Our little remodeling project:
I started writing this to serve as a reminder to myself next time I get big ideas about remodeling a house. Here is our story and excuse the long-windedness:
So around the beginning of the year I started getting serious about finding a new house. Yes I mean I, because I think that Kristen would have been perfectly happy in our first house for another 10 years or so; mostly due to her feeling comfortable in the neighborhood, church, etc. and not enjoying change. I felt like, at the time, that prices were as low as they were ever going to be and that it was a great opportunity to buy a foreclosure or short sale. Thus began the search process.
We probably looked at about 20 houses or so. I found a lot of homes I liked that I thought would be good investments and nice places to live. Kristen and I had differences of opinion when it came to agreeing on these opportunities however. Granted, all of the houses I liked had something wrong with them so her reservations were not unfounded. But there was a major difference between what we were both looking for. She wanted a brand new house in a tract neighborhood and I wanted a custom home, age bearing no importance. Most foreclosure homes have problems with them. Problems we saw in various custom houses ranged from missing appliances to trashed carpet to septic tanks/wells (I never knew houses in city limits used wells and septic tanks but I didn't like the idea of either). We both liked this custom home in a gated neighborhood called Thunder Mountain and we had a bid in on it, but we quickly learned that the short sale process was a waste of time and started focusing on foreclosures.
I think we started our search a few months too late because by the time we started getting going, the foreclosure party was pretty much over. I was pretty close to calling it quits when our search process brought us to the Groves East. This little house we found had by far the most problems we had encountered. It had been on the market for a long time at $280k I believe. It was owned by a bank through a foreclosure and needed major renovations. My first impression was that I loooooved the neighborhood though. It was exactly the area of Mesa I wanted to be in. The lots were all thirds of an acre, all custom homes, and no HOA. The location was also a little more central to Phoenix and had a reputation for good schools.
So when we entered the house for the first time, we immediately noticed a full wall wallpaper mural of the NYC World Trade Center with blue rope lights surrounding it. Very odd. In fact the whole house was just a little odd. There were roughly 20 mirrors in the house for starters, including one giant one in the family room which I might add is one of few that is still up and is a minor source of debate in the house. Lace curtains, dark green carpet, brass light fixtures, purple walls, fake flower decorations, and peel off (turned out to be more like scrape off) window stickers topped off the decorating. It didn't look like one single thing in the entire house had been updated since it was built in 1994. I saw those as easy fixes though. Then came the more challenging part.
What was once a covered patio/Arizona room in the back of the house behind the kitchen had been enclosed to become a part of the main living structure. But the addition was only half done. It was one of the strangest things you would ever see in a house. What was once their bay window breakfast nook, now looked into a cement floor room. I have no idea what their final intentions were or if they were pleased with the end result, but it was a puzzling situation for us. The kitchen was like a tiny cave, with no windows since they enclosed the patio, and just too small for most people's standards. We knew the kitchen had to be bigger and that some of the existing walls needed to come down. With zero knowledge about supporting walls and structural elements we were unsure of our options. The addition was also a good 4 inches lower than the main house section so it would require concrete to level the two floors. That back room, which is now half of the kitchen and a game room, became the focus of most of our efforts for the next six months.
In spite of all of this, I still liked the opportunity. I knew that 99% of people would see the house and scoff at it. That worked to our favor. We decided to put in a really low offer knowing it would require a substantial investment of time and money to get it move in ready. The bank's agent encouraged us to put in our best offer because the bank was going to make a decision soon. We told her that our original bid was our best offer and then we waited to see if they would bite. It took a while for anything to happen and I considered the likelihood of acceptance to be declining by the day. I should go back in this story and mention on record that Kristen was never 100% on board with this idea. She wavered between hating the idea of living there to being lukewarm about it. But in the end, she played the supportive wife role for her crazy husband.....for the most part :).
So finally the bank responds a couple months later and actually accepts our offer. Sign the papers, take the keys, it's ours. Okay, now what? I'm an accountant with some basic handyman skills, but this was way over my head. When we solicited bids though, most contractors were not interested in the job due to the unknown of taking out a wall and whether it needed supporting beams, so it was hard for them to give us an estimate. One guy actually mentioned $150k. That was a little discouraging. We were really only left with one option.
I was able to do all the demolition myself and a lot of the other little jobs here and there. Lesson number one in home renovations. Everything takes longer than you think. What looks like a simple's day work, turns out to be weeks. My goal was to get it move in ready in 4 months. It took us about 6. Had we farmed it out to someone, it probably would have taken a month or less with a decent crew, but at a significant cost. The work was overwhelming as well. I can say that there was blood drawn each and every day I did demo work. Simply put, tearing out stucco/chicken wire/styrofoam sucks. Since it was a patio, the whole back room was stucco and needed to be ripped out to the studs so drywall could go up.
We did get really good news when we hired a structural engineer who told us that the trusses were engineered to support the weight on the exterior patio walls and thus, the existing kitchen wall could go down without putting supporting beams up. That was somewhat unexpected and a real lifesaver, because it meant we could keep the floorplan pretty open and also do a lot of the work ourselves. Finally something went our way and it was a big one.
Writing about all the work we did or someone else did to the house in detail would take a very long time to write so I'm just going to summarize:
I think that mostly covers it. We still have quite a bit of work left to do even now that we are moved in. All the landscaping needs to be done, the exterior of the house needs to be repainted, and we have a den and couple bathrooms that need some minor remodeling as well. It has been a long process. I spent nearly every Saturday at the house for six months. I grew to dread it. In the meantime I spent most every night studying for the CPA exam (can you say poor planning). While I spent all my free time dedicated to the house and studying, Kristen was left to be a single mom. Big kudos to her for putting up with the not so favorable situation! I'd like to say it's been fun, but that would be a big, fat lie. Satisfying to see how far we've come with it, yes, but not fun! If you have a full time job like myself and young kids that need their mom, don't ever do this. If your wife is handy and can do a lot of the work or you work part time or something, I would say go for it. When it is all said and done though, this house is a huge improvement over our first house and is a step forward in life. We think we saved mucho buckos by going this route and I learned more than I ever wanted to about construction/renovation. A special thanks goes out to family and friends who chipped in their time or who watched the kids so we could work on the house. I anticipate many good years out of this home that we quite literally put blood, sweat, and tears into. That or we'll decide we want to move up in a couple years and begin this whole process all over again. Then I will reread this story and refresh my memory of what home renovation involves.
I started writing this to serve as a reminder to myself next time I get big ideas about remodeling a house. Here is our story and excuse the long-windedness:
So around the beginning of the year I started getting serious about finding a new house. Yes I mean I, because I think that Kristen would have been perfectly happy in our first house for another 10 years or so; mostly due to her feeling comfortable in the neighborhood, church, etc. and not enjoying change. I felt like, at the time, that prices were as low as they were ever going to be and that it was a great opportunity to buy a foreclosure or short sale. Thus began the search process.
We probably looked at about 20 houses or so. I found a lot of homes I liked that I thought would be good investments and nice places to live. Kristen and I had differences of opinion when it came to agreeing on these opportunities however. Granted, all of the houses I liked had something wrong with them so her reservations were not unfounded. But there was a major difference between what we were both looking for. She wanted a brand new house in a tract neighborhood and I wanted a custom home, age bearing no importance. Most foreclosure homes have problems with them. Problems we saw in various custom houses ranged from missing appliances to trashed carpet to septic tanks/wells (I never knew houses in city limits used wells and septic tanks but I didn't like the idea of either). We both liked this custom home in a gated neighborhood called Thunder Mountain and we had a bid in on it, but we quickly learned that the short sale process was a waste of time and started focusing on foreclosures.
I think we started our search a few months too late because by the time we started getting going, the foreclosure party was pretty much over. I was pretty close to calling it quits when our search process brought us to the Groves East. This little house we found had by far the most problems we had encountered. It had been on the market for a long time at $280k I believe. It was owned by a bank through a foreclosure and needed major renovations. My first impression was that I loooooved the neighborhood though. It was exactly the area of Mesa I wanted to be in. The lots were all thirds of an acre, all custom homes, and no HOA. The location was also a little more central to Phoenix and had a reputation for good schools.
So when we entered the house for the first time, we immediately noticed a full wall wallpaper mural of the NYC World Trade Center with blue rope lights surrounding it. Very odd. In fact the whole house was just a little odd. There were roughly 20 mirrors in the house for starters, including one giant one in the family room which I might add is one of few that is still up and is a minor source of debate in the house. Lace curtains, dark green carpet, brass light fixtures, purple walls, fake flower decorations, and peel off (turned out to be more like scrape off) window stickers topped off the decorating. It didn't look like one single thing in the entire house had been updated since it was built in 1994. I saw those as easy fixes though. Then came the more challenging part.
What was once a covered patio/Arizona room in the back of the house behind the kitchen had been enclosed to become a part of the main living structure. But the addition was only half done. It was one of the strangest things you would ever see in a house. What was once their bay window breakfast nook, now looked into a cement floor room. I have no idea what their final intentions were or if they were pleased with the end result, but it was a puzzling situation for us. The kitchen was like a tiny cave, with no windows since they enclosed the patio, and just too small for most people's standards. We knew the kitchen had to be bigger and that some of the existing walls needed to come down. With zero knowledge about supporting walls and structural elements we were unsure of our options. The addition was also a good 4 inches lower than the main house section so it would require concrete to level the two floors. That back room, which is now half of the kitchen and a game room, became the focus of most of our efforts for the next six months.
In spite of all of this, I still liked the opportunity. I knew that 99% of people would see the house and scoff at it. That worked to our favor. We decided to put in a really low offer knowing it would require a substantial investment of time and money to get it move in ready. The bank's agent encouraged us to put in our best offer because the bank was going to make a decision soon. We told her that our original bid was our best offer and then we waited to see if they would bite. It took a while for anything to happen and I considered the likelihood of acceptance to be declining by the day. I should go back in this story and mention on record that Kristen was never 100% on board with this idea. She wavered between hating the idea of living there to being lukewarm about it. But in the end, she played the supportive wife role for her crazy husband.....for the most part :).
So finally the bank responds a couple months later and actually accepts our offer. Sign the papers, take the keys, it's ours. Okay, now what? I'm an accountant with some basic handyman skills, but this was way over my head. When we solicited bids though, most contractors were not interested in the job due to the unknown of taking out a wall and whether it needed supporting beams, so it was hard for them to give us an estimate. One guy actually mentioned $150k. That was a little discouraging. We were really only left with one option.
I was able to do all the demolition myself and a lot of the other little jobs here and there. Lesson number one in home renovations. Everything takes longer than you think. What looks like a simple's day work, turns out to be weeks. My goal was to get it move in ready in 4 months. It took us about 6. Had we farmed it out to someone, it probably would have taken a month or less with a decent crew, but at a significant cost. The work was overwhelming as well. I can say that there was blood drawn each and every day I did demo work. Simply put, tearing out stucco/chicken wire/styrofoam sucks. Since it was a patio, the whole back room was stucco and needed to be ripped out to the studs so drywall could go up.
We did get really good news when we hired a structural engineer who told us that the trusses were engineered to support the weight on the exterior patio walls and thus, the existing kitchen wall could go down without putting supporting beams up. That was somewhat unexpected and a real lifesaver, because it meant we could keep the floorplan pretty open and also do a lot of the work ourselves. Finally something went our way and it was a big one.
Writing about all the work we did or someone else did to the house in detail would take a very long time to write so I'm just going to summarize:
- Figure out what the heck the layout of the new house should be. Countless hours were spent drawing the kitchen out on graph paper, figuring out island dimensions, sink/appliance locations, and cabinet layout. The end result is what we think is an original idea and works well for the space we have.
- Remove all stucco/chicken wire from inside of patio room
- Remove patio columns to make walls flat - okay, don't look too close at how flat they are
- Remove NYC wallpaper and other floral wallpaper in house
- Knock down kitchen wall and bay window wall with sledgehammer and demolition saw - avoid crashing windows and falling walls
- Jackhammer concrete foundation to move plumbing lines to new island location, move refrigerator water line
- Move electrical lines, install new plugs, recessed lights, under cabinet lights, move light switch locations, and new light fixture locations
- Fill in half of patio room with concrete to make it level with existing kitchen floor
- Tear out kitchen tile
- Put new insulation in walls
- Install new 6 x 4 window in kitchen area
- Stucco work on exterior
- Frame an archway entry wall from kitchen to game room, old doorways to patio that were being filled, and kitchen island pony wall
- New drywall for addition walls/ceiling
- Remove old oak kitchen cabinets. Move to laundry room, garage, and goodwill.
- Install new cabinets. Realize I screwed up on the spacing so reinstall kitchen cabinets.
- Prime and paint practically the whole house
- New tile in kitchen and game room
- Granite counters installed in kitchen
- New carpet installed throughout house
- Change toilet valves, flaps, handles, and seats
- New locks and door handles
- Install new dishwasher, fridge, range hood, and range
- New bathroom light fixture and shower/tub fixtures
- New patio roof felt and shingles due to leak
- Drywall outside patio ceiling ruined due to leaks
- Sun screen shades for east and west facing windows
- New Kitchen sink, faucet, and air switch for garbage disposal
- Replace leaky hose valves
- Old water heater rusted out and flooded garage (luckily it drained to driveway), replaced with hybrid water heater
I think that mostly covers it. We still have quite a bit of work left to do even now that we are moved in. All the landscaping needs to be done, the exterior of the house needs to be repainted, and we have a den and couple bathrooms that need some minor remodeling as well. It has been a long process. I spent nearly every Saturday at the house for six months. I grew to dread it. In the meantime I spent most every night studying for the CPA exam (can you say poor planning). While I spent all my free time dedicated to the house and studying, Kristen was left to be a single mom. Big kudos to her for putting up with the not so favorable situation! I'd like to say it's been fun, but that would be a big, fat lie. Satisfying to see how far we've come with it, yes, but not fun! If you have a full time job like myself and young kids that need their mom, don't ever do this. If your wife is handy and can do a lot of the work or you work part time or something, I would say go for it. When it is all said and done though, this house is a huge improvement over our first house and is a step forward in life. We think we saved mucho buckos by going this route and I learned more than I ever wanted to about construction/renovation. A special thanks goes out to family and friends who chipped in their time or who watched the kids so we could work on the house. I anticipate many good years out of this home that we quite literally put blood, sweat, and tears into. That or we'll decide we want to move up in a couple years and begin this whole process all over again. Then I will reread this story and refresh my memory of what home renovation involves.