Sunday, September 28, 2008

SHUT THE POWER OFF!!!!

After discovering the water damaged subfloor, I decide to remove it, to see if it has potential to be use in the future. The existing floor consists of a layer of peal and stick tile on top of a ¼ inch thick plywood. Under the ¼ inch plywood was a deteriorated laminate floor which was lying on top of ½ inch thick plywood. Under the ½ inch plywood was the original ½ inch grey looking planks.



After removing the old damaged subfloor, I evaluate the floor joist by the toilet exhaust. I need to determine if the joist were in good shape, which they were. But, to be on the safe side, I decided to sister the joist with a couple of 2 x 4’s. Basically I nailed them parallel to the joist under the toilet.



The water damage was pretty localized around the toilet area. So I decided to remove all of the damage wood and purchase ½ inch plywood for its replacement. Then I purchased ¾ inch plywood to lye on top of the existing planks and new ½ inch plywood. This would give structural integrity for the new tub and toilet.


Now with the new subfloor installed and leveled. I had the plumber return to evaluate the work done. Mostly to insure the floor was ok for the tub and toilet. We were also able to finalize some last minute details, like reworking the pipes to be up to code.

I also purchased a new vanity with a marble top. I will of course show pictures when they are installed. But then I started to think. The current walls around the vanity are like a plastic paneling that is extremely difficult to paint. The paint peal right off after it is dried. I started to really think about my next task. My concern with the paneling is that if it gets damaged, it would extremely difficult to repair especially when the vanity is installed.
With the plumber not coming till next week (Oct 2), the apartment would not be ready till about Oct 15, anyway. So with that said, I polled several people about my new predicament. The following two questions were asked.
  1. Leave the panel as is. But if there is damage, the panel will be extremely difficult to repair. Also removal of the panels will be difficult with the vanity in place. Partly because vanity will have small holes on the base to allow the water lines and exhaust through.
  2. Remove all of the existing walls and replace with drywall. This would make it easier to repair. Just requiring mudding of the portion that is damage.

Everyone that I spoke to on the matter suggested 2... So I started to remove the light fixtures and of course I was lazy. So I decided to remove the light fixture with out shutting off the main power... Boy did I get a shock… Well in-doing so, I quickly tried to move my hand and end up hitting it against the metal light fixture. As you can see, I was an idiot. So lesson learned here, ALWAYS SHUT THE MAIN POWER OFF WHEN WORKING WITH ELECTRICITY!!!!

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Let there be light....

Now that the roof was completed; I was able to start my focus on other things around the house. When I first purchased the house, the first thing that I notice was how dark the front hallway was, especially during the day. Presently there are only two windows in the entire front hallway. One window in the hallway is next to the front door and the second at the top of the steps. The first major purchase for the house was a new front door. I had been pretty excited about the door every since placing the order for it. The only problem was that I never installed a door before. So I decided to hire some help. It turn out I wasn’t really handy with putting in new pull down steps for the attic either.

A good realtor should have a good contact list. My realtor certainly did. Christine came through once again. She recommended a carpenter by the name of Rick. I had contacted Rick prior to purchasing the door and requested his services. I asked him what it would take to install a new door and move the current door to the back. Originally I was going to purchase two doors. But Wilson recommended that I just move the front to the back. It really helps when you have an outsider looking in. I also needed pull down steps to be installed.

Rick was extremely helpful and courtesy. He agreed to install the doors and attic steps. I placed an order for a door and it took 3 weeks before getting it. When I finally got the door, I contacted Rick...



These pictures were taken the day before Rick arrived to install the new door. As you can see, the old door is pretty solid with a small piece of glass to allow a limited amount of light to enter..

Just a close up of the old front door...



The new front door is a basically all glass. The panels on the glass are frosted slightly with a minimal amount of floral for a design. The new pictures of the front of the house don’t give the new door justice. But believe me, it really looks nice.

The room looks so much brighter with the new door… wouldn’t you say? Plus it allows me to see who is at the door prior to answering it.

The back door was replaced with the old front door. The old back door was completely damaged. It was extremely difficult to close and lock. So this was certainly a good improvement.

Here is picture of the old back door. It was a glass door also which gave it potential, except it was extremely old with excessive weather damage.

Well I’ve just realize that I did not take any photos of the black hole. The stairs were completely missing when I purchase the house. The previous owner broke them and removed them prior to me moving in. But, I was able to get a better replacement. So I guess you will only get to see the finish product of the attic pull down steps. Notice the nice trim work that Rick installed.



So the only thing left for this room is to paint this ceiling and walls..

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Rain, Rain go away come back another day!!!

The roof is finally fixed!!!! So Christine came through, she has a good friends who does siding and roofing for a living... Well I needed to get my window trim fixed...So I contacted Paul to do the required work for the house... Here is a picture of the roof prior it getting fixed.

Paul evaluated the roof and agreed to help. I had asked that he evaluate the entire roof and tell me if anything else need to be fix.. His response was that the everything else was in good shape. He start immediately... That following weekend he went to town... He removed the existing portion that wasn't removed. He told me that there were 4 layers over the bathroom. Also that there was a squirrels nest in the corner... Paul was done over the weekend... it was great...


Here is the latest work from Paul. He put down a new roofing weather sheets... With the new roofing material in place he also put flashing between the existing roof and new roof.. The nails have new tar. When Paul returns to do the trim work, he will fix the flashing over in the corner of the roof... But the work is out standing..





Monday, September 15, 2008

What a beautiful shine...

After talking with the lawyer, I had received good and bad news... The lawyer basically stated that I certainly do have a case. I could possibly place a suit against the sellers and against the inspector... However, what would it really accomplish. If I did win, the legal fees would possibly out weigh the settlement... So he recommend that I contact the insurance company and see what they can do to help. That it wouldn't hurt. That if they didn't help, that we could possibly reconsider the suit.


So that is what I did... I contact the insurance company and they help out tremendously... So the money received will be used to fix the bathroom ceiling and walls. I was extremely pleased to get some outside help... So I contacted my lawyer and continued mission with getting the house up and running.


Since the roof and bathroom was currently settled for now. I continued to work on other pressing issues within the apartment. After installing the floor in the living room, I figured that it wouldn't be that hard to sand and polish the bedroom floors... So I went to Home Depot and rented a Sander. It is not the traditional belt sander, it has four rotating pads that allows you to Velcro the sand paper on. The total cost of renting the sander and purchasing the sand paper was about $400.00



Here is the sander that was used in the bedrooms. Because of the rotating pads the path of the sander doesn't have to follow the traditional grain path of the wood. It was extremely easy to get into tight places without having to worry about destroying the floors. The only thing though is that it is extremely heavy. So use caution when lifting it..


Bedroom 3, was the first room to get the sanding. There was no specific reason but it work out very well.. It took 3 days to sand, stain and apply polyurethane to all of the rooms. I chose a cherry color stain with a semi-gloss polyurethane. I also used a special stain mop head to apply both the stain and polyurethane. Two coats of stain and 3 coats of polyurethane were applied. Between the application of the polyurethane, I sanded the floors. I was originally going to sand the floors with the sander, but felt that the weight of the sander would damage the beautiful floors... So I used a drywall sander pole to sand the floors. As if I was moping.

While applying the stain, I do admit that I was a little to aggressive. If look at the floor board trim you can see what I'm talking about.... oops...


Bedroom 2, was the easiest room to get done. Slightly because it was the smallest room. But, I really liked the finish look of this room. The hardwood floor in this room has a lot of character. It looks really beat up, but I really like how it has a vintage look and how it sticks out..

The master bedroom, was the hardest room to get done. The problem in this room was how the floors were wavy. So the sander tried to walk away. At times, it was a little difficult to maneuver the sander in this room. But the end result was outstanding.. I felt really excited about the finish rooms. I was finally feeling a sense of accomplishment. It is slowly coming together...

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Finally things are starting to come together...

Well with the bathroom demolished... I wanted to wait till the roof was completely fix prior to finishing it. Just in case the roofer needs access... So I moved onto other projects around the second floor apartment... So I started in the kitchen and in the living room...


So for the kitchen, I purchase a new stove and a new four drawer cabinet. The cabinet now serves as a help station. Before it was just a stove in that corner... It is certainly functional for someone cooking...Now you have a place to put your ingredients and/or prepared foods..


Ok here was a slight set back that I wasn't really expecting... The previous owners had a dryer where the new cabinet is located, in the picture above. Well as you can see the cabinet is about 3 inches taller then the older cabinets. I was thinking that all cabinets were all standard. Yes of course I didn't measure... So I decided to remove all of the cabinets and purchase new ones... Just the bottom ones...

So in the living room, I removed the rug of death. When doing so, I discovered that there were no hardwood floors... It was just plywood. So I was going to install the laminate hardwood floor.. But realize that it was easy and much more cost effective to install the real stuff... So I installed real hardwood flooring upstairs in the living room... Check them out...


It was truly not that hard... I rented a floor nailer from Home Depot and went to town... That thing was awesome. I am now planning on installing them in the front hallway.. The best part is that the floors were pre-finished with stain and poly.

Well back to the kitchen after completing the Living room... The color escape me, but I figured that the color should be softer, but fun... I chose this sun type yellow and a soft white color for the trim. I purchase some peal-n-stick flooring that is a light brown... kind of like sand... I think the kitchen really looks nice now..



The fire color red was extinguished with the soft white.


The original cabinets were removed and will be replace with 3 identical cabinets.. New plywood was installed to level the flooring where the new cabinets will be places...

The next entry will go into better detail of what happen with the lawyer and the new floor discovery...

The rain takes a break....ok for a day....

The heavens above finally gave pause. Like I previously stated, I was hoping that I would only remove the tub and walls. But because of the water damage, the demolition to the bathroom included removing the ceiling. The insulation in the walls were also water logged, so they were removed. I had hoped there would be only minimal damage to the studs and joist. Although before that evaluation could start, I decide to contact my realtor.

I request my Realtor Christine, to contact the original owners to identify the roofer that installed the roof. On the listing it was stated that in 2002, a new roof was installed. So my thinking was that since the roof was damage, that there should be some type of workmanship agreement that stays with the house.

So a day past, when I finally get an email from my realtor. The seller's realtor, had submitted an email on behest of the sellers. I won't bore you with the extended information that was on the email but two pieces of information made me make the next decision. 1. That the siding, windows, and roof were done by family members... 2. "That they question the roof because they never had a problem during all of the rain...."

So at this point, I decided to fix the problem myself without any help from the previous owners...
So I had a buddy help me out... He was certainly Johnny on the spot... But sadly enough... he started the job and didn't finish. I think he was overwhelmed and was out of his league... Luckily he never saw a dime....

Here you see the old plywood being removed from the back porch.

No, that is not a sky light... Although, it wouldn't be a bad idea... This is another picture showing the work that was started on the plywood. The work done, was enough to keep most of the water out of the apartment so that I could complete the demolition.



With the work on the roof done.... Well not completely....Done until I can get a real roofer to fix it...I was able to complete the demo work... Here is a bucket in the bathroom showing the rain evidence after the questionable roof work...

What you are see is where the bathtub once stood. The studs don't look that bad... The 2 x 4's are what I'm referring too.. keep your mind out of the gutter...

I was looking at the picture one night... I had felt that something wasn't right... it bugged me... Then after looking at it further, looking at the picture above and below.... It slapped me in the face... I realize that the color of the studs were different... That all the older studs were dark in color.. then there is this one stud... A New Stud... How the heck that get there? I thought the previous owners never had a problem? But how did the new stud get there? The questions...

Here is another picture showing the same stud in question... That is when I decide to contact a lawyer. More on that later.

The vent was installed incorrectly, this picture shows the exhaust exiting out into the attic... This is wrong.. This is how mold can be produced... Luckily I don't see any...

The boards look pretty bad.. But I did not see or note any rot... So that is a good thing...

However, what the heck is this? Plywood damage? Not good... The plywood feels soft to the touch... CRAP!!!!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Man is it really raining..

Well the bathroom ceiling was feeling kind of wet... The weight of the water overwhelmed the concrete mixer within the two sheets of paper and well in turn caused the concrete to punch through too the floor...

Initially, I died a little inside... I knew that it would be a pain in the rump to get the entire apartment completed in time... Instantaneously, I knew that I would have to move the date from September to October... Plus now I'm concerned that the water damage has transferred to the studs and joist... not a good feeling inside...
I had planned on removing the tub and the walls prior to the ceiling collapsing... This was of course because of the hole in the tub and the fact that the walls are disgusting.





Here is where the water was entering into the bathroom. The roof shingles were not properly installed into the plywood. It looks someone decided to take lunch and never return... The shingles were loose and not secured...
In this picture you can see the pooled water residue by the chiminey stack..
Here you can see the shingle are not installed properly.
The rolls shown here were placed on top of the shingles to hide the shabby work.
I gutted the ceiling and walls to be able to evaluated the studs and joist.. I need to know what damage they were in...
Then it really starts to rain.. Here is a picture of plastic guiding water into the tub as water pours down the ceiling.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails