Just Say No To Hoppers!

Just Say No To Hoppers!

It’s finally starting to look like a house again. As I’ve said before its always fun to see it with drywall so you can get a feel for the new spaces you’ve created and how they flow together, the new master suite I built is definately going to sell this house. I’m very particular on the drywall job for these big projects, I use a new construction crew that specialize in this trade and do it all day long, every day. Of course every tom, dick and harry out there can hang drywall and tape and float it (including me) but this important step really dictates how your final finish out will appear. My guys use all the latest tools like roto zips to cut out the boxes and mud bazookas and taping machines to float it out. There’s literally no sanding when the mud is applied correctly. Tons of other rehabbers here locally are going “handyman” style and having painters hang their drywall, tape and float it and use a hopper to spray the texture. The texture on your rehab is a very important detail, some buyers probably wont notice bad texture but the 20% who are in the know will recognize the quality. Plus, after all that work to get to this point who would want a chunky uneven surface on your walls that looks like old drywall thats been retextured and patched?  Hoppers are o.k. for small jobs but for a big house it will be hard to get even coverage and mix it consistently one bucket at a time. A professional crew will bring in a truck with a spray rig, one mixture and they spray the whole house evenly without stopping.

Once again, that’s what these guys do for a living. Once the texture truck pulls up 3 guys start running around masking off all the windows and can lights while the sprayer starts at the back of the house and works his way forward. The whole house takes about 2 hours to complete. For a professional drywall job like this we pay $10.00 per sheet for labor. That includes the hanging crew, tape and floating as well as the texture. I supplied the drywall itself, this house ate up 270  4×8 sheets. Of course we don’t use 8 footers so as to minimize the joints but thats how the labor is calculated, what actually went in was 180 12 footers. Per building code we use 5/8 on the ceiling and 1/2 on the walls. If you hire someone to do the drywall in your big rehab and he shows up with a texture hopper, run!

Raining Hard, SA Housing Market Slowing

 

I had my framing inspection Monday and he passed me on the room addition but failed the new front porch because I had trimmed it out already and he couldn’t see how it was framed…oops. He said he would pass it with a letter from an engineer so I had to pay 300 bucks to have my engineer crawl in the attic to verify my framing was done correctly and draw up a certificate on it. I went straight into hanging all the insulation and called in for the insulation inspection Tuesday. The same inspector showed up the following day and passed me on that. Meanwhile I had all the drywall delivered. It turned out to be 150 sheets for the room addition, kitchen and existing bath. Man, prices on drywall have come down; I only paid 6.50 per sheet for 12 footers. My drywall crew hung it in a day and went straight into tape and float over the weekend. It’s coming out really nice as it’s always a cool stage to get to when you can see it all sealed up and smelling new. My drywall crew charges 10 bucks/sheet to hang, tape and float and texture. Since the existing bedrooms were not demo’ed I am retexturing the whole house so it will match. These guys are real pro; they do mostly new construction so the seams come out great. For texturing they don’t mix in a hopper, a truck with a mixing machine actually shows up and they spray the whole house with one batch so it turns out consistent. Drywall finishes and textures can make it or break it when it comes down to your final product so it’s important to get pros to do this part. In the past I’ve done small rooms myself but now that we are on a larger level I always sub this out. I also got all the wood floor patching done which included all new wood in the kitchen and I also ran it into the addition. I even put the wood floors into the master bath, which will be new for me this time and should be a real dramatic touch. With all the rain lately (6 inches in 1 night) I feel lucky that at least I’m making progress inside the house. After being in a record drought all summer now we get hammered with flooding, crazy weather here in Texas.

The local San Antonio real estate market continues to slow. So far this year we’ve had only 13,185 homes sold compared to the same period last year of 14,724 and 17,981 for 2007. Last year was the big slow down here when a lot of Realtors went starving. Things picked up a little this summer mainly due to the $8000 first time buyer tax credit so it will be interesting to see what happens to the real estate market if they let it expire. There’s a bill in Congress to raise the credit to $15,000 and open it to non-owner occupied buyers which would be great for investors and definitely clean up some inventory, but I’m not sure how we could pay for it. Foreclosures at the courthouse steps here in SA are also still rising, I ran across a Realtor friends’ house while reviewing the auction list for this month. Ouch, now that’s hitting close to home. Our strategy for this market is as always be extra careful on location, buy extremely right and offer a high quality renovation and unique product for the price level. Even with the slower market there are a lot of people continuing to move here to San Antonio and we only need one buyer.

Post-Mud Walkthrough

All the tape and float is now complete and the whole house got textured today with a light orange peel. This crew did a great job and the house looks incredible. The texture guy was checking out my cactus in the front yard so I had to keep an eye on him. We ordered 13 pre-hung interior doors at roughly $68.00 ea. this week so they will get delivered Tuesday and I can start hanging them.

I chose a raised 2-panel hollow core with oil rubbed bronze hardware, which we will use throughout the house. A nice young couple has been by several times looking at the house and found me through a friend who lives on the next block. They are extremely interested and love the area however I think we might be priced a bit out of their range. It’s amazing how hot this area is and what little good inventory comes up.

Most of the houses in Mahncke Park are 2/1’s with tiny closets and not fully updated so our 3/2 with luxurious master suite will be a very unique offering and timely to coincide with the surging popularity of the area. Here is a quick walk through video from today.

Anthony Bourdain ain’t got nothin’ on me

Anthony Bourdain ain’t got nothin’ on me

Last week we passed the mechanical, framing and insulation inspections and finally got the drywall hung Friday. Eating cactus is a big thing here in San Antonio with the Mexicans.

First the sheet rock delivery driver spotted my cactus in the yard and wanted to take some with him to eat, of course I obliged. Then when the hangers showed up Friday and also got excited about it I had to give it a try. Evidently you are supposed to boil it first and then chop it up and use it with eggs in burritos or carne asada on the grill.

Eating it raw off the plant in my backyard was quite an experience; I’d have to say it tastes like room temperature cucumber. The workers I find are quite resourceful. My roofer on another house found a wild berry plant in the alley and harvested them saying he was going to make salsa. I tried those too and they were hot as hell.

I’ve seen these berries for years on plants but always assumed they were poisonous. I want to know who the first guy was to try eating these backyard plants and find out they were ok.

The tape and float crew came in over the weekend and got started as you can see. They didn’t find anything appetizing growing in the yard. By mid week we should have it all the way to texture inside and then I can take over with the paint sprayer.

My stomach was feeling a little off today; don’t think I’ll be eating any plants out of the backyard again anytime soon.

Screens

Some Tape and Float Action

Some Tape and Float Action

drywall tape and float

We passed our electrical rough-in inspection on Tuesday.  My helper Nacho and I started right away hanging the drywall and we finished the tape and float on Friday. You can really start to see how the new kitchen is going to look and it’s exciting.

All the “old house smells” are now gone as the walls are all sealed up. Additionally, I put in a new back door on the kitchen and a new sub floor in the bath. My A/C guy is coming Tuesday to start running all the duct work and install the furnace in the attic for new central air conditioning.

I originally planned to place the compressor on the side of the house so I had the electrician run the power there, but after pulling the permit we were advised that since we are in a historic neighborhood we couldn’t have the equipment visible from the street so I decided to put it in the backyard.

Another neighbor stopped by today to tell me how happy she was to see someone finally doing something with this old house.