Second Job

I work nightshift, from 10pm - 6am, Saturday night - Wednesday night. This works well, because I come home and get in bed by 7am, wake up at about 2pm, work at the house for a few hours, then crawl into work at 10pm. This schedule sounds productive re: the house, but it is TIRING.

Anyway, this week I was able to begin taking some things apart. I thought demo would be fun, but its not. Maybe I lost that destructive urge that I had as a kid, but I am really sick of taking things apart. I'm ready to restore all of the things that I've taken apart and attempt to put it all back together.

I started off by taking down a partition wall that we decided we didn't want. It made the living room space seem small way too small. After removing it, the space feels way more welcoming when you walk in the door.

Looking from the front door.

 

One of the things we found out about removing a partition wall is that after decades, even partition walls can begin to retain some of the weight of the house. Because of this, we will now be adding a header beam in the living room a few feet away from where this wall used to be. Nothing major, just a couple of 2x10 beams to ensure the ceiling doesn't end up in our laps.

We then began the looong process of removing drywall throughout the house.

We also began taking down all of the trim throughout the house. That includes baseboards, door trim, and door frames...a lot of tedious, careful work. Def not looking forward to sanding, priming, painting and reinstalling all of this.

We were also able to disassemble most of the guest bathroom.

Looking in from the hallway. Outside of that window is the porch.

Medicine cabinet location. On the other side of that wall is our Master Bedroom, so we have to make sure to insulate very well...

 

Unfortunately, there is a significant amount of water damage to the floor in the bathroom, so we're going to have to remove the entire floor and repair everything, including the floor joists... *sigh*

 

 

Found this little guy when I took a part of the bathroom wall off. He's been needing some fresh air for a while. :(

This is the window in the guest bathroom, as seen from the porch.

Also removed the weird window between our Master Bedroom and our future Master Bathroom.

Under the window sill, we found these mini-alien eggs.

That's the "fun" we've had so far...more to come!

Intro to Rehab

The home loan program that we decided to go with (FHA 203k) involves a lot of oversight by the lender. The process not only has a 6 month completion deadline, but along the way we have to make draws for money from the lender, via our inspector.

The way the draw process works is that we (contractor/subcontractor) complete work items, and after work is complete, we contact the inspector. The inspector comes in to ensure that the work is done correctly, and we get the money agreed on for the particular job. There are five of these draws throughout the 6 month process.

 The obstacle that we face is that we bid pretty low regarding the work items, therefore, we will be doing A LOT of the work ourselves in order to stay with our $50k budget. Yes, $50,000 to rehab our 2500 square foot home. The work includes refinishing trim, replacing drywall, kitchen remodel, bath remodel, bath build, refinished wood floors, removing exterior vinyl, refinish/paint exterior shiplap. As I typed all of that and thought about our $50k budget, I think to myself "You're an idiot". Therefore, no need for you to type that in the comment or wonder if I know that I am certainly an idiot. *sigh*

BUT, here we are. We own this .24 acre plot of land and the 88-year old, 2500 square foot home sitting on it. Now we have to ensure that we put in the necessary work to keep all of the above.

We started off by cleaning up the overgrown jungle/yard a bit...

Closed. It's Ours!

We started the purchase process of our home in early January. I am happy and relieved to say that we finally closed on April 29. As you already know, we chose to go the route of a FHA 203k rehab loan. It surely isn't the simplest process, but it's the only way that we could purchase the house. No other loan program would allow us to buy the home in the condition it is in.

Anyways, we're done with that...now on to the process of rehabilitation. *sigh*