by Tom | May 3, 2009 | Hat Trick House, San Antonio Real Estate Market, Tile
It took 4 days but I got all of the tile done minus the white grout which I’ll do Monday. I went to Daltile and opened a wholesale account to get the Arctic White ceramic because they don’t sell retail to the public.
You can find white ceramic at the big box stores but they don’t have all the special bull nosed corners necessary to do the job right. There are also 5 different shades of white ceramic tile so be careful if you are mixing pieces from Lowes and Home Depot.
I used 6”square up to the glass liner then 3×6 subway tile on top. For the floors in both baths I used 18” travertine. I spent about $900 for ceramic and $350 for the travertine for both bathrooms. We generally budget $3500 for a complete high-end bath remodel so we are in line here with this expensive tile.
I think the classic white ceramic mixed with the modern travertine and glass achieves a good balance of old and new. The cabinets are also now officially ordered with a 12-day turn around out of Dallas.
We had several new, interested parties contact us this week including a realtor representing a buyer whom had heard of us through a lady 3 blocks over.
She knows the area extremely well and didn’t flinch when we had told her our plan on listing in the 300k range and in fact she also was aware of the recent price increases in the area including the 2/1 that’s under contract for 249k without major upgrades. There is virtually no inventory in our area and it’s also helping push prices up.
We spoke about why Mahncke Park is seeing such good appreciation while for the most part the rest of San Antonio is staying flat. She felt its partly because it’s the second best choice for a historical neighborhood to King William/Monte Vista where prices are substantially higher.
I still feel strongly it’s mostly due to the San Antonio Riverwalk extension to Witte Museum and all the Broadway revitalization. Additionally, M.P. was just under priced for its location for a long time and is now just catching up. San Antonio Board of Realtors put out a press release regarding March 2009 real estate sales statistics and first quarter trends. It said sales activity had dropped by 25% but prices remain stable.
From talking to struggling agents on the front line it seems to me that activity has slowed a bit more but as one agent just told me the other day “There are just too many agents in San Antonio, all hanging on after the boom years when Californians were buying 3-4 houses sight unseen.”
Those days are gone now because investors in California and other bubble markets can get cash flowing properties closer to home and be better positioned for the next up cycle in real estate prices.
by Tom | Apr 19, 2009 | Exterior Paint, Hat Trick House, Interior Paint, Tile
It’s been a crazy week jumping from one project to another and making offers on 2 other properties. We started to paint the exterior and got rained out on day 2 of a 3 day rain. We did however get 2 coats on the eaves painted with Benjamin Moore’s Monroe Bisque.
Then we got 2 coats up on the body of Benjamin Moore Tate Olive before the rain started. We are doing a 4-color scheme here but the 2 additional colors are used sparingly on window screens and accents.
If you are ever painting and it starts to rain STOP immediately because the paint will not dry! I still have a day or so left on the trim and columns but it looks like we are due for a sunny week. The green body color came out sweet.
was simultaneously spraying the interior trims and doors with High Gloss White. This is tricky business because you can’t have any runs but need complete coverage.
It’s very similar to painting a car (or in my case a beach cruiser frame with spray paint). Multiple thin coats is the trick. Halfway through the day the clouds rolled in and it started dumping so with the moisture in the air this paint just sat there wet and wanted to sag.
We quickly got lights and heaters to speed up the drying, whew, close call. So we are ready now to put the color on the walls, which I’ll cut in with a brush and roll soon.
We still haven’t pulled the trigger on cabinets yet. An old friend that I reunited with on Facebook this week has a cabinet shop in Houston and can order from several manufacturers and have them delivered right to our job site. I am choosing white shaker style cabinets from Woodmont called Hearthstone.
For the price that I would have gotten cheap Ikea cabinets I can have these better white maple ones. The cabinets might take 2 weeks to arrive so in the meantime I’ll tile the bathrooms.
I finished all the hardibacker floors and shower walls since it was raining so I’m ready to tile now. We finally decided to go with 18” travertine on the floors but white subway tile for the tub surround and shower with glass tile accents we found online.
There’s a great site called glasstilestore.com that offers free shipping on some items in case you want some glass tile for a backsplash or accents.
by Tom | Jun 22, 2008 | Craftsman Bungalow, Tile
A 4-day tile project ate up my week! I’ve done my fair share of tile jobs but never all the bathroom walls; it was like doing one giant shower. I used a white ceramic 3×5 subway tile pattern changing to diagonal 4” at the top and separated by a sage green glass liner.
The tile job seemed to go on forever. I also mixed in a few green glass accent tiles in the octagon white ceramic floor pattern. The sage green glass accent ties into the kitchen color while the original 1920 bathroom pedestal sink matches the farmhouse kitchen sink.
You just couldn’t have gone into this bathroom with the typical travertine and had it flow right. I haven’t used white ceramic on a remodel in a long time; while it’s not the common choice these days, for this project it really captured the period feel we are after.
I’ll set the toilet and original pedestal sink in on Monday and it will all be done. The bathroom is really cool; it reminds me of a grandma’s house but in an updated, fresh way. Ah, to feel those octagon tiles on your bare feet after getting out of the Jacuzzi tub.
We’ve had a group of ladies stop by the house twice now. They noticed the rehab in progress and came up and knocked last week. One lady seems really into what we are doing, it would be nice to have someone interested before it’s finished but my philosophy is not to show your product or advertise it until its 100% complete so I am not that anxious to impress them.
I know another investor that starts the rehab and then lines up his buyers and lets them make changes along the way. IMO, working with buyers nitpicking colors and changing things isn’t worth the drama.
That’s why I am not a general contractor! I would rather use my own creativity, build a unique product, and then throw it out there into the marketplace. After all, that’s why I enjoy doing this anyway.
