House update

I'm writing this post mid-march. Had I written it a few weeks ago it would be a completely different sort of post...more happy and full of optimism. As it is, I'm feeling a bit stressed about the whole thing.

Anyway, thank heaven one of the houses is currently rented!  I'm so glad we don't have two dilapidated houses to work on at the same time!

When we looked over the house that we are renovating, we went back and forth on just how much to do. We thought about gutting the place, then decided to just mainly paint and fix the bathrooms.  Then, after having several people come give their opinions, went back to gutting.

We pulled out a kitchen (mixed feelings about yanking out the solid wood cabinets), gutted two bathrooms. tore out almost all of the walls and reconfigured the space.  We learned that neither Frank nor I am very good at picturing a space different than it already is.  But luckily other people are.

We moved the laundry upstairs and opened up the main living space but lost one bedroom.  It will be so much nicer to live in but it is A LOT OF WORK.

We did the demo ourselves.  

At the beginning...so full of hope and vigor

Doneen helped

Frank worked long and hard for many days!

We hired out plumbing (all new water lines and many new drains), electrical (all new), framing and drywall and mudding. Also putting stucco on the exterior. The contractors have been both great and frustrating. The plumber quit his company after one day of working on our job so they had to send other plumbers out who weren't as familiar with the plan. Felt like we were constantly clarifying and fixing miscommunications.  Stucco guy is awesome but it's been snowing here and there and he has recently hurt his shoulder.  Framer has been great but, again, we make changes or we miscommunicate (often TOTALLY our fault and sometimes not) and things have to be changed or fixed.  Even after much planning, measuring and discussing-a door turns out to hit the ceiling where it is sloped. How did that happen??  The only option is to chop a corner off of the door and move on. It's a quirky house anyway.

Stucco looking good!

old bathroom/bedroom closet

New bathroom walls

We found weird stuff in the walls. Strange ductwork made from downspout, load bearing walls that had been cut out drastically. The framer said he would fix the fact that the house was currently held up by magic. Ha!

We found out after closing on the houses that their utilities are connected. We had no idea that was the case and it has added a level of annoyance and frustration for us.

We've always been the type of people to plan for emergencies so we've been buying all of the supplies we think we might need so that we can work on the house without interruption. Then we heard about the whole Coronavirus thing and started to worry about the supply chain for needs products. When other people were panic shopping for toilet paper, we were at Lowes and Home Depot buying up faucets and door knobs and trim work and paint!  Our garage is full of supplies and I'm sure we've forgotten some items. We've got a washer/dryer on the way (hopefully) and a refrigerator waiting to be brought to the house. 

The drywall just finished and next is the taping and mudding.  Then I will paint like crazy so we can get cabinets and floors in.

We are hoping that the electrical inspector can come sign off on the work to divide the electrical service before the city shuts down from coronavirus. Nerve wracking.

We really need to get the place rented so that we don't have two mortgages to pay.