It's Official!!!!!!!!

Back in July 28, 2008, I had signed the closing papers to purchase this house where I currently reside. As many of you may know, since then I’ve been trying to get the upstairs up and running so that someone rent it out…Well after about 9 months and 3 days, or 39 weeks, or 277 days, or 6648 hours, or 398,880 minutes, or 23,932,899 second…… or…. OK I guess I can stop now, you guys get the idea…It has been a LONG TIME!!!! Anyway, on Friday, May 1, 2009. I was finally able to say, “I’m officially a landlord”… Last Friday, the new tenants signed the lease agreement and started to move into their new apartment upstairs…

One word explains my feeling at the moment, “YAHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!”

Prior to the tenants being selected and beginning their process of moving in. Several huge things were done to the apartment upstairs. See it all started about last weekend (April 28). From the advertisement within Craigslist, several people (about 15 in all) were interested in the apartment. I would say that I had a good turn while using Craigslist. On a side note, I certainly recommend updating the ad every Thursday. Many people only looked at the latest ad's…Anyway many of the people that viewed the house were not really ready to move in until June… With so many of the people saying that they didn’t want to move in until June… Mentally I had shut down the thought that the apartment needed to be completed before May… So I relaxed all weekend (April 28). The weekend prior I was in Virginia for work. So to help relax, I purchase a new rocking chair and Adirondack chair and enjoyed the beautiful weekend that we had…

I sat on the back porch drinking ice tea all day Saturday and Sunday… It was so relaxing…I even feel asleep on the porch… Well on Sunday around 6:30 pm. I got a visit from two potential tenants. They want to be roommates… No problem... I asked when they would like to move in… MAY 1st…. OK slight problem...

After submitting their paperwork for the standard credit and background checks, I went into high gear to finish the apartment… The week started out with me trying to install new door handles for the closet doors. Well it turned out that the closet door thickness would not work for any standard handles that I had purchased… So instead of sweating over trying to find new handles that would work, I decided to update the doors…. What a bad idea that turnout to be… Well not really but because of this decision it caused me to not get to bed at a decent time for the entire week…

I thought the doors would be quick and easy to install. Well it turned out that I was wrong once again… Because the original doors were not standard in thickness nor were they standard in width, I had to customize the jambs by adding addition wood. Two of the doors widths were about 30 inches… So instead of purchasing a 31 inch door and rip the extra width down… I decided to purchase a 29 inch door. Plus I also saved a total of 60 dollars for purchasing 29 inch doors…

Here is the closet door in the master bedroom...


After installing the new door, a gap can be noted. Plus the door tried to swing into the closet. Thus stressing the hinges.

Here is picture showing a new strip of wood that minimizes the gap...

Here is a picture of the living room's new closet door installed…

I also decided to install new floors within two of the closets… At first I was not, but after looking at them for a long period of time… I felt that it would be best… Here is a picture showing the master bedroom closet floor.

Crappy!!!!
Here is a picture showing the living room closet. Both closets look similar before and after.

The final push in completing the apartment was taking way too long… So by Wednesday, I decided to take a day off from work and focus finishing the entire apartment. By the end of Wednesday night, the new closet doors were installed, damage plugs were replace, new blinds were also installed for 10 windows, a damaged floor trim was fixed, a new lock for the attic installed and the closet floors were newly updated.

The only thing that was left by Thursday night was painting the doors, clean and get all of the paperwork in order before Friday’s afternoon signing. I believe on Thursday night, I was in bed by 3 am and only slept for about 4 hours… To be honest, the excitement of finally getting a tenant upstairs carried me through the day on Friday… A sense of accomplishment certainly did hit me when I handed the keys over to the new tenants…

With that said, I want to thank you for joining me on my journey, although this is certainly not the end…I will be starting a new project in the next couple of weeks…Let's see... new steps (front and back), new hardwood floor for the front entrance, new lights for the basement, motion lights for outside, and also my apartment... But I think I deserve a little break for a while…Especially since my Birthday is on Wednesday... what do you think? So until next time, happy building…

Here I am in Richmond, Virginia. (April 19, 2009)

The work must continue.....

Even though I’ve placed an ad within craigslist, fixing and cleaning things around the apartment must continue. Last Friday is when the advertisement went live. Thus far I’ve had several potential tenants interesting in viewing the apartment, but nothing yet.

Last weekend the apartment was completely cleaned. Thanks to my mom and both of my nephews, I was able to really put a dent into getting the apartment upstairs ready for some showings. My initial concerns cleaning were with the hardwood floors. I was concerned that the dirt and dust could have damaged the floors that the shine would not come back. But with some elbow grease and an old mop, the floors returned to their original look…

Here are all of the pictures showing the work that was accomplished last weekend.

I was also able to install a new screen door to the porch. The original door was in a horrible state. Here are some pictures of the screen doors showing the before and after…

The only things left that I would like to accomplish are paint the back steps, install a new floor, fix some electrical plugs, and replace the batteries in the smoke detectors. The new floor that I’m referring to is the landing in the back steps. Here are some pictures showing what I’m referring too.
Once all of the said items are completed… The real fun will start… My living space…. Well until next time.

The end is near.... But also a new beginning...

For the last couple of days things have been starting to come together. Since purchasing this home, I’ve been trying to create a suitable apartment for a potential tenant. Part of the delays can be attributed to major and minor set backs. You know the bathroom roof collapsing, window Bob, the radiator sinking, and my surgery, just to name a few. But I partly felt that the apartment needed a lot of work, before accepting a tenant. I now feel that I can finally see the finish line.

Over the weekend, I started to move all of my tools and equipment down to the basement. I also completed painting the front hallway. I decided to paint the hallway the same color as the bedrooms, partly because it is a soft yellow that is soothing on the eyes. It projects a calming vision as if looking at an Aurora in the night Alaskan sky. Ok seriously, it was because I had extra paint that was a decent color. Here are some before and after pictures of the front hallway.

Before

As you can see the attic stairs were painted to match the ceiling.

I also finished painting the window trim. I had to first sand the joint compound to be a smooth surface. This left the rooms dusty once again. Here are the pictures showing the final result.



For the bathroom, I installed a wash towel rack and a toilet rack. I kind of ran out of ideas of where to install the towel rack. So I’ll most likely find a place over the weekend for the towel rack after consulting some family members. The bathroom door was also installed, at which point I realized it needs a coat of paint. Luckily I have extra “Alaskan Sky” paint. I then fixed the floor transition from the dinning room to the bathroom.

Here is a picture of the toilet rack and wash towel rack….


Here are some pictures showing that damage floor where I put the new transition plate.

Before I started to pool all of the required administrative paper for rental properties together. I gathered the application, leasing agreements, pre-leasing inspection forms and a check list. The reason for creating a check list was to help me keep track of paperwork that needs to be completed. Anyway, after gathering the paperwork, I found a company that will perform credit and background checks for potential tenants. So with all of that stuff in place, I felt it was time to place an advertisement for the apartment.

So, here it is…

http://westernmass.craigslist.org/apa/1114133655.html

Like I said, things are really starting to come together. This weekend I plan on finish cleaning and complete some minor issues that still need to be done... Anyway, until next time...

Finally some motivation....

So many of you may be wondering what I’ve been up to since my last entry. Well to be honest. Really nothing….. I guess I should clarify. What I really mean is that, I have been doing things around the house, but nothing that would constitute a new entry. Unless you’re interesting in knowing that I have been cleaning my apartment. Even that isn’t truly exciting… But the serious issue is that my motivation level of fixing things around this house had met an all time low. My activities for the month of March consisted of video games and sleep…Oh, that’s right I can not forget the Holyoke’s St Patrick’s Weekend festivities… Here are some pictures from the Holyoke Road Race...
The staff setting up the finish line...
Here is a picture showing the leaders at the start of the race.
I was told that over 4000 people ran in the race... As you can see, I stood by and enjoyed the race...
Here is City Hall looking over all of us... By the way, the beer was cold and the weather was nice..
Here is picture of people everywhere after the race...

More people after the race.. I'm standing behind Brennan's Irish Pub....

With the birds starting to chirp a little louder and the potential of actually finishing this place, something has sparked in me... I’m really starting to gain interest of completing this place, again…

So with the new flicker of enthusiasm, I finally contacted the plumber so that he can install the radiator upstairs. The reason for having him install the radiator doesn’t have anything to do with my recent iron man competition… I contacted him because when I was installing the new hardwood floors in the living room, I didn’t consider the radiator... When I installed the new hardwood floor; the floor height increased by a 1/2 inch, but the radiator pipe did not budge. So I had the plumber install a new pipe to fix my bonehead mistake, which seems to be working well. The floor looks a little damage from the steam but I’ll chalk that up to giving it character. Anyway, here are some photos of the new radiator fixes.

Here is a picture showing the new pipe and fitting for the radiator in the living room... Plus my sneakers... I also had him replace a threaded fitting in one of the bedrooms. When installing the radiator in the bedroom, it turn out that the treads were damaged. The threads were stripped, so the radiator wasn’t engaging properly.

As stated in my last entry, I was able to install the window trim. However, I wasn’t in the mood to cut custom trimming for each window. So with that said, I installed the window trim with gaps between the wall and trim. The gaps were about ½ inches in thickness around several of the windows. To be honest, it was because I was lazy and decided to quicken the processes by just buying 1” x 4”s. The gaps were excessive, so I used meshed tape and joint compound to fix the issue. It worked well. Except after sanding everything, the apartment is dusty again. Anyway, after sanding the windows, I was able to start priming the window trim and main entrance hallway. The next thing is to finish painting… I’ll post pictures when I’m completed.

Here is a picture showing the gaps around the window
Here is a picture showing the new joint compound

So with the realization that the second floor apartment is almost completed, I started to consider what to renovate in my apartment. Well in my kitchen, hallway and my weight room, I’ve been looking at drop ceiling that looks pretty beat-up. It’s the type of drop ceiling that you would find in an office. Anyway, I was looking at several tiles and wondering how they were being held up. Plus I was curious to see the quality of the ceiling behind the drop ceiling. I was initially thinking of removing them completely. So after removing a tile, I found a second ornate looking ceiling. The second ceiling looks to be painted a pale vanilla color and looks to be pealing. I scrapped some of the flake of paint off and to my surprise found what looks to be copper or tin ceiling. The three rooms mentioned have the metallic ceiling. Here is a picture of what I found...

Here you can see the paint pealing off.

Now I don’t know what to do. What I mean is, I could remove the drop ceiling and then later realize that that metallic ceiling is damaged be-on repair. If it is not damage, I could repaint it to a nicer color… I’m thinking a dark bronze color…But, I’m really not sure yet... I guess I really don’t have to make that decision today... But my options are open. I guess we'll find out together... Anyway, the things that are left for the second floor apartment are to install an electric heater, replace some plugs, replace the screen door, paint the window trim and clean… After that, I should be completed. I‘m in hopes to place an ad within the coming month… I hope to have a tenant by May, but we’ll see what happens… Anyways, until next time…

Home Improvement...

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been pretty busy with things outside of working in the apartment. About two weekends ago, I took a trip with my father down to New Jersey to visit some family. The trip was filled with both sadness and happiness. But the depressing part of the trip is for another time and place… But one of many stories that I could possibly tell from my trip, is of one story that is more relevant to the house journal.

My loving uncle, who I know is proud of my success and learning experience through life, has been sharing this wonderful story with one of his co-workers. My uncle tells me that every time that a new journal entry has been entered, he would print out a copy and share it. Apparently there was one day, after my surgery, that my uncle’s co-worker asked, “Any new entries from the Puerto Rican Tim Allen?”

I actually loved that show and Tim Allen’s character, Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor. I certainly love the reference. Thanks for the laughs… Thought you would like that story...

Ok, back to my home improvement. The apartment upstairs is almost there. This weekend I was able to remove the trash and start cleaning some of the rooms. I also had help from my mother, who cleaned the kitchen. It is starting to smell clean.

I was also able to place some decretive trim down at areas where the floors do not evenly meet.

I was also able to get the cracked radiator repaired. The crack was welded and hopefully it will work ok...I have not installed it yet… I have to admit,. I’m still a little scared to move anything especially after my surgery and all… But I can say that it looks fixed and is ready to be installed.

There are only a few things left to finish the upstairs like remove all of the tools, paint the hallway and window trim, install the radiators, switch out a couple of damaged plugs and clean. Then it’s just creating the required administrator stuff, like application, lease agreement and so on. Anyway, until next time…