8. A Schedule Begins

I had planned to begin this project with the exterior of the house, in light of the grant money that I thought was available.  Now that has changed, and here's the new TO DO list:  I'll be concentrating more on the inside once these first few things are done.

1.  Call to schedule surveyor to do survey
2.  Finalize Jake's inspections and send to Allstate
3.  Call ADT (for monitored security system) to meet at house on day of closing
4.  Complete permit for removal of front door
5.  Complete permit for fence
6.  Install fence
7.  Install (4) motion sensor security lights
8.  Build door to basement
9.  Clean out basement
10.  List for Rob (my builder friend):
    Front doors
    Side (coffin) door
    Kitchen walls
    Back porch

It's a simple list because I will be describing the process in detail for you as the work gets going.  I've already called the surveyor and they will have a survey for me by next week.  I was happy to hear it would only cost $350 because I paid $600 for the last survey on my house.  A survey is always required by the lending institution if you are applying for a mortgage.  Since this is a cash deal I won't need it for closing, but it's important for a couple of reasons.  Number one, so I know what my property's boundaries are, and the location of any easements that may affect how I use the place.  An easement is an area that is reserved for something like power lines or some other official business, and you can't obstruct it in any way.  Number two, a survey is required when you apply for permits, and I will need permits right off the bat for the front door replacement and the fence.

I did an initial drawing of where I want the fence, you can see it in this photo.   I printed out a copy of the outline of the house from the County Property Appraiser's website.  The bottom is the front of the house, the top is the rear, where you would drive in to park a vehicle.  The orange line around the left side is where I want 6' stockade fence (there is chain link already between the properties, so I will tie into that to cut expenses.  On the right you can see a small fence with a gate - that may be a 4' fence.  The sides of the house need to be closed off to foot traffic - it seems to be a popular cut through since it's been unoccupied.  The area enclosed by the stockade fence will have access from the driveway, as well as from the side door and back porch.  This is where the dogs can be let out without supervision.

Of course I will be looking for used stockade fencing.  The 8' panels are around $35 each, and it would cost me about $600 in materials to do what I want to do if I buy it new.  I have seen used fencing, that people remove for a variety of reasons, that's not in bad shape - and I'm planning to paint it white which will cover a multitude of flaws.

The front yard already has a picket fence - needs a little work, but cute anyway. 

Item number 10 - the list for Rob, is a short list for my builder friend (it's OK - Rob the Builder - he gets that all the time)  He is a general contractor, and I met him in 2008 when he was referred by another friend to do a screened back porch and new roof on my house.  He did such an amazing job - and was one of those people I could trust to get the job right.   I couldn't imagine using anyone else for this project.  He helped me during the process of bidding on this house - to know what the costs would be and help me decide how much I could pay for it.  I originally thought to contract all the repair work out to him, but when we realized the price of the house was going up, we came up with an alternative plan to save me some bucks, which I really appreciated.  He offered his services (along with his very talented brother) at a weekly rate for just those jobs that really required a skilled hand.  I can do a lot of carpentry, but when it comes to hanging doors and leveling second stories, and things of that nature, I just don't have enough experience and it would take me for EVER to get it right.  In these cases it pays to bring in the big guns.

Rob is going to do the repair work on the two doors that I mentioned in my previous post.  This is the other door, also entering the house from the porch, that I want to close up.  This will free up wall space in the living room, and it just makes sense.  In order to do that, Rob will need X amount of lineal feet of this lap siding and it needs to match exactly, so it doesn't look like there used to be a door there.  Well I just happened to meet a guy at a big sale on Saturday that has a company that makes doors and millwork.  We discussed this siding, and he offered a solution.  He has the machines to mill the lumber, and if I get a piece of the siding for him, he will make a blade for the machine that will cut the wood to exactly match the siding on the house.  The blade costs $150 but the siding itself isn't that expensive.  I'll probably need more siding when I proceed to doing the rest of the house exterior anyway!

I've located some more stuff I already had that will be going to Grandview:

(4) wrought iron patio chairs                 needle nose pliers
carpenter's square                                  measuring tape
hose end sprayer                                     spade shovel
flat shovel                                                 trowels/hand rake

Balance forward:  $461

Purchased today at St. Vincent's Thrift Store:
$10  round mirror
$1   wood-handled carving set

From Home Depot:
$3  (2) drawer pulls
$5  (4) casters (all for the dresser)
Remainder:  $442

7. Change of Plans

Well.... today didn't turn out exactly like I thought it would, but I can't complain.  I headed out this morning all ready to snatch up $15,000 in grant money that the city was offering for "renovation and rehabilitation of historic buildings, based on the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards, in Redevelopment Areas."  I had checked to see if my house was in a Redevelopment Area.  But I failed to recognize that the Secretary of the Interior is only interested in National Historic buildings, which mine is not.  Jeez I thought almost 100 years old was good enough, but I guess nobody famous ever slept there that was willing to admit it.

Not all was lost, a lot was learned.. here's what happened.

Jake and I met with Jeanne at the Redevelopment board at 10am.  She gave me a nice full color brochure, and pointed to the side of it that talked about "Residential Facade Grants" of up to $5,000.  Needless to say I was a little disappointed at the time, since I was kind of anticipating TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS more than that.  Then we talked about the requirements for the grant.  First of all, I would have to improve the off-street parking available at the house, in order to qualify for the grant.  Currently there are two "ribbons" of concrete that you drive up on with "grass" (read:  "weeds and dirt") in between.  The City requires that I replace that with a concrete slab, pavers or ASPHALT.  Yuck!  OK, I wanted to hear her out.  Then I would be required to get two estimates from licensed contractors for any work being done to the facade of the house, and only the lowest estimate would count toward the grant.  Then I needed to pull permits and bring in paid receipts when all the work is done, for up to $10,000 and they would reimburse me for half.

Please understand, Jeanne was a lovely lady and I really enjoyed meeting with her.  She was helpful and professional and we had a few laughs.  And $5,000 of free money sounds like a good thing, right?  I am planning on pulling permits anyway, not trying to do anything sneaky.  But I had problems with this.  For one thing, the whole point of me getting this house was to save costs by doing a lot of the work myself.  The City would not allow me to bill for any labor that I or my friends put in on the house.  And they wanted me to put in this little parking lot - when I had no intention of doing anything of the sort.  I am perfectly happy with my concrete ribbons.  I felt like my plan of attack had to be re-thought, and all the puzzle pieces were kind of tossed up in the air.  We did pick up all the permit applications we would need, and the grant application - but something just didn't sit right with me at the time.

Then Jake and I drove over to the house, which as I said I hadn't visited in months.  The lock on the door had been re-keyed, and some trash had been thrown out that was on the front porch.  I could tell someone had been in the house since I was there.  We spread our stuff out on a table in the dining room - he began on some paperwork and I began to photograph and measure exterior doors and decide which ones would need to be replaced.  There are oddly two doors entering the house from the front porch, and my plan was to close up one and focus on the other as a front door.  I decided the one that was remaining was a cool old door and would be usable, with a little work on the interior jamb and also a new handle set (see picture).  That would save about $300 right there.  I moved on to the next exterior door.

This door we are calling the "coffin door".  A coffin door is something people would build into an old house so a coffin could be brought down a staircase that had a difficult turn or landing.  It's also handy for bringing up beds and other large pieces of furniture when the stair turns. You can see it in this picture on the right (along with the back end of my boxer Roscoe before I fattened him up).  I evaluated this door also, and decided that the door itself was fine, but the jamb and trim on the outside would need to be repaired.  Another $300 ... check!

While looking over the exterior of the coffin door, I was outside on the landing.  My neighbor, Mr. Leet, who is an architect, happened to be coming out of his side door, so I took the opportunity to introduce myself.  He was very happy to see that "People!" would be at the house - it had been vacant for about a year, I think.  Jake came out and I introduced him, then Mr. Leet proceeded to inform us that "they did catch the guy who stole the air conditioner" at which time Jake and I looked over where the AC unit used to be and realized there was nothing left but a jumble of wires and a hacked off copper pipe!!  Hey Hey Hey wait a minute!  I signed up to buy a house WITH an air conditioner!!

Got on the phone to my Realtor, who called the other Realtor, bla bla bla.  Turns out the cops actually caught the guy in the act, and then they put the AC unit in the basement as opposed to leaving it on the side of the building all de-tatched.   OK - add expense of having AC re-installed, charged with freon, fixed to a base like it was supposed to be in the first place.  Maybe I'll get away with $200 since Jake's son is a certified AC mechanic.  Still up $400 for the day.

Then Jake took his ladder upstairs to inspect the roof rafters and tie-downs in the attic.  When he got up there he noticed a lovely breeze blowing through:  The two window AC units had been pilfered as well.  That's fine I didn't want them anyway.  Good news is, we stood there and enjoyed the breeze - it was amazing.  When we headed over there this morning, I have to say I was dreading being upstairs in a house in June in FL that had been closed up for so long - I was sure it would be sweltering, but it was not.  Later on we sat on the front porch and enjoyed the same beautiful ocean breezes, at 1:00 in the afternoon on one of the hottest days of the year.  I'm thinking those AC units might not be so important as I had thought.

There were more revelations when we got down into the basement, but I'll save those for another post.  When I returned home, I thought for a long time about how to rearrange the pieces of the puzzle - my fantasy had been disrupted thinking about all the things I needed to do to get the City's grant money.  In the end I decided to completely shift gears.  I would set aside the facade of the house, the painting, all the exterior work (and the prerequisite landing strip they required in front of the garage).  There are plenty of other things to work on for now, and I can always return to the grant idea later on.  So my "TO DO" list has changed just a little... I'll start my next post with that.

6. Personal Style

This is a quick post - just to show you what I found today.  The first piece of furniture that will reside at Grandview.  I really have no idea what the decor will be over there - it's just going to evolve slowly like the house I live in.  I saw something in the shape of the leg, and the pattern in the veneer that I really liked.  The price was right:  $15!!

The best decorating advice I ever heard was this:  "If you really like a piece, it will go with everything else you really like".  And this is how you develop your own unique style as opposed to buying a room of furniture all-put-together for you in advance.  I know that is how a lot of people do it, and I'm not being judgmental (trying ... so ... hard!).  I would just like you to consider a different way.  When you move into a new place, or begin to redecorate a space for yourself, think about this.  Let it evolve, be patient with it.  It needs to grow almost organically.  Spending time in the space enables you to see how you will be using it.  When you are in another place - perhaps a friend's home that you admire - take note and see what it is that you love about it.

And don't be afraid of change!!  There's nothing like a coat of paint to make a room feel completely different - which is a project that most people can do themselves if they would only give it a try.  Be gone off-white walls!!  Or as my friend Duke likes to call it:  "blech beige".  He totally changed the feel of his place with a little liquid blue, a touch of Armagnac.  You'll be surprised how a new color can make you feel about yours.

Now a note about buying used/old furniture.  Skip the press board and laminate, PLEASE!  Unless you are thinking very short term, this is no option.  Solid wood, veneer is ok - and always look at the corners of the drawers for those dove-tail or other high quality joints.  Anything put together with just glue or staples is going to fall apart on you and end up on someone's curb alert in no time.  And NEVER judge a piece of furniture by the knobs!!  This dresser is actually missing a couple of knobs (the ones you can't see in the picture) but the replacement options are so simple that even the most spastic wanna-be handyman can do it.  You could probably give the job to your 6-year old and it would come out just fine.  This piece also has some minor delamination - the veneer is coming loose on one of the drawer fronts and the front edge of the top is missing.  But hey - I think it adds a little character.  If that's not your bag you can surely find plenty of used furniture that doesn't have these issues - you just may pay a little more.  Also very important:  make sure the drawers slide nicely in and out.  If they don't it may be fixable if you're up for a little repair job, but you wouldn't want to use a dresser every day that had sticky drawers.  Nobody likes sticky drawers.

I haven't yet spent any length of time at Grandview.  But I know it will gradually fill up with things that I love, and this dresser is going to be one of them.  There's no hurry, I just got lucky on this one!

Oh - and tomorrow is a big day.  I'm taking Jake to do the inspections on the house, and meeting with the lady from the City Redevelopment Department.  I'll let you know how it goes... I'll be taking pictures!!

Balance forward:  $481
$15  Dresser
$3   Heated super-soft plaid throw
$2   (2) really nice pillow cases
Remainder:  $461

5. Collecting

I don't call it shopping - that's a term I reserve for the grocery store.  It's more like finding things that are supposed to be mine that just haven't met me yet.  I believe that all the items I need for my renovation project are out there, somewhere, waiting for me.  And with a little patience they, and I, will eventually come together.  Now obviously, some building materials will need to be purchased retail and I'm sure a few of my posts will involve foraging expeditions to Home Depot.  But what I'm talking about today is in essence recycling - finding those items most commonly used in a home through garage and yard sales, and thrift stores.

I also enjoy collecting old tools and things that I keep in the studio just because I like their shapes, like the pictures I've included here.

I have my Mom to thank for this particular addiction (affliction, whatever).  I remember as a child my Dad saying "why are you going to garage sales, when we already have a garage?"  Then he would go back to reading his newspaper and we were off.  Mom and me, heading out on a glistening Saturday morning, I with my handful of pocket change and a world of possibilities awaiting.  I learned how to count, add, make change.  I learned that I could have a bagful of coloring books and crayons for a fraction of the cost at Woolworth's.  Stuffed animals, insect collecting equipment - butterfly nets and books about them - and art supplies would find their way into my playroom downstairs.  No Barbies though.  Please.

I enjoyed some of these same times as a mother with my own daughter.  She was so cute when she was little that she would leave every garage sale with something that someone would give her for free.  I imagine this is a common occurrence - who can resist a sweet child counting out his or her nickels to pay for an action figure or little picture book?  As the years went on, we discovered the best thrift stores in our area.  Some were great for furniture, others for clothes and toys.  It seemed like so much more fun than Walmart or other chain stores - because the inventory changed so often you could go back every week and see new things!  I am proud to say that my daughter has carried this tradition to a degree that I never could have imagined.  She earns an enviable full-time salary working part time from home, re-selling vintage clothing that she purchases in these same thrift stores.  She maintains an online store and has an inventory of amazing clothing and her own shipping department.

I guess I've veered from the topic a bit, this is supposed to be about my renovation project, right? 

Well it's all background to explain why I do things the way I do.  As I said in my last post, I developed a list of items I will need, all the way from tools to do the remodeling, to furnishings, bedding and kitchenware.  All of these things can be purchased from garage sales or thrift stores, if I'm willing to wait to find them.  I'm not talking about crap either - you'd be amazed what people are practically giving away!  I don't buy things that are broken or stained, but just the opposite.  The best finds are the ones that originally were so expensive I would never buy them new:  like huge fat 100% cotton towels, or beautiful high-end furniture.  That being said, I'll tell you I do draw a line somewhere.  There are a three things that are almost always better purchased new:  electronics, power tools, and mattresses.  People just don't throw the good ones away.  I also won't buy pre-owned  underwear, but that fact doesn't really apply to this project, does it?

I decided not to publish the "TO BUY" list here in full - just imagine your home completely empty ... what would you need to fill it?  That's what's on the list.  Instead what I will do is end each future post with any items that I have found from the list, and the price that I paid for them.  It's a scavenger hunt!  I'm giving myself a $500 allowance to begin with, although it may take more since there are a few large items such as washer and dryer.  I'll keep a running total after each day so you can root for me (I hope!) to get the house beautifully furnished for as little as possible.  This first entry is going to include several things that I have picked up in months past, so those won't come out of the budget.

Items I already have that are going to Grandview:
step ladder                      trowel
paint roller and tray      buckets
wheelbarrow                   (2) bicycles
hose                                  laundry basket
hose end sprayer             shovel 
leaf rake                           machete
2' level                              (2) beach chairs

Saturday I did a little research on Craigslist, and chose a few garage sales that seemed to have a lot of tools.  I knew I would only hit a handful of sales before it was too hot to enjoy it.  Tools are my first priority, since I don't really need to furnish the place until the repair work is done.  I have a full set at home, but I would like to outfit Grandview with it's own compliment of tools and equipment, so I don't have to haul them over there every time I make the trip.  Also, it sucks to be over there and thing "oh man, if only I had my ________ ".

I have set up a staging area using crates and 5-gallon paint buckets to store my finds, until after the closing when I can bring things into the house.  Here is the list of items I picked up at garage sales on Saturday.  Each day's finds, if there are any, will be listed at the end of each post from now on.  I'll only show pictures if there is something interesting to show - here I'd like you to notice that two of the paint roller covers have their original prices marked at $8.49 each.  A lovely red hand truck and yellow lawn sprinkler are not in the picture.

$5  hand truck/dolly
$5  bolt cutters
$1  (4) screw drivers
$2  (5) paint roller covers
$1  caulk gun
$5  electric hand sander
$0  Nelson sprinkler

$481 remaining


I hope I don't sound preachy, but if you haven't tried this method of "shopping" it's worth a go, especially in these difficult economic times.  Take the kids!  As well as being a fantastic way to pass along to your children the value of money, you will teach them there's more to life than the mall.  Make it fun for them, and they will remember these times fondly for the rest of their lives.

4. The Love of Lists, or "How do you Eat an Elephant?"

I'm sure there are others out there like us - my sisters, daughter, mother and I:  We just love a good list.  Just the thought of a trip to the store (dare I say  to another country!!) can cause a feverish penciling of all the possibilities.  Imagine what volumes of yellow ledger- and quad-pad crumples will have been generated by the time an entire renovation project is finished!  Excuse me, I misspoke.  Nothing is ever finished, and this is not a bad thing.  The list hits the bottom of the page, and although the majority of items have been scratched through, modified, with marginal notes and telephone numbers scribbled all over the place, a few stragglers still remain.  What happens then is like the proverbial story of the cruse of oil:  another blank page appears and anything left on the original that still needs doing is lovingly transcribed to the new sheet.  A new beginning!  A fresh start!  And thirty more spaces just waiting to take on the next challenges that face me.  Each humongous task broken down into manageable to-do's, some of them so simple I can do them right now!  Check!  Check!  Already crossing things off on my way to the bottom.

So, like the schoolgirl on her first day in class, I got out a new quad pad (that's a pad of paper with squares instead of lines - enabling sketching or listing as the need arises).  A stack of cute, colorful folders and a neat box I couldn't pass up at a yard sale months ago.  A really nice mechanical pencil I haven't used since my European vacation last year.  And I started two lists.

The first is a basic "TO DO".  I don't need to put everything on there, just the first few.  And some of these items will generate their own lists (spontaneous list generation).  This is where I will write things as they come up, that I don't want to forget.  Some will remain on the list, and be transferred to several others in progression, before they are marked through.  Others will be done by next week.  Just writing them down gives me a sense of accomplishment,  it's like a drug I tell you!

Here's my list so far:

1.  Get 4-point inspection and wind mitigation inspection (Jake) to submit to the insurance company.
2.  Allstate - insurance policy to start on the day of closing.
3.  Call ADT about security system (meet with them after closing)
4.  Meet Tuesday with Jeanne (City Redevelopment) re:  grant money for historic residential
5.  Purchase three exterior doors (front door must meet City requirements)
6.  Make up tool kit to take to Grandview.
7.  Start staging area at home for stuff to go to GV.
8.  Make a "TO BUY" list of household items and tools to buy at garage sales/thrift stores

Man that last one is a real gem.  To have "make another list" on your list means you're almost ready for a 12-step program.  Of course that was my favorite item.  I have already done it, but I'm debating whether to share it here, since I've already written four paragraphs about lists. Hey, this is how I get things done.  I figure I'm writing this blog, not only so family and friends can share the experience with me, but also, dear reader, so I may pass along some information you might use yourself one day.  I am hoping to inspire the amateur renovator, or the person who's dreamed of it but never dared to try... the motto for today is:  If you break the whole thing down in to baby steps, not one of them is all that hard to accomplish.