Home Improvement & Remodeling – Page 5

August 12, 2006

Aluminum Wallpaper

After seeing this done on Jonathan Wong’s site, I knew it was something I had to try. The thing dislike the most about this house is the rough wall texture. Not only because it’s ugly but because it holds all the dirt grime of the years. This was a good way to cover at least one wall without scraping and paint.

I used aluminum flashing that was 20 inches wide, a 50 foot roll cost about $30 at Home Depot. I didn’t quite have enough with the first roll and had to buy another. Overall the project went quickly and easily, but I had a few issues. I used liquid nails to glue the panels on the wall but I had an issue with the panels slowing sliding down after I though they were stuck on. About half way though I starting used scotch tape to hold them in place temporarily. There’s also a few dents where the glue and wall touch.

The next step is to move this along the wall where the front door is. I want to make the door invisible from the wall, but I don’t intend to do the whole wall.

July 24, 2006

Sprinkler Project Update

Remember that sprinkler project I took a while back, back in March as a matter of fact. I had planned to only take a few weeks to complete it. Here it is 4 months later and it’s still not done.

I did make some progress. I have the valve box installed, vaves installed and one of the two lines hooked up. All I need to do is install the 2nd line and leak test and I can burry everything.

OK, so I admit that general laziness has slowed the project. I’m also going to blame the weather. We’ve had so much rain that the 24 inch trench has filled up with water to the top. There hasn’t been that much time in between rains to let the ground dry up, and I don’t want be playing in the mud. Depending on how the weather cooperates I plan to make this a priority again.

April 30, 2006

Poor Quality Roofing Jobs

This is what a poor quality roofing job gets you, shingles that literally blow off the roof. In this case it appears that the roofer may have put one nail in the shingles then stapled the rest of it. Yes, freaking staples!

I’ve blogged about it before, New Mexico gets very windy in the spring and fall. This spring we we had winds up to 50 MPH and the windy season seems, to me at least, have lasted longer than normal. The winds came from the west and this side of the roof faces west. Along with the poor attachment of the shingles leads the the perfect recipe for this problem. The previous owners must have had this problem because they had nailed many of the shingles on this side of the roof down. Yet they made the problem worse by nailing through the visible part of the shingle, which is bad because they essentially broke through the seal of the shingle, leaving a place for water to leak through. All those nail heads had to be covered with tar.

Repairing these missing shingles was pretty easy. I collected all the blown off shingles from around the property rather than buying new ones. I carefully slid the shingles under neath the tiles above it, where it was missing, and put it back in place where it matches the position of the other shingles. I then lifted the tile above it up enough so I could put some nails in, 4 nails per shingle. The nails are under the shingles where they belong and safe from the elements. Hopefully the tar on the shingles melts and holds the whole mess together, or at least thats how its suppose to work.

April 27, 2006

Remodeling Continues

An attempt this weekend to repair my leaking bathroom resulted in new stuff. First we tried to fix the leaking sink, only to find it so old and corroded that it was better to replace it. I had planned to replace it at some point and I really didn’t like the double-ugly cabinet. That’s how I got the pedestal sink along with the new faucet.

Time to tackle the toilet, but pretty much the same thing. Old, corroded and ugly. Initally I was worried the new 1.6 gallon toilet would not flush as well as the old 5 gallon, but I’m happy to report that it is doing a fine job. I also upgraded to a nice padded seat.

I also removed the old, ugly, cheap-ass cabinet that was hanging above the toilet. I replaced the square mirror with this combo round mirror and medicine cabinet. I don’t care for the way it sticks out of the wall but i am happy with the look. Total trips to Home Depot for the project: 4.

March 26, 2006

Ditch Digging

Spring appears to be here, with summer just around the corner. Time to get the backyard ready and get grass growing. Thankfully the previous owners had grass growing and working sprinklers. What I need is a modular and scalable sprinkler system, since I plan have more than one source of water and many more things to water. I will need to dig up the current system and redo the primary control system.

The problem with New Mexico soil is it’s a layer of sand on a layer of clay. When thats been covered up with rock and plastic for many years, with no water to soften it up, you end up trying to dig through cement. The best method for digging is to dig a small hole, fill it with water, let it soak, then dig a little more out. Plus the previous owners surrounded the control valves with cement, making it even harder to get in there.

Today I managed to dig about 30 inches where the control valves are. Why they hell they are that deep I have no idea. In New Mexico you only need about 18 inches deep for the valves. It’s just insane and I’m going to have to remove some of the concrete to get to to the valves. Something I was hoping to avoid.

I also forgot to mention the other valve. Once valve controls the sprinklers and the other controls… something else. I have no idea. It goes out to the yard but there’s no other obvious sprinkler heads. All I know is it’s busted and was making a nice little spring in the yard. I managed to dig that pipe up to find a huge crack. Once I replace it I should be able to tell where it ends up.

December 27, 2005

Kitchen Stage One Complete

It’s been a few months since I moved in and started working on the kitchen remodel so I’m glad to report that Stage 1 is complete. Stage 1 is what you see here, with half of the upper cabinets installed including the appliances. Every bit of it built by me. Stage 2 will complete the kitchen with the rest of the cabinets, paint and tiling.

When I first made the offer on the house I wasn’t initially planning to remodel the kitchen. But after spending a few hours in it, it was clear that I was not going to be happy with the wear and tear that had been put on it for 20+ years. I used Home Depot’s design service to do the design, which turned out to be a good deal. It’s costs $100 for them to come out and do the measurements and plug everything into the computer. They give $100 off materials if you buy from them.

When choosing the materials for the cabinets I looked at both the lowest cost and highest cost cabinets. I’m pretty disappointed at the amount of particle board used in the construction of both version. The lowest cost is totally made of particle board except for the doors and are complete do-it-yourself. Where as the more expensive ones are about 50% particle board and are installed by someone else. I went with Mills Pride cabinets that Home Depot keeps on stock because of their much lower costs, significant in some cases. Despite the fact that they are made of particle board they are of pretty good quality and very easy to assemble. Well worth it for the money I saved. I would say it cost around $1000 for this section of cabinets (the maple doors were as much as the cost of the cabinet boxes, that’s the real expense).

Stage 2 will involve taking down the wall on the right and putting in a cabinets along the bottom (this is where the refrigerator originally was). This will open it up to the living room more. I’ve never pulled down a wall before (just as I never did any of this kitchen work before). I will also probably pull out the original tile back spash and put different tile up. I will finish it up with paint, trim and what ever else will be needed. I figure it will cost about $2000 to finish it up (doing it all myself of course) but don’t know when I will start it. In the mean time check out my Flickr photo set showing the stages of the remodel.

November 7, 2005

Stuck To A Home Depot Toliet

Home Depot was sued by a shopper from a Colorado store who claims he got stuck to a restroom toilet seat because a prankster had smeared it with glue.

The man is suing Home Depot because they ignored his calls for help. Eventually they called the paramedics and they had to haul him out with the seat stuck to his ass.

I try to avoid public restrooms in places like this, but when you gotta go you gotta go. I pretty carefully inspect the area before I sit down and put plenty of paper between me and the seat. I can’t imagine that I would have not seen glue like this.

October 19, 2005

Buying A House The Not-So-Easy Way

On September 29th I finally closed on my house, on September 30th I took possession. Since then I have been spewing cash from my savings getting the place ready to move in. My apartment lease is up at the end of the month, so there’s not much time left. For those considering a foreclosed house, I have some advice for you.

Closing on a foreclosed house is nothing like closing on a normally private owned home. Keep in mind that a corporation owns it. If you work for a big company, think about what it would be like if they were selling a house. There’s a bureaucracy involved. They have their legal requirements to ensure all the “i”s are dotted and “t”s are crossed. Not to mention that the individuals at the company have no personal interest to ensure that the process is speedy.

Next you add on items such as liens and other legal matters that have to be cleared up before the owning bank can sell it. In my case, there were liens that took longer than they probably should have to clear up. The State of New Mexico had s legal interest in the property so official clearance from the state had to be issued saying they weren’t going to take possession of the property after the liens were paid. In this case, the state would only offer those documents via the US postal service, no fedex, no couriers.

The closing officer said my closing went pretty well compared to most. Sometimes liens can be near impossible to clear up, such as those from the federal government. Can you imagine what it takes to get a lien removed from the DEA? The closing officer also said my paperwork wasn’t so bad, he had a guy in the day before with a literal foot high of paperwork to sign.

Take this advice if your looking for a foreclosed house.

Be prepared to wait, wait and wait some more.
Be prepared to be disappointed. I looked at several houses, a few that were foreclosed on before this one. In one case the previous deal had fallen through and the house was back on the market. We didn’t understand the problem at first but now I can see how these things can not work out. Most of the hold ups on my house were on the owning banks side. Yet they had the nerve to say that if it wasn’t funded by September 30th they were going to call the whole thing off. I had the approved loan, I was ready the bank needed to get their act together.
Get a real estate agent. There’s a ton of issues with this sort of house and the un-savvy can get very overwhelmed quickly. It’s not going to cost you anything.
Find a agent that will work with you. Some agents wont take the time and effort to deal with all the various issues especially considering how long it can take to close. I have to give mad props (as the kids say) to Paul Taylor. He was awesome though all this and took care of everything for me. I didn’t have to deal with the idiocy of the sellers at all.

September 5, 2005

Unexpected Benefits

This house was listed with the clause that the seller would “clean up debris and weeds”. There was quite a bit of weeds and some “debris” but it wasn’t so bad. When I made my offer I said I would would clean up the weeds and crap left behind. They accepted my offer and the rest is history.

On the final contract, they put back in that the Seller would clean up the weeds and debris. WTF? According to the seller’s agent, it was “already scheduled”. OK, whatever. Last week the people they contracted to clean up the place, and oh boy did they do a terrific job. Some of the debris had value to me, but the clean up costs vs the costs of the items more than likely even out. Check out these before and after pics.

Front of the house, not a lot of weeds here, but it was nice to have it cleaned up. Makes a difference in the look of the place from the road.

The partially finished storage shed. I think there was some interesting things in here I would have liked to have had. There was also a big wood pile next to it which was taken.

This is the back yard, showing the back 1/4 acre that hasn’t been devleoped. I didn’t expect them to clean up these weeds.

The vegetable garden. Again, will be a lot easier to get stuff growing here too.

The once grassy area in the back yard (sprinkler system is present). It will be a lot easier to get grass in now.

August 27, 2005

The House Hunting Process: Waiting For Closing

The house will be mine. I’ve signed all the mortgage papers, I’ve signed all the contracts, the inspections are done. I’m just waiting for closing. The official closing date is September 19th, but I cannot imagine why it would take that long.

The place needs work, I knew this before making the offer and the inspection revealed the details. Nothing is so bad that will stop me from moving in. I will be doing some work before I actually move.

You can view pictures of the house on a flickr set.