One Step Forward, Three Steps Back

I headed over to the house this morning to open it up for the carpet guy who was supposed to come at 8:30 A.M.  I was happy to see him pull up at 8:27 A.M., and he got right to work.  He was a one-man job for a pretty simple room:  all square and no closets.

While he worked, I drove around the neighborhood to look at homes, especially the front doors and shutters.  I stopped at one man's house who had a front door with sidelights (it looked beautiful), and I decided to walk up and knock on the door!  He told me he had to replace his, too...to the tune of $2000!  Ouch!  But it DID look beautiful.  Oh, how, I hope my contractor can salvage my front doors!

I took note of the beautiful homes decorated for Christmas in the area, and I just parked outside the front of my house and dreamed a bit.  (I also took note of a home for sale in the same neighborhood for $247,000).  That is nothing but good news, albeit a much larger home.

I then headed back to the house to see how the carpet guy was doing.  As we talked small talk, a thunderstorm moved through the area.  I figured I would just walk around the house a bit when I saw lightning out the backyard.  Of course the thunder came next.  Pretty crazy for late November.

But then I heard a crazy sound.  The sound of water.  What?!

I decided to check all of the areas that I knew were weak from water leaks, but I was just simply ill-prepared for what I saw.  This house does nothing but leak water!  What I needed was a good storm complete with heavy rain and wind, and I got just that this morning.  The winds whipped, and the rain blew in sideways from the south right into the back of my house.

I noticed the obscene amounts of water coming through the patio door.  Unbelievable.

There is a difference between a leak...and a flood.  This was a deluge.

More than just a leak.

And then I traced the sound of the water leak to the kitchen.  That bulge in the ceiling that I thought was an old leak (and fixed) was not that at all.  It was a very active leak just waiting for the right conditions.  I literally saw a steady stream of water reach from the ceiling all the way to the floor where it then entered the crawlspace through the hole in the floor.

I just watched as water poured into the house.

I honestly don't have adequate words to convey how that feels.  A new homeowner literally staring at money going just like that water...down the hole.  It's almost surreal.  I did what any reasonable owner would do and grabbed a bucket and put it under the water.  Nothing I could do now to fix it, so I just watched and contemplated.

But I ran upstairs to see if I could track if the water was coming from the roof or through the leak in the upstairs door.  I honestly don't have a good feel for that, but it was obvious that water was running into the house from upstairs, too.  I'm wondering if it's not coming through the upstairs door in the Master Bedroom.  An obvious stream of water was coming through the door and going down the hole in the floor.  To where it went is anyone's guess.

The water coming in the door and going to who knows where.

Wow, what a mess I have on my hands.

I'm actually happy I was there while the thunderstorm went through.  It just solidified the fact that I need to get a contractor in there...like yesterday.  I've been waiting to hear back from one of them, but I don't know how much longer I can wait!  This house needs to be sealed!

In happy news, the carpet guy was done with the room in 75 minutes.  So I have three rooms fully carpeted and ready to be lived in.  It's actually pretty refreshing.  Another $360 out the door, but the rooms are coming together.  I can now move everything into these three rooms and hopefully get a contractor in there to fix the floors and doors...and ceiling.

Another completed room!  Fresh paint and carpet!

Beautiful new carpet!

Oh, the joys of picking up a foreclosure.  What a mess.

Oh, Hey, Look, More Mold...

I had told my painter last night that I would have new bathroom paint for him this morning, so I headed to Lowe's with a bathroom curtain and asked to match one of the circles.  The paint came out a bit dark, but I figured I would try it!  I'm being bold and going away from the gray that I love so much!

Once at the house, I had a crazy idea.  One of the contractors had mentioned that he wasn't sure about whether the floor below the long row of kitchen cabinets needed to be replaced.  He thought that the cabinet might come off easily, but he wasn't sure.

Well, I wasn't going to wait to find out!  So I went to removing the kitchen cabinet myself to inspect the floor underneath.  It's obvious that water doesn't just stay away from the cabinets, and I was pretty positive that the floor underneath the cabinets needed replaced, but why not make sure?

The cabinet showed signs of black mold behind it.

Black mold peeking through.

Frankly, removing the cabinet was very easy!  Outside of one screw that the head ripped off (always one), the cabinet came off without a hitch.  It had three screws securing it to the wall and three securing it to the cabinet top.

As soon as I removed the cabinet, I was so glad I did.  For that's when I saw all the mold.  Obviously the water leak from the upstairs was coming down and providing adequate moisture for mold growth, but this was all hidden!  This kitchen held so much black mold!!!

Wow, what a find.

Look at all of that black mold!

Mold from the water leak upstairs.  Yuck.

It's such a pain-in-the-butt to be finding it all, but I'm relieved that I am finding it.  It's all gotta go.

My painters were back in the house again today with the goal of finishing up this weekend.  We are getting close!  I was happy to learn that my painters also hated the blue in the bathroom, so they were happy to see it go, too!  But that color I picked out?  Yuck!  It's a dark brown!  It was supposed to be a darker tan.  The painter liked it (ew!), but I didn't care for it.  Oh, well, I will lighten it up with the shower curtain, I guess.  Two bad colors in a row!  I should have gone with gray.



The new dark brown bathroom!  I'll cover it up with a shower curtain!  Ew!

In exciting news, though, the rest of the house is looking great!  I LOVE the new color of the Master Bathroom.

The new Master Bedroom bath.  I should have used this color in the other bath, too!

While at the house, Dad asked if I could kindly help him with an unexpected project.  He was cleaning the aerator on his faucet when he noticed all of the threads are just stripped.  So he needed a new faucet installed.  Of course, Pa!  He has been nothing but tremendous help at the new house (and everyone before that), so it was a no-brainer.  Frankly, had he not helped me at all, it was STILL a no-brainer!  That's what family is for.  So Mom headed to Menard's to pick out the faucet while I made my way over to Mom and Dad's house.  I grabbed a much-needed Thanksgiving lunch while I worked on getting the plumbing ready for the new faucet.

One of the shut-off valves wasn't so much shutting off anything, so I decided to go ahead and replace the original 1970's ones with the new 1/4-turn style.  That required a little bit of finesse (and frustration) with a roto-tool, but I made it all work.  The project went...ok.  It would have been a cinch with the original shut-off valves left on, but a job worth doin' is worth doin' right.  Mom arrived with the new parts (all correct!), and I installed the new faucet.  A resounding success and nice addition to the home.  And no leaks!

I also helped Dad find the pesky leak in his crawlspace that has been going on for over a year now.  I traced it down to a faulty installation of a water heater...by a QUALIFIED "professional."  I can only imagine Dad's frustration as the poor installation led to salt water leaking directly on top and rusting out his ductwork and whole-house humidifier.  It's just disgusting.  Had the installer just drained the pipes two feet more to the crawlspace OR drained them in the sump pit, this could have all been avoided.  As it is, the faulty installation led to probably over a thousand dollars' worth of damage.

Why is that so frustrating for me?  Well, one, it's because it's my Mom and Dad!  Two, it's because it shows shortcuts by "professionals."  Third, it's because I'm getting ready to hire a professional to do extensive work on my house!  It's VERY possible that he could be awful!  Or cut corners!  Or not do something right.  It's soooooooooooo frustrating.  Paying someone to a job right...that they don't do right.

It's frustrating all around!  I so hope my contractor is good.  And honest.  And professional!!!  Not just a word on his business card.

Mom, Dad, and I headed back over to my house late this afternoon after a quick stop at Menard's for shelving parts and light fixtures.  Now that the paint is done in the bedrooms, I can start hanging shelves back up.  I used Mom for "Mom Expertise" on the shelving.  I didn't necessarily like how they had the original shelves, but with holes already in the walls, I decided to go with it...at least in the first bedroom.  She said they were fine, although I had to buy numerous extra support brackets as the previous owner had so few.  I'm more than sure that's the reason they shelves are falling out of the walls around the house!  Simple fixes.



The shelves going back in...

I also installed a new light fixture in the walk-in closet off the Master Bedroom.  The painter is going to be patching and painting this room soon, and I want him to be able to see clearly!  The old fixture had one of the two sockets that did not work.  Dad thinks it's yet another case of putting in too high of a watt bulb in the socket (like the garage probably).  So I just decided to change it out!  It looks so much better anyway.  That room is huge!  I love it!

The massive walk-in closet with new light fixture (and no shelving).

While I worked on the fixture, Dad was scraping off layers of paint from light fixtures and receptacles.  It's a cheap fix...basically just sit there (or lay there) and scrape off the paint.  Tedious for sure, but it saves wiring.  Although after scraping off half of a receptacle, Dad noticed that the top portion was broke.  Agh!  Frustrations!

 

I didn't get a "Before" picture, but those switches used to be pink and green!

What the receptacles look like before...

The receptacle after.

So it was another productive day!  The painting is done except for the walk-in closet.  That is HUGE!  And these minor projects are adding to the homeliness of the upstairs bedrooms.  They are so close to being done (outside of the Master Bedroom).

We finally left around 9:00 P.M., each of us ready to be done, I think!

Little by little!  The projects get checked off one at a time.  We are getting there!

Time to Officially Move!

Well, I've been living in two houses for a few months now.  But today was time to start REALLY moving in to the new house.  I had a couple of rooms now officially carpeted, and it was time to just start taking everything over to the new house.

Thankfully, Mom and Dad were off for the day after Thanksgiving.  Of course, Mom ended up shopping the entire day while Dad and I moved, but, hey, that's to be expected.

So that's really what today was!  Dad showed up at 8:30 A.M., and we drove my little truck over to the new house full of furniture.  We then picked up my big truck that was full of the old kitchen flooring and drove it to a dumpster.  We then used both trucks to carry furniture to the new place.  All in all, we did three back-and-forths.  So we ended up moving five truckloads today.  And I'm happy to say that my house is almost all moved out except for some pretty minor stuff!

Getting rid of the old kitchen flooring opened my truck back up for use!

I kept my bed and washer and dryer in the current home.  I also have my clothes and tools.  But everything else is moved over!  What a relief!  I have the week off before the closing date, so this is going to be the time to empty out everything, but what a huge step in the right direction!

The garage is PACKED!!!  No room for one truck, let alone two!

Thanks, Ma (she DID finally show up) and Pa!

In more exciting news, the painter continues to blaze through the house.  He has a goal of finishing up this weekend.  He's down to the last bedroom, closet, and two bathrooms upstairs!  Woo hoo!

Bye, bye, green!



The Master Bedroom being trimmed out in new paint.

Look at that new color on the right!  Love it!

 

More Master Bedroom.

The new color!  I love it!

The new bathroom!  Agh, I cannot wait to replace that tile!!!

I was ready to go early in the evening, but I wanted to make sure that my painter did the walk-in closet right.  So I decided to take down the shelves for him.  Oh my, what a chore that ended up being.  I knew the previous owner had cheaply solidified the shelves with 2 x 4's to hold up the massive weight of whatever was on there, but I had NO idea just how he did that.  I mean, these shelves were held in place with lag bolts!  And 20 of them!  I started ratcheting them out, but I finally just gave in and grabbed the cordless drill.  And the screws holding up the shelves?!  Unbelievable.  I probably had to remove 50-75 screws this evening.

The shelving had 2 x 4's cheaply added to hold up the shelves.

And it opened up my eyes to the fact that the previous owner was just not gifted in craftsmanship.  Which is actually terrifying when thinking about the rest of the house.  But I'll use one picture to illustrate.  On one of the corners of the shelving, he literally placed 17 screws in the board to hold it up.  SEVENTEEN.  It's absurd.  It's ridiculous.  It's silly.  It's stupid.  But I had to take them all out.  One by one.

Seventeen screws holding in this tiny piece of wood!

What I was left with was a mess of bullet holes all up and down the closet, but those will all be patched, and I'll be sure to NOT line up the new shelf lines with the old ones.  Oh, what a day.  But I'm excited to have this walk-in closet be one of the selling points of the home!  It's HUGE!!!



Look at all of those holes!  It's absurd!

One of the shelves was just moved down an inch.  Yes, that means the shelf is no longer level.  But, hey, this guy had no idea what he was doing, so why not?

And just for fun and excitement, I took a picture of a couple of the rooms with actual home-y stuff in them!  This house is turning into a home, and I love it!  This is when it gets even more fun!  Now if only I had some floors to finalize it all!  Oh well, not yet...

The living room now complete with furniture!

One of the two smaller bedrooms ready to go!

I've Got Carpet!!!

The house is starting to look like a home!!!  Well, sort of...

I have flooring in two rooms out of the 10 or so to do!!!  But, hey, it's a step in the right direction!  The carpet guys came yesterday, so the first thing I had to do, of course, was check out their work when I got home!

It looks great!  I like the color.  It's neutral but trendy.  And it's dark enough to hide any stains that may appear!

The bedroom as I bought the house.





And After!  New paint and carpet!



The bedroom as I bought the house.

And After!  New paint and carpet!

Little by little!

I swung by the house to check out the new carpet once I landed from work, and I decided to fix the unlit light bulb in my garage door opener.  I had installed one a little over a week ago, and I remember a "fizzing" sound upon installation, but it lit up and worked fine.  Well, the bulb was pulsating today, so I decided to get up there and take a look.  Agh!!!  The socket was fried!  As in charred!  It had obviously been arcing (hence the sound from when I installed it) for some time, and it was just fried.  I unhooked the charred black wire and removed the socket.  I'm not sure if I can find a replacement part for this or not, but it's no good as-is!  It's a small problem...but yet another in the list of foreclosure repair!  Yikes!

I also received my first bid from a contractor today for the work on the subfloors.  He came in surprisingly low at $2250, but he made it abundantly clear that this is a "base bid" and does not include any surprises they may find.  I hate the idea of that..."$2250 is the lowest and infinity is the highest," but I get what he is saying.  He simply won't know what he is dealing with until  he takes out the doors.

The good news is that DOES include two new doors (one for the upstairs Master Bedroom, one for the garage), but it does not include a new patio door or front door (the two most expensive).  But I like the fact that he is trying to salvage them and use them again.  It's much appreciated!

So let's say the doors both need replaced.  Then I'm looking at closer to $4000.  It's still a number I am "pleased" with.  I don't like spending money, but, wow, this house is in some need of some work!

As if to encourage me to get the job done right, I walked by my French doors while we had a light rain this morning, and I saw this:

An active water leak from a very light rain this morning.

Yes, I get it.  I need the doors and floors replaced!

I asked for references, and I literally spent over 29 minutes on the phone with a gentleman who just had similar work completed for him by this contractor.  He rated him an A- to B+ on quality and an A on value.  He says the contractor is a hard worker, though better at rough construction than finish construction (he is a go-getter and works too fast for the tedious and patience-required finish work), and that he would definitely use him again.  But he told me to make absolutely sure that I laid everything out in writing up front (a request from the contractor, too).  Frankly, I am shocked at the price (and very relieved), but the gentleman asked me what I was quoted at, and he said he had a similar price of $2800 for the work done on his home.  And he said that in his shopping around, the prices ranged from $2800 to $3450 to $5600 for the same work from three different contractors!  Being pleased with the work, he said one would just be paying for the fancy truck you see drive up with other contractors.  (I chuckled, because I took note of the 1989 Chevrolet 1500 that the contractor drove up in...it's almost identical to my 1991...down to the two-tone colors!).  Don't judge a book by its cover!

I am definitely going to wait for one last contractor (the one I like the most) to made a bid, too, but I think he is going to come in significantly higher.  This contractor that I am waiting on has certainly shown the most interest (he has visited the home three times), and I like the fact that he is not wanting to make a "guesstimate" bid.  But I just get the hunch that he might be the "$5600" bid.  I'll just have to make that decision when it comes.

In some other news, I had the home inspection done on my house this morning.  So I am eager to see what they found (and how much I will have to fix or credit towards the new owner).  And I went shopping for more hardwood floors today.  Dad and I talked extensively about hardwood vs. carpet again, and I have concluded that hardwood is going to be the best for resale.  Carpet makes the house look nice, but hardwood actually increases the value of your home (think higher appraisal).  I like it, too.  And with the first bid coming in, I can put hardwood floors in under budget again!  (I spent my first flight this morning updating my spreadsheet to see where I stood with various bid-range possibilities!).

But I also realized that the flooring I chose was cheaply made!  I walked into a flooring store in New York this past week and said, "Hi, guys.  I'm from Illinois, so I'm just going to start out by saying you are not going to sell me anything.  Now, with that said, can I ask you some very specific questions about what to look for when choosing hardwood or engineered hardwood"?  And the sales reps did not disappoint!  As a matter of fact, after overhearing my conversation, the owner of 35 years came out and showed me the "secrets" when choosing what to buy!  Once they realized they had nothing to gain from me, they could have shooed me out the door, but instead they divulged everything!  I actually couldn't get the guy to shut up!  It was great!  To keep it simple, it all comes down to the "wear layer" on top of your engineered flooring.



It's all about the wear layer.  My piece I had chosen last week was definitely like the bottom!!!

So I brought that knowledge back to my house here, and I checked out the "wear layer" on the piece of engineered hardwood that I had chosen.  Sure enough, it was razor thin (think cheap).  Basically, your wear layer is the thickness of the wood (the non-plywood-portion) of your floor.  It tells you how much it can be sanded before getting down to the support wood.  Solid floors can be sanded 5-7 times in their life (think 100 year flooring) vs. engineered which is 3-5 times for high-quality and 1-3 times for low-quality.

So with renewed vigor, Mom and I went hardwood shopping and Thanksgiving Day food shopping, and I quickly learned the difference between cheap and quality.  It's quite simply the difference between cheap and expensive!  By asking for a better wear layer piece, the prices more than doubled!  No joke!  My floor went from $2.99/square foot to $6.12/square foot with the thicker layer!  Ouch!

So then I started thinking:  How long would a wood floor go before you sanded?  And I'm thinking at least 25 years.  So even though I chose the lower-quality floor, I'm not so sure it really matters.  I'm not going to be sanding anyway!  And if it looks the same?  Why pay double?!

Maybe that thin wear layer isn't so bad after all...

Who knew shopping for floors could be so complex?!

In other news, I had a minor setback on the paint.  Mom had sent me a picture of the upstairs hallway bathroom showing me the color I had picked out.  In my mind, the color was "sky blue."  But once on the walls...ouch!  It was horrendously ugly!  It was a mix of sky blue and Miami Dolphins teal!  It was gross!  I'll have to kindly ask my painter to repaint!  agh!

The picture doesn't do it justice...but the color is actually disgusting!  It's gotta go before the second coat.

No work for a couple of days on the house!  It's time to celebrate Thanksgiving with family!!!

The plan is to start moving in most of my stuff on Friday and Saturday, though, now that I have two carpeted rooms to put stuff in!  It's exciting!

Time to Start Putting it Back Together

Today's post won't have pictures, but it's one of the biggest days for the home.  It represents a turning point.  Ever since I purchased this home, most of the work has involved taking apart.  Removing.  Destroying.  Taking away.

Well, today, some very important pieces are starting to be added!

As we speak, I am having carpet laid in the upstairs small bedrooms!  Sure, I have been putting together new light fixtures and paint, but the flooring represents a finished piece!  After the carpet guys are done today, I have two livable rooms!!!  That is huge!  Ever since purchase, there really hasn't been a place to comfortably settle into yet!

But in an hour, I have two comfortable, freshly-painted, freshly-carpeted bedrooms to sleep in!  It's exciting!!!

(It's also expensive!).  I imagine I'll have around $8,000-$12,000 in flooring expenses for the home, and this represents $815.22 of that!  But it's a step in the right direction!  I am going to use both rooms for storage but also for a bed!  I close on selling my house in less than a month, and it's time to start calling the new one home for good!

SO exciting!

I also had three more bidders come look at the home today.  Yesterday was a painful day of cold-calling companies which I know nothing about.  It's so hard to find contractors that you can trust!  Some call back, others never call, some aren't interested, some charge to come out and take a look.  And you never know what you're going to get!

As I told Dad on the phone today, "It's like choosing a new restaurant that you've never been to before.  It can either be your new favorite restaurant, or you'll say, 'I'll never eat there again.'"  You just don't know the quality of work that will be done, the timeliness, the integrity, the professionalism, the communication.  It's a big pain-in-the-butt, if you ask me!

But today I had another flooring installer come over to make a bid on hardwood in the living room and dining room and tile in the kitchen.  I also had a contractor come back by for the third time to make a bid on the damaged floor repairs.  Honestly, I have been nothing short of impressed with this guy and his team so far.  They have certainly shown the most interest in the home, and I appreciate the active communication.  I really don't expect their price to be cheap, but I do like their professionalism thus far.  I really trust them to do the job right.  But unfortunately for me, after talking to him today, that means replacing the front door...to a tune of nearly $1500.  Ouch.  But the job needs to be done right.

He says he will get me an estimate soon, and I'm fully expecting it to come in at $6,000 for all of the repairs.  Ouch, ouch, ouch.  But it certainly has to be done!  I'm hoping it comes in lower, and I'll have some SERIOUS questions to contemplate if it comes in higher.  But I am really at a stand-still until the floors are fixed.

Another contractor should be there now making a bid.  And I received a phone call yesterday from a contractor from last week who says he has final numbers for me.  I didn't have time to talk to get the numbers (agh!), but at least the bids are coming in!  I should have three by the end of the week!  It's an exciting, nerve-wracking time for me!  I haven't received a single bid yet...and I'm so curious as to the spread of the bids, too.  With this much work, I bet they come in all over the place.

And all of this is being done while I am in South Carolina!  So a HUGE thanks to Pa for being at the home all morning for me!  I couldn't do it without you, and I appreciate it!

We're moving FORWARD!!!

I still don't think Christmas is going to happen (simply financially now!), but it's an exciting step in the right direction.  This broken house is finally being fixed!

A New Faucet

As promised to my tenant yesterday, I headed back to one of the rental properties to replace the kitchen faucet.  I bought a brand-new Moen faucet to replace the no-name old one, something I was sure the tenant would love.

And I got to work.  I bought brand-new water lines, too, and I was thrilled to find that the lines came off easily.  I installed the faucet in short order, but I quickly learned that the new lines were too short!  AGH!!!

This 45-minute project was going to take 2 hours now!  Oh, well, such is life.  (The sales rep at Menard's said my 12-inch water line choice was odd, but I assured him that's what I pulled out.  And it was true!  But the old faucet had long copper lines that hung down whereas the new did not.  Lesson learned:  ALWAYS BUY TWO SIZES!  You can return the other!).

Once back at the house, the lines went on quick.  And the tenant had a new faucet!

Out with the old...

In with the new!

Of course, after assembled, I showed her that it worked, and it was then that she told me that the old faucet's spray handle didn't work!  WHAT?!  Poor girl!  This woman had been using a pretty awful faucet for the last few years!  I'm sorry!

But needless to say, she was ecstatic with the new one.  She is a neat freak, and she loves how clean it is!

After the faucet, I headed into the backyard to appease a cranky neighbor.  Yesterday while changing out the microwave, a neighbor walked in the house and said that a tree was hanging over her fence dropping sticks into her yard.  Ok, darling, ok.

The "problem" tree.

I checked it out, and it really wasn't that bad, but sometimes just the effort goes a long way.

So I used a chainsaw to cut down several branches.  The neighbor came out and thanked me and said she approved.  And then she let me know about her three massive gumball trees!  I just had to laugh to myself.  She has three of the dirtiest trees known to man, and here she is complaining about a few sticks in her yard from a neighbor's tree.

But (for now) she is happy.

I told the tenant that I would get a quote to cut down the tree, though, as I realized it's a messy mulberry tree.  It's incredibly "branchy" and is already taking out the fence between this house and another neighbor's house.  It quite literally just needs to go.

What a messy tree!  Nice canopy cover, though.

The pesky and overgrown mulberry.

It needs to go.

If I can get it done for $300, I'll have to gone!

After that, I headed home and "raked" my leaves!  I had soooooooo many from my two oak trees, but I happily and quickly used my electric leaf blower.  One of the best purchases ever!  I had them out of the yard in no time!

Front yard cleaned up in 15 minutes!  I love that blower!

I'm trying to keep the house look as nice as possible for the new owner!

Hole-y Cow, I've Got a Foreclosure Mess!

I only have a few days off of work this time, so I wanted to tackle some projects rather quickly.  My goal is still to host Christmas in this home!  It's totally doable!

Well, at least it was at the beginning of the day...

In the two or so days I had off, I had plans of getting the kitchen flooring up.  At that point, I could start aggressively shopping for flooring.  The more I do, the less I pay, the easier it is on the flooring installers.  It's a win-win.

So it wasn't even my plan originally today, but I wanted to do SOMETHING, so I decided to start ripping up the kitchen floor!  That was going to be my big project for the next few days, but why not start out doing it?!

And so I did just that!  I used the pry-bar tool again and starting ripping up the linoleum which was on top of luan.  Again, it was work!!!  You try to get under the luan, but you have to try to avoid the hundreds of staples holding it down, or it just jars your forearm!  Oh, the number of times I went to scrape hard under the board only to have a sudden stoppage of flow!  Ouch!

Starting to pry up the kitchen floor!

The hardest part was trying to figure out what to do with all of the stuff on top of the floor!

Little by little.  The floor came up with lots of effort!

The new floor possibilities are going to be endless!

The pieces were coming up in big sections.

While prying up the floor, I yanked just a bit too hard on the linoleum, and I ended up pulling the small cabinet to the left of the stove out of the wall a bit.  Well, since it was already out, I figured why not remove it completely!  So I unscrewed it from the wall, but while doing so, I didn't think about the paint and caulk, and I ended up ripping the drywall paper where it attached!  A little frustration!  It happens.

But a very important question was answered:  The cabinets were installed AFTER the floors which meant that I had to figure out a way to get the flooring up without removing all of the cabinets.  Hmm, not too easy of a task.  I decided to ask my neighbor across the street!  He suggested using an oscillating tool to cut along the base of the cabinets.  Perfect!  Well, except I didn't own an oscillating tool!  Time to add to my collection!

My aggressiveness pried up the little counter next to the stove, too.  But that's when I confirmed that the cabinets were installed after the floor!  Hmm, what to do about that...

The cabinet removed from the wall.

But that's what the day entailed!  Pry up the floor, try not to jam a staple in your finger as you grab the piece, toss the piece aside, repeat.  Again, my forearm kept getting jarred as I caught the hundreds of staples left in the floorboard when I tried to scrape the floor.  But the beauty of a project like this is you see instant results.  So it's pretty motivating to keep going.

One of the most difficult parts of the job was actually removing all the stuff that I had moved over from my current house!  I had set so much of it in the kitchen!  And now I had to move all of it again...to a room that is not yet carpeted...where I will have to move it yet again!  Agh!!!  I need finished rooms where I can put stuff!

This kitchen is HUGE!

I have no good place to put these!  I moved in too quickly!!!

A lot of floor to remove!

A lot of work to do!

Once I removed my books and all, though, the process went fairly smoothly.  Just hard work!

But little by little, the floor kept coming up.  A little piece here, a large piece there.  I hauled it out to my truck for disposal and kept going.

The linoleum is removed from the laundry area!

And exposed some water leaks from the washer.

But all was not well.  When I ripped up the floor from the laundry area, I saw water damage.  Black mold had moved in, as well.  This was not a surprise, as I saw remnants of the mold in the fourth bedroom/office adjacent to this room.  But it was pretty extensive there in the small laundry room.

What a mess!

And then it basically went all downhill from there.  The more I ripped up, the more I saw years and years of water damage.  When I ripped up the part below the drip in the ceiling, I saw very weak floorboards, so much so that when you pushed in on them, they crumbled into the crawlspace.  Uh oh.  Not good.  Not good at all.

My first big setback.  A large hole in the subfloor.  This is directly underneath the ceiling leak.

Hello, crawlspace.  The more I pushed on the floor, the more it came apart.  It's rotten.



The floor is so rotten.  You can see the big ring of water damage past the hole, too.

And then I started ripping up the area underneath the fridge.  I was hoping the leak was stopped or relegated only to the luan, but that would just be too easy.  When I ripped up the linoleum and crumbling luan under the fridge, I exposed a massive area of water damage, rot...and you guessed it...more termites.  I could easily see the termite tunnels in the wood, and when I pushed on the wood, it just disintegrated.  My oh my.

My second big setback.  The water leak underneath the refrigerator.

Lots of black mold.  And it's not just water.  It's a termite haven, too.

The termites destroyed the subfloor underneath the refrigerator.  You can crumble this with your fingers.

This is a major setback.  Part of flipping foreclosures is not knowing what you are going to get, but had this been a normal sale, too, I don't think I would have known.  I knew there was some sort of water damage under the fridge, but with the three layers of flooring on top (laminate, linoleum, luan), it was very-well hidden.  Such is what happens when you start removing layers!

But this is going to be a big time setback.  I'm not sure about cost, but I have a lot of subfloors that need replaced.  And being so close to the wall, who knows how far the damage goes underneath there.  Oh the joys.

The last pieces of flooring around the cabinets.

This area is done!

I headed out to Menard's to pick up an oscillating saw...er, tool...I looked and looked and looked in the saw aisle but could not find one!  So I asked a worker, and he said it was in the "Dremel aisle."  It's labeled a tool, not a saw!  Whatever works!  I picked up the cheapest one plus an extra half-moon saw blade and was out the door for $26.77.

And then from there I headed to Dad's work to meet up with him for the tackling of another big project!  I received word from a tenant that her microwave "caught on fire" this past week.  She said she didn't put anything metal in it but that it started smoking like crazy.  She stopped it, waited another day and tried another item (mac and cheese).  When it smoked again, she called me.  I told her to unplug it and that I'd be there to fix it when I was in town next (like when do I have time for that?!).  But part of good business is keeping the current tenants happy!

So Dad and I learned as we went.  Neither of us have installed an above-the-range microwave before, but thankfully, the project went fairly smoothly.  We had it installed in 75 minutes.  I was happy about that!  And it actually didn't cost me anything (today).  I had been storing this microwave for the past two years (waiting for the current one to go out).  I had purchased it as a package deal along with a dishwasher from my aunt.  I literally lugged it over to the new house where it was just sitting on my workbench!  Dad said he saw a "2000" date on the one we pulled out.  Sometimes things just go bad.  16 years isn't bad for a microwave!

The "new" microwave installed.  Thanks, Pa!

Quite literally, everything is new in here!  Since purchase, I've had to replace the stove, dishwasher, and microwave!  And the fridge was purchased new!

And after finishing completion of the microwave, the tenant said, "You're not going to like me, but my kitchen faucet isn't working, either.  The handle keeps coming off."  I inspected it, tried to fix it (it broke), and was reminded that the tenant and her dad tried to fix it a year ago.  Once I realized that they had already replaced the handle once before, I said I would fix it tomorrow.  I'll get you a brand new one!  Agh, it's always something!  But she has been a great tenant.

From there, Dad and I headed back to the new house where Mom was meeting us, too.  I sawed the linoleum along the cabinets, then pryed up the pieces while Dad took them to the truck.  It was fairly easy work.  That tool is impressive!  It cut right through the wood!

I had to buy a new tool to finish the rest.

The wood is so soft you can crumble it with your hands or feet.

I made the decision to remove this second cabinet from the wall to the right of the fridge in order to fully see the extent of the water and termite damage.  Three screws is all that held it in.  Dad and I tried to lift it to the other side of the room, but I kid you not, I could not lift!  My right forearm just froze up when I tried to lift!  It simply would not work!  It was mush from all of the prying and sliding and pounding and sudden jolting when hitting those pesky staples.  It was kind of embarrassing, but my arm just didn't work!

But we were able to figure out a way to get it across the room.  And I am glad I removed it, for it DID expose more damage underneath where it sat.  It's pretty extensive damage.

The cabinet before removal.

The cabinet has been removed!

I know why they put laminate on top of their linoleum!  So discolored from the original new!

The massive mold and termite damage under the fridge and cabinet.



What a mess.  It all needs to be cut out.

Oh boy.  Well, the good news is my big project for the next three days is now complete.  I surprised even myself getting it done the first day back, but once I saw progress, I just wanted to keep going.  The very-not-good news is I have some major damage to my floors.  I have a large hole and rotten wood underneath the drip in the ceiling, water damage and mold in the washer/dryer area, and extensive termite and water damage underneath the fridge.  It's not good.

I've got some big issues...

So I'm happy with the progress today.  But what a setback!  I'm not sure Christmas is going to be able to be hosted here at all anymore!  I've lost quite a bit of time.  I am going to have to call contractors to come by and make bids on the floor repairs.

Actually, one contractor who has been working at my dad's work swung by tonight.  He was supposed to come by tomorrow, but he wanted to see the address on his way home from work, and he noticed us there.  So he walked through and kept on saying, "Wow."  You never want to hear your contractor say, "Wow."  He is curious as to the extent of the damage underneath the doors and actually wonders if he won't have to remove the doors to fix the floors.  That's right...the damage is not just in the kitchen!

My floor repairs are as follows:

--Underneath the ceiling drip in the kitchen (water)
--Underneath the washer/dryer area (water)
--Underneath the fridge (termites and water)
--Front door entryway (termites)
--Rear French patio doors (water)
--Upstairs Master Bedroom door (water)

Floor damage underneath ceiling drip in kitchen.

Flooring damage underneath refrigerator.

 

Flooring damage underneath washing machine.

Flooring damage in front of main entryway door.

Flooring damage in front of rear patio doors.

Flooring damage in front of door in Master Bedroom.

The cost is seriously a guess right now.  It all comes down to whether the doors will have to be removed in order to repair the subflooring.  And if they DO go out, I will most likely update at least some of them to update the 25-year-old doors.  If the French doors go out, I will put in a new sliding glass door (contractor thought $600 which I found to be low).  If the front door gets taken out, I would LOVE to have it put back in to save me $1500 (it's expensive with the two side-lites).  But if it is damaged, then that's a $1500 loss.  The upstairs door in the Master Bedroom will have to be replaced.  And the garage entry door will likely have to be replaced.

I'm guessing on the very low side with just the floors cut out and replaced (can they slide in subfloor underneath the doors?!), I'm looking at $1000.  But if doors have to be taken out and removed, then I'm telling myself anywhere between $5000-$8000.  Oh, what a day.

So today I experienced a major time setback but also a significant financial setback, as well.  I definitely want to fix the house properly, but I'm afraid that is going to involve some serious cash to do so.  Time will tell.  Tonight's contractor said he will swing by Menard's after he leaves and get back to me tomorrow.

I will start calling others to receive bids, as well.

Christmas, I'm not sure we will be celebrating in this home this year.

So I took a major step forward (ALL of the flooring in the house is now removed!  Woo hoo!).  But I took a MAJOR step backward, as well (I can't install new floors until I get the structural work complete!).

Oh, the joys of flipping homes!

But the floor is all gone!  Now I just have big headaches with the subfloor!

Subfloor now is exposed from wall-to-wall in the house.  It's ready for flooring as soon as I get the structural repairs completed.

I'm excited about the opportunities for flooring, but, wow, what a setback day!