I Didn't Lose Interest!

I assure you I didn't lose interest in the blog, I have been very busy at work with my new position and just haven't thought about it. Lawrence has been very busy as well, but he only needed to remind me about the blog and I would have written something. So there!  :-)

I'll just follow up on what Lawrence wrote. The house is coming along nicely, and no, we have NOT moved in yet. Looks like it will be close to one year from when we bought it before we do. We bought it in February, if you remember.

So much has been done it's hard to remember all the changes. Yes, we have repainted a couple of the rooms for a couple of reasons. Originally we painted all the walls with a satin-finish paint that looked great, but it had a shiny look to it, and we didn't like it on the darker colored rooms. We repainted those rooms with the same color, but in a flat finish. It looks a lot better! On the lighter color rooms we kept the original paint since it's not nearly as noticeable.

A family friend named Doug came over a few weeks ago and helped redo the main water piping into the house and put in a new type of main water valve that doesn't require a lot of turning to turn it on and off...just a quick flip up or down does the trick. It came in handy this past weekend when a certain someone (not me) decided to loosen a new sink faucet that this certain someone (not me) installed instead of tightening it. The water to the house was on and the new faucet went flying across the room and a tremendous amount of water filled the bathroom floor. When it happened, I was in the other room and heard this certain someone (not me) screaming to "turn off the water!". No harm done, but we sure have a nice, clean floor now. Oh, and this certain someone (not me) got soaked during the ordeal.

I can't remember what all Lawrence talked about in his eloquent post, so I'll just list a few things we have done with the chance of repeating something:

1. The old garage door opener, which a certain someone (not me) destroyed by trying to open the door with the door locked, was removed and the new one installed. Very nicely done by Mr. Fabulous (not me). I helped a little.

2. We have amazing new lights on either side of the garage and in the front entrance to the house, and they come on automatically when it gets dark, dim and brighten as needed with movement near the house, and they are quite the talking point of the neighborhood.

3. We bought and installed a nice new stainless LG microwave oven in the kitchen. We haven't used it yet, but the clock looks nice.

4. Lawrence built some temporary shelving in the garage to hold assorted bits of lumber up and out of the way. It beats having all that lumber all over the living room floor and getting under foot.

5. Both of us...Yes, BOTH of us, finally started working on the two bathrooms and removed the old countertops with their attached sinks and faucets, all of which were awful, then removed the cabinetry. Those old cabinets are now in the garage and fit perfectly along one wall to support Lawrence's new workbench he will build on top of them.

6. We ran some new wire from the outside telephone box to the study where our AT&T U-Verse wireless internet system is located. The old wire was in very bad shape and we were surprised when we took it out just how bad it was! I was surprised we had any signal at all through that beat-up old wire. The new insulated Cat-6 wire gives us amazing speed now.

7. We purchased a new television antenna and assembled it in the living room, then promptly put it away in another room. We will install it in the attic when we are ready for it...namely when we buy that new TV we are eying. We have a 40-inch LCD television in the apartment now, and that will go either in the master bedroom in the house, or in the study. The new living room will easily accommodate our new 65-inch LED television when mounted on the wall. I wanted an 80-inch television, but at $5000....it's a no-go. The measly 65-incher will have to suffice. Oh, and at the same time we bought the new antenna, we also bought the new wall-mount for the TV. It was installed in the middle of that huge wall, but we don't have a TV to put on it yet. We kinda do things in weird order in case you haven't noticed. The mounting of that contraption was quite the ordeal. We measured the wall top to bottom, then left to right to find the perfect center spot. We then got out the fancy laser-level device and got the level correct, and wouldn't you know it, the placement of the studs behind the wall don't match the center of the wall. We had to end up shifting the mount a little left-of-center, but it will work.

8. Lawrence bought a bunch of new plants for the backyard, and planted them. It looks great out there, and we have barely started on the outside.

A couple of weeks ago, we invited some of the neighbors over to see the inside of the house. They have seen us going in and out of the house, heard loud banging and numerous saws cutting, as well as everything else it takes to rehab a house, and they were quite shocked with what they saw.

Let me back up a second and let you know that all the houses in the neighborhood were built by the same builder, using the same awful light fixtures, ceiling fans, sinks, faucets, burglar bars, and all the other cheap crap they installed in our house. When the neighbors walked in and saw the beautiful colors, amazing light fixtures, cool ceiling fans, crown moulding, base moulding, and everything else we have done so far, one of them said "you're going to raise our property taxes!". And that's before we did anything with the bathrooms, no new carpet yet, no new tile, no new countertops, no new appliances, no window blinds, and the place was a mess. Wait until they see it all finished when we have our open house. I should have a video camera running by the front door when they walk in.

I know there is a lot more to talk about, but it's late and I have to go to work tomorrow. I think you get a general idea of how things are going, and we couldn't be happier. We are anxious to move in, but we want to make sure it's just right before we do, and it will be.

I'll try and be more attentive to the blog from now on. This story is far from over, and now that we have you hooked, we can't leave you hanging with suspense.

It will be a happy ending.

Resurrection

Since Bill no longer seems interested in blogging about the house, I'll try to pick up where he left off way, way back in July sometime. How naive we were to think we would finish it by late fall. Currently the thinking is the house will be done, when its done, no time frame, no pressure. I still try to go to the house every day, rain or shine, holiday or no holiday, and do something. It doesnt matter if its a small task or a large task, just always doing something makes me feel better. Back in July, we had painted 2 of the bedrooms, and since then both bedrooms have again been re-painted. But in our defense, they really do look much nicer than the first try. I could show you a photo of the new colors, but back in July, we had the old doors, and I think it was August when we decided that since we have a couple of interior doors to replace, why not replace all the interior doors while were at it. We had decided on getting 6 panel doors, and I spent a couple weeks replacing the 16 doors, all which involved cutting new hinges on the new doors before attaching them to the old frames which were fine. Of special note was the door on the A/C-Furnace, which I had to custom size, by cutting about 6-8 inches off the top and bottom of the door, and rework the door frame to its new length of 5 feet tall. I've included the photo of the A/C - Furnace door. Every door had to be replaced, if not, then it would give the feeling like "they replaced the doors" When you come into the house, since every door is a 6 panel door now, it doesnt stick out that its been changed, which is what I want. I want the changes to look as if thats the way the house was origionally done if at all possible. You know what I mean? All the doors are painted white, the photo taken was before it was painted, and by the way, Mr. Bill had painted every interior door, and did a good job of it, as with all the painting done in the house, it was done by hand.

This next photo is what the doors look like, the only thing different with this room is that it has 2 doors, origionally it was 2 - 24" doors, but if you only leave 1 open, its a narrow opening, and the other door if left open, then you need to leave 24" on both walls so the doors can be fully open. so instead of that, I installed one 30" door, and one 18" door on the other end, leaving a wider passage to use for single door useage, and if you want the space fully open, then you only need to leave 18" open on the one side, and the other wall always had plenty of space as it was. I did make a custom wood part so that the doors joined properly and while I could have bought the wood part for $30 something dollars at home depot, I made it myself and spent about 6 dollars in wood, and 30 minutes of time on the table saw. It actually is a better part than what you could buy if I do say so....lol. The red bedroom is on the right, I need to take a photo of the green bedroom.

Thats all for now, we have several other things to share soon. I need to take some photos if I'm going to share more stories with ya.

Brown Out, Red In

It was another busy weekend as I decided to take the entire weekend off from work to help Lawrence do a bunch of things around the house. I normally work on weekends, and it's not always easy to get the days off, but I got them and it payed off with lots of projects being worked on and some projects completed.

In the last blog entry I mentioned that we were getting a new, big, heavy, and expensive saw delivered to the house, and it finally came. It's amazing what that thing can do, and Lawrence uses it for cutting various types and sizes of wood for projects all over the house. The saw is located in the garage along with a smaller saw. I'm not sure what the difference is between them other than size, but I don't dare ask or I'll get "the stare". I can just tell you it's big, fairly loud, and thankfully it has retractable wheels on it so it can easily be moved around. Don't forget, we also have three other saws inside the house, including a router table, a "saws-all", which is a hand-held saw that is used to cut through just about anything, and of course the proverbial jigsaw. Yes, five saws total, and the neighbors probably wonder why it sounds like we're operating a sawmill in the garage.

In the middle of the living room floor sits the router table. We use this to create all the window, door, base and crown moldings for the entire house. The special bit spins at somewhere over 20,000 rpm and is extremely loud. It has an attachment on the back that allows the shop-vac hose to be connected to it to collect the sawdust, but when both of them are running at the same time, it's deafening. We both have to wear hearing protection when using them. We use some pre-fab moldings for around the doors and windows, but the base and crown moldings are made by us. We buy the raw lumber in various sizes, cut it to length, pass it through the router table three or four times, prime it, then apply a final coat of gloss white paint. The final product looks amazing. The hard part is cutting at an angle on the ends of the boards so they can be joined at 90-degree angles. It gets a little tricky, but with pen and paper in hand, Lawrence calculates it all out, and magically it works.

One good by-product of the saws is a large amount of sawdust, which is collected and dumped into one of our three compost bins in the backyard. Since the grass is growing so fast and has to be cut every weekend, we ran out of room in the first two bins, so off to Sam's Club for another one. Somehow, I have a feeling we're going to end up with an entire fence line full of compost bins.

All of the rooms in the house have been textured and painted, including both hallways, and all light fixtures and ceiling fans installed, as well as all wall plugs and wall switches replaced and covered. The master bath is untouched at this point except that we use the bathtub in the master to rinse out brushes, rollers, pans, buckets, and other painting items. That poor bathtub is now stained with a rainbow of colors that will be very difficult to scrub out. We might have to replace it completely. We did a little work in the guest bath by removing the toilet, which was interesting and somewhat gross, as well as the large mirror and accompanying ugly light fixture. We haven't textured it yet as there may be a small problem. When the previous owners decided to put up some awful dark blue wallpaper, they didn't use wallpaper paste. They used some kind of industrial glue that not only made it very difficult to remove the wallpaper, but now we have these random large glue trails all over the wall above the sinks. We might have to use some kind of large belt sander to remove it, so we just stopped at that point and moved on to other projects. We'll get to it eventually, and we're not looking forward to it.

Guest Bath (note glue on walls)

Master Bedroom

Kitchen

Living Room from Front Door (with router table and moldings)

Living Room from Fireplace (the red thing against the wall is the texture gun in it's stand)

In one of my previous posts I mentioned that we painted the two guest rooms, one being baby poop brown and the other a light green. After we did those rooms we decided to paint one wall in the living room, the same wall with the tan fireplace brick, brown as well. Now, we have way too much brown. I decided we need to repaint the brown guest room red, and red it is. So now, instead of baby poop brown, the room is "Velvety Merlot" as the label reads. It's a very dark red and is actually quite lovely. When we finally put up the bright white moldings and other items, it will really pop. I also had to go back and apply a second coat as the first coat streaked on me. My back is killing me, but it was worth the effort. One drawback to the red paint is I now have an abundant supply of said red paint all over my work jeans previously ruined during other projects, and now when we go to Home Depot or a local eatery for lunch, it looks like I either murdered someone or work in a slaughterhouse. No one speaks to us. I wonder why?

The Red Room (not as bright red as in the photo - actually quite dark)

The Green Room

(As for the above pictures, the ugly carpet has yet to be replaced, the tile in the kitchen has not been replaced, none of the moldings are up, and overall the place is a mess. We're working on it.)

Another new addition to all of this is my Mom's Honda Civic. About two weeks ago it was really getting hot outside and I didn't want Lawrence riding his bike in the heat and local bad traffic, so I went to my Mom's house and asked if I could use her little 1993 Honda Civic until I could afford a new car. Mom is 90 now and doesn't drive very much, and since my brother and sister live with her and do all the driving anyway, it wasn't a problem for me to use the car. Besides, with all the driving I do everyday, the Honda Pilot explodes my gasoline bill so the little Civic is a welcome gasoline sipper that has dropped my monthly fuel bill dramatically. It's a lot smaller than the Pilot, so even a Mini Cooper looks big next to me. I won't even talk about passing an 18-wheeler on the freeway.

We have had an ongoing problem of bad cell phone service at the house, and since that same signal also covers our data usage, streaming music was impossible. I decided it was time to install some Internet service, and after doing some comparison shopping decided to go with AT&T U-Verse. There were some initial problems getting it to work, but after a visit from our somewhat friendly AT&T field technician, it's up and running with amazing speeds. It doesn't help with phone calls, but who cares....we have music now, and it makes working a little more enjoyable.

We did the usual weekend duty of laundry while working around the house, so we're good for another week or two on that front.

We brought Rusty McNose to the house on Saturday so he could romp around the yard and have fun, but apparently he overdid it a bit as today he is very sore and can hardly stand up, and can barely use his right-front leg. He's getting older now and is quickly realizing he can't run around like a puppy anymore, so we're giving him some baby aspirin to help the stiffness and pain and he seems to feel a little better now. We still get a good wiggle of that big fluffy tail and a warm lick on the arm telling us everything is OK.

What's going to happen between now and the next update? I'm not real sure, but we're on the downhill slide of all of this and the place is looking amazing. We still have to install all the carpet, floor tile, window blinds, kitchen appliances and bathroom fixtures, but the very distant light at the end of the tunnel, yet faint, still keeps us motivated.

Divas Don't Bark!

Sorry for the delay in the updates, but we have been very busy at the new house, and I'm happy to say that most of the rooms have been almost completed, with a few exceptions.

First, We have purchased and installed all the new ceiling fans and light fixtures for all the rooms, and there is color on all walls of all rooms except the two bathrooms. We haven't even started on those yet.

The master bedroom is now a dark Midnight Blue color that will look great with the white trim and blinds. The master bath will have a lighter blue color eventually. The master closet is being rebuilt by Lawrence as I write this. He ripped out all the poles, boards, shelves, etc. and is starting all over. I asked him if he had the plans for the closet drawn out and he said no....It's all in his head. I see.

The kitchen is now blue as well, and I was surprised with it when I got there after work one day. Our friend Stephanie came over and helped Lawrence paint and miraculously clean the entire kitchen! It looks great, but we still have a lot of cabinets to clean, repair and refinish. The original wood counter tops are still in place and will eventually be replaced with some kind of stone, but that hasn't been decided yet. The black refrigerator that came with the house will eventually be replaced with a stainless version, and a new stainless stove still needs to be purchased and installed, as well as a new dishwasher. We always hand wash and dry our dishes, so I'd rather put in a residential ice maker in the spot where the dishwasher is now, but that's still under discussion.

The breakfast nook has all paint applied and a new ceiling fixture, and it looks great.

The dining room has all paint on the walls and a new fixture as well. Fabulous.

In an earlier post I discussed the main living room and it's new light fixtures and the now dubbed "big ass fan" we installed, and it's all painted. Try to imagine these colors working together: light gray, brown, and blue. That's what you see in this room, and as weird as it sounds, it still kinda works. If anyone says "ewwwwww", I'll just use my standard line: "Normal is boring". Once we get furniture in the room, pictures on the wall, and other assorted crap all over the place, the colors won't be so noticeable, I hope.

Lawrence has replaced all the wall plates for the phone outlets, power outlets, light and fan switches, and cable outlets. Most of the air conditioning vents are replaced also. All in bright white, of course.

On the weekends, we do our laundry in the weird washer and dryer system, and it gives us a nice break to have to hang and fold things. Let me clarify that by saying I hang and fold things...Lawrence dumps everything in a basket and considers it done. I don't let him touch my clothes!

Rusty is still prancing around the yard driving the neighbor dogs crazy as they bark and bark and bark, and he ignores them. Divas don't bark.

We made another big purchase this week as we ordered a very large (and expensive) circular saw system from Home Depot, and it's so big and heavy that it has to be delivered by a truck! That 300+ pound behemoth probably wouldn't fit in my Honda, so for $100 extra, they'll deliver and hopefully help us set it up. It's being delivered later this week and we have yet to clear a spot in the garage for it. It will probably be a last minute scramble to make the clearing, but we'll get it done. It will be used for the master bedroom closet project currently underway, as well as all the base and crown moldings for the house, and whatever else Lawrence wants to dive into. There was some discussion of extending the back patio out a bit and putting up a lattice-style cover over it for shade, and possibly an outdoor ceiling fan for a cool breeze. Yes, he'll do it all himself. It's what he does.

Other than the three new appliances for the kitchen, we still need to purchase blinds, wood for the moldings, tile and carpet. I'm shoveling away as much as I can into savings in preparation for all of this, but it's a battle.

Lawrence has also been installing attic insulation as there was not very much up there to begin with, and in some areas, especially over the living room, none at all. It has made a big difference in the amount of time the air conditioner has to run, and since I pay the bills, I like that. He goes over early some mornings at the break of dawn to work in the attic as it gets very hot up there very quickly. To also help keep the attic a little cooler, Lawrence purchased a solar-powered roof vent that runs whenever the sun is up. It moves a lot of air and will help a lot. I plan on buying one or two more of those things to install later when we will eventually have to replace the roof. The roof has minor damage from past storms, but nothing serious, and it can wait a couple of years if need be. We still need to install all new gutters around the house, and we'll probably do that when we replace the roof. Lawrence wants to install a rainwater collection system that will collect water from the gutters and store it for all the watering needs on the outside of the house. I'm going to need a lot more money in the savings account for all of this!

The backyard looks good as Lawrence mows the grass about every other weekend, as well as uses our new electric trimmer. All the clippings are dumped into our two compost bins for future gardening use. There's a bunch of flowers and small trees planted, and even a tomato bush, but the birds ate all the tomatoes. We hope to have solved that problem as we have invested in a large bird bath and large bags of bird seed for the little tomato eaters. Somehow, birds have a way of letting all their bird buddies know that there is free food and a clean bath at our house as a large amount of birds of every shape, size and color dine and bathe at their leisure throughout the day. So now I'm not only having to feed myself, Lawrence and Rusty, I'm also having to feed all the damn birds within a 100 square mile area! My food bill is enormous, but at least I don't have to actually cook for the birds. At least, not yet.

We get asked all the time "when is the house-warming party"? Well, it's gonna be a while as we still have a lot to do. A few more months and we should be able to sleep, shower and cook there some of the time. I'm already working on party plans in my head, but I'm going to need some help. There will be lots of food, an open bar, and lots of good friends, so get ready! Well, maybe not right at this minute, but I'll give you plenty of time to prepare for the gala.

We Have Light! (and some color, too!)

Another action packed weekend at the new house, and we got a lot done.

Poor Rusty McNose, he got textured by his daddy again! While Lawrence was texturing the dining room and the front entrance, the dog once again walked by and got splattered, as well as brushed up against one of the textured walls, so this time he had texture on both ears, his snout, the top of his head, and along one side between his front and back leg. It was so bad this time we actually had to cut out some of the fur to get it all, but he's so fluffy anyway, no one will notice.

The two guest rooms and the study all have ceiling fans with lights now, and the living room has a big ceiling fan with new light fixtures on either side of it. This living room fan is 5'8" wide! The blades have a deep pitch to them so even on low, it moves a lot of air. It looks like an airplane propeller...very cool!

Lawrence climbed into the attic early on Saturday morning before it got hot outside to roll out 3 rolls of insulation in areas that had none at all. We can already tell a difference.

We finally got the garage door opener that came with the house working, even though it will eventually need to be redone as it was very poorly done the first time. We had to make arrangements for power and a switch in the garage to activate it. We also programmed the built in remote device in the Honda so Lawrence can take the actual garage door remote with him on the bicycle to get in and out of the garage. Because we got the garage door working, we had to also replace one of the locks on one of the doors leading into the house.

We still need to tape and prepare the kitchen and master bedroom for texture and paint, as well as both bathrooms.

That's it in a nutshell because I wanted to post some pictures of various things:

Here's the new living room fan and one of the fixtures. We were lighting it from directly below so that's why the shadow is so big.

Lawrence installing the fan. You get a good idea how big the fan is compared to him.

Blue tape and plastic everywhere. The place is a mess, but one day it will be beautiful!

Some of the beautiful flowers around the yard....

Baby Poop, Pea Soup, and a New Wardrobe!

I apologize for not updating in a while, but since I got a promotion at work and new days off, it has thrown our work schedule into disarray. The good news is that we (mostly Lawrence) have gotten a lot done in the past three weeks, and we can finally see some progress!

Most of the walls have been stripped, sanded and textured, but we still have a few rooms to go. The three guest rooms have been done, as well as the living room and the breakfast area. Today we applied our first paint with what turned out to be interesting choices of color. We used an online application from Behr Paint that allows you to see various colors on walls, ceilings, etc. We looked them over and decided on a kind of brown color for one guest room, and a slight green color for one of the others. We opened up the cans and the brown looked like liquid baby poop. Not good. We went ahead and applied it to the wall and after it dried, it didn't look too bad. We will have bright white trim and moldings on the ceilings and floor, as well as around the windows, so that will hopefully lighten it up a bit and give some good contrast.

On to the other room and our green paint. It looked like pea soup. Oops. We applied it and again, it didn't look too bad once it dried. We're hoping the white trim will do the same magic as with the baby poop room.

All of the ceilings in the house will be painted with a standard flat white paint specifically for ceilings. It will give good reflectivity for lighting and allow for contrast with the “interesting” colors. We have picked colors for the other rooms, but we might have to go back and rethink some of them.

I contacted a buddy of mine about the need for an electrician to replace our main breaker box outside. His ex-son-in-law was recommended, and he came out today and looked everything over. We bought all the parts at Home Depot (of course), and he will come back on Thursday and finish the work. He quoted me an excellent price that turns out to be about 1/3 of what I was expecting. Awesome!

Lawrence and I are in the process of penny-pinching as we try to save up enough to buy new carpet for the house. It's going to be between $3500 and $4000, and will be our last big expense, that is until we have to replace the roof, but that can wait a couple of years. We also need to purchase a new table saw so Lawrence can make our new moldings along with a few other items, and that is about $500. This house rehab stuff is expensive, but still cheaper than hiring a bunch of people to do it for us.

As I mentioned a few entries ago, we have wrought iron fencing across the front door and along one side of the house. It was tan in color, like everything else in and around this house, so we decided to change it to gloss black, and it looks amazing! Lawrence sanded and primed the fence since it had some rust on it, and the painting began. It took three days to paint that damn fence as it has a bunch or ornamentation on it like grapes and leaves and other stuff. It takes a small brush to get in all the nooks and crannies, but we finally did, but not before ruining a number of articles of clothing. One good pair of jeans and a couple of t-shirts were sacrificed for the effort, but it was worth it since it turned out so well. I needed to update my very old wardrobe anyway...now I have an excuse. Look out Old Navy, I'm coming to see you, but not until we get new carpet and a table saw.

On the gardening front, we have purchased and planted a number of different pretty flowers with names I can't pronounce, a banana tree, a lemon tree, a lime tree, an orange tree, and the backyard is looking very colorful.

We also did an inventory of what we have already purchased in the way of various lighting fixtures and other electrical items, and made a list of what we still need to buy. It includes three more ceiling fans with lights, lights for both bathrooms, exhaust fans for both bathrooms, a couple of hallway lights, a few closet lights, and some nice large light fixtures for the kitchen and dining room.

I mentioned earlier that we will be installing molding in all the rooms, but we aren't going to buy pre-fab moldings. Lawrence is buying his own wood and will make them all himself. He has already made his own rolling wood platform for a ladder to stand on which allows someone (me) to push him around any room while he is texturing or painting the ceilings and tall walls and not have to climb down the ladder. It worked better than I thought it would, but he was confident all along. I could just see him and that ladder go tumbling to the floor, but it didn't. Pretty damn clever, this Lawrence fella!

On the weekends while we are working, we both do the laundry. Or should I say, I do the laundry. He is much too busy thinking of something clever to design and build to be bothered with laundry. Slave Boy Bill does the laundry, pushes him around on his ladder-mobile, drives him to Home Depot, brings him lunch, and whatever else The Master desires. It's all worth it so I don't have to climb on that movable ladder thingy.

Rusty McNose has been joining us on the weekends, and he loves the backyard. He gets good exercise and works himself up to a good nap. Which is good since it keeps him out of the way, most of the time. Last weekend he was watching Lawrence texture one of the rooms and promptly got sprayed with texture himself. Here's a reddish-brown dog with white texture firmly adhered to his fur. It looked like he had dandruff. He got a good brushing when we got home to get it out, so he didn't mind.

We still have a long way to go, but it's great to see some color on the walls, even if they are a little out of the ordinary. We now watch TV shows not necessarily for the storyline, but more for their decorating tips. Need some decorating ideas for your home? Watch Desperate Housewives. Fab-u-lous!

Let The Texturing Begin!

It was another busy week as Lawrence went over to the house every day after work. In fact, there hasn't been a day since we purchased the house in February that Lawrence hasn't been doing something at the house.

He finished coating and smoothing the walls and ceilings getting ready for texture. But before we started texturing, Lawrence wanted to build a stand to hold the texture gun upright. It's a weird shaped device that can only lay on it's side, that is until Lawrence built the stand. The stand makes it easy to fill the texture gun with the compound, which has to be mixed with water to the consistency of pancake batter so it will flow through the gun. There are different settings for different types of texture. We want what's called "orange peel", so Lawrence set up some cardboard in the garage to test the gun for the right spray pattern.

My project this weekend was to cover windows, outlets, switches and doors with either plastic or paper and tape it all up to prevent both texture and paint from getting on any of these objects. I got three of the rooms done, and it's a lot harder than I thought it would be.

Once we were ready, we moved the compressor to the hallway, plugged in the air line to the gun, filled the gun with texture, turned on some lights so we could see what we were doing, and off we went:

Being our first time to do any of this, there were a couple of small problems with thickness of the texture, too much in one spot, not enough in another, etc. About 5 minutes after spraying, I went through with a large flat metal scraper and "knocked down" the sprayed material. By the time we got to the second room we had it pretty well down, and overall it looks good! We may go through and do a second coat, but we'll wait until it all dries to see what else needs to be done.

Spraying the walls is easy, but the ceilings are very difficult since the sprayer doesn't like pointing very far up as it loses pressure.

The nasty carpet that is in the house was bad before, but now it's got lots of stuff in it from texture material, ceiling scrapings, and no telling what else. As planned, it will be the last thing changed before we move in. We have more rooms to texture, then all the painting, so it's going to get a lot worse.

We also went to Home Depot, as we seem to do every day, and looked at various types of molding. We're trying to decide what we will use on the ceiling, the floor, and possibly chair railings. We also need to start thinking about tile for various rooms. While we were there, we picked up some more plants to fill-in the backyard. Lawrence has been busy planting and digging. It's coming together, but just like the inside of the house, there's a lot more to do. We also picked up a new and larger birdbath.

A couple of loads of laundry and some cleaning up finishes the weekend. It's nice to see progress, even as slow as it is. Lawrence will continue to go to the house every day after work, and I'll be there next weekend.

Weekend Update - April 15, 2012

Things are progressing well at the new house as Lawrence has spent almost every waking moment over the past few weeks working on something. The biggest project he has undertaken, and is still working hard at it, is finishing the ceilings and walls. If you'll remember, all the ceilings had this thick texture that was sprayed on then moved around into a wave type pattern. Looked really bad. The walls were fine but had that old fashioned popcorn texture on them. I scraped most of the walls, Lawrence and I did the living room ceiling together, and he did all the other rooms by himself.

After that was done, Lawrence went and covered every inch of those ceilings with a smooth layer of joint compound, and is now going back and smoothing and sanding all of it. It's a major undertaking that has taken weeks to complete, and he is just about finished. I started taping plastic to all areas not to be textured or painted and hopefully I will be able to finish that project next weekend. There are still a few minor details to complete, but when we do, out comes the texture gun as well as Lawrence's new toy, a brand new professional paint spraying system. When it comes to tools and toys, he doesn't fool around!

My two big projects this weekend were cleaning out the garage of all the junk that needs to be thrown away and dragging it to the curb since tomorrow is heavy trash pickup day in our neighborhood. This included old ceiling fans, stove vent fan and light thingy, old closet poles, and just about anything else that needed to go. I also carried all the tin gutters that were removed from the house and stacked in the backyard against the fence. All of that is now at curbside as well. With Lawrence's help, we both removed the junky old gas stove that was in the kitchen and moved it to the curb also.

As we were finishing up with the stacking of junk, an ambitious old man came by in his pickup truck and started loading all the metal items for recycling. I had no problem with that, but there was a lot of metal on the curb and his pickup truck was already full. Surprisingly, he got every bit of it in that truck, including the stove on the back tailgate, and away he went. All that was left was a box of scrap wood and the closet poles. I was impressed.

Back to the taping of plastic in areas not needing texture or paint. Lawrence was using the 8 foot ladder in one of the bedrooms for his project, and the 12 foot ladder won't fit in the bedrooms, so off to Home Depot I went for yet another ladder. It's a 4-foot model, and that makes our current count of ladders at four. If you ever need a 4-foot, 6-foot, 8-foot, or a 16-foot extension ladder, we've got them all. When this is all done, I might have to start renting out tools, sprayers and ladders. We'll pay off that mortgage in no time!

Back inside the house, I finished up removing layers of wallpaper in all the rooms, including the kitchen as we prepare for texture and paint. Lawrence also did a load of laundry in our new washer and dryer. They are the weirdest machines I've ever seen, but they do a good job with the laundry.

Last weekend a friend of my family came by to help out with some electrical problems. He's a master electrician with over 40 years of experience, and he fixed everything that needed fixing, as well as solving a few mysteries of what wall switches went to what. He'll come back soon for a few more things. He also agreed that the main breaker box outside needs replacing but he can't do it since he is out of Austin and not licensed in Houston. He wrote down some important specifications of what we need to replace and I am on the hunt for a good electrician. The replacement of that breaker box is going to be expensive and crazy as we have to pull a permit from the City of Houston, have Reliant Energy come out and cut off power to the house, replace the box and do rewiring, have Reliant come back out and turn on the power, then have the city inspector come check it all out. I might need to start my rental service quicker than I expected.

A little further back we had a minor injury at the house, and it involved Rusty the dog. He was wandering around the backyard when he saw a neighbor dog, and he ran towards the wrought iron fence at a full gallop. He's not used to fences, so WHAM, his head went right through the bars and he got stuck briefly. He made a huge racket with a type of doggy scream, but luckily Lawrence was close by and helped him get out. He got a few scratches and they are healing well. Lawrence placed some big potted plants and bricks along the fence line to try and discourage Rusty from trying that again.

So, as you can see, we are progressing right along, and hopefully within a couple of more months we can start moving things over little by little. Lawrence wants to be in the house like right now and is about ready to set up a tent and sleeping bags in the middle of the living room floor. I keep saying it will be awhile mostly because we have some major expenses to cover like new carpet, blinds, a stove, all the paint, more furniture, etc. and it's a matter of money at this point. We get it, we spend it.

Patience, my friend. Patience.

Time Flies

It's been nearly a month since our last blog entry,..... my how time does fly..... blogging about what your doing when your mostly busy doing what your blogging about can be tricky to do, its hard for me to take the time to write, when all I want to do is work on the house for the most part. Hope you understand. I'll try to write more since Bill hasn't had the time of late to do it.

So what have I done for the past 30 days?.....

People told me it was going to be hard to do, and if I had to do it again, (scraping and smoothing the ceilings), I might seriously be looking for a new house to buy or ask for a discount from the seller. I'm looking forward to the day when this part is over and done with.

 After hand troweling nearly 8 boxes of pre-mixed joint compound, thats 28 gallons, or roughly 272 pounds,  I am nearly done smoothing out all the ceilings in all the rooms, (4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, diningroom, living room, breakfast nook, kitchen, walk-in closet, hallway & closet). I estimate that  Thursday, the initial work will be done, then I will check each ceiling and do any sanding of ridges and whatever to make it ready to be spray textured in the coming days...
It was not every single day that I worked on the ceilings mind you, but roughly every other day on average. A couple of times I cut the lawn, as the grass still grows, and weeds need to be sprayed with herbicide, then theres watering, and trying to plant some things in the back yard. Speaking of the back-yard, we now have 5 trees growing in it. one is a lemon tree, a mandarin orange tree, clementine orange tree, lime tree, and an elm tree. The Elm tree is Rusty's favorite tree, I've had it growing in a pot for about 10 years, now its in the ground proper,  just for him.....


More Breathing Room

One of several things I did to break the monotony of smoothing the ceiling was to install a second return air duct for the (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning) HVAC system. I had noticed the first time when I looked at it, that the amount of suction is so great, that on a new a/c filter, it warps the filter and it was almost enough pull to collapse the filter and render it useless.  Another thing is the amount of air coming thru the vents didnt seem like much, so with that in mind, and as luck would have it, I was easily able to double the air filter capacity by just cutting a second hole on the adjoining wall and thereby more air could flow thru the vents and the filters don't become so disfigured when it is running.

Hole cut in wall

I replaced the old return air duct with a new one also, old one pictured alongside new one in this photo. Walls need paint....I know...

Pork Rinds and Diet 7-UP

Another busy and successful weekend as we tackled, and happy to say, conquered our worst nightmare in this whole house-rehab project....we scraped every inch of the walls and ceilings in both the breakfast nook and the dreaded living room from hell. The walls are the easy part...it's the ceiling that's the bear. All the ceilings are covered with this thick, wavy texture that is very difficult to remove. It takes sharp scrapers, sandpaper, a spritz of water, ladders, and lots of elbow grease to get rid of it. The living room is the largest room in the house and it was a daunting task, but we got it done. We were both covered head-to-toe with dust and debris from removing texture, and it will surely be a laundry problem down the line.

After we finished scraping the breakfast nook, Lawrence decided to get some joint compound and cover the entire ceiling with it, making a very nice, smooth surface that we will soon texture and paint. The ceiling in the living room is very high and might not need joint compound. We think just a good coat of texture and paint will cover very well.

If you remember from earlier posts, there was one wall in the living room that was covered by a hideous wallpaper mural which I successfully removed in three days time, so we both decided to go back over it with sandpaper to make sure all the little bits of leftover goop were removed. The wall looks great and it too is now ready for texture and paint.

Also in the living room, I decided to take down the existing ceiling fan since we bought a newer and nicer one that will soon take it's place. On the ceiling above the fan was a prominent accumulation of dust and dirt slung up there by the rotating blades, but not until I went up the ladder to remove the fan did I realize just how bad it was. The dust and dirt on the blades was so thick, you couldn't actually see the blade surfaces themselves. As I've been saying all along, I don't think the previous tenants cleaned anything, much less the ceilings or the fans attached to them. It was disgusting.

I have figured out that rehabbing a house is a lot like traveling across country. Meaning of course that you don't always eat right. There's a Whataburger close by for quick and yummy meals. There is also a Valero Corner Store down the street for quick purchases of beef jerky, pork rinds and diet 7-UP. Just what the weary traveler/house fixer needs, but not the waistline.

We are definitely going to need to have an electrician come out and fix a few things. The main electrical box needs replacing, and a number of wall outlets in various parts of the house don't work. Thankfully, the air conditioner works well, and we're going to need it as we get closer to the warmer months.

On one of our many trips to Home Depot, we decided to start buying, and hoarding, attic insulation rolls. We are buying a few at a time and storing them in the garage until we are ready to roll them out sometime before it gets too hot. There are some areas of the attic that have little or no insulation on them at all, but we need to run some wires across the attic for television and computer networks first.

Since we had so much rain this weekend we decided not to bring Rusty with us. The backyard was a lake, and he doesn't like to get his feet wet. He's such a diva.

Barking Dogs and Lawn Mowers

We got a lot done at the new house this weekend, and the beautiful weather really helped. Highs in the low 70's and blue skies will inspire anyone to do something outside, and it certainly did us. It also inspired all of our neighbors to do the same as we heard a lot of lawn mowers and weed eaters roaring, and of course, all the neighborhood dogs were chiming in as well.

Lawrence asked a couple of fellas from his apartment complex to help us out on Saturday, so the two of them came over early and started ripping down all the old, rusty and leaking gutters surrounding the house, and then replaced all the rotten wood. They did an excellent job, and it was desperately needed. On Sunday, Lawrence painted all the newly installed outside trim, and I helped a little. Very little. I don't think Lawrence expects much out of me, and I haven't disappointed him. I do what I can, but me and manual labor don't get along.

The front hedges needed trimming so Lawrence could reach the new trim to paint it. The shrubs were so tall they reached the roof. After the shrubs got their Brazilian, they looked like a bunch of dead sticks coming out of the ground. Lawrence assured me they will grow back. We'll see. I did most of the bagging all the limbs and debris. I guess I'm good for something.

The next major project was finishing the laundry room and installing the new LG washer and dryer. The room's walls were stripped and sanded, then textured, then painted. We installed a new light fixture to top it all off, and we were then ready for the toys! First was the dryer. New gas line, new exhaust vent, and a quick balance of the feet and it was ready. Next, the washer. New hot and cold water feeds, drain pipe installed, and balancing of the feet and we were ready. Lawrence agreed to be the first user of the machines (guinea pig), so he loaded a few items in, set the many fancy digital controls, and the machine came to life. We immediately thought there was something wrong as we didn't see any water in the front-loading window. I sat there on the floor and watched that damn machine for an hour because it was acting very unusual. After some research, we found out that was normal for this new type of machine. It uses very little water or detergent, and is very energy efficient. It's the strangest washing machine I've ever seen, and being direct drive with no belts or pulleys, it's very quiet. It also has a final spin speed of 1200rpm! When it was all over, the clothes looked and smelled clean, and they were almost dry with that kind of spin speed. Off to the dryer and more fancy digital controls, and 30 minutes later, success! Lawrence was pleased, but we're both still puzzled by that darn washer. It's just that strange.

We planned on getting Lawrence a new bicycle this weekend so he could travel back and forth between the apartment and the house, a distance of about one mile, but we never got around to it. We only have one car, and can't afford a second car at the moment, so the bicycle will have to do. Besides, it's good exercise. We were just too busy with so many projects to work on, so maybe next weekend. By that time, hopefully our very sore backs, blistered hands and every other aching appendage will be back to normal just in time to be abused again.

A Brief Statement from Lawrence....

Bill is doing most of the writing, but I wanted to say a few comments.

I still can't believe it. I can't believe we got a house, one that has so much potential. I remember thinking about what Bill wanted and what I wanted back in September. I never thought that there would be a place that would meet both our needs.

I wanted a garage to be able to work on my own projects that need space. He wanted a quiet street, I wanted a big back yard and small front yard. He wanted at least a 3 bedroom house, I wanted something close to where I work. He wanted the loan to be no more than 4% and I wanted a brick home with all exterior walls being brick. He didn't want a 2 story house, and we didn't get one.

Sure, its not perfect, it needs some TLC, but most of what is needed can be done by him or I, well...mostly me...let's not kid ourselves. Although he did surprise me by actually finishing a couple of tasks that he took up. He is good at removing wallpaper. Need your windows cleaned? He's just the man to do it. He also makes a good chauffeur, taking me to Home Depot once or twice a day as needed. I love Home Depot. They keep telling me if I enter my name on the receipt, I have a chance of winning $5000.00. We'd have to win a couple of times this year just to break even. If I won anything, surely it would be gone in a couple days.

Forgive me Father.....

It's been two weeks since my last blog entry. We've been busy!

It seems that every extra minute we have is going towards fixing up the house. We both took some days off and spent about 12 hours a day working on so many projects. We of course had to purchase a bunch more stuff from Home Depot, somewhere between $4000 and $5000 worth, and that doesn't include what was purchased before closing. The first thing we got was a new water heater, and with the help of a buddy of Lawrence, we got it installed with no problem. It's nice to have hot water as in comes in handy for cleaning things. This past Friday we also purchased a new washer and dryer, a matching pair from LG with all the bells and whistles. $1900 for the pair. Ouch.

Lawrence has been busy making and installing new solar screens on the outside of all the windows, but not until I have washed them well. They were filthy, but now gleam with clarity! We also scraped the ceiling and walls in the laundry room getting ready for the new toys, and then painted them. The ceiling looks good, but the walls didn't turn out the way we wanted them, so we went back to Home Depot and purchased our own air compressor and texture sprayer. The compressor came with a air-powered nail gun as well, so we'll use that for the moldings and anything else that needs nailing. We plan on applying the texture in a style called "orange peel", which isn't rough to the touch like popcorn texture, but it has a little crackle to it. We haven't applied any of it yet, but we're looking forward to it. We'll have to repaint the room again, but that's OK. It's the smallest room in the house and makes a good testing ground.

I was able to remove all three layers of wallpaper and contact paper in the kitchen, as well as a horrid dark blue wallpaper in the guest bath. I am also happy to announce that the awful wallpaper mural depicting a Mediterranean ocean scene with sailboats and Roman columns once firmly glued to an entire large wall in the living room is now gone after three days of scraping. We're down to white walls in all rooms waiting for sanding, then texture, then paint. The big decision now is what colors to use in each of the rooms. I never thought it would be difficult to choose until I realized how semi-permanent it is. We know what carpet we want, now we have to make sure the paint and tile floors match. By the way, there will be no hardwood floors this time. I love them, but we couldn't figure out a way to make it work in this house.

An exciting moment for us was the first time Rusty got to run free in his new yard without being on a leash! He's never been able to do that, and he's happy. Needless to say, he has "christened" the yard a few times. It seems all our neighbors, including on both sides and to the rear of us, all have dogs as well, and those dogs have noticed a disturbance in the force...a new dog has arrived! They bark like crazy, and Rusty pays them no mind. He doesn't bark back since he has nothing to prove. We all know he's a snob. That's our boy!

Lawrence went up on the roof to seal around some of the vents that protrude above the shingles, and it seems that in the 27 years since the house was built, no one sealed anything. Inside the house all the light fixtures, air conditioning vents, light switches, wall plugs, dryer vents, gas and water lines...everything...never got sealed. Lawrence, armed with his new caulking gun and many tubes of caulking and silicone sealant, has resolved that problem. I had to giggle a little when Lawrence was on the roof....he doesn't like being up there. He was nervous and moving slowly. He only did about three of the many vents up there before he had to come down. I'll go up later and finish the job. Roofs don't intimidate me at all.

When you walk into the house, you see tools everywhere. We have just about everything a professional home remodeling company would have. Electric this, and air-powered that, every hand tool known to man, this doo-dad and that gadget. Even a rolling tool cart to haul everything from room to room. Show of hands on who has their own air compressor with attached nail gun and texture sprayer? I thought so.

Through all of this, we have had the pleasure of meeting our new neighbors. I was happy to find out that the guy on one side of us works for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. Needless to say, we have a lot in common to talk about, and he was quite interested in my duties with the Union Pacific Steam Crew. The guy on the other side works for an oil company, but not sure what he does for them. He does have a hobby as a woodworker in his garage. That may come in handy.

Today, while we were at Home Depot, which we seem to go to multiple times a day, Lawrence wanted to pick up a couple of small trees to plant in the backyard. The yard is devoid of any foliage other than a flat field of weeds. No trees, no plants, no bushes. A clean slate to start new, and we did just that as Lawrence planted an orange tree and a lemon tree. There were other types available, but I recommended those since I cook a lot with lemons and we both love oranges.

I still get a bit overwhelmed by all of this, but not Lawrence. He's loving every minute of it, and is a busy little bee with all the projects to complete and yet to be started. I help a little, but mostly I just watch him being happy.

It's a Done Deal!

Dateline: Houston, Texas
Date: February 14, 2012 (Valentine's Day)
Time: 10:00am

Please sign and initial here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and of course, here. An hour and a half later, we walk out being the proud new owners of a lovely home in Southwest Houston!

For a couple of reasons, it almost didn't happen. Yesterday I received a call from the insurance company, 24 hours before closing, saying they wouldn't insure the house because they looked at some pictures that indicated to them that the roof was damaged and may have to be replaced if a major storm occurred. Really? You tell me this now? There is nothing wrong with the roof as evidenced by the inspector we hired to inspect it, and he found no problems with it. They wouldn't believe me, but they did offer to sign me up through another insurance entity that would accept the house. I was very upset at the time, but it turned out to be OK as the new insurance cost was substantially lower than the original quote, so we needed over $1000 less at closing! Sweet!

A couple of days before that, I tried to establish water service for the house. I called the city and they said they couldn't sign me up because there was a very large past-due bill for that residence well over $600. Good grief, that's a LOT of water, but no one has lived there for a few months. Lawrence and I went to investigate and noticed the meter was running outside, but no water was flowing inside. This told us there was a break in the line between the meter and the house, which is 4 feet underground. Lovely. Something else to fix. We squawked about it and tried to get the seller to fix it, but we agreed to buy the house as is, so it's our problem. We could have pursued it, but it would have delayed the closing even further, so we told them to never mind. Luckily, Lawrence has a buddy that had the same problem at his own place and he offered to help us fix it. I don't know how much he will charge us, if anything, but I'll have a wad of cash in my pocket just in case. Either way, it will be a lot cheaper than calling a professional plumber!

Beginning this Thursday, we are both off of work for a few days so we can begin on the interior of the house. A daunting thought as we don't really know where to start. There's so much to do, and not enough money to do it, and only limited time. But luckily, as I mentioned before, we still have the free apartment to live in for as long as we want, so there is no hurry to move, although we are anxious to get moved in as soon as we can. In my mind, I'm expecting to move in no less than 4 months. We'll see.

First "big" items to purchase....a Water heater, then a washer and dryer, then a gas stove. There's already a fridge in the house that works well, but is extremely dirty. The inside looks like a lab experiment petri dish exploded. A bucket of water with clorox, eye protection and rubber gloves should do the trick.

We want our friend Stephanie to come over and see the place since she will be helping us with ideas for the restoration, but we need to clean the inside as best we can beforehand. We wouldn't want to alarm the neighbors with a screaming woman running out of the house in terror after what she just witnessed. Doesn't make a good first impression.

Saturday Shopping - Before the Big Day!

As you know, we received word that we will be closing on the house this Tuesday, Valentine's Day. Up to this point we have been very good with our money and not trying to send up any red flags for the bank to catch. Chase Bank is not only the one that will hold our mortgage, it's also where I have my personal account, so they are keeping a close eye on it everyday. All they have seen the past month and a half is bills being paid, groceries being purchased, and some meals around town. Absolutely nothing for the house.

As of today, that changed a bit, but there still haven't been any charges on my account, which holds most of the money. Being that we are going to closing and everything looks good, we went ahead and did a little shopping for the house today, but Lawrence bought everything on his account, which is not a Chase account. They have no idea we did anything.

We planned on getting a few small items that we need to get started. A few nick-knacks.

Lowe's: $191.91
Home Depot: $606.27

Light switches, wall plates, night lights, smoke detectors, dimmer switches, door locks, digital programmable thermostat, a ceiling fan for the kitchen, three light fixtures, closet poles and hardware. Oh, and various small screws and actual nick-knacks.

Lawrence was amazed saying "I thought it would be around $200!" I let him know the ceiling fan alone was close to that, and that this was only the beginning. We still have to buy bathroom counters with sinks and faucets, bathroom lights, a water heater, a washer and dryer, paint, crown molding, floor tile, and of course, carpet. Yes, so much more, and this was only the tip of a very expensive iceberg.

More shopping tomorrow? Only if Lawrence will relinquish the debit card from his quivering hand. I can't do anything until after Tuesday, then my hand will be quivering as I drain my account towards poverty.

We both came home and calmed ourselves with big bowls of Blue Bell Ice Cream. Dutch Chocolate. We're good.

FINALLY!!!

We just received word that we will finally be closing on the house next Tuesday, February 14th at 10am! It's taken nearly 2 months to get this done, and I will have comments concerning the bank AFTER we close. It ain't gonna be pretty.

The tough part will be the fact that I have to go directly to work afterwards and will be unable to go to the house with our new keys. This whole thing has been tough, but we'll get through it.

Now the fun part begins with a total re-do of the inside of the house. We will video and take pictures of our progress and keep you updated. Home Depot has been alerted!

This will be a nice Valentine's Day gift for the both of us. We deserve it.

The Money

As anyone that has ever purchased a home can tell you, it's a trying experience. Up front, I will say that working with Chase Bank has been wonderful, and they are very helpful in the process, but I forgot how much paperwork there is when deciding to purchase a home. I bought my first home back in 1999, and it's only gotten worse.

They want to know everything. How much do you make, how much do you have in savings, what holdings do you have in stocks and IRA's, what are your debts, do you have insurance, previous home ownership experience, tax returns for the past three years, credit reports, and so may documents to sign it will make your head spin. Three hundred dollars for this and three hundred for that, pay that guy, and this group, and this much down payment. Fax this, sign these 24 documents and scan them and e-mail them, yada-yada-yada. Sometimes I wonder if it's all worth it. What a pain in the ***. But, we trudge along and grit our teeth.

I do understand that they have to be careful loaning large amounts of money to people they know nothing about, being that we had a major financial meltdown in this country because of bad lending practices and fuzzy math. I'd do the same thing. But so far, everything is looking good. Both our credit scores were in the "excellent" range, plenty of money for the down payment, a good price for the house, and a wonderful interest rate will all add up, in the end, to being happy homeowners once again.

Rusty the dog just watches us buzz around the apartment and wonders what it's all about. He probably thinks we're doing it all for him, and in a way, we are. He has never known what it's like to live in a house, or have a yard, or not be attached to a leash. He's about to experience it all for the first time, and he'll be a happy puppy. We'll all three be happy homeowners, and we can't wait.

In The Beginning....

We have been wanting to get a house for years, and I think our opportunity has arrived.

Lawrence has been living in this same apartment for almost 14 years, and I have been here just over 9 years. Let's not forget Rusty McNose, the Alpha Dog and supreme leader of this household ever since he was a puppy. We both gladly bend to his every want and desire. It's puppy law.

We won't bore you with our past, including where we have lived before and how we got to this point in our lives. Everyone has been there...moving around from place to place.

We have had the amazing opportunity to live relatively cheaply for the past 9 and 14 years since Lawrence works in the leasing office of the apartment complex we live in, thereby we receive free rent, electric, cable TV and water as part of his compensation. A sweet deal. Now, we have to change our mindset as we approach home ownership. There will be bills to pay every month. Lots of them. Something we're not used to, but better learn quick. No more runs to the electronics store to pick up the latest new toy. No more extended vacations. No more (maybe just less) runs to the casinos. Nope, we stay here and put everything we make towards the new house. It's what we've been wanting, and now's the time to dive in head first.

The Inspection

Under recommendation, we had a professional inspector come to the house for a full checkup. We were worried at first that he would find major structural damage, as well as other catastrophic problems. Luckily, he did not, but there were problems, which can be expected on a 25 year old house. He said the foundation was good and solid, and the house is structurally sound.

The major problems include the air conditioner being “red tagged” by another inspector, stating that it needed to be cleaned. That’s easy enough, but there was a lot of rust on it, and the gas flames weren’t burning pure blue, which is a sign of a bad fuel-to-air mix.  It also didn’t have a drip pan or drain for condensation collection. Luckily, the side of the little room it’s in is against one of the bathrooms so we should be able to put in a pan and run a drain line through the wall. The good news is the air conditioner works very well, and as anyone from Houston can tell you, you gotta have air conditioning. We will eventually have to replace the unit as it is also 25 years old, but that can come later. We’ll definitely have it cleaned, the air ducts cleaned and mounted correctly in the attic, and check the Freon level in the compressor.

The hot water heater is toast. Not good. Hello, Home Depot…we need a hot water heater. The pilot light won’t light, it’s very rusty all over, and the bleed drain is discharging into the garage instead of outside. This is something we will fix right away.

The garbage disposal is history. Oh, it turns on, but there is a gaping hole in it, so it’s basically not usable. Yep, Home Depot again. They’re gonna love us.

They left a refrigerator, which was nice, but it looks like they never cleaned it. We’ll roll it outside and hose it down, clean the coils and disinfect it. The good news is that it cools very well!

The stove is a gas stove, and the burners work, but the oven does not. I don’t like this cheap thing anyway, so that won’t be an issue for very long.

The main electrical breaker box will need replacing. Someone went in and did all the grounds incorrectly, and double-tapped one of the breakers with two lines. The brand of box is also notoriously bad and cheap, so once again, Home Depot and a professional electrician will be needed.

Someone installed, and very poorly, some outside motion-sensing floodlights.  They’re large and ugly, and the wiring is exposed with screw-on wire nuts for the connection. What were these people thinking?

The house has two smoke detectors, and one of them doesn’t work. Luckily, they’re inexpensive, so we’ll be able to easily install one in every room. On all the windows around the house, the springs that hold the windows up are broken, so when you raise a window it will come slamming down immediately. We have no idea how to fix that, but Lawrence is good at figuring things out, so it will be fixed eventually. One day we hope to be able to install high quality double-pane insulated windows all around for better energy efficiency. We’ll have to save for those as they can be very expensive.

The roof has some issues as well. From a quick glance, it looks good, but closer inspection revealed that there are a number of loose shingles and some of the edges have loose or missing trim, probably from Hurricane Ike. The roof also has only one air vent on it, and there needs to be either more vents installed, or when they redo the roof install one of those top ridge vents that runs along the entire peak of the roof. The underside of the overhang has some loose boards that need to be secured and sealed, and the ventilation screens need to be replaced as well.

There were a few minor problems inside, but were mostly cosmetic and easily fixed.

So, overall, we’re in good shape. Luckily, we don’t need to do all the expensive things right away, but the minor stuff we can do easily and quickly. Our first project is to clean everything. The walls and ceiling need to be swept of dust, the baseboards cleaned, appliances cleaned or removed, a lot of things replaced or painted, and eventually we’ll replace the carpet and tile flooring. Those will be the very last things we do before we move any furniture in. We like wood flooring, but not sure where it would work in this house. We’ll see.

So, in the meantime, we wait. The deal is done, the paperwork has been sent to the bank for approval of the mortgage, and hopefully one day soon, we’ll have the keys to the house.

We’ve already shopped for all of the above mention items, but haven’t purchased anything. We’re gonna need buckets, cleaners, money, time and patience for this project, but we have a good feeling about it, and we’re ready to turn this abused and dirty renters bungalow into a beautiful showplace.

Stay tuned for pictures and video, and get the popcorn ready. It’s gonna be a show!

The House

The house is a 4-bedroom, 2-bath home. It's all brick around the outside with no siding. It's tan in color, and is in great shape with no physical damage. The front yard is small, but the backyard is huge! There are a couple of bushes in the front of the house, but the backyard is nothing but grass. No trees, no plants, no shrubs. A perfect “clean slate” for Lawrence and his green thumb to fix up the way he wants it. I have the black thumb of death with anything resembling foliage, so I'll have very little to do with it. I'll help prepare and plant, but he will be doing the upkeep. Oh, and he's mowing the grass. Me and manual labor don't get along, so it's all his.

There is a wrought iron fence across the front door entrance and on the side of the house heading into the backyard. We will paint all that black eventually. The rest of the backyard is surrounded by wood fencing, and a couple of planks need replacing. The roof looks good, but some of the trim around the edges needs replacing and repair. Eventually we will need to replace the roof as it seems a number of the shingles are loose, thereby allowing water to seep in. More on that later. We will have a two-car garage. My Honda has never known a garage, so this will be a nice change to help protect the car from the elements and most bad people that want to break into it, which I found out from talking with one of our new neighbors, has happened before. Everyone knows who is doing it, but no one has any evidence. It's one of our neighbor's kids who is in and out of jail a lot. I wonder why. That will change when we move in. Again, more on that later.

Now, to the inside of the house. I'll start off by saying this was a rental house before, and the renting family had three kids. Need I say more? Stains on the carpet. Stains on the walls. A mutilated air duct vent way up high, which we still can't figure out how that happened. The place is filthy, and it's obvious that when this house was foreclosed on, they moved out and didn't bother to clean anything. The kitchen cabinets are damaged or missing, and they used bad contact paper on the walls in the kitchen that was supposed to look like wood. Nice try. The garbage disposal has a hole in it. The water heater won't light, so there's no hot water. Luckily, the central air conditioner and heating unit do work, but it's 25 years old and will need replacing eventually. A quick pass with the Shop Vac will collect assorted dead cockroaches and other matter which has collected everywhere. The rest of the interior looks like an apartment, and what I mean by that is it has white walls, tan carpet, and the cheapest ceiling fans, light fixtures, faucets, toilets and appliances they could buy. Absolute crap.

You may be wondering at this point why we would want a house like this. The answer: It's a foreclosure, and we got it for $74,000 with a 3.875% interest rate. We jumped on it just in time since the economy is slowly getting better and cheap houses are disappearing fast. According to real estate records, this house was worth $140,000 at one point, and that's with the description I gave above! Just wait until we get in and redo everything. Egg-shell walls with beautiful tow-tone paint. Crown moldings on top and chair rails at the right level. New tile on the floors as well as new carpet. New cabinets and appliances. We plan on making this a showplace, but it will take a lot of elbow grease, time and money, and we are both prepared for that. Maybe in a few years when the economy is great again and we want to sell it, I see no reason why we couldn't easily double our money, if not more.

The nice thing about all of this is that we will continue to live in the apartment rent-free for a few months while we work on the house, and the apartment is only one mile away. Another nice thing? The closest Home Depot is only half a mile away. Buy your Home Depot stock now. We also frequent Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, Crate & Barrel, Ikea and Williams-Sonoma. They’re not close, but trust me, we know where they are.