Rookie Homeowner

Well over a week off the project. But time well spent at home with family and friends.

It's difficult to walk out of a large project such as this one, be gone for a week, and then try and pick up where I left off. I spent well over half the afternoon recalibrating my mindset and figuring out what materials I'd need for the coming two days.

Good thing Home Depot is open New Year's Day. I have a kitchen consultation that will help me figure out where to go from here.

I bought the paint for the bedroom and office, and I'm already second guessing myself. But I guess most color-blind people get nervous after choosing paint colors.

I'm heading back tonight to go build a work bench and a couple sawhorses. Refinishing the cabinets should be easier that way.

Well, the indian food in my apartment kitchen smells good, and I'm ready to eat.

A breath of fresh air
Originally uploaded by Michael Browne.

We're all enjoying the fruit of our labor--a chance to sit back and laugh and drink the remaining coffee.

I get by...
Originally uploaded by Michael Browne.

with a little help from my friends. The day could never have gone so well without the help of these four outstanding people

A day of dumpstering
Originally uploaded by Michael Browne.

Mikey drops a load into the dumpster using our impromptu ramp

I awoke Sunday to see a fresh layer of snow on the ground--oof!--today's the day I planned to move everything into the dumpster. We got over to the house with donuts and fresh coffee, and the snow started blowing more and more.

But we got through it, and emptied out the garage and the back yard in no time at all. We even had enough time to finish the kitchen demo by removing the countertop, sink and the rest of the wall, as well as removing the carpet from the back bedroom.

Removal Complete
Originally uploaded by Michael Browne.

Yee Ha! The porch demolition is compelte. The past 15 years of problems lie in the yard behind my beautiful house.

If I had a hammer...
Originally uploaded by Michael Browne.

Jeremy's an animal with the sledge hammer. Notice the hole above his head, which held about 40 gallons of composting water and leaves. We sawed off the tar roof, section-by-section and then knocked out the metal supports with a sledge.

The porch, before the demo
Originally uploaded by Michael Browne.

It looks nice enough, but an hour into the demo project, we realized this porch was doomed from the start. 15 years of denial and low budget patching compounded the problem, which led to a difficult removal.

The back porch was quite a project. Going into this, I knew it needed work. But I didn't realize how much work had been put into the porch to solve a problem that was inherent from its original design.

When the porch was installed, the designer didn't figure in enough pitch or drainage. This made the roof leak profusely. The tenants at the time put tar on it, then put gravel on it, then put tar on it again. This only trapped all the water and saturated the support beams. When we started ripping the ceiling down, we discovered the vent holes had been painted over years ago, rendering them useless and only causing more problems.

Ugh. That, my friends, is why it's important to design something right from the start.

Mid-removal 2
Originally uploaded by Michael Browne.

Jeremy's holding his tool, frustrated with the fact that back then, drywall seams were joined with wire mesh. We needed a grinder to get through that stuff.

Mid-removal 1
Originally uploaded by Michael Browne.

All that rubble...plaster, on top of drywall, on top of drywall.

The Clever Household
Originally uploaded by Michael Browne.

The kitchen wall is representative of '50s era living, when "working" wasn't part of clean living. The acutal working was sequestered from the rest of the house...

This weekend was the most productive by far, thanks to friends Jeremy, Chet, Mike and Julie.

It started on Friday when I took the day off work. Jeremy came in from Oregon to help on the project, as he was already in Indiana helping his folks build an addition to their house. He came in and we started more demo work. We started in the kitchen by ripping out the dividing wall between the kitchen and the dining room. We theorized that the wall was there since the house was built in the '50s, and in that era, people didn't look so kindly on things like kitchen labor-- out of sight out of mind; almost like building a second staircase for the butlers, or indentured servants, or slaves, or whatever they were. But this is the '00, and the kitchen is the centerpiece of the house. That's why I'm putting most of my resources into making it nice.

Last night I installed the rest of the new locks. I learned a lesson on that one---cheap locks are cheap for a reason. They're difficult to install, they don't look good and they will only cause more problems than they solve.

I also learned that cheap paint is cheap for a reason--it takes three coats to do what one coat of the expensive stuff will.

I asked my plumber (Roger at First Call Plumbing) about the process I'm going through and he gave me some solid suggestions. By finishing the bedroom and office first, I can start slowly moving in my things. Then, you move to the bathroom so you can have a place to shower and do dishes if need be...

So that's my plan of attack--bedroom and office are being painted right now. Next is spackling, followed by the final paint and new fixtures.

Once the water is turned on tomorrow, I'll be able to wash the window accessories in the wash basin.

The dumpster comes Friday and I have reinforcements all weekend long—Plenty of time to get rid of all the crap, knock out a wall or two and really get the place down to a shell. After Christmas, most likely, all the fun stuff will begin.

kitchen01
Originally uploaded by Michael Browne.

So after I removed the dishwasher for cleaning, I noticed the floor was rather moist. I started sweeping out the rubble from the floor removal, and as my broom struck the drain pipe, it shattered. If you look closely, you'll see the piece sitting under the white PVC pipe--full of plastic forks.

I was amazed, but glad that I didn't finish the project, only to realize the drain didn't work...

Lots of little things this past Friday night and Saturday afternoon...

* installing the rest of the locks
* pressure washing the basement to rid of any residual mold
* primer on the bedroom walls
* prying off the rest of the kitchen floor (see picture above.)
* cleaning out the gutters
* raking and bagging the leaves

driveway01
Originally uploaded by Michael Browne.

This is the driveway, before the turnaround modification. I forgot to take a picture of the completed project today, so I'll be back tomorrow with good visuals of the situation.

I talked with my contractor again after he spoke with his attorney and we both decided it would be best to just proceed. The turnaround is obivously on my property line, and with the verbal agreement my neighbor's already given me... well, the lawyer says the verbal is as good as the contract.

And last night, I successfully backed up my car into the turnaround and pulled out without fearing for my life.

Today, I wrote a check for the remaining balance. First major project, complete. Well, almost. I still need to build a wall and then cement everything over come springtime.

Minor complications today, as my neighbor has expressed reluctance to sigin the formal agreement for my contractor to dig close to the property line. The agreement was drawn up by my contractor to protect himself since neither myself nor my neighbor really knows where the official property line is. After talked with the nieghbor, he said it was fine to proceed, but now that I ask him to sign his name to it, he refuses.

I'm afraid I might need to hire a surveyist to be 100% sure it's all on my property.

Yesterday was the start of digging up the driveway to access the sewer line. I got to the place early to meet with the contractor and started dismantling a portion of the retaining wall so that creating the turnaround would be that much easier for the heavy equipment. I figure, the more I prep a job, the cheaper and more efficient it will be.

After dismantling a six foot section of wall, I had a chance to check out my neighbor's house which is a mirror image of mine. He's done some really cool things with his place, but I'm skeptical of his solution for the wet basement—instead of creating French drains inside or outside or using a sump pump system, he's raised his floor with wood, letting the water flow freely underneath. He mentioned he had mouse problems... I can only wonder why.

I also trimmed the tree out front, which will eventually have to come down. It's a shame because it currently shields my front window from the busy street out front, but the 40' pine is eroding my foundation, and it's suspected to be the cause of the sewer problems. I've considered removing it myself when the dumpster comes by using my rock climbing gear, climbing to the top of the tree and using my sawzall to cut it down, piece by piece, but I want to think more on that before I go ahead with the project.

Once the plumber finally arrived, he brought some forms for my other neighbors to sign, acknowledging that the boundary for the turnaround was OK with them.

******

After work, I went out to Sears and bought the big mama dehumidifier. it's a 70 pint system with a drain hose and a heating coil that will keep the unit running below 60°. When I got to the place, a nice little Mustang back hoe was sitting directly over the 4' long, 5' deep hole leading to the sewer. Nice work guys... Once I got the dehumidi running, I went upstairs to start ripping out the kitchen floor.

The edges came out nicely, revealing similar tile underneath as what was found in the basement. Unfortunately, the middle section of the floor was a different story. I pried as much as I could for an hour or so, then decided to pour some water on the floor in hopes of loosening the glue. Then I headed to my favorite establishment for a refreshment before retiring for the evening.

garage01
Originally uploaded by Michael Browne.

The garage, currently filled with the basement floor tiles, the carpet, the paneling and the dropped ceiling. Ugh...

den01
Originally uploaded by Michael Browne.

The den, after one full day of demo and a few hours of clean-up,

Part of the cool thing about buying this house is that it was a foreclosure. When I think of a foreclosure, I think of someone else's misfortune, but I really think this worked out for both the previous owner and myself. I found out from the neighbors that the previous tenant owned more than one property, so when the sewer line broke, he just abandoned it.

That's where I come in.

The house has a number of problems, the first being the broken sewer line. I found this problem after I put a bid in on the place, which made me upset at the time, but now that I know it's not a terrible expense, I'm OK with it. During my inspection, I hired Roto Rooter to take their shit camera on a line and record the condition of the sewer line. They located a 4' section of pipe that needed replacement. I got a few bids on the project and decided on one friendly, local company to do the work. I meet them tomorrow to pay half the contract amount and get them started.

From the start of this project, I made sure to hire a really good inspector. He was expensive, but I've used his assessment as a way to prioritize all the projects.

Here's what I did in the first three days of owning the home:

*replace the locks
*cut out the bushed located too close to the house
*replace a broken stone in the front steps (for insurance reasons)
*pull off a third of the front patio paver stones (again, for insurance reasons)
*remove a shrub that blocked my view of the road (to back out of the driveway safely)
*remove tiles from the basement floor
*remove the basement drop ceiling
*remove the paneling in the finished basement
*spray walls with a 10:1 bleach solution to rid of any possible mold
*patch the connection between the water heater exhaust pipe and the chimney
*install new light bulbs

Whew. That took a lot out of me.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the basement before my pry bar got hold of it. I'll post the most recent pictures of the basement and the garage filled with the basement finishings after I'm finished with this post.

Before I left the premises tonight, I made sure to talk with my neighbors to discuss where the property line was. The plumbers/excavaters that come tomorrow will also create a turnaround since my driveway backs out directly on to a major road.

Where do I start? I had the idea to start a blog about my new home renovation process two weeks before I signed the papers. Now that I'm officially five days into owning my home, well, you can see I have some catching up to do. I'll do my best to organize my thoughts on how I got to this point....

About a year ago, I realized I wanted to buy a house. Signing my rent check every month felt like I was using my own blood to write the amount, and my landlords actually encouraged me to buy a home. Despite their heavy conservative background, they're actuallly pretty cool people. The husband is who I have learned everything from. I've helped him renovate three properties, and using the skills I picked up from him, it didn't seem out of the question to take on a project of my own.

After doing considerable research, I found out that the US Federal Housing and Urban Development maintains ownership of all sorts of foreclosed properties... from huge abandoned housing projects down to tiny townhouses. I found a realtor who specializes in HUD properties. He helped me locate one that I liked and helped me through the process, securing a good bid on a property that needed just the type of work that I know how to do.

Last Thursday, I signed the papers and got the key to the place.