Money Pit Update

The painting is finally done and as I write this, the tile guys are getting ready to put the finishing touches on my roof to floor renovation.

Yes - from a new roof, new ceilings, new walls, new A/C, 23 gallons of new paint, new lighting, and now a new tile floor. It's been a busy 7 months. Except for two full weeks, all the inside work was done on weekends and mostly by me. The outside of the house was painted by the home owners association last week and when I get back this weekend, the tile will be done. It's like I have magic elves working even when I'm away making money to pay them.

Um... Where's the kitchen

So does this mean I'm now done. Not hardly. I have no appliances, no kitchen and now no money. I will be able to at least start moving in the furniture, eat take out, and take a hot shower. Considering the state of things when I bought the place, that is a major advancement. I'm about 75% done at this point with just enough left in the bank for the appliances. The kitchen will be an old counter top salvaged from another house and two saw horses for the next year.

Oh  - so you noticed that my paint scheme is a bit....well pretty much like the inside of a sugar cube. Am I really that unimaginative? Well actually - NO!

This new house and my new life are blank canvases in the most literal way. I made the conscious effort to have the color of the walls not define the space. If you look closely at the blinds, they are the temporary paper kind from Home Depot. About $20.00 to do the whole house. Even the picture frames, a gift from my sister, are empty.

This is the moment I will remember as the starting point of the next phase of my life. I have wood and leather furniture to ground the space with earth tones.  I have a few canvas prints and a few large photos I'm fairly proud of. I'll hang those then spend the next few years traveling, shooting, and printing.

It has been a dream of mine to live in my own art gallery. Since I don't have anyone to stop me, that is exactly what I will be doing. I may need advice on new blinds but I am pretty set on wood, the kitchen, when it arrives will be hickory, and the counters granite.

I still have plenty of small projects like renting a moving truck, repairing the front door, replacing the patio screens, yard work, and touching up the paint after the tile guys leave. Four weekends tops. You may have noticed there are no bathroom photos. They will have to wait till I sell my condo. It will be very tempting to spend some quality sledge hammer time with the master bath but I will just have to live with it a bit longer.

I have two kayaks sitting in my new garage just begging to hit the water. It will be great to actually explore my new surroundings then kick back with a cold beer from the fridge (I have yet to buy) and relax in my new back yard till the stars come out. 

Breathing Easier With The Dus-T

I've been writing this blog a long time -Today - My first product evaluation. As you know I've been consumed by my house renovation and have not done much else for about 15 weeks now. I am a moderately skilled do-it-yourself-er but there is one thing I know. The proper tools make for the best quality job.

I never fall for those As-Seen-On-TV ads or gimmicks. I found the Dus-T(click here) on the History channel show Invention USA. The hosts really put this product through its paces including setting it on fire and dousing it with pepper spray. If you saw my last posting, you may have noticed the mask I've used for years. Not bad for some light painting, sanding, and sawing but I've been renovating a house for months now. The consumer mask I've been using was just not cutting it. I had one huge ceiling left to sand. I had to give the Dus-T a try.

The shirt fit like a glove and with the dust mask tucked in the collar, it looked no different than a regular t-shirt. I wear contacts but for sanding a ceiling, I need to switch to glasses. The first thing I noticed with the Dus-T was my glasses didn't fog up hardly at all. With the regular mask I've used for decades, exhaling goes straight up causing major fogging problems. Making constant adjustments brings dust in from around the edges. No such problems with the Dus-T. A complete ring of protection slides up from the collar and if you want to really lock it in, use the ear loops.

The only time I moved it was to roll it down to get some water. Sanding overhead is exhausting so I decided to rest my arms a bit by chipping some tile off the kitchen floor. I didn't bother to take the mask off which was a good idea since these tiles had years of water damaged and had a pretty strong moldy smell as they popped up. Looking straight up or at the floor made no difference. The Dus-T stays in place.

The fit is snug and you will know you are wearing a mask but in a few moments you won't even know its there. With the old mask, dust would sneak around the edges as I moved or talked and go straight down my lungs. Breathing hard just sucked the mask to my face. With the Dus-T I was going flat out, non stop. By the end I was panting like a dog yet still breathing easy.

Due to my poor skills with the joint compound, I had an excessive amount sanding. Some at pretty close range to where I breath. At the end of a very long day, I had not a drop of dust where I was masked. Not as lucky with the goggles. Dust got in the tiny vent holes on the side and into my eyes.

Dus-T in action

Was this shirt worth the $40.00 price tag? For just this weekend - Absolutely. With the old mask it took me three days of start/stop sanding for the first coat and that was with a sander on a pole and goggles so fogged I could not tell what I was even sanding.

With the Dus-T I was right up on the ceiling with the hand sander and only stopped when my arms were about to fall off. Still only took half a day.

If I did this work for a living, I would have one for every day of the week. I think of all the times in my life I've choked up something from a project I was working on or the years I created my own personal dust storm running my farm tractor mowing or spraying pesticides. The Dus-T is as cool looking as it is effective. The old bandanna tied around the back of the head was never really either.

Now for the best part. This is an American invented, American produced, and an American sold product. I am proud to support anyone who can get a product to market in this country these days. I still have some dusty work in my own house and just told my sister I would hang a ceiling for her for some painting. I know I'll be breathing easy with the Dust-T in my tool box.

House Renovation - The First 100 Days

100 days have passed on the calendar since I closed on my new house. Actual work has only occurred on the weekends and two full weeks of vacation time.  Except for some painting, I have done most of the interior work by myself.

Sanding ceilings

When I bought the place, I knew this project would be close to overwhelming and fairly expensive. I have a good amount of experience with home repairs but most of it was 20 years ago and nearly all my tools have been in storage for the last 12 years. I was counting on the theory of once you learn to ride a bicycle, you never forget. It does not seem to apply to spreading joint compound but I do sort of remember that I never really learned that particular skill.

So did I run into any surprises? Well the water damage behind the kitchen cabinets made them utterly useless and the drywall behind them had to come out as well. I thought I could work with the kitchen for a while but it reeked of mold and had to be the first thing to go. The AC blew up a couple of weeks after I closed. Not really a surprise. It was not looking to good at the inspection.

Just a little roof leak

I then discovered that the popcorn ceilings were spot patched and painted all throughout the house. I thought about re-spraying the whole ceiling but that could have lead to the popcorn falling. If you ever want to remove the popcorn on your own ceilings, good luck to you. It is an extremely dirty job and on a 12 foot cathedral ceiling, just a bit dangerous. Get the popcorn a tiny bit wet and it literally falls off with a quick pass of the scraper. Run into the patched and painted areas and you will wish you had never started removing it. About 1/4 of the living room was patched in some way. The roof apparently was leaking and repaired for years. The 30 sheets of plywood used during the new roof installation were a pretty good indicator of how long this roof had been neglected. If I had not salvaged this house, it would have likely melted and caved in during the next summers rains.

Goodbye moldy kitchen

I took a huge leap of faith (in my own skill level) and decided to remove the soffits above the upper cabinets in the kitchen so that I could put in taller ones. They were built to last and connected to a lot of structural lumber that needed to remain undisturbed. A delicate balance between swinging an eight pound sledge and gingerly using the pry bar to not bring down the roof or split the ceiling. Came out perfect.

So am I on schedule? Even with all the extra work I am exactly where I wanted to be. This is literally a top down renovation. The roof is done. The fallen ceiling in the master bedroom is hung. The popcorn ceiling in the entire house are scraped, sanded, primed, and painted. The walls patched, and painted. The trim sanded and partially painted. The master bedroom still needs a final sanding and painting. If this was an HGTV episode I would be on day two of a five day build. I suspect they have more of a crew than the one I have.

Dad supervising

Drywall jack - Best tool ever

How are things on the expense account front. I expect to drop about $50K on this renovation. So far I've spent $15,000.00 on the roof. I got a quote to do the bedroom ceiling of $1,500.00 so I did it myself for $100.00 in drywall an $170.00 for a drywall jack. Another $500.00 or so in paint, patch, and parts at Home Depot. The new AC goes in next week. Another $3000.00. There will be a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches between now and the end of this project.

Ceiling and walls painted. Just the trim left to do

Coming up next - Tile floors, a new kitchen, and all the appliances. 

My New House is a Piece of Work

Have you been missing my posts? Yes - me too. I bought a fixer upper house (3/2 w/ garage 1,500 Sq ft) a month ago and it has consumed my every hour and dollar. I'm taking this weekend off. Not because I want to but because I would have to drive through Hurricane Sandy to get to it.  Ok - we are not getting a full blast but high winds, a high profile vehicle, and a highway do not make good partners. And yes, my new house is 75 miles up the road.  In two and a half years I retire and I should have the place done about a year after that the way I'm going so far.

Since I have not been out and about lately, I'm going to bore you with my progress so far.

Lets start of with the fact that I got an unbelievably fantastic price. Good thing as it needs a new roof, flooring, kitchen, appliances, AC, drywall repairs including and entire bedroom ceiling, some electrical, and plumbing. Did I miss something? I'm sure. I've already been to Home Depot 10 times for the little stuff.

My sister called it a POS but I like to think of it as a blank slate. Enormous potential with nothing to hold back my creativity but cash. Lack of cash actually.

I've been doing demolition since the day I closed. The house is in gated golf club community. The same one my parents live in coincidentally. The previous owners were not the favorite of the neighbors, the home owners association, and likely the police. I have been very well received so far. I'm sure the trash people have a slightly different view as I've already put out 15 loaded contractor bags for pickup. Right now I'm looking at ripping out the remains of the kitchen cabinets and a 13' X 17' bedroom ceiling. Well half. The other half fell due to the roof leak.

I'm sure to some of you.... most of you... Ok all of you - this seems like an overwhelming project. I thought so too the first two times I did this but this is not my first time to the rodeo. The greatest part is I get to lock the door and leave as the dust settles. The last two times I was sleeping in it.

I have made huge progress so far. All the carpet tack strips are up, plumbing done and the water turned back on, garage door replaced, deposit on the roof, drywall in the garage fixed, walls patched, paint cans everywhere. I can get half the house painted at least.

This will be a huge effort but when I'm done, if all goes well, I'll have my retirement dream house at half the cost of the surrounding properties. Check back in about six months and see if I'm still as enthusiastic.