were some sort of maggot things in the bowl and the smell was very fetid. Ugh, ugh, ugh.

Also, the bathroom vanity is out. I had thought of selling that, but turns out it wasn't in as good shape as I thought. A piece just fell off of it (cheap mdf) when I removed it.

Put the pedestal sink in for a test run, and had a panic attack that it wasn't going to fit with the plumbing, but it worked out okay. It's a really beautiful sink, nice and big and opens up the bathroom a lot.

To be filed under 'duh'....
I couldn't figure out why the tub wasn't draining. Had cleared all the hair out of the drain, plunged it out, etc. It was draining, but really slow. Well, turns out the tub stopper was mostly closed. Can't believe I spent so much time trying to figure that out!

Making progress. Will be calling a roofer back tomorrow to schedule the new roof. $4500. Sigh.....