Wanda to the Rescue!

My sister came to help take down the drywall. She stayed for four days and man this woman is a dynamo! She removed drywall, removed paneling, pulled weeds (while talking on her cell phone), and cleaned. She does not ever stop. I was sad to see her go, but also relieved. When she is around I feel guilty taking a break (just kidding, Wanda, you know I love your visits - in fact, come again soon - PLEASE).

Wanda standing still for one second

Matt was also a big help this week. He took down paneling/drywall/insulation, helped to remove a partial wall in the dining room and, during his free time, created a complete house floorplan on the computer, using an old home improvement program we had. He had to measure each room and it was a lot of work! Mike had also given him the disgusting task of going under the house to clean up dog poop. When the house was inspected, we were told that there were traces of animals, but we didn't realize what those "traces" were until the electricians started working down there. According to the neighbors, the previous owner had five dogs and they apparently had made the crawl space their personal restroom. So Matt suited up in his disposable hazmat gear (he became HAZ-MATT) and raked it out.

Matt working on the walls

Haz-Matt is on poop duty

The electrician team (Craig, Dennis, and Dave) came on Monday and did a more detailed analysis of the work that needed to be done. While they were there, they gave us a lot of helpful advice on all the work that needed to be done on the house (very scary!) and helped us take down the half wall between the kitchen and family room. They came back on Wednesday and started pulling wires and even helped us take down some of the paneling and siding (guess we weren't moving fast enough for them). Craig brought his adorable puppy, Luke, to play with Zena while they worked.

The guys helping out

Craig's cute puppy

It took just a few days to fill up our first dumpster. We called for them to pick it up and bring a new one, hoping the second one would last longer, but it was almost full by the end of the week. It may take us a few more of these before the job is done.

First dumpster full

New dumpster arrives

Second dumpster almost full by Friday

Wanda went down to the valley on Thursday and brought my niece Brea and stepdad up for the day. Brea is a wonderful interior decorator and I had asked her to come up and help us design the kitchen. Matt and I were having trouble coming to agreement on the layout. Even though this is MY house and MY kitchen, for some reason Matt feels he has a say in where things should go! Actually I do appreciate his input - he is the person who brings me back to reality when I get too creative. Luckily, my niece, being a professional, was able to mediate a compromise that both Matt and I liked.

Laurie's working copy of kitchen floor plan

I spent quite a bit of time not only doing demolition work with Wanda and Matt, but also working with the electricians to determine where switches, outlets, lighting, etc. would be placed throughout the house. The light switch on the back wall of the dining area was originally on top of the window because there was not enough space to put it between the window and door. In order to move the light switch to a better place, we decided to move the window over which meant we had to put in a new smaller window which meant that the wall had to be reframed. Luckily the electrician is also a skilled carpenter and was able to do the framing for us. Matt and I went to Home Depot and bought a new window for Mike to install over the weekend.

Light switch above window

Framed for smaller window

Stats: 4 Home Depot trips; 2 Walmart trips; 1 Ace trip
Remodeling expense 7/26-7/30: $1,900
Remodeling expense to date: $2,508

Now it Begins!

The house closed July 22nd.  It was supposed to close on the 21st and Matt and I had planned on going up on the 22nd to meet with the handyman (Bob) so we were getting a little nervous when the funding took longer than expected.  We had to delay our trip a few hours and left just after we got the call around 1pm, though this caused us to reschedule our meeting with Bob to Friday.  This actually turned out to be a good thing as Mike was able to be there as well.  Bob was a Godsend! I found him because he put a flyer on the door and, when I took my dad and sister to see the house, the realtor handed me the flyer as a joke asking me if I thought it might come in handy.  I saved it and I'm sure glad I did.  Bob introduced us to an electrician he works with (Craig) who is not licensed, but who will hopefully be able to do the rewiring for a lot less than the $10,000 to $14,000 quoted by the electrician who was recommended by our realtor.

The first thing that Matt and I did when we got up there on Thursday was join the Payson Athletic Club.  Because we would be doing major renovation, we were turning off the electricity which meant no hot water.  Payson is definitely cooler than the valley, but remodeling in a house with no a/c in July... we were not going to be going without showers for long!

Friday morning Matt and I went to Home Depot and picked up new locks and he spent the rest of the day installing them, plus put a new handle/lock on the bathroom pocket door.  This was the 1st time Matt had ever done this and he did such a good job! Very proud of my young man!

Matt installing pocket door hardware

Mike came up Friday afternoon and we got to work pulling out all the carpet, including the carpeted front deck that had a big oil stain on it.  We wore masks and gloves because we weren't sure what we'd find.

Laurie geared up for HazMat

We couldn't believe the amount of dirt that was under the carpet.  My sister said that is always the case.  Even when you vacuum regularly, have your carpets cleaned twice a year and replace the carpet every 5 years, the dirt just filters through and stays there.  I have decided I will NEVER have carpet in a house again after seeing what is lurking beneath it!  We also found old linoleum tiles under the carpet where the original kitchen was located, in the laundry closet and in the front bedroom.  I started trying to pull this up.  It is going to be a pain because it comes up in tiny pieces and leaves a sticky residue on the subfloor.

Dirt under hallway carpet

Carpet dirt in a pile

Peel and stick tile under bedroom carpet

Mike and Matt took out the woodstove hearth.  The woodstove wasn't included with the house so we either needed to get a new one or take out the hearth. I liked the rock wall, but some of the rocks were cracked and it was located in the center of the family room which would have made it difficult to arrange the room around.  We hope to put a woodstove or fireplace in the corner of the family room as a future project.

Chipping away the stones

Then Mike and Matt took out all the kitchen cabinets. I had planned on repainting them, hoping they'd last for a few years until I had a chance to build new cabinets.  However, they weren't salvageable, so it looks like we'll be without a kitchen for awhile.  We decided that the previous owners couldn't find the wall studs when they hung the cabinets because they used 5 times the required number of screws!  After seeing how bad the installation was, I'm glad we're not going to try to reuse them - wouldn't like them falling off the wall with all my dishes inside them.  We decided to replace the oven and dishwasher becuase they were a little on the scary side.  We bought a little dorm fridge and microwave and brought up our propane grill, George Foreman grill and camp sink to get us through until our kitchen can be completed. 

Wall cabinets removed

The biggest chore was removing the tile countertops in order to get the cabinets apart.  

This time chipping away the tile

Next up was taking down the old evap cooler.  We weren't sure if it worked, but it was pretty rusty and extremely ugly so it had to go!

Evap cooler seen on side of the house

The last thing Mike did before he returned home on Sunday was start taking down the drywall.  He just wanted to see how hard it would be.  To our surprise (dismay) we discovered that there was very old paneling under the drywall which means that we now have to take down two layers of wall instead of one.  Oh well, it is only time, right?

A great surprise found under the drywall

For those who might find it interesting, we thought we would include certain important statistics such as: the number of trips we made to any of the "big" stores in Payson and how much we are spending on this little adventure.

Stats:  7 Home Depot trips; 4 Walmart trips; 1 Ace trip
Remodeling expense 7/21-7/25: $608

Closing Day!

At 11am this morning we met at the title company to sign the paperwork to take ownership of the Payson house.  If all goes well, it should be finalized by Wednesday, July 21, and we will be up at the house by Friday to start the whole rebuild process.

Electrical Mess

Since the biggest issue found in the inspection had to do with the house wiring, we decided it would be a good idea to get a quote on what the cost would be to have it fixed and brought up to code, before our 10-day inspection period ended.  Our original plan was to do most of the work on the house ourselves, but Mike felt that re-wiring the house and the electrical panel was a little out of his league (though my dad said we could easily do it).  Our realtor recommended a licensed electrician and we were able to get him to do a more detailed investigation.  He confirmed what the inspector had found and said it would cost anywhere from $10,000 to $14,000 to bring it up to code.  This was just for the wiring that currently existed.  Any new circuits or changes would be extra.  For the price we paid for the house and the values in the neighborhood, we decided this was within our limits to spend on the house.  We also discussed the possibility of removing the drywall from the walls to make it easier to remove the old wiring so that it would not have to be "fished" through the walls.  The electrician thought this would be a good idea and could reduce the cost as well as give us more flexibility in adding circuits, esp. in the kitchen.

Due to the estimate on the electrical, we decided to ask the bank owner for $3,500 towards our closing costs to compensate for this extra work.  We fully understood it was a foreclosure and that there would be problems, but the electrical issues were going to be a major expense.  We again asked God to use this opportunity to close the door if we were not supposed to buy this house so, when the bank agreed to our request, we were cleared for closing!