Basement Remodel: Almost Complete, Except Not

So today I was hoping to tell you that the contractors were done and gone and we were starting our DIY finishing projects.

But there have been a few delays, so here's another post on the progress that has been made!

 

Drywall:

• The uncovered the recessed light and air vent that got covered up.  I'm glad we've been touring the basement daily, and noticed these before more work was done!
• Everything has been primed, so it's ready for us to paint.  Painting the room ourselves will save over $1,000! 

 

Baseboards:

• We had been planning to install our own 5" baseboards after we put in the floors.
• A message got lost somewhere, and 3.5" baseboards were installed by surprise.
• But they look really nice, they're done, and we don't have to pay for them or do them ourselves, so this was a nice surprise! 

Most unique baby gift yet!

 

Siding:

• The siding guys were here for four days, and we now have new siding! 
• We had to have a little conversation about how they used my landscaped flower beds as their workspace.  Come on guys, what's wrong with working in grass?  Are bushes and flowers really that much better of a place to set up your tools and work area?  Now I've added "fix back yard landscaping" to my never ending pre-baby to-do list.

The pretty new siding makes me want to paint the utility boxes white to match

 

What's left?

• A little bit of touching up drywall
• Installing the patio lights
• Installing fresh outlets
• Finishing the recessed lights
• Installing gutters

After three days of rain, sleet, snow, and wind, we have some good news and bad news.  Good news: the leak that started this whole project is gone!  Bad news: The new French door isn't watertight, so there's a new leak.  Big sad face :(

You might also be interested in these posts:


Basement Remodel: Getting Started
Save money on your remodel by doing your own demo
Basement Remodel: Imperfect Progress
Basement Remodel: Light at the End of the Tunnel

Bonnie Projects

Basement Remodel: Light at the End of the Tunnel

It's been another week of progress around here, and things are looking much different!

Recessed Lighting

• We now have receptacles for six recessed lights in the basement!
• Hopefully they don't look like this once it's all said and done
• I also noticed while taking photos for this post that they drywalled over one of the lights!

 

Other Electrical

• We moved the patio light upstairs to be centered between the sliding doors
• We added a light downstairs
• The kids bathroom upstairs had the vent fan and light on the same switch, so you were forced to use the fan at all times.  We had the fan put on its own switch.  Silence is golden!

 

Sliding doors fixed

• The door guys came out and fixed the issue with the handles being different heights
• The doors being 1/2" different is not easy to fix, and was a result of all the water damage, so it looks like we're simply stuck with that issue.

 

Drywall

• Drywall is on the ceiling, water damaged walls, and places where we demoed walls
• It's looking like a real room!

 

Plumbing

• There used to be a rigged-up method for watering the plants on the upper deck.  It was a 2" plastic hose threaded through the deck and attached with a 2x4 to the house.  It looked really amateur.
• The plumber put a real pipe in the exterior wall of the house and added a real spigot on the upper deck.  Once the siding guys come through, it'll all be pretty and perfect!

 

Waterproofing and windproofing

• New insulation went into the water damaged wall
• New doors and windows were sealed with special tape and foam to keep the water out

You might also be interested in these posts:

Basement Remodel: Getting Started
Save money on your remodel by doing your own demo
Basement Remodel: Imperfect Progress

Bonnie Projects

Basement Remodel: Imperfect Progress

The contractors have put in a few long days at this point, and have been making lots of progress!  Not all of it is perfect though, and one thing I've learned is this: If you can be home for your remodel, DO IT!!!

I've been able to telework for 2 of the 5 days they've been at our house.  The days I was there, I learned a lot about where the leak was coming from and how bad the damage really was.  I also learned how people cut corners, mess stuff up, and don't necessarily respect your property.  I saw a lot of things I otherwise would never have known about.

Also this: If you can't be there all day, go over all the work EVERY NIGHT with a fine-toothed comb.

So, what's been done?

New sliding doors in the living room

• They broke the old one getting it out.  If I hadn't seen it shatter, I probably would have wondered about all those glass chunks under the couch for years....
• The door handles were 5" different.  Yeah that's gotta get fixed!
• The doors are installed 1/2" different in height.  Jury's out on the solution for this one.
• In general, I'm expecting at least one door will have to be completely removed and replaced. 

the handles are 5" different in height

one door frame is 1/2" higher than the other

New window in the basement

• Wasn't ordered with the grids like we asked, but it sounds like they can fix those after the job.
• So much more light down there now!  It feels like a real room!

new window, new French door, and no rotten wood!

New French door in the basement

• It's so pretty!!!
• The panes are definitely smaller than the original sliding door, but we were willing to sacrifice view to have the French door down here.  Good thing we added that window!

 

Structural Work

• It's not pretty.  I guess that's why they invented drywall!
• The corner of the header got crushed during installation.  We brought it up to the contractor, and the ended up pulling it out, rotating it, and installing it where the crushed corner wouldn't take any of the load.
• I also learned the extent of my Dad's engineering nerdiness, as he calculated the load on that crushed corner over the phone using his old textbooks that were copyrighted in 1914.  From what he calculated, and how bad the damage was, apparently we're really lucky the whole house wasn't caving in before we started this project!
• On the positive side, there's no more rotten wood!

 

What was causing the leak

• A big chunk of siding missing
• No waterproofing under the sliding door

The bottom piece of siding is missing a triangle, so all the water shed by the siding 20 feet above this is able to get into the house.  No wonder the damage was so bad!

This is what it looked like when they removed the sliding door.  Those are shingles used as "waterproofing" on the left side, and nothing at all on the right side.  Which is what allowed water to rot out everything and cause stuff like that awesome hole in the floor.

 Other issues and things I've noticed

• Only one of three exterior lights I ordered was shipped.  Good thing I opened the box and realized the error in time for them to send the other two before the electrician comes!
• Subcontractors seem to be unreliable, and your contractor may have trouble getting in touch with them!
• Keep an eye on how the guys treat your stuff.  Yeah, my landscaping looks like crap right now because it's the end of winter.  But that doesn't mean that throwing a sliding door on top of my crispy azaleas is OK!!!  And they're really lucky they only set the saw on my pansies and not my peony!!! 
• If you want your furniture to survive your remodel, move it yourself and cover it well.

Everything I was ever warned about seems to be true.  It's expensive, it's loud, it's stressful, and you need to keep a close eye on what's happening.

I've already made Tommy promise we won't ever do a project bigger than this if we can help it!



You might also be interested in these posts:

Basement Remodel: Getting Started
Save money on your remodel by doing your own demo

Bonnie Projects

Gain Closet Efficiency by "Removing" a Window

So...we added another project to the list.  We've never felt our master closet was an efficient use of space, but then another section collapsed over the weekend and this project jumped to the top of the list!

This closet was initially built as two reach-ins, but the previous homeowners converted it to be a walk-in.  Making the nook a walk-in meant that there would be a window in the closet, a problem they solved by covering the window with a blackout roller shade.  There is also a floor vent that can't be covered up.

Here are the "before" photos.  Keep in mind the closet had just collapsed!!!  The closet felt cramped and wasn't efficient.  Plus I couldn't even reach the long hanging bar on the back wall.  The part that collapsed had been holding my knee-length dresses.

Left Wall

Back Wall

Right Wall

The roller shade successfully blocked the light and gave privacy, but the window treatment didn't match the others than can be seen from the front of the house.  Tacky!

Not only did we need to rearrange the closet for better efficiency, we also needed to fix the window situation.

Keeping the window useable would mean losing a LOT of space.  We would also have to be careful about sunlight hurting our clothes, and making sure the window treatments would allow for plenty of privacy.  It was a tough choice, but in the end we chose function over form and decided to "delete" the window.

We decided to use an Elfa system for the closet.  This presented yet another challenge because the standards would have to hang in front of the window space.  They need to be flush to the wall, so we had to get creative!

So that the standard could lay flush to the wall, we cut notches in the top and bottom of the window frame.

Jumping ahead a little here, but here's what it looked liked once the Elfa was installed.  See how the notch allows the standard to be flush with the wall?

Now to fix the tacky window situation.

We bought 2" plantation blinds to match the blinds in our bedroom (I've used Just Blinds for years and am happy with their service, pricing, and quality).  There wasn't space to be able to install and use the mechanical system, so we cut the blinds off of the support bar.  We screwed the tapes to the top of the window frame so that the blinds would lay flush inside the window.  Even with the blinds were closed, light still penetrated, and could possibly fade our clothing.  We cut the blackout shade off the roller and stapled it to the window frame.  No more light!

The blackout shade isn't very pretty, but clothes will be hanging in front of it, so we decided it wasn't worth the extra effort to make it look nice.

Now all the window treatments look identical from the outside of the house. 

The previous owners had attached 1x4 boards to the wall to shore up their closet bars (which actually didn't work - this part of the closet collapsed the day we moved in).  We damaged the wall in the process of removing the boards, but four skim coats later we were back in business.  Tommy also touched up the paint here and there to make everything fresh and pretty.

So, what about the design of the new closet?

The old closet had a double rod on an entire wall, plus 48" of long hanging that was split between a rod I could reach and one that I couldn't.  The new design kept the 48" of long hanging, but placed it low enough for me to reach.  It also allowed us to add a 31" double rod, or 62" of additional hanging space for short garments.

The dresser does partially block access to some of the hanging space, but we'll keep off-season and lesser-worn clothes back there.  Like all my non-maternity stuff!!!

We installed the Elfa system according to the directions - it went up really easily with two people working on it!

Here it is all installed and ready to go.  What window?

Finally we loaded it up!  I separated Tommy's stuff by type - polos, dress shirts, sweaters, and outwear.  Right now, my stuff is organized by whether it fits my pregnant belly or not, so I had plenty of items that could be moved into the hard-to-reach areas.

The laundry basket tucks nicely under my knee-length dresses, and I bought a folding stool to help us reach those upper shelves (but that tucks away when we don't need it)

Back Wall

Left Wall

Right Wall

I also sorted everything by color to make it look less jumbled.  I've successfully gotten us out of using wire hangers (the ones from dry cleaning get put into a box for recycling), and now I'm working on getting rid of the plastic hangers in favor of the velvet huggable kind.  It looks so much less cluttered and is much more enjoyable to use when all the hangers are nice.  I think he's set for blue dress shirts for a while!

Was it worth it?  We spent $200 on the Elfa system and $50 on the plantation blinds.  We reused the blackout roller shade, and already had the joint compound and white paint, so those were "free".  This project took us about 8 hours total, but much of that was spent patching the wall.  It would have taken only 2-3 hours if we had been able to skip the wall patching and just focused on the blinds and closet installation.  We had to be really creative with the window treatment situation, as well as devising a way to get the standards to be flush to a wall, even over a window.  Thankfully, it all worked out great, and now we have a super efficient closet that doesn't look tacky from the outside of the house!

You might also be interested in these posts:

Removing textured ceilings
Extra long (and cheap) curtain rod

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Baseboards and Crown Molding

We've been busy in the guest room!  We removed the dinky baseboards and yucky carpet and got to a clean slate.

I won't give a play-by play of how we did the baseboards and crown, because I'm sure we didn't take the easiest or correct route, but I will give a few tips and some before-and-after shots.

Since we're getting new carpet, the question arose of whether to put up baseboards before or after the carpet.  Googling basically gave the answer of either, but it's a better idea to do the baseboards first.  I also figured I could be messy while painting them, and not have to worry about painting the around carpet fuzz.

We also discovered that the floors sag almost an inch in places.  Not enough to notice while walking around, but how do you place a straight board on that?  Turns out carpet will puff up to take up the space, so it's more important to be sure there's enough room everywhere to jam the carpet under the baseboards.

Those questions answered, we got to work!  The cuts were pretty easy, and the nail gun the neighbors lent us (thanks guys!) was a dream.

Then we moved on to the crown.  I bought a Kreg Crown-Pro Crown Molding Tool to help us manage the crazy angles.  It did the job, but it holds the wood in such a way that our 10" saw wouldn't make the whole cut.  Tommy's grandpa came to our rescue though, and lent us his 12" saw.

After that hiccup, cutting the wood was fairly straightforward.  The Kreg Crown-Pro came with a handy booklet that walked us through the process, and we never even made a wrong cut!

When we went to hang everything, some of the corners weren't amazing, but caulk filled them up OK and you can't tell anymore.

One tip for hanging - we made little pieces to match up in the corners with the piece we were hanging.  These helped us get the angles right and ensure all the pieces were going to fit together OK.

For the little guys that finished off the crown near the closet, we attached them to the longer piece with wood glue, let them dry overnight, and then nailed the long piece to the wall.

Tommy caulked all the cracks, and filled the nail holes with spackle.

Now it's time to get a final coat of paint on everything!

Making progress!

Investment Property: Maintenance

Did you know that Bonnie Projects has a side business?  Yep!  Welcome to Bonnie Properties!  Just kidding on the name, but that's what my husband calls it when I'm messing around with real estate.

I've never mentioned this on my blog before, but I have an investment property.  It's a 1987 condo near where I went to grad school.  I bought it when I started grad school because I couldn't find a rental I actually wanted to live in (that wasn't horribly overpriced).

It has two equal-sized bedrooms and bathrooms, and a surprising amount of storage space.  It also has free parking and was one block (albeit up a 20 degree incline) to my graduate office.  Perfect for students!

When I bought it, the condo had been a rental for over 20 years.  Gross.  I actually rented it from the seller for a few weeks before closing - otherwise I would have been living out of my car!  It was so gross that I tore the carpet out before closing.  A risky move, I agree, but I just couldn't deal with that carpet.

Over the two years I was in grad school, I completely remodeled that condo.  Maybe I'll share some projects sometime!  By the time I graduated, the condo was cute, functional, and from what I understand, a desirable place to live!  Instead of selling it, I decided to rent it out.

I wasn't attached to my college furniture, so I left it all there and rent it furnished.  There are pros and cons to this.  Pros are that I can charge more for rent.  Also, because the tenants aren't moving furniture in and out, I feel like the condo stays in better condition.  Cons coming later in this post.

So enough back history!  On to the drama!!!

Twice a year I travel to my college town to visit friends and check on the condo.  I test the appliances, chat with the tenants, and make any necessary repairs.  For the past four years, this has worked out really well, and mostly all I ever do is fill in nail holes and touch up scuffs on the paint.  Maybe some light cleaning.  One time I replaced the deadbolt.

Y'all, those four blissful years of owning a rental property just came to a screeching halt.  You ready for this?

Bless her heart, I thought I'd walked into the wrong unit!!!  What happened to my beautiful apartment?!?!

What follows is how I spent two insane days getting this place back in shape.

1. Appliances

Once I could breathe again, I chatted with the tenant (actually a subletter) about the state of the appliances.  She informed me that the dishwasher didn't clean, the clothes washer didn't wash, the dryer didn't dry, and the AC wasn't cooling.  And, oh yeah, the bathroom fan didn't suck.  Awesome!

I took a peek in the laundry closet.  Once I unearthed the washer and dryer from a thick layer of detergent slime, I started assessing the problems.

For starters, the clothes washer was original to the unit, making it 26 years old.  I decided it was time for it to graduate, and I'd suck it up and get a new one.  A hilarious conversation with the appliance lady at Lowe's  left me choosing a Maytag washer that doesn't require high efficiency soap.  Apparently putting non-HE soap in an HE washer can kill it.  Undergrads hardly know how to wash clothes (at least I didn't), so I wasn't going to count on them using the right soap.  First lesson in rentals - keep it simple!  The washing machine also came with free delivery and installation, which saved me a few hours of work.  Crucial when you only have two days!

out with the old ...

... and in with the new!

Next, the dryer.  it turns out the dryer had been shoved back against the wall, crimping the vent.  I checked the vents for lint blockage, and they were fine.  I reassembled everything, and left the dryer farther out from the wall.  Then I remembered.  Keep it simple!  To prevent this from happening in the future, I installed a block of wood behind the dryer.  Now if it gets pushed back, there's nowhere for it to go, and the vent can't get smushed.

smushed!

smush prevention

no more smushing!

I took a look at the AC filter, and became immediately convinced that it maybe, just possibly, had never been changed by these tenants.  In their defense, it's in a weird place, and the size isn't standard.  But seriously?  Every bill comes with a reminder to change it out!  You'd think they might have said something over the past two years.  I called the AC guys, and they came out bright and early on Day 2 to clean the AC unit.  I also ordered a 12-pack of these apparently weird-size filters, and had it delivered to the condo.  The new tenants have no excuses!

The dishwasher.  I'm a little attached to the dishwasher.  It was my very first appliance purchase.  I bought it used on Craigslist for $100 for my 23rd birthday.  I was even cheaper  more budget conscious back then than I am now, and refused to pay more than the appliance to have it installed, so me and DIY Network spent a few cozy hours together installing it.  Well, it wasn't new when I got it, and it's six years older now, and it might be time for it to go.  I disassembled the insides hoping it was simply a blockage or something, but no such luck.

Finally, the bathroom fans.  It's funny, I'm great at changing air filters, but it never occurred to me that a bathroom fan might also get dusty.  People, these things are a fire hazard!!!  Over the 26-year life of this thing, it had sucked up dust and hair, and created a lovely little hairball around the motor.  That sad little motor just couldn't power through anymore, and it was kapooey.  Luckily, new ones are available for $14, and don't even require flipping a breaker!  It's a few screws and plugging it in, and it's done.  Only one of the fans was toast, but I replaced them both just so the same problem doesn't happen again soon.  Guess what I'll be cleaning in my own house this weekend? 

2. Paint & Holes

In a small apartment, or probably any home really, walls get scuffed and scratched.  It happens.  People also like to hang stuff up and create billions of tiny holes in the walls.  It happens.  So every time I work on the condo, I make sure to bring putty and paint.  I go through every room, and fill every hole.  Once it's dry, I sand it smooth and slap on some fresh paint. 

The past four years, this has worked like a charm.  This time...not as much.  Something happened to the paint, and now what's on the walls is a smidge darker than what's in the can, even though it's exactly the same stuff.  The difference really bugs me, so I guess I'll be painting everything pretty soon!  I had hoped that paint would last more than 6 years, but I guess with renters you just never know.


3. Furniture

Just like everything else, I've gotten incredibly lucky that all the furniture has held up through years of abuse.  If you're still reading, this will come as no surprise - it was awful this time!!!  Well, not everything, but the sofa and chair were really really yucky.  Like, don't keep scrolling if you're eating.

The chair was a garage sale find that my Mom helped me recover eons ago.  It wasn't savable, so it got relocated to the curb.  I found this cute replacement at World Market.  Between their sale and my coupon, it was only $90!  I think the grey will hold up a lot better than the old cream-colored chair did.

The sofa was another story.  It's a La-Z-Boy microfiber sofa, and it's structurally in great shape.  I'm not quite sure what happened to the fabric though...

I tried my usual trick of taking a wet rag to it, and miraculously it came off without a fight!!!  I googled around a little and found some people who had thrown the cushions covers through the wash with good success.  This gave me a chance to test the new washer, so I was in!  I tested a throw pillow cover first to be sure, but it worked and so everything else got thrown in too!  A few tough stains still linger, but overall it's about a million times better.  And now my skin doesn't crawl when I look at it.

4. Blinds

Oh my god, what happened to my blinds?!?

It's simple, really - the cord condenser broke.  They're just cheapo little plastic snap-together thingys.  Some of the cords had come out of the mechanisms all up in there, so I had to do some re-stringing.  I installed fresh cord condensers.  For a more permanent fix, I also tied all the cords in a knot, just above the cord condenser.  This makes it so that all the pressure that was previously on the condenser is now transferred to the knot.  

5. Safety

I tested all the smoke alarms, and they all worked!  One success.

I've provided a fire extinguisher for years, but this time I finally took the initiative to attach it to the wall.  All it took was two screws, and was super easy.  I should have done it sooner.  I also added this to my list of stuff to address at my own home.

Locks and keys were in working condition, too.  Hooray!

6. Other

The old washer had a lid that opened sideways - the hinges were on the left side.  The new washer opened away from you, with the hinges at the back.  Those cool storage shelves I installed above the washer years ago?  Yeah, they prevented the new washer lid from fully opening.  So with my oodles of free time, I drilled new holes, moved the support, then filled and painted the old hole.  Whew!

7. Is it worth it?

This past slew of issues with the income property really added up, both in terms of money and stress.  That said, when I run my numbers on whether a property is a good investment, I budget for maintenance and repairs.  This year they are higher than the budget, but when averaged with past years, everything still looks really good.

As for the stress, I mitigate that with holding babies (my friends in town have two babies that are so adorable that you completely forget about cleaning slime from a sofa) and getting lunch at my favorite campus spots.  Thankfully they're as tasty and successful as ever!  The restaurants, not the babies.  Plus I got to wander around my alma mater a bit.

You might also be interested in these posts:

Kitchen Update: Plantation Blinds
Half Bath Reveal
Sofa Facelift
Updating the Condo (Mirrors and Doorknobs)

Bonnie Projects