Home Decor Blog: DIY Home Improvement

It took much longer than we ever could have imagined, but we had utilities, foundation piers installed, new roof, new garage door and the exterior was painted, we were ready to start on the interior. The interior was a good new / bad news situation. The good news, crown molding throughout the house, uncompleted custom cabinetry in the kitchen, bath and den, 12 x 12 floor tile in 3/4 of the house, and an uncompleted utility room. The bad news included, the bath with one entire wall would need to be gutted, wall paper several layers thick needed to be removed from most of the house, a lot of sheet rock repair was required also.

We started with the bath. The wall between the master bedroom and bath had extensive wood rot and need to be replaced. Since we would start from scratch we decided to leave out the door to the master bedroom, and create another closet out of the alcove in the master. The renovation was pretty straight forward other than replacing the wall. We tiled the batch surround, added a new vanity with solid surface sink. The tub and toilet where left but we upgraded the faucets and shutoffs.

There wasn’t anything out of ordinary for the bedrooms other than sheet rock repairs. It was a simple matter of repair and paint and carpet.

The living and dining area renovation weren’t difficult either. There was a lot of sheet rock damage but nothing out of the ordinary.

The kitchen was a lot of work. all of the cabinet doors need to be replaced. Fortunately we were able to reuse the raised panes and with new rails ans stile. It save a lot of time in the lay out and construction. The previous owner had started a new section of cabinet but they were far from complete. They were constructed with cabinet grade pine and raised panel rail and style doors. The profile was a little different than the original cabinets but by painting all of the cabinets and replacing the laminate counter top and tile back splash they looked like a good match. We made some modifications to the layout of the new cabinets. We extended the counter top out about 5 feet to make a bar area. The cabinet was very functional with a large amount of cabinet and drawer space along with a large counter area. We were very happy with the final results.

The utility was the last interior room we did. This was another room the previous owner had started but failed to finish. There was a lot of sheet rock work to do. We put a new1/4 skin over the entire ceiling and completed and patched the rest of the walls. We added a new water cut off and drain for the washer, and added an exterior vent for the dryer. There were some very nice corner cabinets above the washer and dryer area which we reused, and a long shelf with coat rack on another wall. All we had to do was repaint them. The only minor problem in the room was finding a door to fit the hot water heater. Orignally it had a plywood door when it was in the garage. It wasn’t a standard size door. I ended up cutting down a 24 inch hollow core door and re built the interior support.

With the interior 90 plus percent done we would start on the workshop. We were beginning to see a light at the end of the renovation tunnel.

Once the place was cleaned up we thought the worst was over. Wrong again! Getting the utilities on turned out to be a major hurdle. We would wait until the end of the renovation to have the gas turned on. Fortunately, we didn’t have any problems when we did, however we were not as lucky with the electricity. Since the house had been without electric service for more than 2 years the electric company informed us that we would have to get a city permit and have the electrical system inspected. It turned out the previous owner had been running extension cords to neighbors and the elementary school adjoining the back yard for several years. It took about 10 days but we finally got electricity.

It even got worse when it came to getting water reconnected. Not only had the city removed the meter, they had also dug up the water main across the street and disconnected the line from the water main completely. It turned out the previous owner had attempted to bypass the meter by connecting a straight line between the cut off and the line to the house. Guess how that worked out. It seemed a bit extreme, but the City had to do something. In the end, not only did I pay for the water being disconnected, via a lien on the tax rolls ($950.00 with interest and penalties), I also had to hire an independent contractor to dig up the water main and re-install the line and install a new meter

I checked first with the yellow pages to find a plumbing contractor. There was one big ad from a company that advertises a lot on TV here in Tulsa. I called them first. They sent out an estimator the next day. He wouldn’t give me an estimate on the spot, although he gave an elaborate explanation of everything that needed to be done. He would call back 3 days later with an estimate for 3200.00. I decided to get another estimate. The next place I called was actually a recommendation from another plumbing company that specialized in industrial plumbing. When Carri mentioned the estimate we got they immediately started laughing and told her who the estimate was from. It appears they have some kind of reputation. The company they recommended gave me another estimate of $650.00. Now 650 seems like a lot of money to get water turned on, but it sure beats 3200. When they arrived to do they work it turned out that they didn’t do 1/2 of the things the first TV plumbing company said needed to be done. They simply dug up the main, reconnected the line, and had it inspected before they filled in the hole. “Seeing Red” as in plumbing truck now has new meaning to me.

While waiting for utilities we worked on the things we could. First we called out a Garage door company to replace the torsion springs. The door actually looked pretty nice, but there was a problem. The previous owner had built this himself out of oriented strand board with a layer of siding and 3/4″ plywood bracing. Even though it looked nice, it was far heavier than the original springs would bear. The overhead door company said they could re-size the springs, although they doubted the integrity of the door itself. They recommended I replace it. It turned out that they could install a for just a little over twice what the new springs would cost. Their estimate was even lower than installing a door myself buying from Lowes or Home Depot, so I had them do it.

In the meantime we replaced the roof and painted the exterior. A lot of work but no real big surprises here. We would leave the workshop till the very last but at least the front was no longer the eyesore that it had been for so long.

Front before during and after

Once we had right to enter the property, we thought we could get started. WRONG! On first inspection we noticed about a dozen or so syringes and other suspicious finds. We called the police. An officer arrived and went through the house removing dozens of used syringes, and various stashes of what he believed to be illicit narcotics. He was interested in looking through the workshop in the back but there were still 3 dogs fenced in the back yard. We were to call him back if we found other suspicious activity in the back building.

At this point I decided the best thing for me to do was to hire a company to remove everything in the house to storage and have the previous owner pay for the clean up and storage, or sell the contents at auction to pay for it. Great idea, but due to the enormity of the trash, the danger of being stuck by a contaminated needle, it would have simply cost much more than I could ever get for the property. The cost of the eviction, and the delay in gaining access to the property was already costing us more than we had counted on so we went another route. We made arrangements with family members of the previous owner for them to remove his personal property. The agreement was that they would pick up the dogs immediately, and remove everything from the house within a week. We would allow them to use the workshop in the back as storage for 30 days. In return they would pay for a 30 cubic yard dumpster and clean up the trash. They were not to just take the things of value and leave the trash. The previous owner, himself, was not to return to the property personally. It seemed like a fair agreement. That wasn’t how it turned out though.

It would take another month for the the Dad and brother of the previous owner to move out everything they wanted to get. The first day, they brought a U-Haul and took the most valuable thing from the house. At the end of the long first day the father told me that they had everything out of the house they wanted except for stuff in the garage. They would come back the next day and finish the garage and then over the next few weeks clean out the workshop. It was more than a week before I heard from them again. Over the next few weeks they made several trips back to the house to pick up the motorcycles and power tools left in the garage and shop. They made no attempt to pick up any more of the trash. To add insult to this situation, about 3 weeks into this ordeal, the house was broken into and some of the things left behind were taken along with many of my tools and supplies. I called the dad to let him know of the break in and let him know the police were investigating. That was the last I heard from any of the family, although the previous owners escapades would continue to haunt this renovation.

The dumpster was filled to the brim the first 2 days of the clean up and it hardly looked like we had made a dent in the mountain for garbage. After we had the dumpster picked up, we began to fill my little 4 x 8 trailer. Over the next several months we would fill that trailer 21 times and take it to the dump. Some of this was construction debris, but for the most part it was trash left in and around the house. During the first week of clean up we discovered the city Nuisance Abatement office was in the process of filing a claim against the previous owner. I contacted the city inspector and told them I was now the owner and would clean up the mess. Since ownership had changed hands, he said he would have to start over with the notices so I would have a little more time to comply. It was close but we got everything cleaned before the final inspection.

It had been more than 2 months since we got deed to the property and we still hadn’t started on the renovation. The legal and clean up cost were also a surprise. Initially we intend to have the property back on the market within 3-4 months. After getting to the point where we could actually begin to plan out the renovation. From what we could determine, we would need to replace the carpeting in the 3 bedrooms, gut and redo the bath, install 7 foundation piers, replace the roof, repair driveway, finish updating the HVAC that had been removed for some reason, rework the kitchen cabinets, and paint the entire house inside and out along with the exterior of the workshop. This was a lot more than we expected, but there were other surprises awaiting us also.

Can’t really tell how bad it is from this photo but the bath will need to be redone

This was the only sign on the exterior of foundation problems. It will take 7 piers to correct

Over the last year or so, we’ve heard countless horror stories of families losing their homes in foreclosure due to unscrupulous lending practices, losing jobs to the poor economy, or catastrophic illness causing financial hardship. This is NOT one of those stories.

The confirmation hearing was set for 3 weeks after the auction. During this time it became apparent that someone was still living in the house. On several drive by’s we noticed cars, motorcycles, and a flatbed trailer come and gone. On one occasion, we noticed a faint light shining through the front window. At this point we weren’t too worried, we assumed the previous owners were in the process of moving out. We did some more research and discovered the owners had divorced within the previous 2 years so we assumed the wife and kids had custody of the house. We began to worry that we would be part of one of those stories where a single mom and her 3 kids were kicked to the street. Once again this is NOT one of those stories, however it is equally as sad.

The confirmation hearing went without a hitch on Tuesday morning. Wednesday afternoon, I went to the Sheriffs Office to pick up the deed just as I did the year before. It turned out that they had made some procedural changes, and I would have to wait a couple of days. We decided to wait until we had the deed before we attempted to enter the property, but we kept a very close watch on the property in the mean time.

I finally got the deed recorded that Thursday and immediately went to the property. I had written up a letter introducing myself and partner to the current resident. I explained that we now owned the property and would be happy to assist them in the transition. The letter requested that whoever was living there call us to let us know how we could help. While placing the letter in the door, a neighbor happened to be leaving her house. I went over and introduce myself and handed her a business card. She informed me that a single man lived in the house. She let me know how unhappy her family was with the previous owner. It would take me another couple of weeks to find out the scope of the neighbors complaints.

On Sunday I received a call from the previous owner. He gave me a hard luck story, which I knew to be untrue, and asked for a few weeks to move out. I told him that I would give him a week, as long as he kept me informed on his progress. Over the next few days it became apparent he was making no attempt to move out so I began to research the eviction process. I decided I would need the assistance of an attorney. I’ll skip the details on the eviction process, but hiring an attorney was definitely the way to go. I had an judgment several weeks later and finally had access to the property. Entering the property for the first time was a complete shock. I leave it with that said and just show a few picks. The picts really don’t give a clue to the enormity of the trash and filth but it is a start.

It’s been almost a year since I completed my last home renovation. Overall I’ve been very happy with the results. It was a lot of work, but I learned a lot and in the end I’ll be able to sell the property for much more than I’ve put into it. It is time to do another. However, this time I decide to bring in some help. My girlfriend, Carri, and I formed a company CDK Pproperties to continue with renovating foreclusres.

The process for finding a property went just about the same as the last. The Sheriff’s sales are posted a month in advance so there is plenty of time to research a property. Once I had a copy of the list, I could do drive by inspections for the next 4 weeks of sales in an afternoon. Once prospective properties were identified, I would look at the recent comparable sales come up with a figure I would bid up to. From that point, it was just a matter of waiting. Waiting for the weekly auction, and then the for the buying opportunity. One big change this go around involved using cell phones to participate in the auction. The Tulsa auctions allow proxies to bid, so it is possible to sit at home or in the office and follow each auction on an assistants cell phone. I could hear everything and give instructions if necessary, but mainly I just listened. This method worked fine, but I happened to attend the auction for the property I ended up with.

Out of the hundreds of listing over a 10 to 12 week period, a mere dozen or so looked promising. Out of those few, about half of them were recalled the morning of the auction. The few that I was able to bid on went far past my bidding target, usually by the mortgage company. However, during one auction a property I had overlooked came up NO/Bid No/Sale, which meant it would come back up again in six weeks or so. I would be ready when it did.

I went the the No Bid property immediately after the action. It looked very promising. It was a 3 bedroom, 2 car garage, brick house in a nice neighborhood in East Tulsa. It was definitely the worst house on the block but it had potential. I could easily see that it needed a new roof, new driveway, paint and massive clean up, but the structure appeared to be in good shape, with the added bonus of a large two story barn shaped out building. I took a few pictures and went back to my office to gather more information.

A property that no one would bid on should have raised some major red flags, but the more data I gathered the better and better it looked. On paper it looked like the deal of the century. The foreclosure appraisal was $75,000, with an opening bid of $50,000. A comparable sale just 4 doors down recently sold for $92,000 and another a half block away was on the market for $102,000. My preliminary cost analysis for what it would take to renovate seemed a bit high but I believed I could do well with this project if I could get it near 52K.

The bidding was uneventful. The mortgage company opened at 50k, I countered with 50,100 and got the property. No one else bid. At this point I would normally leave but there happened to be another property later in the auction that I would have bid on if I was unsuccessful on the first. It was an equally promising opportunity. It was a nice small house in an older but trendy neighborhood. Only one person bid on it and got it for 47k. It is my guess that they would have continued to bid if I had countered so no telling what it would have gone for, but I may have let a very nice prospect slip away from me. I will never know.

Any way, We had our next property barring the chance that the current owner would get his account up to date or some other unforeseen complication

Another fixer upper, but all-in-all a nice starter home for some young couple

Looking past the rubbish I saw great potential for a very nice shop.

Once the place was nearing completion it was time to think about how to sell the place. After sitting down and figuring the total cost of the renovation and recent comparable sales in the are, I had a good idea on how much I would net on the sale. I soon discovered that that short term capital gains on the sale would eat into my profits significantly. It occurred to me that that I would be far better off selling the place I was currently living in. Basically, if you have lived in you main residence for at least 2 of five years, you are able to sell the property and exclude the gains up to $250,000. Of course their is much more to it than that but I definitely qualified for the exclusion. I decided to sell my existing home and move into the one just renovated.

I could start a whole new blog on my experiences with real estate agents, showing homes, home offers, staging home decor, closings and such but I will save it for a different time. I’ll keep it short and just say that it took me right at 3 months to close the deal, but considering the housing mortgage crisis we were in at the time, I did quite well. I sold for less than I had planned and there were a few minor setbacks but overall I’m satisfied with the outcome.

One drawback was that once I closed on the sale, I had to close the line of credit. One of the stipulations on the contract was that I had to live in the property as a primary residence. It is possible that I could have got a release on that term of the loan, but I decided to close it out. It would have been nice to keep the loan active and draw on it as soon as I found a new project , but instead I’ll start over scratch. I’ll most likely incorporate before I start the next.

I’m in the new place full time now. I’ll spend the next 2 years upgrading and finishing the home decor and such. I’ll have a much better idea of what to expect next time. I’m looking forward to the next project, but I’ll take a break for a bit.

The first thing I did was remove the old gas cook top (an uncommonly large 70’s model) and the built in oven. I replaced them both with a professional series gas range and a built in microwave cabinet. This would save me quite a bit of room. I lost the drawers under the oven, but gained several feet of counter top. At the same time I increased the size of the adjacent den/living room by 10-20 square feet. I moved the refrigerator surround over about 2 feet to gain this space in the living room. I had hoped to keep the original walnut stained plywood cabinets doors. I planned to sand and paint them. It probably would have worked out OK but I made so many changes to cabinet layout several of them no longer fit. The decorative routing would not allow me to resize them. I could have tried to duplicate them, but if I was going to all that trouble, I decided to go ahead and redo them all.

Once I decided to replace all of the cabinet doors I also decided to move the dishwasher. Moving it to the other side of the kitchen placed it closer to the sink as well as making it a bit more inconspicuous. I also gained a large drawer in that space so it was worth the effort. I then sanded and painted the face frames and shelves. I got stock sheet vinyl from Lowe’s for the counter top. I was able to get 2 sheets of 4×8 which was way too much material for less than what the right amount would have cost me to special order. I plan on using the excess to cover the under-sink shelves and will have some left over to cover work benches in the garage. The back splash design came directly from a home depot tile display. I chose it because I already had the white tiles left over from a previous bath remodel. All I needed were the colored tiles and the white trim pieces. The entire back splash cost less than $50.00.

The doors went together very quickly. I already had all of the tools needed from a previous kitchen remodel. All I had to buy was the wood. I had hoped to use the glass I saved from the sliding glass doors, to make the top row of doors, but the glass was tempered and could not be cut. I ended up using plywood for all of the doors. I went with poplar for the rails and styles and cabinet grade birch plywood for the panels Normally I would have used rock maple but I thought poplar would be easier to work with. It may have worked out that way, but I will most likely go back to maple the next time. The benefit of the small saving of time sanding the joints was lost on quality. maple machines much nicer than poplar. On the other hand poplar was less expensive so its a 6 of one type deal.

Once the kitchen was to this stage (first of May 2008) I started planning on selling the property. Technically I still had about 5-10% of the work left to do but the place looked completely habitable. In fact it was. Much of the remaining work involved decorating which I wouldn’t even attempt. Up to this point I kept everything rather simple. White walls and woodwork, safe colored tile etc. The kitchen back splash was the only decorating I had attempted and I kept it fairly simple. I would get help from others later who would supply some very interesting decorating ideas.

If I learned one thing since starting this project it that you need to be flexible in dealing with problems and situations as they arise. You need some basic knowledge and a plan but you need to adapt as you go along. I’ll explain more as I bring this adventure to an end in the remaining blog posts. Yes it will eventually end.

Tiling the kitchen went quickly without incident. The tiles were uniform in size and cut easily. I used a good quality thin set (Versabond) to set the tiles and 5/16 inch spacers. I would make a couple of changes later though. I increased the path from the french doors and also added tile to the kick space. Once I had the tile grouted I was ready to lay carpet.

The carpet wasn’t as easy as the tile. It seems counter intuitive that the the carpet would be harder than tile but it was in my case. The first problem came from trying to nail down new tack strip. Most of the nails blew out the surrounding concrete. It didn’t matter what size the nails were small or large or how I hammered them down they all failed. Several internet sites had different ideas on how to do it but none of them worked for me. One idea was to drill and use plastic anchors. I found a better solution though. I drilled pilot holes and then used a slightly larger masonry nail and it worked perfectly every time. I did discover that a hammer-drill is actually much easier on carbide drills than high speed drills are. I went through my fist bit half-way through the first room. After switching to a small hammer drill I was able to complete the installation with just 2 more bits. At first I glued the strips before drilling, but quickly gave up that step. It just wasn’t necessary.

Installing the padding wasn’t any problem. I miscalculated on how much was required but that was easily solved by an extra trip the home center. Laying the carpet had it’s share of surprises though. When I walked into the garage for the first time I was surprised to see several huge rolls of carpet left by the previous owner. Two of the rooms had the same carpet already installed. There were some serious stains on the carpet in the bed rooms but I assumed it was from the kids that had been using the place as their club house. Other than the stains the carpet looked almost new. Not only that but it was a very high quality carpet. I rolled it up and stored it on top of the other rolls in the garage before I started the demolition work. I planned on cleaning it after re-installing it. I assumed the rest of the rolls were of equal quality. Boy was I wrong.

Reinstalling the cut pieces actually went pretty well. I would have to add pieces to do the closets but that was no problem. Once I had the two previously cut pieces laid I began to roll out the carpet that had been stored in the garage for the past few months. It turned out that the carpet was used. I’m guessing it came from some sort of show room because the pieces were enormous. Some of the carpet looked brand new while other parts were heavily worn. The previous owner must have selected a part of the carpet that had little wear for the 2 bedrooms. I still had to carpet one bedroom, the hall and the living room. The bed room wasn’t a problem. I was able to find a piece large enough out of the wear pattern. It was like new. The living room was a little more difficult. I cut out the largest piece I could of good carpet to fit most of the room. I would have to seam a strip on the side but at least it was all nice carpet. Doing it this way didn’t give me a low traffic piece big enough for the hall so I would have to splice a couple of pieces together. Once it was down it looked Ok but I will have to make some changes. I’ve decided to remove the carpet in the living room and re-use it in the hall. It will be plenty big enough to do the hall in one piece. I’ll lay hardwood or bamboo floor in the living room. Beside that a light tan carpet in the living area isn’t a good idea for me. It would be far too difficult to keep clean. The new floor will have to wait until the end though. It looks OK for the moment. I ended up taking a large trailer full of carpet scraps to the dump. I ended up using less than a third of the total carpet. Most of waht went to the landfill was the heavily worn areas though. At least part of it got recycled.

The place was finally beginning to look habitable. Still a lot to do but a lot had been done.

The 70’s weren’t exactly the golden era of home building. From aluminum wiring to faux woodgrain vinyl on particle board woodwork to popcorn ceilings and swirling gold glitter faux marble, this place screamed 70’s. Except for some of the aluminum wiring all of that would soon be gone from this emerging new house. Just to emphasize the point, I offered some of the removed materials (interior doors, vanity top) that were still in good shape to the Habitat for Humanity Restore. All were refused except for the medicine cabinet and a set of drawer pulls. Everything else went to the landfill. I was afraid the landfill might even reject the stuff, but they took it all anyway.

I bought several contractor bundles of pre-primed baseboard and casement from Home Depot. It was very reasonably priced I thought. It is some of the softest wood I’ve ever come across. I’m not sure how well it will hold up over time, but it will look good for a while at least.

I began trimming the windows first. All of the windows were replaced and needed to be trimmed out. The original windows were trimmed with sheet rock. I don’t mind the way it looks, but I dont’ believe sheet rock is durable enough for window surrounds. I would trim them in plywood and wood molding. The fastest way for me to do it was to build the shells off the window and install as a single unit. It is much easier to get tight and square joints this way, or at least for me it is. After they are built it is a simple matter of sliding them in and shimming the sides and finish nailing the casement to the wall. There were 2 shells that I had to score the sheet rock and trim a bit to make fit, but it worked fine.

The windows trimmed out pretty quickly. The doors would take much longer. I replaced all of the interior doors with pre-hung 6 panel molded doors. 20 years from now, these may turn out to be the equivalent of the vinyl coated doors I replaced, but any way you look it they look much nicer than what was up before. I put together the mitered pieces of the casing and then tacked the assembled pieces to the jambs and walls. I trimmed the closet openings the same way. This helped keep the mitered corners good and tight and square. It worked well for me at least.

Finally it was time fro the baseboards. I cheated here a bit. I recycled the vinyl coated simulated wood grain pieces in the closets. I painted them but I know good and well that paint will not stick. Who looks in the closets that closely anyway, I told myself. I replaced the rest of the baseboards though. The first couple of coped inside corners weren’t the best you will see, but with a little caulk to fill the gap and no one will ever know. By the time I got to the last coped corner it fit very snugly without the need for any caulk.

I was finally ready for paint. Painting is not my favorite thing to do, but it was nice to begin to see a finished product. It was on to the floor next. I rather enjoy laying tile so I was looking forward to the next projects

For the most part the bath and entry were new construction as far as sheet rock goes. The real fun would start with the patching. I don’t think there was a wall in the entire place that didn’t need at least one patch. Not only were there a lot of patches to be done, there were countless previous patches that didn’t exactly blend in with their surroundings.

The ceiling had the typical 70’s popcorn texture. That was the first to go. Fortunately it’s a snap to remove. I used a garden sprayer to wet the popcorn and it slid right off the ceiling with a 12 inch taping knife. The next time I will go ahead and round off the knife corners. There were a few gouges that could have been avoided. The entire ceiling took less than 2 hours to clean. I just wish it went back up as easy.

The walls had a thick texture knockdown finish. I don’t like the look but it is there to stay. The real problem was that any place that was patched in thee last 25 years showed. Each patch had it’s own version of the knockdown texture. My solution was to make all of the repairs and then re-texture the entire house. I started with the ceiling. I knew I didn’t want to put the popcorn stuff back up but on the other hand I didn’t want to spend the time to completely rework the ceiling. I compromised by putting a thin knockdown (basically an orange peel) texture. I thinned regular joint compound to a consistency of thick soup and sprayed it on with a hopper sprayer. I tried several tools to knockdown the spray , but what I finally settled upon was a spray shield. It was a 2 x 3 piece of flexible plastic on a 2 foot wood pole. After letting the texture set on the ceiling for 5-15 minutes I would wipe the face of the shield over the semi-wet mud. I would make one short sweep and wipe off the excess and take another swipe. I used the same technique on the walls but varied the consistency of the mud. On new sheet rock or patches I used a heavier consistency to try and make it match the surroundings. I then went over the entire house with a thinner consistency. It really helped hide all of the patches. I basically had a top coat of the same texture throughout the house. I’m not going to tell you you can’t find the patches if you really tty, but looking over the wall casually you can’t tell new sheet rock and patches from the old.

I ended up spraying six gallon buckets of thinned mud on the walls. I finished them off with a light sanding and a coat of PDA primer. The top coat of paint would have to wait until all of the trim was up. Sheet rocking is hard messy work. Toting hoppers of mud isn’t much fun either. The worst was over. It was time for trim carpentry. I always enjoy that part of a renovation.