Our DC Fixer-Upper

Final Post

2009-05-18T18:45:00.001-07:00

I apologize for the delay to put up the final posting with pictures. We moved into the house towards the end of February and have been unpacking, putting on the finishing touches and receiving all kinds of friends and families! The kids are doing great and love their new home. Its so nice to see them playing in the backyard or in their rooms, it really makes all the work worth it.

Overall the project took around 8 months to complete. It was a really nice feeling making the final payment to the Contractor and having all the headaches behind us. Of course right after I made the final payment it rained and there was a leak above the downstairs bathroom!!! Good thing that my Dad was in town a few weeks later and we were able to find the leak and patch up the damage it caused to the drywall.

Now like all homeowners I just have to mow the lawn and weed the garden. I'm hopefully done with any more big projects for a long time. Now I just need to refinance the house and try to clean up some of the debt I've collected from the remodel. Unfortunately the market here in DC has gone down since last July, so I may not be able to take out to much equity.

Thanks for taking interest in our blog, it's been a lot of fun sharing this experience.

Final two weeks?

2009-02-04T17:09:00.000-08:00

Well we have officially passed the six month mark. Nothing yet from the bank, but I'm sure they need some sort of extension soon, since the contractor was supposed to finish in six months.

The good news is progress is being made and I think we may be able to move in the week of the 16th. The bad news is we are still waiting to get power and gas connected to the house. My hope is that tomorrow the gas will be connected and Friday the power will be connected.

This week, the contractor started applying a couple coats of varnish to the staircase. He should be finishing it in the next few days. He also began painting the exterior of the house and has a few more coats to complete that job.

When I arrived at the house tonight I was pleasantly surprised to also find the granite countertops had already been installed. The granite's color was even correct! The only problem was that above the dishwasher a electrical outlet and light.

So here is whats left:

Buy appliances and install them(must have working alarm system first)

Finish exterior painting

Touch-up painting inside

Paint front and rear exterior doors

Connect HVAC system (power, gas, thermostat)

Staircase

Drywall small room under staircase

Gutters and Facia Board (rear of house)

Purchase/install 60" vanity mirror upstairs

Install 2 faucets in kitchen (sink and bar sink)

Install tub faucet (upstairs bathroom)

Install shelves in upstairs closet

Fix/Replace broken hindge on island cabinet

Relocate electrical outlet and light switch in kitchen

Install granite backplash over dishwasher

Install water heater

Some photos of the new staircase

2009-01-24T20:25:00.001-08:00

2009-01-22T18:27:00.000-08:00

Bathrooms done, now we need power and a kitchen!

2009-01-20T18:27:00.001-08:00

Things have been moving along the past week. Unfortunately last weekend someone broke in and stole several things including the contractors generator and tools. Even with that setback, the contractor finished the bathrooms and Friday began working on the oak staircase. During the weekend and various nights I spent time installing the lights and finishing up the alarm system.

The plan this week will be for the Contractor to finish the staircase and begin on installing the kitchen cabinets. With the cabinets in place he can have the granite installed. Our BIG challenge this week will be to get the power company to come out and connect the power. The problem is I had the Contractor move the meter to a corner of the house. I was given some bad information from a power company representative who basically said we could move the panel since we destroyed the front wall. Now after I called the power company they are telling me I need to pay a large amount of money to have their crew come out and install a new cable. The other problem is I do not know how long it will take to get them to complete the work. Without electricity I cannot complete the alarm and will not be able to purchase any appliances for security reasons.

Interior doors and more tiling.

2009-01-08T18:57:00.003-08:00

As we only have a few weeks left I figure it's probably time for another posting to show whats been going on. Each night I have been going to the house and verifying that some progress is being made each day. We can't afford any day without some type of progress if we want to finish by the end of the month.

During the first part of the week the contractor focused on finishing the bathroom tiling. Overall I am very pleased with their work. Both bathrooms turned out exactly like I had sketched them, so I can't complain.

Today the Contractor began installing the interior doors and trim. Nothing really special about the doors. Originally I wanted solid pine doors and the Contractor agreed that he would buy them. But after he realized that solid pine doors were twice as much as what he normally buys, he told me once again that I would have to pay more. I decided this fight wasn't worth it and let him install the standard 6 panel door. I also noticed tonight when I went to the house that they installed the fascia board in the front of the house. The fascia board is basically the only barrier between the outside and my tiny attic space. Thanks to my Dad's suggestions the Contractor installed several air vents along the board.

Paint, floors and tiles!

2009-01-04T18:51:00.000-08:00

After a few reminders from a couple of friends I guess it's time to update. For the last month my family and I have been in Peru on vacation. During that time the Contractor was literally waiting for the paint to dry! We chose a off-white color for the walls and a classical white color for the ceiling. Overall I'm pleased with the paint job, a lot of touching-up will have to be done before we move-in but at this stage it looks good.

Once the paint was dry the Contractor began placing the oak flooring. The flooring comes pre-stained and went in pretty fast. When I got back from Peru on Tuesday the flooring was 80% complete, with the kitchen and entryway still left to be completed. Today when I was there they completed the rest.

Yesterday afternoon I received a call from the Contractor stating he wanted $750 additional to tile the bathrooms. Our contract was a little vague, but back in July before the project began, my Father and I confirmed verbally the tile design and he agreed that he would do the job. Now he wanted me to pay more because he said the tile was not standard and required additional work. So once again we had a long fight over the phone and I said he would do the work for free or he was fired. He said his guys would do the work, but I need to pay $250 at least, I said I would not pay anything extra. The conversation basically ended there, but when I arrived at the house this morning the tiling was already 70% complete. I guess he knew his guys had already started and was trying to get something out of me. At this point he knows he must complete the project since all his profit is tied in the completion of the bathrooms and kitchen. As usual he was just being dishonest in order to scrounge a few extra dollars.

Originally we thought the cabinets would be here and ready to install by now. The problem was I decided that I wanted to put some decorative trim on the top and base of the cabinets. I should have known that decorative trim means extra work and in-turn means I would need to pay more. At this point I don't want to pay this SOB anymore money and I will install the trim later on when my Father is back in town. On Monday I will call the cabinet store and cancel the decorative trim in order for the contractor to order the cabinets at no additional cost.

So the plan this week is for his guys to finish all the floors and tiling. Following those items they can install the doors and trim throughout the house. They should also be installing the new gutters and fascia boards.

Walls at last!

2008-11-27T05:31:00.000-08:00

Well after several weeks "inspections" we are back in business. Two laborers showed up at the house last Thursday and began installing drywall. It was about a 2.5 day process for two guys to get 120 pieces of sheet rock up. Then they taped the seems and started putting the putty in to make it all smooth. Because of the cold temperatures here in DC and the fact we have no electricity yet, the house is COLD. So nothing will dry very fast and it could take about two weeks before we are ready for a first coat of paint. Hopefully the painting will be done in three weeks, but who knows.

In the meantime I am trying to get the electrical turned on so we can get space heaters in to speed things along! Since I installed a new service panel on the other side of the front door, the electric company will need to come out to the house and do a bit of work. I'm told that can take several weeks.

Finally on Monday morning, my father went home to Seattle. I was able to talk him in to staying past the Apple Cup, but he drew the line for being home in time for Turkey day. While he was here he did A LOT of work as always. He re-framed the bedroom closet, installed new patio pavers, poured a 16'x20' cement driveway, patched the roof, installed all the insulation, and much more to move the project along. Thanks again Dad!

This weekend my plan is to buy all the faucets, sinks and light fixtures the contractor needs. I'll be leaving for a long vacation next week, so it's really important everything is ready.

Inspection time, week 4??? (my time to vent!)

2008-11-07T14:13:00.000-08:00

Well not a lot of progress on the house since the last posting unfortunately. The contractor failed the first plumbing inspection two weeks ago and is now scheduled for his second attempt this coming Wednesday. The electrical inspection passed last Thursday, luckily my father was at the house to let the inspector in. Once the plumbing passes on Wednesday, the contractor will call and schedule for the framing and HVAC inspection to happen. Overall I am extremely concerned at the lack of progress on the part of the Contractor. He did not pass the first inspection and then was unable to schedule a second inspection until I basically did it for him on Wednesday. Of course the Contractor is saying it's the government of DC's fault by not answering their phones and not returning their messages.

The good is my Dad is here and as always is working his tail off. It's been really nice drinking beer with Grandpa at night and talking about everything. The kids and Yeny also love spending time with him. Since he has been here, he has finished installing the gas fireplace, installed the molding on the front of the house (pics soon!), fixed all the lighting locations, and patched the heck out of the roof. The Contractor cuts a big hole in the roof and then expects us to fix the hole since it's not in the contract. Again I know everyone is saying "you get what you pay for!"

Inspection time

2008-10-23T18:03:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the three weeks since the last posting. Since my last posting a good deal has been accomplished, but not as much as we were hoping. The plumbing is now complete. The upstairs bathroom has a shower base and bath tub installed. The contractor did not understand that I wanted to choose every item placed in my house, so he got away with buying a cheap shower faucet and tub. The problem was he payed a plumber to come out and install both, so I would have to pay the plumber to come out and uninstall, and then re-install new materials. In the end, I lost another battle and accepted two mediocre items. From now on the Contractor understands I will choose and probably buy everything that will be installed.

With the plumbing all done the Contractor then moved on to finishing the electrical work. I made sure to stop by every day, so I could talk to the workers and ensure they put all the lights in the correct places and light switches in logical spots. Just a few changes were needed and overall they did an excellent job. The contractor's plan is to do all the work himself and then pay an electrician to come in and inspect the work and put his name on the work. The contractor called me at the beginning of this week to tell me I had to buy the wire to connect the new circuit breaker to the meter outside. After several arguments I caved again and agreed to pay about $75 to $150 to get the electrical system completed and ready for inspection. Everyone at works keeps laughing at my regular arguments I have with my contractor. The common comment is "you get what you pay for."

About two weeks ago, the contractor hired a sub-contractor to install an HVAC system into the house. In total the workers spent about five days installing the ducting in the house. Both myself and my Dad spoke to the boss and ensured they installed everything to our drawings. The most important thing was that we only wanted the ducting to be lower than the ceiling in two locations. In all other locations the ducting was to be located within the joists, hidden above the ceiling. The company is supposed to be putting the new units on the roof today or tomorrow. In order to do so the will be reinforcing the roof with iron rods. I have been pushing the Contractor to get these units installed ASAP, so we can call the inspector's to come and inspect everything.

During this time I had been working on installing the alarm system and wire distribution system. Both are now complete, but I still have to install the TV/Internet/Phone wire and will also install some more speaker wires for a surround sound system.

The Contractor's goal is to finish the framing, electrical, plumbing and HVAC inspections this week and possibly early next week. I am hoping for the best, which is he actually passes everything and we can start putting in drywall sometime late next week. It is very possible though that he will fail some (for reasons I don't feel like writing), and will need to address those required corrections. I have my fingers crossed!

Exterior wall complete, now electrical and plumbing.

2008-10-01T16:24:00.000-07:00

The past two weeks have really gone by quickly. During that time the contractor was mainly focused on building a new front wall. To do so they had to first build a temporary wood wall inside the house. With the temp wall in place they delivered a dumpster and tore down the old wall in one day. The next two days the contractor built the new wall with 2x4s. We had a few issues getting the windows framed where we wanted them, but after a few minor arguments my Dad helped center the first floor window and ensured the new look was symmetrical. Another feature we requested was to expand the front door from 32inches to 36 inches, 4 inches can really help when moving furniture in.

I was pleased on the fourth day when an expert brick layer showed up for work. I was a little worried that the contractors general laborers were going to do the work, but instead they just mixed mortar and carried the bricks to the expert. Overall the construction of the wall went fairly fast. As they were constructing it, my Dad and I suggested they make two lines of brick come out of the wall a little under the windows and that they place the bricks vertical above the windows. These two features definitely made the wall more original and to the theme of other rowhouses on the street.

Well my Dad unfortunately had to leave this last week. He ended up spending about five weeks here in total. I still can't believe it went so fast. His last few weeks he worked on a wide variety of important projects that were not part of the contract. His jobs included fixing leaks in the roof, installing a garage door, installing a new vinyl fence, installing retaining stars on the rear exterior wall, additional framing and a few other jobs. Each Saturday I helped him for a full day, but other than that he did it all by himself, I was/am very thankful.

As soon the contractor finished with the walls, his guys went right back inside and have been trying to finish the electrical and plumbing work. Their goal is to try and finish both these items by this weekend so they can be paid another big chunk of cash. All my remodeling costs are financed by a Wells Fargo loan. So in order for the contractor to get paid, he must complete a large portion of work, ask the bank for a inspection, and based on that inspection he receives a portion of the total renovation loan.

All interior walls are built and the front wall is destroyed

2008-09-22T16:51:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the delay between posts, between my gov. job, the family and the remodeling I have been keeping really busy. Since the last post quite a bit of work has been done on the house. The contractor has finished building the stairs and framing all the interior walls. Before each of those two items began we made sure to draw the walls on the floor and I spoke to the workers in Spanish to ensure our instructions were understood. Grandpa then supervised the work throughout the week and was able to catch a few mistakes the guys made. Another big difference was he was able to have them shorten the bathroom width by six inches and let the master bedroom expand a little more.

While the Contractor was doing his thing my Dad has completed several jobs that are aimed at saving big $$$. First he began by repointing the rear brick wall. Repointing means that he dug out all the old mortar between the old bricks and pushed in new mortar to re-stengthen the wall. The wall was so bad that in some places the bricks were actually loose and easily removed by hand. My Dad was basically the first person in 100 years to do substantial work to that wall. It was a five day job that cost us around $125 in materials and saved about $6000 in potential contractor charges.

The second big job my father completed was patching the hole in the roof left by the removal of the second chimney. While the contract stated the contractor had to removethe second chimney, it did not state he had to patch the hole. Yet again another reason YOU MUST ensure your contract covers every possible aspect of work. So my Dad framed the hole, patched with some old wood, bought the roofing material and completed the waterproof patch. This week he plans on applying a tar like coating to the roof to re-seal everything and close up any missed leaks.

Yesterday we spent our Sunday by going to Lowes and buying all the materials needed to complete our vinyl fence/garage door and fireplace projects. After buying around $2000 in materials we rented a truck, loaded everything and delivered it to the house. The plan is for my Dad to finish the fence, garage and framing the fireplace this week. Following those three things we can hopefully install the wire this weekend. As always thanks for checking out our blog, take care.

Floors and walls!

2008-09-09T14:01:00.000-07:00

Well in the last 10 or so days a lot has happened in the house. Where to start? Well the weekend before last my father and I completed our four day project of bricking up a 10'x3.5' section of the back wall that had been previously filled with cement blocks. We had to rent a truck from Home Depot and ended up buying 300 bricks and aound 800 lbs of mortar. I'll be the first to admit we are amateur brick layers, but overall we saved $2000.

The majority of last week, the contractors were focused on replacing all the second level floor joists. After several failed attempts at leveling the 100 year old bowing originals, I forked over $1500 more and the contractor installed all new double joists. With the new joists in place, they layed the plywood down on the second level. At the same time as the plywood the frame for the saircase was cut and placed on the wall.

Over the weekend tropical storm Hana passed through the DC area and dumped a ton of rain. Expecting the worst, my Dad and I headed to the house early Saturday morning and ended up placing buckets under five leaks in the roof. Three of the leaks we actually created earlier from removing pipes and a chimney, but the other two must have been that way for some time. We also tried plugging a hole in the broken gutter and tried to minimize the water that was running down the back wall. So sometime in the next few weeks, we will have to get on the roof and patch of the holes and leaks, before the oak hardwood floors are installed. The gutter will be replaced sometime in the next few months by the contractor.

With the framing almost complete (two closets left), hopefully the contractor can move onto finishing the staircase this week. We are still trying to iron out all the details will DEMOLISHING the front wall of the house. Overall it is going to cost about $14000 and should take two to three weeks. Of course I'll write more soon when we have a plan.

Interior Layout

2008-08-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

A few people have asked about what the interior layout of the house will be, so I've decided to add a few sketches I made with Google SketchUp. Since the beginning my father and I have been working on a design that would maximize the space.

My first request was to move the HVAC syatem to the roof. I had read on another DC blogger's website that she had this done and it worked great. After a bit of research we decided the space saved made the idea a no-brainer. Another space saver that I had at my last house in Tunisia, was a tankless (gas) water heater. We placed the unit on the kitchen's exterior wall. The kitchen will have a small island that the kids can scoot up to and eat there breakfast. The kitchen design also calls for stainless steal appliances and granite countertops. The living room and dining room are pretty straight forward, but we are still figuring out how we are going to remodel the fireplace (I keep watching HGTV for fresh ideas).

Next I wanted to make sure the upstairs had three "real" bedrooms and a bathroom that could be shared by our small family. The kids love to take baths and I prefer showers, so we decided to fit both into the bathroom. A double vanity and a small hallway/bathroom closet to up the rest of the space in that area. Each of the kids rooms had a small closet and the master bedroom would have a medium sized walk-in closet for him/her. In the corner of the master bedroom I am planning on making a small office area. Each of the rooms will be wired for phone/ethernet/cable.

Well that's the basic idea for the layout. We have put a lot of thought into it and have already marked the walls in pencil. Friday the contractor cut his first attempt at the staircase frame. We explained the 8 inch rise and 10 inch depth was vital to ensuring the design and he said he would give it another attempt Monday.

For the past few days we have been bricking in a old wall in the back of the house. When we finish Monday I'll post more. Have a great Holiday weekend!

Demo is complete, now...

2008-08-24T19:48:00.000-07:00

Well we are back from our vacation in Seattle and were met by a good surprise. All the first floor joists where installed by the contractor and it the work was good. Yesterday I stopped by the house and saw they started to place plywood down on the first floor.

On Thursday I was informed by the contractor that there is a large iron beam spanning from one exterior wall to the other. The beam was installed in order to hold the walls in place and prevent them from falling. The problem was that the beam was installed by cutting large notches in the joists and was the reason the previous joists failed. So for a quick $300 the contractor called a local engineer to come out and he told us that the beam could be removed and the walls would not fail. We basically knew that ourselves, but for insurance reason we needed a professional to put it in writing. Hopefully Monday morning the contractor will cut the rod out and we can finish all the joists and start putting the plywood down on the second floor.

My attention now has been trying to figure out what we are going to do with the front wall of the house. It was written in the contract that the Contractor had to fix the "bulge" in the front of the house. I guess "bulge" is very vague and his planned work would not be a true solution. SO I talked with the contractor's crew chief and we came to an agreement that the only way to truly fix the "bulge" is to completely re-build the wall. My problem with that solution is that Wells Fargo will not pay for that work if it costs more from the original contract. So Monday I am hoping to hear back from Wells Fargo and my Contractor and we should be able to figure something out.

Stage One - Demolition

2008-08-23T10:59:00.000-07:00

Once we arrived from N. Africa 7/25, we spent two or three days getting settled over the weekend and then Grandpa arrived on Monday. I also had to sign the closing documents Monday which meant the house was mine on Tuesday.

With the keys in hand 7/29, we met the General Contractor Tuesday morning and ensured we were all on the same page. That afternoon his crew arrived and they began gutting the entire house. Our overall plan is to have an open floor plan on the first wall with as few walls as possible. With only 1300+ square feet overall I wanted to have as much usable as possible.

Demolition of the existing walls, floor, HVAC, electrical, etc. took about two full weeks to complete. I think the contractor underestimated a little the size of the demo, but we worked through it and the project moved on. The new problem was all the first floor joists were rotten and many of the second floor's joists.

With the new bad news that all these joists need to be replaced, we took a step back and started discussing what other problems had been uncovered. Particularly the interior walls needed to be reinforced with mortar and concrete and the exterior walls really needed to be fully re-pointed. To get all this done meant I needed a change order and my bank has to approve it all to proceed. Paperwork is never fast and since we had a few weeks vacation in Seattle starting 8/7, I knew things were going to move slow for a while.

House hunting take one, two, three, ...

2008-08-22T19:16:00.000-07:00

The search for a 3 bedroom rowhouse began in April 2008. Our goal was to find a lower priced home that needed a little fixing up. The home had to be in a good neighborhood, in walking distance to a metro or a short bus ride away. We settled on the 20001 and 20002 zip codes and established I-Agent.com realty as our Realty agent.

I-Agent reality was perfect because at the time we lived overseas and our agent was an expert at replying timely to emails and doing all paperwork via email. Also the fact they would return 2/3 of the final commission helped.

About mid-April we were finally ready to submit an offer. Withing hours our agent Zeeshan had us set up and then it was time to wait. We lost that offer and then the next five that followed. I guess I was looking primarily at bank-owned foreclosed homes that were well under priced and ended up selling well over the listing price.

After losing six bids I was starting to lose faith. I would be arriving in DC in July and it was already mid-June. I had to close on a house and start remodeling or my family would be living in a apartment for at least a year. With that in mind I started looking at a house I had previously said no to because of the last three I had bid on. This house was very cheap in comparison to others, but would need extensive work. The house was also very small, 1340 sq. ft. Since I wasn't too excited I figured I would make an offer 10K under the asking price. Within a few hours the offer was accepted and now it was time to really get to work.

The beginning

2008-08-22T19:12:00.000-07:00

Well I would like to thank you for coming to our blog and checking out our new space. Yeny and I(Matt) will be updating this as often as possible and will share all our experiences with buying and remodeling a first home in NE Washington DC.