Spring the flip – Week 6

Hi.  Thanks for stopping by to my blog.  I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures in flipping.  In case you missed it, here’s last week’s adventure.  And as always, please feel free to reach out to me for design services.

 

 

This week things are starting to shape up & bring Spring out of the “nothing works” phase.

 

The beginning of the week was gorgeous out so I decided to start with an outside task.  I had to call in the reinforcements for help on this.  The “yard” was so covered in vines, prickly branch thingys (yes that’s a technical term) that you couldn’t even grasp how big the yard was.

Before:

During:

After:

The yard feels at least twice the size it was now!  There’s nothing a weed wacker & a chain saw can’t handle!

Also with help, I was able to remove the bathtub & prep the bathroom for the new tub scheduled to arrive next week.  I couldn’t believe how light the thing was.  Who needs strong contractor men when two woman can totally do the job!

And lastly the last photo worthy accomplishment HVAC system (minus gas & electricity) was completed (happy dance):

And last but not least, I leave you with this image:

Accomplishments this week:

• Heating (HVAC) system install complete
• Dug out sewage ejector pit
• Cut down a ton of vines, etc. & cleaned up the yard a bit
• Sanded most of the walls upstairs in preparation for painting
• Most of the remaining framing & soffits are complete
• Purchased a sash replacement for broken window (that I found out from the neighbor was broken by the previous owners after they were foreclosed on).  I was super excited to find out that the windows are still under warrantee!!! All I had to pay for was shipping.

More exciting things to come next week.  See you then.

Spring the flip – Week 5

Hi.  Thanks for stopping by to my blog.  I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures in flipping.  In case you missed it, here’s last week adventure.  And as always, please feel free to reach out to me for design services.

 

This week the sub-contractors made significant progress. See the red & blue PEX?  Very exciting! The remaining ductwork was removed & a new furnace was “installed”.

 

In the process of removing the old furnaces (yes there were two) we discovered that the there were CMU block open to the dirt underneath …. Why you ask?  No idea.  The furnace that was on top of this was, not shockingly, so rusted we could barely put it on a dolly to move it.  Both my carpenter & I made quick work of filling in a bunch of holes in the slab this week with concrete.  I learned that if the hole in which you are putting concrete into is already filled with water, you need significantly less water to make it concrete.  LOL.

 

Spring also gave me several gifts this week including unopened package of panty hose, flip flops, one high heeled shoe, change, and my husband’s favorite legos.

Prior to the carpenter getting to work, I worked on painting the steel columns with Rustoleum.  This paint color was a good less on how paint color changes as it dries.  I was a little concerned when it came out the can as magenta.  But it thankfully dried a beautiful brick color.  It’s too bad these guys will be buried in a wall when this is all done.  They look so much better.

Later in the week I worked on smashy smashy.  I first was trying to neatly take off the bottom row of tile so I could pull out the bathtub to replace it.  The row above kept chipping unfortunately so all out it came.  I even enlisted the help of an awesome teenager to remove the ceiling.  Something about being too short to safely smash above my head.

 

My friend & the same teenage son above helped me move the giant pile of dirt outside using buckets while I shoveled.  With the help of 2 other people, we thankfully made quick work of what would have probably taken me at 5 hours worth of work to do by myself.

And last but not least ….. WALLS!!!

After a bit of a delay, my carpenter is finally putting up the walls my subs need to finish their work.  I’ve very excited to see the layout I came up with becoming a reality. This is where the spaces start to feel real.

 

Accomplishments this week:

• Rough plumbing is almost 100% complete
• Finished putting up the Vapor barrier on all the foundation walls & under the locations for the framing
• Rough framing is about 60% complete
• Rotting framing removed
• Bathroom tile & backerboard removed
• Giant mud/dirt pile removed
• Shower fixture ordered
• Random holes in slab filled in with concrete
• Sanded more walls upstairs

Whew that was a lot

More exciting things to come next week.  See you then.

 

Spring the flip – Week 3 & 4

Hi.  Thanks for stopping by to my blog.  I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures in flipping.  In case you missed it, here’s last week adventure.  And as always, please feel free to reach out to me for design services.

 

Sorry for the delay in posting this but the last two weeks my computer time has been consumed by taxes …. taxes … & more taxes.  Isn’t doing your own taxes fun? NOT!

Week 3 & 4 were filled with exciting demolition:

And my plumber got to work.  Look no more crazy PVC elbow city:

Also during the last few weeks I’ve been doing some domestic archeology:

  

The alcohol was found in hidden in the ductwork.  The sign was buried in the bushes in the backyard.  I’m hoping the last one is Spring trying to tell me she appreciates the work I’m doing (“A Glimmer Of Hope”).

Lastly, I worked on starting to sand the upstairs walls in prep for paint.  Normally I wouldn’t bother with doing a 60 or 80 grit sanding on an already painted home but with Spring being empty with no heat & completely open to the environment in places in the basement, I wanted to make sure I got all the bubbles out of the paint before I painted. A lower grit paper will make quick work of anything it finds (as evidenced by the picture below).  My Ryobi & I go a long way back.  I have a special fondness for my orbital sander because it was the first tool I bought for myself (and not just borrowed from other people).  My husband didn’t see the use in buying one … so I just bought one anyway.  Boy was he wrong.  My sander & I have removed many walls of wallpaper together since then.  Normally, a good installation of wallpaper will require more then just an orbital sander.  Usually there’s a pretty extensive process to remove it, if it’s done right.  However, the key is if the wallpaper has been applied properly.  This was not the case at Spring.  It was cheap stick-on wallpaper bought at some major box store most likely.  The one down side to my sander is that I can’t get the filter bags to stay on it anymore (they just fly right off).  Because of that, I have to wear a filter mask, protective glasses, & I get to do lots of sweeping afterwards.  But that doesn’t really matter.  As you can see, it works just fine at sanding.

In non-flip work if you missed it on my Instagram & Twitter feed, I visited one of my design projects in Dorchester that’s been coming along well.

 

Add my grandmother’s funeral, holy week & taxes into the mix and it’s been a pretty busy couple of weeks.

Accomplishments these weeks:

• Removed all major ductwork
• Removed all copper piping
• Removed all gas piping
• Ordered lighting
• Broke my father-in-laws $19 saws-all (oh wait that’s not an accomplishment)
• Had Masssave come in & give me a quote (can only get the attic insulation & free light bulbs)
• Started sanding the upstairs walls
• Plumber started the drains for the fixtures
• Walked 9.5 miles pushing two kids on Good Friday
• Finished my Taxes

More exciting things to come next week.  See you then.

Spring the flip – Week 2

Hi.  Thank you for joining me on my adventures in flipping.  In case you missed it, here’s last week adventure.  And as always, please feel free to reach out to me for design services.

 

Week two was a bit slower in activity.  I had several more contractors give me quotes.  I should be able to make a decision on a heating & plumbing contractors by Monday at the latest.  Building department decided my chicken scratch sketch was not enough information for a permit.  How do contractors seem to get away with it but I can’t …. Oh well.  It means I’ve been working on some plans which I’ll be able to share with you in a later post. I also added vapor barrier to some of the existing foundation walls so that water will not ruin my newly dry-walled basement when its done.  For those not in the construction industry: vapor barrier is a fancy word for big thick piece of plastic; a must for any basement that is going to be finished.

If you follow me on Instagram or twitter you would have seen that I’ve fixed the existing kitchen cabinet doors & spent a lot of time getting a nice upper body workout with a steel grinder on the existing columns in the basement.  All but one of the columns cleaned up looking almost new on the first pass.

  

At the end of the week I got the privilege of going into my daughter’s school and presenting about what architects do to her entire class.  It was a ton of fun!  My husband showed them cool technology while I showed them all sorts of really cool materials that we use in buildings.  I think they learned a lot and they seemed to be fascinated.

  

After the presentation even though I was exhausted (have you ever spent time with 19 kindergarteners?), I went back to the flip for some limited demolition.  I got out the saws-all and had at it.

 

Ten minutes later, the disintegrating wood studs were gone!  Hello, firewood.

Lastly, some promising landscaping appeared:

 

Accomplishments for this week:

• Fixed Kitchen cabinet doors
• Ground the steel columns
• Close to hiring the remaining contractors
• Demolished a wall
• Added vapor barrier to some of the existing foundation walls

More exciting things to come next week.  See you then.