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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

AAH!

The kitchen project has been much more time consuming than and difficult than I thought. My SO works nights and I work days, so it has been difficult to really move forward like we wanted to. It is slowly coming together, and its going to have to because we are moving in....GULP......NEXT FRIDAY!  We are nervous about these time constraints and we thought we had more time (isn't that always the case?).

So far, we have replaced two more cabinets. Both we didn't realize until later that one had a gaping hole in the middle, and the other had so many drill holes underneath, that the new range hood would NEVER attach correctly.

Remember the big, gaping holes behind the backsplashes?

The hole in the wall led to nowhere, so it couldn't successfully be patched if I wanted to hang tile to the wall. Luckily, there were studs present and we were able to improvise.

We bought a small sheet of drywall ($4.50), drywall joint tape ($6), and a big tub of spackle ($6) My SO had to cut out the plaster to form a more solid shape for the drywall to fit in. He did this and then used the tape measure and box cutter to cut out the right size from the dry wall.


He then fit the new piece of drywall into the hole and screwed it to the stud. He put the drywall joint tape at the joints and then spackled it.




After this, he used a wet sanding sponge and lightly sanded it to even it out and make it flush with the rest of the wall. Now, the big gaping holes are gone!

If you have any questions on how we did this, please let me know.

Friday, November 2, 2012

And the winner is...

...the Kitchen! 


This is before. It is the only picture I really got before my SO began ripping everything apart.

This is a large project and it would not have been my first, but my significant other (SO) decided this without thoughts. We went over to clean and as he was cleaning the kitchen, he began tearing stuff apart. He ripped up the floor, took out an old, rotted cabinet and ripped the backsplash off the wall.

So.... it looks like we don't have a choice. This is where we will begin. UGH!

I am going to:

1.  Replace two cabinets ($$) and then use Rustoleum's Cabinet Transformations ($) on all cabinets. Also replace the knobs and drawer pulls.

2. Replace flooring with vinyl plank flooring ($)

3. Patch up walls, paint, and do the new backsplash (I am not sure what direction I am headed in here).

4. Although I wanted NEW countertops, it is not in our budget, so I am going to paint them to look like granite, based on something I found on Pinterest ($).

Where my SO pulled off the backsplashes.

The ripped apart floor.

Close up of the ripped off backsplashes.



The cabinet under the sink is no longer there. It was dryrotted and smelled and could not be salvaged.

I am a little nervous about all this, probably considering that I am putting all resources towards the kitchen rather than the bathrooms like I had wanted.


Do I have my work cut out for me or what?!


Wednesday, October 24, 2012

What to do first?

I would like more than anything to do everything I want to do all at once. I know this is unrealistic and I must stick to the areas that I cannot stand first.

I hate the kitchens and bathrooms the most in my new house.

The Kitchen
The kitchen is tiny. It is 9x7 and every bit ugly. The guy who owned the house before me tried to DIY and failed miserably.  The cabinets are ok, but they need to be painted.   Only the cabinets not under the sink are ok, and need to be painted. The other two cabinets need to be replaced. Apparently, contractor of the year (old owner) installed a garbage disposal incorrectly and caused a leak that rotted out the bottom of these cabinets.  The countertops look like laminate on a first pass, but they are some cheap alternative. If you put pressure on them, it begins to bow. The floors are slashed up from what looks like moving heavy appliances, and the backsplash is....I don't know what to call it.

For this to be up to standards, I need to:

-Replace floor with vinyl plank flooring
-Paint appliances black
-Paint cabinets
-Replace countertops and extend piece of countertop to create a place to eat.
-Add new backsplash
-Remove popcorn ceiling
-Walls Painted

Half Bathroom
The half bath isn't bad. The floors, light fixture, and mirror can stay. The vanity in the half bath takes up most of the room. It also has a weird shaped wall that the old owner attempted to shape the vanity to using molding and backsplash. It looks pretty bad. The toilet is fine, but mismatched. Part of it is a gray color and the seat is white. 

It does need:
-Pedestal sink
-New toilet
-Walls painted
-Remove popcorn ceiling

Guest Bathroom
This one is manageable. I won't use this bathroom regularly, but it just isn't my style. The one plus is that this is the only room without popcorn ceiling!
Everything must go in this one. Sorry old owner!

It needs:
-Re tiling in bathtub area
-Vinyl plank flooring
-New Vanity with sink
-Walls Painted
-New toilet

Master Bathroom
This is going to be the one that probably costs the most. This will be my primary bathroom. Weird thing with this bathroom, the toilet and shower stall are in one room, and then my sink and closet are in another across from each other and carpeted. Really weird and a lot of work.

It needs:
-Vinyl plank flooring 
-Walls painted
-New vanity with VESSEL sink (I will not compromise with this!)
-New toilet
-New mirror
-Backsplash



I will take pictures soon! What do you think I should work on first?



So I bought a house...

...and it has been the WORST experience I have EVER had!

You know that nightmare that you keep trying to get somewhere, but you never get there. The one where you are trying so hard to be somewhere on time, or go through a certain door, but you never get there? It have been my life since the end of July and it has finally ended, knock on wood.

We tried to be informed buyers that went by the book but it ended up being a mess.

We went to our bank and prequalified for a mortgage. We were then referred to a mortgage guy who referred us to a real estate agent. I will stop right here and say NEVER let someone you barely know refer you. I will gladly admit this is the one mistep that sent this whole home buying process haywire.

The original mortgage guy was horrible. I live in Florida and wanted to take advantage of the many homebuyer programs available to me. He discouraged this every time a mentioned it. I finally told him that I will be taking advantage of one of these programs and that was it. That is when he admitted that he wasn't certified to do mortgage dealings with this and was very dramatic saying he would need to pass me off to someone certified. I told him to go ahead and do this and that's when he told me he would be getting certified  After a home inspection showed a 30-year-old A/C unit needed replaced, I decided to go with a 203k Rehab mortgage and had to be passed to a different mortgage guy. This was the BEST thing that could have happened in this transaction. My new mortgage guy was amazing. He kept me informed and explained everything throughout the whole transaction. When I hit panic mode and called him, he would call me back quickly, even on weekends. He even showed up at my closing to answer questions I had as I signed a forest of paperwork.

I bought a bank-owned townhouse. The only thing wrong was the A/C. Per our contract, the bank chose the title company. Everything was going very smoothly until September. My home was appraised and in the appraisal pictures, a leak complete with broken ceiling were shown. I immediately called the real estate agent, actually emailed her and then texted her because she NEVER answered the phone. I told her I wanted that fixed by the bank and I wasn't doing it. The bank initially said no and I said deal breaker. The bank took an additional 13 days to decided whether or not they would pay for this repair (I was supposed to close on Sept. 21). The week before rolls around and the bank decided to fix it. So, we are supposed to close when we hear from the title company that they haven't even down a title lien search. They really dropped the ball here.  My closing was extended again and 2 days before, the title company said that they hadn't done a survey. Extended again. I finally closed on October 10. The day after I closed, they called me and said I had to sign an additional paper and they hadn't received their money, that I sent BEFORE signing any papers, per their SHADY request!

Bank
I went to the bank reluctantly to wire funds before signing papers and did the wire. The money was out of my account and the next day it was back in my account, after I checked my account when getting a text from my real estate agent that nothing was funded. I had a receipt and everything and had to leave work to clear things up. At the bank they had no record of the wire, nothing cam eup.  AMAZING! it just disappeared into thin air. I redid the wire, HOPEFULLY IT TOOK THIS TIME and they won't take double the money out of my account when they magically find the old wire.

The real estate agent
She didn't like to talk on the phone and took forever to answer emails. She texted me  a lot, very professional i know. This all wasn't a big deal until the ball was beginning to really be dropped. She didn't advocate for me like real estate agents are supposed to . I should have know when she gave me the listings of the houses we would go and see. I looked over five houses, two of which were out of my price range, and another with HOA fees I was unwilling to pay. I had to tell her to revise her list. When I needed to get A/C estimates, she decided to just run to the house and unlock the door and leave. She said she had an insurance broker who would get me a great rate and would be contacting me. This never happened.
In Florida, you need to have a wind mitigation inspection for a discount in insurance. This one takes all. I asked her when she was available so she could be there as I had to work. She said whatever was good for me. I made the appointment for 8 am and told her. She said this was fine. I told my fiance to go to just be sure she would show up. 8:30 rolls around and she is still not there. He goes up to the door just to check it out and finds a broken lock box. Keys just out and open for anyone who wants in. He called her several times without any answer. Later she texted me asking if I want to buy home warranty insurance. This is how the remainder of the transaction went. The day before closing, I had my final walk through. She said that I would need to transfer water and electric right away. I asked her who the water company was, since I pay my water bill through my apartment. She said she would find out. At closing, she had no idea and hadn't even looked.

At this moment, if someone asked my opinion on home-buying, I would say "NO, DON'T DO IT". It has been two weeks since I closed on the house and I am only beginning to be able to go to my house without feeling livid and wanting to leave right away. It is a good thing my lease isn't up until November 30 because I am not into my house right now. I feel like I have been financially raped ( I know its a strong, offensive word, but it is the best I can come up with at the moment.) with all the extra monies I have had to pay and the kind of information I have had to hand over via email to numerous complete strangers from the bank. They even required a copy of my degree, and I still have no clue why.

Enough about the home-buying process... I am about to embark on a long DIY journey on my stupid house.  

Also, I know I am not the only one who has gone through this (I can't be). Please comment with your home-buying horror stories. I would love to hear them!