Taking Care of Business

I had a big week on the project. Monday morning I dragged the whole family up to Ikea in Austin to buy the cool farmhouse sink for $299. After getting back I went and picked up 6 pre bull-nosed granite slabs and with the help of a friend we got all the counter tops installed by 11 pm. This is the way to do your granite counters for about $10/s.f.

I used the color Verde Butterfly this time. I had to alter my sink base cabinet to accept the farmhouse sink from Ikea but with some simple cutting out on the front and back it fit perfectly. I also got all the bathroom sinks and faucets in and the hot water heater installed.

The A/C guy finally showed up and installed the condenser so we can call in for HVAC final inspection this week. We started sanding the hardwood floors Friday and I was pleased to see that most of the problem areas are disappearing. Once we come back with the dark Walnut stain they should end up looking fantastic.

The wrought iron driveway gate is also installed now and adds a great touch. The floor refinishing guys will work through next week, while I switch gears to the landscape. My “Coming Soon” sign is in the yard now so stay tuned.

“Hurry Up and Finish So We Can Make Another Offer”

“Hurry Up and Finish So We Can Make Another Offer”

This is what the potential buyer told me Friday when he stopped by during my cabinet install. It’s the same couple that wrote the great offer a few weeks back. First time I’ve ever heard anyone say this, he’s really not shy to let me know how bad he wants it. They really love the house so I hope they get it. I passed final electrical inspection Tuesday so now we are waiting on CPS to drop the power to the new meter loop. I finished the fence, it ended up being a 4-day project with my helper and a total of 210 feet of dog-eared cedar with a rear, locking gate on the alley. Because all the cedar started to look a little “fency” I decided to go with a wrought iron driveway gate so I had my guy come and measure on Friday. After the fence I jumped right into the 30’ x 12’ rear deck project, only 2 days total to build the 360 square feet with a sweet bench to boot. When the pressure treated wood dries out for a week or so I can put some stain on it.

Deck

The cabinets arrived Thursday so I got right into hanging the boxes and vanities as well as topping out the plumbing. All that’s left for the cabinets are a few filler pieces, glass and the crown molding. The simple Shaker style with square lines really goes with the house and the wine rack adds a nice touch. All in all, I am really pleased with how my kitchen design turned out. The next major items to tackle on my list are granite slab counters for kitchen and baths, hardwood floor refinishing and A/C final inspection. I am ready to get this one done, it’s been fun but I’m feeling a little burned out from the final big push.

Kitchen

Kitchen

One more week until the Grand Opening of the $74.4 Million dollar Museum Reach section of the River Walk Extension Project. Here’s a great video containing a sneak peek of the new River Walk Museum Reach area and the artwork incorporated. Thousands of people are expected to be milling around down there next Saturday. We are planning a family stroll Sunday morning.

Land Of Manana

Land Of Manana

When my wife and I first moved to San Antonio 2 years ago an insurance agent told us the city’s nickname was “Land Of Mañana.”

We’ve found this to be totally true, it seems most workers are satisfied to poke along and only do what’s necessary to keep their family fed and stay semi-busy. Oh, I’ll just finish it tomorrow seems to be the consensus. Since the cost of living is low here there’s really no sense of urgency to get anything done.

Although we do most of the rehab work ourselves there are still sub contractors who we depend on and recently we’ve had our pace slowed down a bit.

The foundation guys disappeared for a week after there was a water leak under the house and things got a little muddy. You can’t lift the house to level it if it’s muddy because the hydraulic jacks will sink on you.

I had the meter off but it turns out it was faulty so some water was getting by even though it didn’t show it. I had SAWS come out for free and replace the water meter so we are all dry now and the guys finally got the house level and are almost done.

Ikea Kitchen Planner

The design of the kitchen cabinet layout is complete thanks again to our Swedish friend’s website. Last time we wrote that we had some people email us and ask who our Swedish friend is…for all of you who don’t get that joke our friend is Ikea! Yuk yuk yuk.

The design required us to remove the 3 existing kitchen windows and put one back in with a new location so it’s centered over where the sink will be.

Kitchen Framing

I finished the entire interior framing this week so the new laundry room, hot water heater closet, refrigerator cubby, food pantry, hallways and relocated doorways are all complete. I also patched the wood floors with Red Oak in the areas where I opened up interior walls. Once the floors are refinished you won’t be able to see the patched areas.

Patching Wood Floors

We are ready to start on the master suite room addition this week. To prepare for the room addition I had to get a 60-foot pecan tree taken down and then grind the stump down. I got a great deal from some guys to take down the tree but once again they only seemed to want to work half days and spread out a one-day job to 4 days. Getting rock bottom prices from subs is a key to our success but sometimes it slows you down a bit.

The room addition is 29 feet long so I also had CPS Energy come out and move the gas meter from the rear of the house 30 feet back in the yard. This only cost about $200, which I though was surprisingly cheap. They kind of have you over a barrel when it comes to moving their equipment so they could really charge what they want.

CPS is really easy to work with here in SA. They even came out for free when we dropped the big tree and took down the power feed to the house to make it easier and safer.

Getting Close

Getting Close

Monday started off great this week, we got another house under contract and opened escrow. (More on that later.) We’ve been getting a lot of sign calls on this house though and thought we were getting an offer but the lady who had been coming by during the rehab backed out because she bought something else. This week I put all the Frigidaire appliances in that I bought at Lowe’s. I used a stainless steel high-end digital dishwasher with the buttons on top, a 6-burner gas stove, professional series microwave/convection oven and side-by-side fridge with water and ice in the door. I also put on all the cabinet handles and installed the lazy susans in the corner base cabinets. The kitchen looks killer and is now complete! Additionally, we passed the electrical final inspection on Tuesday. All I am missing is the final on the HVAC, which should happen this week.

Craftsman Bungalow Kitchen Staging

I also put down a pallet and a half of sod in the front yard and laid out the flowerbeds, using white limestone chop rock as a border. The front porch was concrete and very cracked and uneven as you could see from previous pictures. The area by the front door is what I concentrate on the most when it comes to attention to detail. Buyers make up their mind if they like the house as they stand there while the agent fumbles with the lockbox trying to get in. I always make sure that as you look around while standing there, you can’t see any flaws. This is why I decided to build a wood front porch cap over the existing concrete slab porch. I shot down some treated studs and laid long leaf pine tongue and groove, which is historically correct for this house. After a light sanding I used oil based stain and then came back with Cabot’s satin Spar oil base varnish in 2 coats. The finished hardwood porch looks incredible and once I add the final touch by hanging the swing our curb appeal will be done.

My wife and I worked on the bathroom all day Saturday. We hung the mirror, towel bar, tp holder, did some touch up painting and installed the tub faucet and a cool rain showerhead. The bathroom is almost finished as well now, just a few punch list items left.

The rear of the house is almost done minus some general lawn clean up which I’ll do this week. I stained the deck today with a Redwood Tone oil base to protect it from the elements. I usually take Sunday off but since we are in the home stretch I decided to knock off one big item from our to-do list this morning but don’t worry, I still made it home in time to barbeque some hot wings and go for a swim in the pool. My self-imposed deadline is Friday to have the house done and get it in MLS for the weekend. I still have a big punch list of small stuff but should be able to get it all done this week.

Sage Green Kitchen!

Sage Green Kitchen!

We got the A/C roughed in this week, it has all new ducts and we relocated the furnace up into the attic. After a couple of tries we also nailed down the paint color for the kitchen.

It’s a Benjamin Moore color called Spring Valley but we went to Home Depot and had them match it in Behr because we would never pay $50 for a gallon of paint. As we said before, we really want to do something different with this house since it’s a 1920s bungalow.

By using green in the kitchen it gives it a more authentic 20’s feel and the color turned out exactly as we’d hoped. We went with the white cabinets that have some glass front doors and fluted lines.

We got most of the upper cabinets hung on the wall and started on the lowers as you can see in the picture, it’s starting to look really cool. Keep in mind that we’re going to refinish the original long leaf pine floors in the kitchen.

We’re thinking of using black granite on the counter tops and stainless appliances. White appliances would probably look really good and more period-correct but most buyers today are still looking for stainless.

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