Short Answer: A Bust.
House #2 (Saturday)
I got to the property about an hour before the open house was scheduled to begin. I went around and double-checked things, opened the blinds, and turned on all the lights. I put balloons on the signs I bought and put them out in front of the house and at an intersection outside the subdivision. I didn't really know how many people would show, so I bought several 12-packs of soda, some cookies, and mints and laid them all out as well. I had a sign-in sheet and flyers laying on the bar, also.
And then I just waited.
Around 2:30p, I saw someone pulling up, so I got waited for them to come in. Just then my cell phone rang. It was from someone with a Houston area code. I looked out the front window and noticed the person was on a cell phone, too, so I thought maybe it was the same person. Sure enough, I opened the door and the man said he was calling the number just then. I asked him to come in and take a look around. We chatted while he was looking around as he seemed to have a laundry list of questions to ask. He said he was looking for a 4BR in the area. I told him I actually had a 4BR for sale/rent, also, although, it was located further south. I told him I was having an open house on it the following day, so he could swing by and take a look at it.
The man said he and his wife are moving over from Houston (hence, the call from Houston). He said he went through a divorce a while back and his credit is shot because of it. He also had a business which failed at the same time. However, he recently remarried and is looking to start fresh in the Austin area. H said he starts work this coming week at a new job, which, he said on more than one occasion, should pay $60k+/yr. He said his wife is also looking for a job, which should bring in more money. His exact words after telling me all this was, "So, if you pull my credit, it won;t look very good." Ugh. His intentions were to rent for a year or so and then buy the house via owner financing. I told him it was a definate possibility.
For the next 1.5 hours I got absolutely no traffic at all. I saw a couple cars drive, stop, and the person get out to get a flyer, but no one came in. I didn't know how many people would come through initially, but I thought it would be a lot more than ONE - especially, since it was a gorgeous day for riding around looking at open houses. Maybe people were gearing up for the coming holiday week??? I was just totally disappointed.
House #1 (Sunday)
The man who came buy House #2 on Saturday said he was going to look at another house in the area on Sunday, but would swing by House #1 afterwards. Sure enough, he came by the house around 2:30p. He really liked the house, but had a couple of reservations. First, he said he needed four TRUE bedrooms. In House #1, the 4th BR is really a nursery/study/exercise room as it is joined by the master BR via double doors. He also didn't like the monthly lease price of $1,195. I made it artifically high to attract buyers more than renters, therefore, if someone wanted to rent at that price, I would make some decent cash flow. Lastly, he wanted a house that already had ALL the appliances installed (i.e., fridge, washer, dryer). I told him that I'd probably throw in a fridge if someone was serious about renting, but would not throw in a W/D unless the leasee was committed on a long-term contract.
He said the other house he went to view before this one was a 2-story, was all-electric (he preferred gas for cooking), had a msaller family room, but had 4 true bedrooms, was priced about $150/mo cheaper, and had all the appliances already. I told him it would probably be a tough decision then. He wants his wife to come out and look before committing to anything, and asked if I would be available this weekend to show the house, which I said "Yes."
Again, that was the ONLY person who came through to look at the house. I was even more disappointed this time than with House #2's showing.
I discussed some other options with my wife later that night. I told her we could put ads in the Green Sheet and/or local paper. We could also pay $400 and get an MLS listing via one of those flat fee listing services. Lastly, we could lose some profit on the backend and have a Realtor list both houses. I'm strongly leaning towards the last option (the Realtor). We'll lose around $7500-$8000 in seller's commission fees alone, but it may be worth it to get these places sold quicker. Of course, we are running into the absolute worse time for selling a home, so even that may not be too promising.
Monday, November 20, 2006
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Open House
I may have mentioned in a recent entry that I will be having an open house on both House #1 and #2 this coming weekend. I plan to have the open house on House #2 this Saturday, and House #1 this Sunday. I've never had an open house, and it's been a while since I've even been to one, but I figure there can't be too much preparation aside from getting some cookies out, soda/waters in a fridge, flyers made, and a sign-in sheet out. Each open house will be scheduled for two hours. I put "OPEN HOUSE" signs in the yards already with a date/time on them so that people who drive by and see the other sign (and pick up a flyer) will know about the open house beforehand. I also put some ads on Craigslist about the upcoming open houses.
The RE agent that called me last Friday (or was it Saturday), called me again yesterday morning. He left a VM saying he was going to be golfing and won't be done until 3pm. He asked me to call him to see about showing House #1 to him and his father. I wasn't able to call him back until almost 3pm, and he said he didn't go golfing after all (we had terrible winds yesterday). He said he would still like to see the house, but it would probably be more like Thursday. He then said he'd call his dad right away and call me back with a definate date/time. The way he said it, I thought he'd call back within 10-15 mins. Well, here it is over 24hrs later, and I still haven't heard from him. This is actually the 2nd time he's called and said he'd call right back, but didn't. Oh well. If he calls before the weekend, I'll tell him just to come out during the open house. :-)
I still haven't heard back from that couple, either, who I showed House #1 to last week or the guy who I showed House #2 to the other night. Lots of nibbles, but no bites yet.
The RE agent that called me last Friday (or was it Saturday), called me again yesterday morning. He left a VM saying he was going to be golfing and won't be done until 3pm. He asked me to call him to see about showing House #1 to him and his father. I wasn't able to call him back until almost 3pm, and he said he didn't go golfing after all (we had terrible winds yesterday). He said he would still like to see the house, but it would probably be more like Thursday. He then said he'd call his dad right away and call me back with a definate date/time. The way he said it, I thought he'd call back within 10-15 mins. Well, here it is over 24hrs later, and I still haven't heard from him. This is actually the 2nd time he's called and said he'd call right back, but didn't. Oh well. If he calls before the weekend, I'll tell him just to come out during the open house. :-)
I still haven't heard back from that couple, either, who I showed House #1 to last week or the guy who I showed House #2 to the other night. Lots of nibbles, but no bites yet.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
OT: Beta Blogger
I haven't investigated this much, but I got an error recently trying to post a reponse to another person's blog the other day and it gave me an error saying I couldn't. I can't remember the exact error, but it had something to do with me recently merging to the new beta blogger. So, if someone is trying to post a response here and gets the same error, I guess I'm screwed temporarily as I can't seem to revert back to the old format. Bah!
Small World
So, I get home last night and am in the middle of hanging some shirts, when my wife yells to me that my phone is ringing. I get it too late, and write the number down. As I'm writing, the phone beeps and shows that the person left a message. So, I call my VM and listen to the message. It's from a man wanting to know more about House #2. I was going to go to both houses anyway to hang some "OPEN HOUSE" signs for this coming weekend, so I wait to call him when I'm at House #2.
I drop by HD to pick up the signs and head to House #2. As soon as I get there, I call the man back. He says he owns a house in the neighborhood, and his mother is wanting to come down from West Virginia to live near him. I tell him I'm originally from West Virginia, too, and that if he wants to see the house now, I am there and can meet him. He says he'll be right over.
Sure enough, not more than 5 mins later, he's at the house. Beforehand, I had turned all the lights in the house on so he (or I) won't have to do it when he gets there. As he's looking around, we talk about West Virginia and how it came to be that we both ended up in the outskirts of Austin, TX. Ironically, our paths were almost exactly the same. He said he was in the Army and was stationed at Ft. Hood for 8 years. He got out and moved down here so that he could get a job as a nurse. I moved from West Virginia to San Antonio due to being in the Air Force. I was in the military for 6 years, and got out and wound up where I'm at due mainly to my career as well. He says he's been trying to get his mother to move down here to get away from those dreadful winters in West Virginia, which, ironically again, is what I've been trying to do with my mother ever since my step-father passed away two years ago.
He asks a few questions about leasing the home (i.e., terms, specials I have, security deposit), and says he'll talk to his mother more about it. He said it's the exact same floorplan as his, and his mother fell in love with it when she came to visit several months ago. He also said the plan was to have her come down in mid-December, have a house or two lined up for her to choose, drive back to WVa to pick up her things, drive back here, and unload her stuff. So, he said they were looking at around a Jan 1st move-in, which sounded good to me.
It was interesting, but I was more happy to meet someone from where I grew up more than knowing I may have a renter for the house (note: there aren't too many people I meet down here that are from WV). After he left, I put up the "OPEN HOUSE" sign next to the other sign in the yard and left to House #1 to do the same. I plan to have an open house on House #2 Saturday and then have one for House #1 on Sunday. I also noticed that the flyer tubes for BOTH houses were empty, and I didn't have any spares. I had just checked these on Saturday, and they were about half full, so I must've gotten a lot of lookers on Sunday. I need to print out a LOT of flyers to put out tonight AND to keep as backups at each house AND for this weekend's open houses.
I drop by HD to pick up the signs and head to House #2. As soon as I get there, I call the man back. He says he owns a house in the neighborhood, and his mother is wanting to come down from West Virginia to live near him. I tell him I'm originally from West Virginia, too, and that if he wants to see the house now, I am there and can meet him. He says he'll be right over.
Sure enough, not more than 5 mins later, he's at the house. Beforehand, I had turned all the lights in the house on so he (or I) won't have to do it when he gets there. As he's looking around, we talk about West Virginia and how it came to be that we both ended up in the outskirts of Austin, TX. Ironically, our paths were almost exactly the same. He said he was in the Army and was stationed at Ft. Hood for 8 years. He got out and moved down here so that he could get a job as a nurse. I moved from West Virginia to San Antonio due to being in the Air Force. I was in the military for 6 years, and got out and wound up where I'm at due mainly to my career as well. He says he's been trying to get his mother to move down here to get away from those dreadful winters in West Virginia, which, ironically again, is what I've been trying to do with my mother ever since my step-father passed away two years ago.
He asks a few questions about leasing the home (i.e., terms, specials I have, security deposit), and says he'll talk to his mother more about it. He said it's the exact same floorplan as his, and his mother fell in love with it when she came to visit several months ago. He also said the plan was to have her come down in mid-December, have a house or two lined up for her to choose, drive back to WVa to pick up her things, drive back here, and unload her stuff. So, he said they were looking at around a Jan 1st move-in, which sounded good to me.
It was interesting, but I was more happy to meet someone from where I grew up more than knowing I may have a renter for the house (note: there aren't too many people I meet down here that are from WV). After he left, I put up the "OPEN HOUSE" sign next to the other sign in the yard and left to House #1 to do the same. I plan to have an open house on House #2 Saturday and then have one for House #1 on Sunday. I also noticed that the flyer tubes for BOTH houses were empty, and I didn't have any spares. I had just checked these on Saturday, and they were about half full, so I must've gotten a lot of lookers on Sunday. I need to print out a LOT of flyers to put out tonight AND to keep as backups at each house AND for this weekend's open houses.
Monday, November 13, 2006
House #2: Finished
I'm finally finished with House #2 - well, almost. I spent 6 hours at the house Saturday and finished the rest of the cleaning and touch-up painting. After vaccuuming and steam cleaning the carpet, I've decided against replacing it. There were a coupld of stains that didn't come completely out, but they weren't so bad that it would require ripping up the entire carpet in the house. Man, was I exhausted afterwards. I not only finished vaccuuming and steam cleaning, but I also ...
... finished painting the trim on the baseboards and door frames,
... removed the 7-8 cement blocks from the fence outside (I guess their dog would try to crawl under the fence, so they put blocks in some areas to prevent him from going out),
... cleaned all the windows (inside and out),
... cleaned the outside rear door and siding,
... got on my hands and knees and scrubbed the linoleum in the kitchen, pantry area, utility room, and entry with Comet,
... cleaned the kitchen again, including the sink this time,
... went around and did some spot cleaning,
... gathered all my tools and supplies and loaded them in my car.
I'm sure there were some other things, but that's all I can remember. My back, knees, arms and fingers were killing me afterward from scrubbing the floors. They had a lot of scuff marks, etc., so I had to get down on my knees and scrub hard to get them out.
I'm still not completely done, as I left two large bags of trash and my ladder there that I need to pick up. Also, with carpet that has never been steam cleaned before, when you do it the first time, little piles of carpet fibers appear every so often. It happened with House #1 and it happened with this house. Unfortunately, the vaccuum I used to clean beforehand is old and they don;t seem to make bags for it anymore (I checked at Walmart and Home Depot beforehand). So I still need to go back and vaccuum the whole house again to get the little piles up and to give it a nice appearance.
My wife suggested having an open house next weekend, which I agreed. The weekend after that is Thanksgiving, and holidays (especially Thanksgiving) aren't usually a good time to show houses as people are too busy visiting relatives and/or out of town. So, I'll try to get things set for a showing this coming weekend at BOTH houses (different times, of course).
BTW, I haven;t heard back from anyone yet regarding House #1. I emailed the couple who came and saw it last week about the financing, but haven't gotten a response. I also expected the RE agent who called me about his dad to call me back, but he never has. Maybe the list price scared him off or something - who knows.
... finished painting the trim on the baseboards and door frames,
... removed the 7-8 cement blocks from the fence outside (I guess their dog would try to crawl under the fence, so they put blocks in some areas to prevent him from going out),
... cleaned all the windows (inside and out),
... cleaned the outside rear door and siding,
... got on my hands and knees and scrubbed the linoleum in the kitchen, pantry area, utility room, and entry with Comet,
... cleaned the kitchen again, including the sink this time,
... went around and did some spot cleaning,
... gathered all my tools and supplies and loaded them in my car.
I'm sure there were some other things, but that's all I can remember. My back, knees, arms and fingers were killing me afterward from scrubbing the floors. They had a lot of scuff marks, etc., so I had to get down on my knees and scrub hard to get them out.
I'm still not completely done, as I left two large bags of trash and my ladder there that I need to pick up. Also, with carpet that has never been steam cleaned before, when you do it the first time, little piles of carpet fibers appear every so often. It happened with House #1 and it happened with this house. Unfortunately, the vaccuum I used to clean beforehand is old and they don;t seem to make bags for it anymore (I checked at Walmart and Home Depot beforehand). So I still need to go back and vaccuum the whole house again to get the little piles up and to give it a nice appearance.
My wife suggested having an open house next weekend, which I agreed. The weekend after that is Thanksgiving, and holidays (especially Thanksgiving) aren't usually a good time to show houses as people are too busy visiting relatives and/or out of town. So, I'll try to get things set for a showing this coming weekend at BOTH houses (different times, of course).
BTW, I haven;t heard back from anyone yet regarding House #1. I emailed the couple who came and saw it last week about the financing, but haven't gotten a response. I also expected the RE agent who called me about his dad to call me back, but he never has. Maybe the list price scared him off or something - who knows.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Activity Heating Up
I guess I just need to give it time for my marketing to take root. Within the last few days, I must've gotten around 10 calls regarding House #1 alone.
On Wednesday, I showed the house to the couple who called me about owner financing. They actually live in the same neighborhood and rent right now. They said House #1 is the exact floor plan as the house they are renting, which was great because they liked it. The lady fell in love with the house, which was an added plus. They said their backyard is actually a little bigger than theis house, but they liked the idea that there was no one behind the house (it's just a large meadow). She said if she could, she would buy the house today, which really sounded promising. Of course then the bad news came ... It turns out that their lease isn't up in January - as I had guessed - but in MARCH. Ouch! I told her that that would be a definate problem as 5 months is a long time to hold a house - even if she were to put money down. She talked with her husband with me there and asked if they could afford two payments (which he replied "no"). I told her some landlords are flexible and maybe they could talk to their landlord to see if they could work out an arrangement. She also wanted me to run some figures for her as to what the owner financing may look like. They were interested in full owner financing with 5% or so down. I told her without calculating it that it sounded like the payments would be in the neighborhood of $1,200/mo, which was a little higher than they wanted to pay. Later, I was astonished that my guess was pretty much on mark to what I had figured. I haven't had a lot of time to do different kinds of creative financing, but these are two options I came up which should satisfy their financial situation, while giving me good cash flow:
I also got a call from several other people wanting to know what the owner financing entails, but that's all they've asked. Today, though, I got a call from a RE agent who said he has a client interested in it. I called him back and he said the client is his Dad who got divorced recently, and his wife failed to sign over the house, so it got foreclosed. His credit is now dinged with a foreclosure, so he is looking at owner financing. He said he could put down $10,000 (maybe more) and wondered what terms I had. I told him I could work with $10k down, but I was firm on my list price of $145k. I told him we could work out hard numbers on the financing later if he looked at the house and decided he wanted it. He said he would call his client/Dad tonight and call me back with a time to meet.
Lots of other stuff happening - too much to write about. Maybe next week if I have some time, I'll write more.
On Wednesday, I showed the house to the couple who called me about owner financing. They actually live in the same neighborhood and rent right now. They said House #1 is the exact floor plan as the house they are renting, which was great because they liked it. The lady fell in love with the house, which was an added plus. They said their backyard is actually a little bigger than theis house, but they liked the idea that there was no one behind the house (it's just a large meadow). She said if she could, she would buy the house today, which really sounded promising. Of course then the bad news came ... It turns out that their lease isn't up in January - as I had guessed - but in MARCH. Ouch! I told her that that would be a definate problem as 5 months is a long time to hold a house - even if she were to put money down. She talked with her husband with me there and asked if they could afford two payments (which he replied "no"). I told her some landlords are flexible and maybe they could talk to their landlord to see if they could work out an arrangement. She also wanted me to run some figures for her as to what the owner financing may look like. They were interested in full owner financing with 5% or so down. I told her without calculating it that it sounded like the payments would be in the neighborhood of $1,200/mo, which was a little higher than they wanted to pay. Later, I was astonished that my guess was pretty much on mark to what I had figured. I haven't had a lot of time to do different kinds of creative financing, but these are two options I came up which should satisfy their financial situation, while giving me good cash flow:
Option #1
===================================
Sale Price: $145,000
Down Payment: $5,000
Financed: $140,000
1st Year: 30yr @9.25% => $1152/mo
2nd Year: 29yr @9.50% => $1177/mo.
3rd Year: 28yr @9.75% => $1202/mo.
4th+ Year: 27yr @10.0% => $1226/mo.
Option #2
===================================
Sale Price: $145,000
Down Payment: $7,250
Financed: $137,750
1st Year: 30yr @9.00% => $1108/mo
2nd Year: 29yr @9.25% => $1132/mo.
3rd Year: 28yr @9.50% => $1157/mo.
4th Year: 27yr @9.75% => $1181/mo.
5th+ Year: 26yr @10.0% => $1205/mo.
I also got a call from several other people wanting to know what the owner financing entails, but that's all they've asked. Today, though, I got a call from a RE agent who said he has a client interested in it. I called him back and he said the client is his Dad who got divorced recently, and his wife failed to sign over the house, so it got foreclosed. His credit is now dinged with a foreclosure, so he is looking at owner financing. He said he could put down $10,000 (maybe more) and wondered what terms I had. I told him I could work with $10k down, but I was firm on my list price of $145k. I told him we could work out hard numbers on the financing later if he looked at the house and decided he wanted it. He said he would call his client/Dad tonight and call me back with a time to meet.
Lots of other stuff happening - too much to write about. Maybe next week if I have some time, I'll write more.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
A Wild Four Hours
I tell you nothing in this industry should faze me anymore. I got to House #2 yesterday around 4pm and left about 8pm. Here is what happened in those four hours ...
There were two things that topped my priority list: fixing the drywall repairs and fixing the doors. I wanted to get those jobs finished before anything else, so I started with the drywall. I actually took a digital camera this time and took some pictures of the area after I had sanded away the old spackle and paint. I just need to find time now to download and post the pictures. The first thing I did was spray on the spackle again. It says to let it set 2-5 mins and then to use a straight-edge to "flatten" the spackle down into the rough textured look. I used one of my old bandit signs as the straight-edge and it worked great.
While the spackle was drying, I started with the doors. There were four doors I had to trim slightly due to them rubbing against the carpet. I took each one down and trimmed about 3/32" off of the bottom which turned out to be perfect. During that time, I received FOUR phone calls. I guess the noise of the saw drowned out the ringing as I didn't know I got any calls until I checked sometime later. Three of the calls were from private numbers, and only one left a message. The 4th call was from my 1-866 number, which I couldn't check until I got home later. so, I listened to the VM and it was from a lady who saw my yard sign for House #1 and was interested. I immediately called her back. She said she lives in the same neighborhood as House #1, but is renting right now. She said what caught her eye about this house was the fact I was offering owner financing. She wanted to know more about what all that entailed, so I told her the best I could using layman's terms. She also asked if I could sell the house to them on a Rent-to-Own basis, which I told her would be a possibility (although with Texas' recent laws limiting L/O's, I would need to contact a RE attorney first). We talked a little more and I set up an appointment to meet with her and her husband tonight at House #1.
Whoo-hoo!!!
After talking with her, several things went through my mind. First, she said her current lease doesn't expire until the beginning of next year (she didn't say when exactly). That means if I were to sell/rent it to them, it would have to sit for a couple of months (at least). This may actually be a good thing, tho, as it could be a bargaining chip I can use. For example, suppose we meet tonight and they fall in love with the house. I could tell them that they could have it, but it would put me in a difficult position having to let it sit for so long when I could have sold it to someone else in the meantime. Therefore, I could ask for some non-refundable consideration upfront that could "hold" it for them. This would not only put money in my pocket now, but I wouldn't have to worry about the loan payments in the next couple of months. I'm still weighing this idea as I haven't had enough time to think it all the way through yet.
BTW, I got a call yesterday morning from someone interested in House #2 as well. They left a VM with their name and number, so I called them back at lunch. The man said he was on the phone with his wife talking about House #2 when I called him, and asked if he could call me back in a few minutes. I said, "Sure." I never did hear back from him. :-(
But it was exciting to see that my houses are getting some interest. Oh, well - getting back to the house now ...
After the spackle had dried, and painted over the areas with the NEW (i.e., correct) paint and I did a helluva job, IMHO (third times a charm?). Even close up I couldn't tell the two smaller areas were even damaged before. The larger area is a bit more noticeable, unfortunately, but still a lot better than my previous attempts and a heckuva lot better than what the original owner did. So, my two biggest priorities were now out of the way.
The next thing I wanted to do was to start cleaning. So, I started with the back bedrooms and just started picking up any tools and other debris I left behind. I also picked up any large peices of trash that I knew I couldn't vaccuum up. After that, I started with the first bedroom and vaccuumed. I then sprayed some stain lifter on the carpet stains, let it sit for a few minutes, and steam cleaned the room. To my surprise, all the rough stains came out. I then did the same for the second bedroom and dining room. Let me tell you, when I dumped the water out after cleaning each of those rooms, it looked as thogh someone had gotten two fistfulls of mud and mixed it in the water - it was that filthy. I then vaccuumed both the mini hallways between the secondary bedrooms, the hallway from the entry to the family room and the family room itself. By this time, it was about 8pm and my back was killing me from bending down with that stupid vaccuum the last couple of hours, so I decided to call it a night.
Two things caught my attention while vaccuuming/steam cleaning. First, the carpet is in bad need of stretching just about everywhere. I mentioned before how cheap this builder was and the carpet was definately no exception. I understand normal wear and tear, but this carpet was only 2-3 years old and already needed stretching. That's pretty bad, IMHO. The second thing was the fact that it looks as though I won't need to get new carpet installed. While cleaning, I got most of the hard stains out and the carpet looks great. If I can just get a professional carpet cleaning crew in to do the whole house along with restretching the carpet, I think it will be enough. Ironically, when I got home last night, my wife said we got some circulars in the mail - one of which was coupons for carpet cleaning.
So, an interesting span of four hours indeed. Sometimes days will go by without any interesting news in this venture and other times you have a week's worth of news in only a few hours. :-)
There were two things that topped my priority list: fixing the drywall repairs and fixing the doors. I wanted to get those jobs finished before anything else, so I started with the drywall. I actually took a digital camera this time and took some pictures of the area after I had sanded away the old spackle and paint. I just need to find time now to download and post the pictures. The first thing I did was spray on the spackle again. It says to let it set 2-5 mins and then to use a straight-edge to "flatten" the spackle down into the rough textured look. I used one of my old bandit signs as the straight-edge and it worked great.
While the spackle was drying, I started with the doors. There were four doors I had to trim slightly due to them rubbing against the carpet. I took each one down and trimmed about 3/32" off of the bottom which turned out to be perfect. During that time, I received FOUR phone calls. I guess the noise of the saw drowned out the ringing as I didn't know I got any calls until I checked sometime later. Three of the calls were from private numbers, and only one left a message. The 4th call was from my 1-866 number, which I couldn't check until I got home later. so, I listened to the VM and it was from a lady who saw my yard sign for House #1 and was interested. I immediately called her back. She said she lives in the same neighborhood as House #1, but is renting right now. She said what caught her eye about this house was the fact I was offering owner financing. She wanted to know more about what all that entailed, so I told her the best I could using layman's terms. She also asked if I could sell the house to them on a Rent-to-Own basis, which I told her would be a possibility (although with Texas' recent laws limiting L/O's, I would need to contact a RE attorney first). We talked a little more and I set up an appointment to meet with her and her husband tonight at House #1.
Whoo-hoo!!!
After talking with her, several things went through my mind. First, she said her current lease doesn't expire until the beginning of next year (she didn't say when exactly). That means if I were to sell/rent it to them, it would have to sit for a couple of months (at least). This may actually be a good thing, tho, as it could be a bargaining chip I can use. For example, suppose we meet tonight and they fall in love with the house. I could tell them that they could have it, but it would put me in a difficult position having to let it sit for so long when I could have sold it to someone else in the meantime. Therefore, I could ask for some non-refundable consideration upfront that could "hold" it for them. This would not only put money in my pocket now, but I wouldn't have to worry about the loan payments in the next couple of months. I'm still weighing this idea as I haven't had enough time to think it all the way through yet.
BTW, I got a call yesterday morning from someone interested in House #2 as well. They left a VM with their name and number, so I called them back at lunch. The man said he was on the phone with his wife talking about House #2 when I called him, and asked if he could call me back in a few minutes. I said, "Sure." I never did hear back from him. :-(
But it was exciting to see that my houses are getting some interest. Oh, well - getting back to the house now ...
After the spackle had dried, and painted over the areas with the NEW (i.e., correct) paint and I did a helluva job, IMHO (third times a charm?). Even close up I couldn't tell the two smaller areas were even damaged before. The larger area is a bit more noticeable, unfortunately, but still a lot better than my previous attempts and a heckuva lot better than what the original owner did. So, my two biggest priorities were now out of the way.
The next thing I wanted to do was to start cleaning. So, I started with the back bedrooms and just started picking up any tools and other debris I left behind. I also picked up any large peices of trash that I knew I couldn't vaccuum up. After that, I started with the first bedroom and vaccuumed. I then sprayed some stain lifter on the carpet stains, let it sit for a few minutes, and steam cleaned the room. To my surprise, all the rough stains came out. I then did the same for the second bedroom and dining room. Let me tell you, when I dumped the water out after cleaning each of those rooms, it looked as thogh someone had gotten two fistfulls of mud and mixed it in the water - it was that filthy. I then vaccuumed both the mini hallways between the secondary bedrooms, the hallway from the entry to the family room and the family room itself. By this time, it was about 8pm and my back was killing me from bending down with that stupid vaccuum the last couple of hours, so I decided to call it a night.
Two things caught my attention while vaccuuming/steam cleaning. First, the carpet is in bad need of stretching just about everywhere. I mentioned before how cheap this builder was and the carpet was definately no exception. I understand normal wear and tear, but this carpet was only 2-3 years old and already needed stretching. That's pretty bad, IMHO. The second thing was the fact that it looks as though I won't need to get new carpet installed. While cleaning, I got most of the hard stains out and the carpet looks great. If I can just get a professional carpet cleaning crew in to do the whole house along with restretching the carpet, I think it will be enough. Ironically, when I got home last night, my wife said we got some circulars in the mail - one of which was coupons for carpet cleaning.
So, an interesting span of four hours indeed. Sometimes days will go by without any interesting news in this venture and other times you have a week's worth of news in only a few hours. :-)
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Re-evaluting Things
This is a tough post to write for me, but I think I need to say it.
I really need to re-evaluate what it is I want to do regarding REI in the future. Life has a funny way of dictating things for you even when you have a strong desire to forge in another direction. I'm at one of those critical points in life where I have to make some tough decisions, and re-evaluate my goals (and, more importantly, how to achieve them).
I knew last year that from this year on I would have a rough time with setting seeds for my REI endeavors. My wife and I were blessed with the news that we would have twin boys coming into our lives, so I knew I would be severely limited with time (as if I wasn't already). I'm experiencing now the pnnacle of the mental tug-of-war I knew would come one day. I need to get House #2 in a state of marketability, but it is taking a lot of my time away from the family. In hindsight (and foresight now), I realize I could have hired a handyman for most, if not all, of the repair work I am doing. And perhaps that may be a big part of my re-evaluation.
However, more importantly, I am beginning to come to the realization that all my efforts in achieving my goals may be for naught, anyway. If I were to sell these two houses today, I would pocket around $40,000 at closing. I haven't stepped back to see exactly how that would transform into net profit yet, but I figure in the neighbrohood of $25,000 (give or take $5k or so). Nice, you may say, and I would be in full agreement. But that money will be here today and gone tomorrow as my wife's vision of buying, fixing, and selling houses differs in mine to the point that I wonder if I will ever "make it" in REI. After painstakenly showing her time and time again of the rewards REI has to offer, I have still not convinced her of the financial independence I strive while doing it. She envisions this as more a supportive income rather than a path to building wealth, which is evident by her wish to use the money as disposable income rather than for reinvesting.
I won't say I will get out of REI completely or even partially, but I need to re-evaluate my goals and what it is I not only want and dream, but that I can realistically achieve given the obstacles in life (good and bad) that I have both inherited and created. It's a struggle, but I have persevered worse things.
I really need to re-evaluate what it is I want to do regarding REI in the future. Life has a funny way of dictating things for you even when you have a strong desire to forge in another direction. I'm at one of those critical points in life where I have to make some tough decisions, and re-evaluate my goals (and, more importantly, how to achieve them).
I knew last year that from this year on I would have a rough time with setting seeds for my REI endeavors. My wife and I were blessed with the news that we would have twin boys coming into our lives, so I knew I would be severely limited with time (as if I wasn't already). I'm experiencing now the pnnacle of the mental tug-of-war I knew would come one day. I need to get House #2 in a state of marketability, but it is taking a lot of my time away from the family. In hindsight (and foresight now), I realize I could have hired a handyman for most, if not all, of the repair work I am doing. And perhaps that may be a big part of my re-evaluation.
However, more importantly, I am beginning to come to the realization that all my efforts in achieving my goals may be for naught, anyway. If I were to sell these two houses today, I would pocket around $40,000 at closing. I haven't stepped back to see exactly how that would transform into net profit yet, but I figure in the neighbrohood of $25,000 (give or take $5k or so). Nice, you may say, and I would be in full agreement. But that money will be here today and gone tomorrow as my wife's vision of buying, fixing, and selling houses differs in mine to the point that I wonder if I will ever "make it" in REI. After painstakenly showing her time and time again of the rewards REI has to offer, I have still not convinced her of the financial independence I strive while doing it. She envisions this as more a supportive income rather than a path to building wealth, which is evident by her wish to use the money as disposable income rather than for reinvesting.
I won't say I will get out of REI completely or even partially, but I need to re-evaluate my goals and what it is I not only want and dream, but that I can realistically achieve given the obstacles in life (good and bad) that I have both inherited and created. It's a struggle, but I have persevered worse things.
A Glutton For Punishment
Call me a perfectionist, call me dumb, or call me a glutton for punishment, but I decided all three of the drywall patch jobs just looked "cheap", so I set about redoing them all last night. The thing that really got the ball rolling is the fact that the gallon of paint I bought after going through the 5 gallon bucket WAS different. You can't tell it when you are painting a whole different room, but I had used it to paint over the drywall patch jobs in the master bedroom. Earlier, I had painted the entire bedroom with the 5 gallon bucket. I saw the difference in the paint tones immediately when I walked into the room last night. I had to go to HD to pick up two more door knobs, so I decided to get some more supplies to redo the drywall patches.
I got to the house late (Around 5:30pm), and didn't get home until after 10pm. I was totally exhausted from not only working over 4 hours at the house, or working an 8hr day at the office, but one of the twins decided to get up at 3:30am that morning and not go back to sleep. By the time we got to bed last night, it was approaching midnight. Needless to say, I did not feel like getting out of bed this morning at 5:30am.
Anyway, I spent most of last night cleaning. I cleaned the rest of the blinds, installed a bracket for one of the blinds (it was sagging terribly), took down all the light fixtures (except the dining room and master bed/bath) and cleaned them, and cleaned all the window ledges. I also installed the two door knobs and painted the door frame in the master bath (I had puttied over the scratch marks a few days before).
The remainder of the night was devoted to the drywall patch jobs. I bought some 60 size sandpaper and was thinking when I bought it that it would be too coarse. I'm glad I bought it as the old drywall mud and spackle were a pain to get off for some reason. Originally, I had just installed a peice of drywall in the holes and put joint compund all around it. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I now know why they say TAPE and float as you could see the lines. So, this time I actually put some drywall tape along the joints. It took a while to get all the old stuff sanded off, because the area is not very well ventilated and it would cloud up rather quickly with dust.
Tonight I need to finish spackling the drywall. Afterwards, I'll be able to paint. I noticed a few of the doors need shortened ever-so-slightly (probably 1/16") as they rub-up against the carpet. After that, I can finally say I have nothing left but cleaning and deciding what to do with the carpet. I'll take a vaccuum and our carpet cleaning machine over, too, and get a feel of just how bad the carpet really is.
I got to the house late (Around 5:30pm), and didn't get home until after 10pm. I was totally exhausted from not only working over 4 hours at the house, or working an 8hr day at the office, but one of the twins decided to get up at 3:30am that morning and not go back to sleep. By the time we got to bed last night, it was approaching midnight. Needless to say, I did not feel like getting out of bed this morning at 5:30am.
Anyway, I spent most of last night cleaning. I cleaned the rest of the blinds, installed a bracket for one of the blinds (it was sagging terribly), took down all the light fixtures (except the dining room and master bed/bath) and cleaned them, and cleaned all the window ledges. I also installed the two door knobs and painted the door frame in the master bath (I had puttied over the scratch marks a few days before).
The remainder of the night was devoted to the drywall patch jobs. I bought some 60 size sandpaper and was thinking when I bought it that it would be too coarse. I'm glad I bought it as the old drywall mud and spackle were a pain to get off for some reason. Originally, I had just installed a peice of drywall in the holes and put joint compund all around it. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I now know why they say TAPE and float as you could see the lines. So, this time I actually put some drywall tape along the joints. It took a while to get all the old stuff sanded off, because the area is not very well ventilated and it would cloud up rather quickly with dust.
Tonight I need to finish spackling the drywall. Afterwards, I'll be able to paint. I noticed a few of the doors need shortened ever-so-slightly (probably 1/16") as they rub-up against the carpet. After that, I can finally say I have nothing left but cleaning and deciding what to do with the carpet. I'll take a vaccuum and our carpet cleaning machine over, too, and get a feel of just how bad the carpet really is.
Monday, November 06, 2006
Doors, Drywall, and More - Oh My!
Even though I didn't work as many hours as I had wanted this weekend, I still managed to get a lot done on the houses.
Friday
I decided to stop by another Home Depot on the way home from work to talk to someone who knows about doors. I talked with a gentleman who gave me some pointers on what to do (and not to do) to get the interior doors up. He said to buy a cheap router and told me to use a certain bit to make the bracket moulding. He also gave me a kit that helps in creating the door bracket moulding. My FIL has a router, so I just bought the bit and the moulding kit. I also bought one of the five remaining doors I would need for the house.
When I got to the house, I started in on the first door (MAster Bathroom - the one I started chiseling). Wow, what a difference. I made the two other mouldings in a matter of minutes. I screwed the brackets on, and, to my surprise, the door was hung. However, when I went to shut it, it wouldn't shut all the way - the door was hitting the door jam. Great. After analyzing it for a few minutes, I realized I didn't make the moulding wide enough. I started on the next door (Bathroom #2), and within 10-15 mins, I had the door completed. It not only hung correctly, too, but it also shut perfectly. I had some other side projects I needed to finish as well, so I did them. My first priority Saturday would be to take down the first door and extend the mouldings a tad bit.
Saturday
One of the things the renters told me the day before they moved was that their lawn mower had broke and the grass in the back was getting high. I had told them not too worry about it that I was going to probably mow and weed eat again anyway. Well, I decided Saturday morning that I was going to mow and weed eat BOTH houses before I do anything else to get it out of the way. With winter coming up, I wouldn't need to mow or weed eat either house until the spring again, anyway.
Unfortunately, I forgot my wife had an appointment Saturday morning, so my plans were delayed. After that and doing some other things around our house, I finally got to House #1 around 1:30pm. The lot is almost 1/3 acre, so it took me a good while to mow and weed eat. There were also a lot of peanuts (the ones used for packing - not the edible kind) on the front lawn. I figured it was due to the renters moving. It took me a good 10-15 mins. to get all that cleaned up as well. So, House #1 was done and it looked great. I then drove to House #2 to start the projects there. I started there by mowing and weed eating as well. If you recall, the house next door to House #2 was in a state of preforeclosure when I got this house. I tried contacting the owner, but I could never reach her. Well, the place is a complete shambles now - the lawn is growing wildly, there's junk in the backyard, etc. So, when I mowed and weed eated House #2, I went ahead and did some yard work to the house next door as well. Not a whole lot, but just enough so it didn't look like an eyesore as much (people don't want to live next to an eyesore).
Next, I took down the first door I hung, extended the moulding a tad, rehung it, and it works perfectly. I tell you, each time I buy one of these houses and fix it up, I learn a LOT about being a handyman. I can now say I can put up prebored 6-panel interior doors. LOL!
Having put up two doors, I was all excited. I still had at least five more to hang (master bedroom, bedroom #1 main and closet, and bedroom #2 main and closet). There is also the utility door and the entry coat closet door, but I think I'll just leave them as is. They are in good shape, so replacing them would only be for cosmetic reasons. I may replace the entry coat closet door, but only because it's right there in the entry when people first walk into the house, but I doubt it. Anyway, I was on a roll and wanted to hang up some more doors. So I headed to the local Home Depot to pick up 4/30" doors and 1/32" door. I also had to pick up some spray-on spackle for the drywall repairs and a few other supplies. Lo-and-behold, I get there and can't find any 30" doors! I find the guy working the door department and he does some checking for me. He says the computer says they have 25/30" doors! but he can't even find them. He even goes in the back and says they are nowhere to be found. Great. I pick up a 32" door and leave the store an unhappy customer.
I get back to the house and hang the 32" door and finish a couple of other projects. It's still early ~7pm, but I just don't feel like working anymore and head home for the day.
Sunday
I get another late start (~2pm) on the house due to personal commitments. Before going to House #2, I head the opposite direction to pick up 4/30" doors at Lowes. Thankfully, they have them. I then head to House #2 and begin my day. I manage to rout the bracket mouldings on all four doors, screw in the brackets, hang them, and reinsert the door knobs on all four doors in almost no time. (Handymen of the world, look out!) I then start tackling the drywall repairs. The night before, I had sanded off the paint and bad spackle job on the two smaller repair jobs to do them over. I also respackled them and the large 3'x4' drywall section. Now came time to test how well I did by painting the areas. I admit they weren't the best drywall repairs ever done, but I was quite pleased by the results. If you look at the areas directly, you can probably tell there was work done, but it's a whole lot better than what they looked like before. I just wish I had taken "before" pictures to show what the original jobs looked like.
Another thing I did on Sunday was hose off the garage, driveway, porch, and the sidewalk leading from the driveway to the porch. When I mowed on Saturday, there was gras all over the driveway. Also, I did all the routing of the doors in the garage, so there was a lot of sawdust on the garage floor. And, the ants I killed early on still had the mounds sitting there, so I housed them off as well. When all was washed off, it looked a lot better.
Like the night befire, I just got to a point where I didn't feel like doing much else (it was probably my body's way of telling me to slow down a bit). So, around 6pm, I started closing shop. Right before I left, I filled the bathtub up with about 6" of water and poured in some of the Simple Green cleanser I bought earlier in the week. I then took down the two blinds in the dining room and dipped them vigorously in the water mixture for about two minutes each. They came out looking spotless. After shaking as much water off them as I could, I rehung them to dry further. Then I left.
To do's
It now appears the worst and heaviest rehab work is behind me. Now, my biggest feat will be cleaning. I still need to take all the light fixtures down and clean them, clean all the blinds, clean all the floors, and scrub both bathrooms, kitchen, breakfast, and entry. I am still undecided on the carpet. It's a complete mess right now with all the back-n-forth work I've done, so it's hard to tell in what condition it's in. I heard one guy say he buys discontinued carpet at Lowes for 45-50 cents per sq. ft., so that's an option to consider. I roughly estimated the carpet in the house to be around 850-1,000 sq. ft., so that's be about $380-550. I read different articles on how to replace carpet, and although it sounds easy, it may just be too much for me to do. Hanging doors is one thing - laying carpet is quite another.
Friday
I decided to stop by another Home Depot on the way home from work to talk to someone who knows about doors. I talked with a gentleman who gave me some pointers on what to do (and not to do) to get the interior doors up. He said to buy a cheap router and told me to use a certain bit to make the bracket moulding. He also gave me a kit that helps in creating the door bracket moulding. My FIL has a router, so I just bought the bit and the moulding kit. I also bought one of the five remaining doors I would need for the house.
When I got to the house, I started in on the first door (MAster Bathroom - the one I started chiseling). Wow, what a difference. I made the two other mouldings in a matter of minutes. I screwed the brackets on, and, to my surprise, the door was hung. However, when I went to shut it, it wouldn't shut all the way - the door was hitting the door jam. Great. After analyzing it for a few minutes, I realized I didn't make the moulding wide enough. I started on the next door (Bathroom #2), and within 10-15 mins, I had the door completed. It not only hung correctly, too, but it also shut perfectly. I had some other side projects I needed to finish as well, so I did them. My first priority Saturday would be to take down the first door and extend the mouldings a tad bit.
Saturday
One of the things the renters told me the day before they moved was that their lawn mower had broke and the grass in the back was getting high. I had told them not too worry about it that I was going to probably mow and weed eat again anyway. Well, I decided Saturday morning that I was going to mow and weed eat BOTH houses before I do anything else to get it out of the way. With winter coming up, I wouldn't need to mow or weed eat either house until the spring again, anyway.
Unfortunately, I forgot my wife had an appointment Saturday morning, so my plans were delayed. After that and doing some other things around our house, I finally got to House #1 around 1:30pm. The lot is almost 1/3 acre, so it took me a good while to mow and weed eat. There were also a lot of peanuts (the ones used for packing - not the edible kind) on the front lawn. I figured it was due to the renters moving. It took me a good 10-15 mins. to get all that cleaned up as well. So, House #1 was done and it looked great. I then drove to House #2 to start the projects there. I started there by mowing and weed eating as well. If you recall, the house next door to House #2 was in a state of preforeclosure when I got this house. I tried contacting the owner, but I could never reach her. Well, the place is a complete shambles now - the lawn is growing wildly, there's junk in the backyard, etc. So, when I mowed and weed eated House #2, I went ahead and did some yard work to the house next door as well. Not a whole lot, but just enough so it didn't look like an eyesore as much (people don't want to live next to an eyesore).
Next, I took down the first door I hung, extended the moulding a tad, rehung it, and it works perfectly. I tell you, each time I buy one of these houses and fix it up, I learn a LOT about being a handyman. I can now say I can put up prebored 6-panel interior doors. LOL!
Having put up two doors, I was all excited. I still had at least five more to hang (master bedroom, bedroom #1 main and closet, and bedroom #2 main and closet). There is also the utility door and the entry coat closet door, but I think I'll just leave them as is. They are in good shape, so replacing them would only be for cosmetic reasons. I may replace the entry coat closet door, but only because it's right there in the entry when people first walk into the house, but I doubt it. Anyway, I was on a roll and wanted to hang up some more doors. So I headed to the local Home Depot to pick up 4/30" doors and 1/32" door. I also had to pick up some spray-on spackle for the drywall repairs and a few other supplies. Lo-and-behold, I get there and can't find any 30" doors! I find the guy working the door department and he does some checking for me. He says the computer says they have 25/30" doors! but he can't even find them. He even goes in the back and says they are nowhere to be found. Great. I pick up a 32" door and leave the store an unhappy customer.
I get back to the house and hang the 32" door and finish a couple of other projects. It's still early ~7pm, but I just don't feel like working anymore and head home for the day.
Sunday
I get another late start (~2pm) on the house due to personal commitments. Before going to House #2, I head the opposite direction to pick up 4/30" doors at Lowes. Thankfully, they have them. I then head to House #2 and begin my day. I manage to rout the bracket mouldings on all four doors, screw in the brackets, hang them, and reinsert the door knobs on all four doors in almost no time. (Handymen of the world, look out!) I then start tackling the drywall repairs. The night before, I had sanded off the paint and bad spackle job on the two smaller repair jobs to do them over. I also respackled them and the large 3'x4' drywall section. Now came time to test how well I did by painting the areas. I admit they weren't the best drywall repairs ever done, but I was quite pleased by the results. If you look at the areas directly, you can probably tell there was work done, but it's a whole lot better than what they looked like before. I just wish I had taken "before" pictures to show what the original jobs looked like.
Another thing I did on Sunday was hose off the garage, driveway, porch, and the sidewalk leading from the driveway to the porch. When I mowed on Saturday, there was gras all over the driveway. Also, I did all the routing of the doors in the garage, so there was a lot of sawdust on the garage floor. And, the ants I killed early on still had the mounds sitting there, so I housed them off as well. When all was washed off, it looked a lot better.
Like the night befire, I just got to a point where I didn't feel like doing much else (it was probably my body's way of telling me to slow down a bit). So, around 6pm, I started closing shop. Right before I left, I filled the bathtub up with about 6" of water and poured in some of the Simple Green cleanser I bought earlier in the week. I then took down the two blinds in the dining room and dipped them vigorously in the water mixture for about two minutes each. They came out looking spotless. After shaking as much water off them as I could, I rehung them to dry further. Then I left.
To do's
It now appears the worst and heaviest rehab work is behind me. Now, my biggest feat will be cleaning. I still need to take all the light fixtures down and clean them, clean all the blinds, clean all the floors, and scrub both bathrooms, kitchen, breakfast, and entry. I am still undecided on the carpet. It's a complete mess right now with all the back-n-forth work I've done, so it's hard to tell in what condition it's in. I heard one guy say he buys discontinued carpet at Lowes for 45-50 cents per sq. ft., so that's an option to consider. I roughly estimated the carpet in the house to be around 850-1,000 sq. ft., so that's be about $380-550. I read different articles on how to replace carpet, and although it sounds easy, it may just be too much for me to do. Hanging doors is one thing - laying carpet is quite another.
Friday, November 03, 2006
Progress
For the first time with this house, I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I still have several more projects ahead, but the worst is behind me, I believe.
Painting
I finished painting last night - well, almost. I still need to paint the two small walls where the 3rd drywall repair is located, but that should only take about 30 seconds to do. The master bath really took longer than I expected, because I had to manuever around so many things. The paint dried the same as the bucket before, which was a big relief, too.
Door Situation
I stopped by Lowes on my way home from work and looked at their doors. They had the right size doors without the hardware, which was exactly what I wanted. So, when I finished painting, I ran by teh local Home Depot and checked their inventory again. Sure enough, I didn't look at everything the first time as they had the correct doors, too. I was pickingup two of the 24" doors when an employee asked me for help. We chatted a little and he told me that I'd need to rout the area on the doors where the brackets go. Great. He said instead of buying a router, he suggested a tool that you just pound into the door and it will make the necessary groove. You then just chisel out the wood and your done. So, I took his advice and went back to the house. HAHAHA! Of course, it didn't work for me. It took me about 30 mins to actually make the groove for ONE bracket on the door using this guy's advice. Even then, the groove needed to be sanded down as the chisel left it pretty rough. time to take back the stuff and get a router. I'm just happy that I found the right doors.
Clean Up
I've been avoiding cleaning up messes I make, so when I was at HD picking up the doors, I also picked up a box of construction bags. One of the things I did last night was clean up a lot of the mess. I started using one corner in the dining room as the "heap pile", and after I cleaned it up and some other areas, the place started looking a lot better. I also bought a nice sponge and some of that Simply Green cleaner. I also began cleaning the trim and door frames as well as the linoleum tile in the kitchen, entry, and bathrooms. That made a huge difference as well.
Other
Several other things I did last night were:
1. Caulk all the noticeable gaps in the baseboard and door frames.
2. Use some "liquid nails" to glue down the linoleum in the kitchen where it was beginning to lip up.
3. Started painting the baseboard trim and door frames.
4. Hopefully, finished the mudding of the 3rd drywall repair.
Tonight
Tonight's two big projects will be to finish the dryall repair (sanding, splattering, and painting), and to get a router and start hanging doors. If I can get the drywall done tonight and the two doors I bought last night up, I'll be happy. I have about 1/4 of the house trim painted, and that went by quickly, so maybe I can get that done tonight as well.
It's looking like I'll be done with all my stuff by the end of the weekend. I'm still strongly debating the carpet issue. I want to wait until after I'm done with all the other indoor projects and vaccuum the carpet real good. I'll then get some carpet stain remover and see how well it does on the tougher stains in the house. If it does okay, I just may have the carpet professionally cleaned and restretched. If it looks crappy, I'll just replace the carpet altogether. Estimates I've gotten from other people are anywhere from $1,500-$2,000 to have the old carpet removed and new carpet installed. It may just be worth it.
Painting
I finished painting last night - well, almost. I still need to paint the two small walls where the 3rd drywall repair is located, but that should only take about 30 seconds to do. The master bath really took longer than I expected, because I had to manuever around so many things. The paint dried the same as the bucket before, which was a big relief, too.
Door Situation
I stopped by Lowes on my way home from work and looked at their doors. They had the right size doors without the hardware, which was exactly what I wanted. So, when I finished painting, I ran by teh local Home Depot and checked their inventory again. Sure enough, I didn't look at everything the first time as they had the correct doors, too. I was pickingup two of the 24" doors when an employee asked me for help. We chatted a little and he told me that I'd need to rout the area on the doors where the brackets go. Great. He said instead of buying a router, he suggested a tool that you just pound into the door and it will make the necessary groove. You then just chisel out the wood and your done. So, I took his advice and went back to the house. HAHAHA! Of course, it didn't work for me. It took me about 30 mins to actually make the groove for ONE bracket on the door using this guy's advice. Even then, the groove needed to be sanded down as the chisel left it pretty rough. time to take back the stuff and get a router. I'm just happy that I found the right doors.
Clean Up
I've been avoiding cleaning up messes I make, so when I was at HD picking up the doors, I also picked up a box of construction bags. One of the things I did last night was clean up a lot of the mess. I started using one corner in the dining room as the "heap pile", and after I cleaned it up and some other areas, the place started looking a lot better. I also bought a nice sponge and some of that Simply Green cleaner. I also began cleaning the trim and door frames as well as the linoleum tile in the kitchen, entry, and bathrooms. That made a huge difference as well.
Other
Several other things I did last night were:
1. Caulk all the noticeable gaps in the baseboard and door frames.
2. Use some "liquid nails" to glue down the linoleum in the kitchen where it was beginning to lip up.
3. Started painting the baseboard trim and door frames.
4. Hopefully, finished the mudding of the 3rd drywall repair.
Tonight
Tonight's two big projects will be to finish the dryall repair (sanding, splattering, and painting), and to get a router and start hanging doors. If I can get the drywall done tonight and the two doors I bought last night up, I'll be happy. I have about 1/4 of the house trim painted, and that went by quickly, so maybe I can get that done tonight as well.
It's looking like I'll be done with all my stuff by the end of the weekend. I'm still strongly debating the carpet issue. I want to wait until after I'm done with all the other indoor projects and vaccuum the carpet real good. I'll then get some carpet stain remover and see how well it does on the tougher stains in the house. If it does okay, I just may have the carpet professionally cleaned and restretched. If it looks crappy, I'll just replace the carpet altogether. Estimates I've gotten from other people are anywhere from $1,500-$2,000 to have the old carpet removed and new carpet installed. It may just be worth it.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Almost Done Painting
I managed to get the remainder of the master bedroom, dining room, entry, and some of the master bathroom and entry to the master bedroom painted last night. Tonight I'll finish the master bathroom, and finish prepping the drywall repair on the entry to the master bedroom, so I can paint it. The two smaller drywall repair jobs didn't turn out so good. It was hard to tell how they looked until I painted over them last night. You can definately tell there was work done on them. If I get a chance later, I may sand off the paint and spackle and redo it.
I originally bought a 5 gallon bucket of paint and it almost did the entire house. Unfortunately, I ran out about midway through the dining room, so I had to make a run to HD for another gallon. The label was messed up and I had misplaced the original info about the paint, but the man at HD assured me it he could look it up. When I got back to the house and started painting, something just looked different about the paint. It looked almost like it had a more yellowish tint to it. Later, I found the paper I had written the info down on and sure enough the numbers weren't exactly right. They weren't off by much, but still it wasn't exactly right. Tonight I'll see how it looks and if there is a noticeable difference, I'll return the paint and redo the dining room and master bath.
I also set up the flyer tubes on both houses and put 20 flyers each in both tubes. Yesterday morning, I put a small ad on Craigslist about House #2. Within an hour or two, I got a call from an agent wanting to get more info (he left a VM). While at House #2 late in the afternoon, I called him back, but the phone just rang and rang (i.e., no VM). I also got another call sometime during the day, but they left no message. I called them back and same thing: ring, ring, ring.
Update: The more I investigate the door issue, the more I think it's probably lack of knowledge on my part. I looked at Lowes.com breiefly and notice they have different kinds of doors, too. I bought and then measured (and took back) a 24", 6-panel, prehung door at Home Depot. It included a frame, which I thought was just for ease of transporting, but now I see it was the actual frame it resides in. IOW, I bought the door along with the door frame (or, at least, part of the door frame). No wonder it didn't measure exactly right. So now I think I'll either go back there or go to Lowes and actually talk to an employee in-depth about it before trying to do it on my own.
I originally bought a 5 gallon bucket of paint and it almost did the entire house. Unfortunately, I ran out about midway through the dining room, so I had to make a run to HD for another gallon. The label was messed up and I had misplaced the original info about the paint, but the man at HD assured me it he could look it up. When I got back to the house and started painting, something just looked different about the paint. It looked almost like it had a more yellowish tint to it. Later, I found the paper I had written the info down on and sure enough the numbers weren't exactly right. They weren't off by much, but still it wasn't exactly right. Tonight I'll see how it looks and if there is a noticeable difference, I'll return the paint and redo the dining room and master bath.
I also set up the flyer tubes on both houses and put 20 flyers each in both tubes. Yesterday morning, I put a small ad on Craigslist about House #2. Within an hour or two, I got a call from an agent wanting to get more info (he left a VM). While at House #2 late in the afternoon, I called him back, but the phone just rang and rang (i.e., no VM). I also got another call sometime during the day, but they left no message. I called them back and same thing: ring, ring, ring.
Update: The more I investigate the door issue, the more I think it's probably lack of knowledge on my part. I looked at Lowes.com breiefly and notice they have different kinds of doors, too. I bought and then measured (and took back) a 24", 6-panel, prehung door at Home Depot. It included a frame, which I thought was just for ease of transporting, but now I see it was the actual frame it resides in. IOW, I bought the door along with the door frame (or, at least, part of the door frame). No wonder it didn't measure exactly right. So now I think I'll either go back there or go to Lowes and actually talk to an employee in-depth about it before trying to do it on my own.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Painting Almost Done
I'm just about done painting the entire house. I spent several hours last night doing nothing but painting. I manages to knock out the kitchen, breakfast, family, bathroom #2, and most of the master bedroom. I just need to finish the master bedroom, master bath, entry to the master bedroom, dining room, and entry. All that should take about 3-4 hours. I bought some spray spackle to use on the drywall patches, and it looks like it will work. I sprayed it on, let it sit for a few minutes, and then scraped it to flatten the pattern. I won't know how well it turned out until I paint over it. The large drywall patch job in the master bedroom entry is giving me all kinds of fits. The main 3'x4' patch is fine - it's the 3"x4' strip on the adjacent wall that's giving me headaches. Hopefully, I can tackle that in the next few days.
I still need to do something about the door situation, too. I'll probably go by Lowes to see what kind of selection they have. I hate to think I'll have to special order these doors.
Next, I'll start recaulking all those areas that have caulk that is rotting away, plus caulk the gaps in the baseboards and door frame joints. After all that, I'll start cleaning the place. I've lost count of all the spiders I've seen and killed in the house. They are all small for the most part, but there seems to be one every time I look around. I even caught a few walking on walls I had just painted.
I think at this point I'm going to replace the carpet. It'll prob cost me $1-2k, but it may be worth it in the end. I also put a "FOR SALE BY OWNER" sign in the yard with my cell # and "Owner Financing" written on it. I also made a small, hand-written "FOR LEASE" sign I put on the upper corner, too. I also did the same thing for House #1.
I also bought a couple of flyer tubes, but am waiting to actually make the flyers before putting them on the signs.
I still need to do something about the door situation, too. I'll probably go by Lowes to see what kind of selection they have. I hate to think I'll have to special order these doors.
Next, I'll start recaulking all those areas that have caulk that is rotting away, plus caulk the gaps in the baseboards and door frame joints. After all that, I'll start cleaning the place. I've lost count of all the spiders I've seen and killed in the house. They are all small for the most part, but there seems to be one every time I look around. I even caught a few walking on walls I had just painted.
I think at this point I'm going to replace the carpet. It'll prob cost me $1-2k, but it may be worth it in the end. I also put a "FOR SALE BY OWNER" sign in the yard with my cell # and "Owner Financing" written on it. I also made a small, hand-written "FOR LEASE" sign I put on the upper corner, too. I also did the same thing for House #1.
I also bought a couple of flyer tubes, but am waiting to actually make the flyers before putting them on the signs.
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