Remodeling projects.
 

Here is a link to my new thread over on the UE forum. I just do not feel like rebuilding the whole thread on here, because it would take me an hour or more to get it all setup in here moving photos. So here is the LINK

http://www.unlimitedengineering.com/...=23282&acon=39

Share your thoughts, and also enjoy the experience that I went through for our house in Vallejo, California. Cheers...

Gotta be a UE member to view it. F#@! Robin Oury and his overpriced crap.

Guest
 

Sorry about that Harold. The UE site does allow visitors to look around so I am not sure why you are not able to look around and read through threads. In fact I just checked and there are 11 guests in there right now reading my thread.

Yeah I can't get in either.

Nick

Sorry guys
 

OK guys I tried to take the easy route with this, but I guess I will just have to rebuild it in here as well. Give me some time. Its nearly dinner time here so it might have to wait until this evening. Thanks for letting me know.

Remodeling projects.
 

I figured since we have so many different remodeling projects going on that it would be nice to start a thread where we can all place info and pics of our various projects. This way people can share in those experiences and maybe learn a few things from each other. My big project was done on a house that my wife picked up as an investment property that she purchased around 2001. The problem was that it was built in the late 1950's and had not been upgraded in any way to keep it worth keeping. Anyway in early 2010 we decided that it would be a good idea to do some upgrades and bring the house up to date so we could get it rented out. In April we purchased about $20K in material and appliances and stored them in our house. In June I flew back from Korea and moved into the house and slept on an air mattress for about 6 weeks in order to remain focused on the project. The amount of work that was accomplished is astonishing to us, and the knowlege I gained working on this project was life changing for both of us. We had 4 contractor bids on the job totaling over $100K just for labor. We completely transformed this house for about $30K and did all of the work ourselves. 90% of the work was done with my two hands, and I have to say that I am quite proud of the way it turned out. I will share some pics with you guys so you can see what was done. I am sorry that I do not have any real good pics of what the place looked like prior to the start of my remodel. I will have to see if the wife has some for me to post up.

Here is the start of the project
 

First thing I did was gut the entire kitchen, and move all of the old kitchen cabinets and mount them in the garage for a new workshop area.

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...ROJECT/148.jpg

Oh yea this is where I slept for six weeks.

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...ROJECT/048.jpg

First phase.
 

The second part of the project was removing the old power panel and installing a new one. The ground wires from the original panel were never even grounded. They were all twisted together and left hanging inside the wall. Nice huh?

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Once this was completed I was able to get power back up and hook up the hot water heater and digital timer so that I was able to take hot showers and do my laundry. Of course I had to finish up building the new laundry room and get the washer & dryer set installed.

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...ROJECT/035.jpg

SO I had to remove the old gas hot water heater from insdie this closet and re-route the piping into the garage where I mounted the new energy efficiant electirc hot water heater. I used slip fittings for the first time and man those fittings are great. Easy to install, no soldering, and no leaks either.

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...ROJECT/079.jpg

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More photos
 

This digital timer has a 45 day back up battery built in so that if power is lost, or you decide to take a vacation and turn off your power that it will maintain its memory until you can get it turned back on. Pretty cool feature.
http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...ROJECT/075.jpg

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Then I built the new pantry into the same closet space. The new W&D set barely fit, but we squeezed it in nicely.

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...Y2KONE/089.jpg

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This was after Best Buy had to switch out the pair three different times due to mix ups with their delivery contractor.

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...Y2KONE/235.jpg

More work
 

Some of the work that was done I do not have very good pictures of, like the door between the house and the garage for instance. By law, and local codes it has to be a 30 minute fire door that closes automatically(spring loaded). It was very small and hard to get appliances and furniture in and out of the house. Considering that this was going to be a rental home I wanted to make it easier for tenants to move in and out of the house. So I removed the old door, re-framed the opening, and put in a code ready 42" fire door. Leaving tons of clearance for just about any kind of appliance or furniture to move in and out easily.

There were also four very large sliding glass patio style doors in this house. Why I do not know. They were way too large for the house and very old and ugly aluminum frame single pain doors, and the locks had been broken for years. I removed three of these doors, framed up the openings, and installed all new large double pain modern sliding windows. The fourth and final door was removed, re-framed, and a new modern security sliding door was installed for the back porch entryway.

The final phase of this part of the project was to replace all of the remaining windows in the house with modern sliding double pain windows. Replacing these windows was much easier, because they were all direct fit windows for the old openings, or very close so that framing was simple. At the same time while replacing all of these windows I figured it would be a good time to remove all of the siding materials from teh outside of the house. I removed over 1000 lbs of old steel sears siding, two walls covered with very ugly fiberglass siding, and two walls of faugh concrete stone style stuco. Removing the concrete was the most difficult part of the entire project, because of the sheer size and weight of this material. Although I did find a tricky was to get it off of the walls using a steel 3/8" cable. I managed to get one corner of the concrete loose and wrapped the cable around it, then I attached the other end to the toe-hitch of a huge Chevy Silverado truck and pulled it loose. It peeled right off of the house like a big piece of tape. BUT because it was all lathed together I had to cut it off piece by piece and remove it to a dump site. I did manage to get a few shots of this just as I started the job and once it was all down.

I also tore down two 10' sections of privacy fencing on either side of the house and rebuilt the fence and installed new heavy duty security gates for easy owner access. I replaced all four of the outside water spickets with new 1/4 turn ball valves. And I also had to create a new cement two step cement staircase for the back door. This will stay in place and eventually we will build a 400-500 sq ft wooden deck over it. I also removed the old front door, and tore down the entire glass entryway and reconfigured the opening to center the door and install a brand new beautiful fiberglass security door with triple latching system. Which allowed us to remove the 50 year old security gate off the front of the house. I also cut a mail slot into the front wall of the garage closest to the sidewalk, and built a new mail box system. This makes it easier for mail delivery, keeps the mail completely out of sight, and makes it so the resident never has to leave the house to collect the mail, because it gets deposited into the mail box in the garage. Another home made asset that saved money and time, and yet improved the overall workings of our home.

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...ROJECT/049.jpg

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...ROJECT/136.jpg

Old fencing coming down, and new fencing going up. I even recycled the old 4X4 posts and made a home made custom pot rack for the kitchen. It is now hanging over the new island.

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...JECT/119-2.jpg

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I had to find a way to remove two complete walls of fake rock stuco (heavy cement). I tried doing it by hand and after several hours if prying at it with a 6 foot pry-bar I decided to try something a little different. So I picked up a 3/8" steel cable and wrapped around the top corner and hooked the other end to a toe hitch and pulled it right off the house like a big bandaid. I was so relieved when it came pealing off the wall.

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...ROJECT/052.jpg

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The home stretch.
 

The home stretch was seeing the kitchen coming together. I spent a good part of the afternoon mounting the floor cabinets and that night I managed to hang the uppers. Seeing that completed was just awsome.

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Yeah, and I tried to sign up and never got anything back, twice. I guess the place must be limited, cause I am not there. Yeah, and the UE stuff always did seem pricey. Just a maxx truck even if it is made of al... Metal bends when you hit a tree, don't care how nicely it is machined.

Now on the read all of Jerrys pics and look at his words...

Opinions
 

No its not that James. Things have been pretty much dead over there for quite a while now. Robin started two threads one year ago. The first was him sharing pics and info on his big move to a new location where he was setting up a new shop, R/C track, and remodeling an old house. The second was a shout out to everyone asking his members for suggestions about UE producing more or even new parts, but the only thing that ever came out of it was some new super shock kits, set back arms, and high impact arms. Since then he has practically been off the radar. I have tried several times to request any kind of info on any plans he might have for future releases, but he never responded.

Outside of that I have made a few good friends on there Just like I have in here, so I am in there daily exchanging conversation. So there are a few of us who keep open threads sharing info about general topics like this one going. R/C wise there are a few threads, but nothing spectacular.

Back on topic.
 

Slowly but surely the kitchen began to come together for me.

I was able to put three cabinets together and create a new island.
http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...ROJECT/103.jpg

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...ROJECT/104.jpg

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Completion of the kitchen
 

Once I was able to get all of the cabinets mounted then the only contractor used on this project was called in to install the new granite countertops.

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...ROJECT/211.jpg

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...ROJECT/221.jpg

Finally this is what I was able to come up with.
http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...ROJECT/246.jpg

I even used some of the old fencing posts and recycled them creating a home made custom pot rack.
http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...ROJECT/248.jpg

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...ROJECT/296.jpg

Soon after I completed the kitchen the wife flew in from Korea and got to see the results. She was brought to tears seeing how beautiful everything turned out. She knew most of my plans, but there were extras that she had no idea about that were a total surprize to her. Once the kitchen was completed then it was time to get the rest of the house completed. Remember this was all done during a 6 week vacation period.

Now to finish up the project
 

Some of the work that was done I do not have very good pictures of, like the door between the house and the garage for instance. By law, and local codes it has to be a 30 minute fire door that closes automatically(spring loaded). It was very small and hard to get appliances and furniture in and out of the house. Considering that this was going to be a rental home I wanted to make it easier for tenants to move in and out of the house. So I removed the old door, re-framed the opening, and put in a code ready 42" fire door. Leaving tons of clearance for just about any kind of appliance or furniture to move in and out easily.

There were also four very large sliding glass patio style doors in this house. Why I do not know. They were way too large for the house and very old and ugly aluminum frame single pain doors, and the locks had been broken for years. I removed three of these doors, framed up the openings, and installed all new large double pain modern sliding windows. The fourth and final door was removed, re-framed, and a new modern security sliding door was installed for the back porch entryway.

The final phase of this part of the project was to replace all of the remaining windows in the house with modern sliding double pain windows. Replacing these windows was much easier, because they were all direct fit windows for the old openings, or very close so that framing was simple. At the same time while replacing all of these windows I figured it would be a good time to remove all of the siding materials from teh outside of the house. I removed over 1000 lbs of old steel sears siding, two walls covered with very ugly fiberglass siding, and two walls of faugh concrete stone style stuco. Removing the concrete was the most difficult part of the entire project, because of the sheer size and weight of this material. Although I did find a tricky was to get it off of the walls using a steel 3/8" cable. I managed to get one corner of the concrete loose and wrapped the cable around it, then I attached the other end to the toe-hitch of a huge Chevy Silverado truck and pulled it loose. It peeled right off of the house like a big piece of tape. BUT because it was all lathed together I had to cut it off piece by piece and remove it to a dump site. I did manage to get a few shots of this just as I started the job and once it was all down.

I also tore down two 10' sections of privacy fencing on either side of the house and rebuilt the fence and installed new heavy duty security gates for easy owner access. I replaced all four of the outside water spickets with new 1/4 turn ball valves. And I also had to create a new cement two step cement staircase for the back door. This will stay in place and eventually we will build a 400-500 sq ft wooden deck over it. I also removed the old front door, and tore down the entire glass entryway and reconfigured the opening to center the door and install a brand new beautiful fiberglass security door with triple latching system. Which allowed us to remove the 50 year old security gate off the front of the house. I also cut a mail slot into the front wall of the garage closest to the sidewalk, and built a new mail box system. This makes it easier for mail delivery, keeps the mail completely out of sight, and makes it so the resident never has to leave the house to collect the mail, because it gets deposited into the mail box in the garage. Another home made asset that saved money and time, and yet improved the overall workings of our home.

This was a pocket door leading into the kitchen, and I never liked it, so I removed it totally and opened up the entranceway to about 5 feet.
http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...ROJECT/125.jpg

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...JECT/132-1.jpg

There was a huge fireplace smack dab in the middle of the livingroom, and man was it ugly. I just did not have the time to tear it down and remove it, so I repainted it, and built a wall next to it installing a closet on the back side and created an office space or even a fourth bedroom.

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/q...ROJECT/143.jpg

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Overall
 

Overall the place turned out quite nice compared to how it looked two months prior. After I was able to complete all of the major projects I replaced every inch of door, window, and floor trim molding and installed all new 3" moldings to make the place look more modern. In the last two weeks of my vacation my wife and her family came in and painted the entire interior and cleaned the place up. We had already replaced the roof, and had a brand new furnace installed, and the last thing we had done was to have another family friend come in and stuco the outside of the house with "Arizona Sunrise" colored stuco. One of our neighbors is a landscaper so he keeps the front and back yards tip top, and for a final piece of insurance we hired a home warranty program that covers the entire house structure and all of the electrical, and plumming systems including all of the appliances. The emergency call system is through the Sears company. With us traveling around the world we just don't have the time to worry or deal with incidentals like that. The house was rented out in Jan/2011 and the new tenants just love the house.

So who else has remodeling projects out there to share with us?

Your an inspiration Jerry! I wish I did get into remodelling. Ironic since I work in construction:sarcastic: Given that your family was not there at the time is the best way to do it. There is no way my missus would go through that. Nice work mate.

Thanks
 

Yea thanks. Actually my wife loves to assist when I am doing stuff like that, and she is great at cleaning up behind me as I move along. BUT one of us has to work and pay the bills. Plus I can move a lot faster and get more done most of the time when I work on my own. While I was on this adventure I got up every single morning around 0700 and jumped right in with the next project. I worked pretty much none stop throughout the day and most nights colapsed into bed around midnight or later.

I took one day off during the entire 6 weeks to take one of our son's to the local Six Flags amuesment park there in Vallejo. It was a nice break in the action getting to ride the coasters and have some fun, and after I took him back over to his grandparents house I got right back to work that evening. The experience was exhausting, but I had goals to meet, and the overall meaning of this whole project was to improve this house and create an environment that would allow us to get the house rented out for a reasonable monthly amount to help pay the mortgage. So I had an internal pride that would not allow me to fail. There were friends and family members who stopped in from time to time to lend a hand for a few hours here and there, but the overall responsibility lay with me to get it all done. People were amazed at how much I was able to accomplish every time they would show up and see a completely new house. I kept going no matter what came up or what obstacles got in my way. My personal goal was to complete at least one major project every day, as well as working on little items along the way to break the manotiny.

So thanks for the kind words and for taking the time to look through my adventure. I never really worked in construction, but always wanted to. I took a Vo-tech class in high school "Building Trades" and learned enough to help me have the confidence to take on just about any task, and find my way to a resolution. I do love doing stuff like this so that is my ace in the hole so to speak, and I am passionate about creating things that show great quality and will last forever. So this was a fun process to go through. It is challening, but nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it. The only true limits we have are those which we set in our own minds. Life is good.

I'm speechless, awesome job. I myself may be getting with you later Jerry, as we just wrapped up the move this weekend into the new house. Gots some projects on the horizon.

Home projects are fun, and you look to have done a great job Jerry.

I am currently in the middle of adding a 5th bedroom to my mother-in-law's house. We "found" a large attic area above her bedroom, and managed a 11'x13' room out of the space. I put in the floor in 2 nights and my cousin is doing the wiring. I have to reframe 2 closets and put in 3 doors. Lots of fun.

Thanks guys
 

Thanks Reno just shoot me a PM and ask away. I enjoy helping others with stuff like this.

Thanks for the compliment James. So where are the pictures? We want to read your experiences and see the photos of what you started with and how it turns out.

Its great to see so many others not afraid to give the DIY a shot on projects like this one. As long as no one gets hurt and your efforts don't end up costing you more to fix your mess its all good.

I was a framing carpenter by trade (now a professional smartass) and growing up my dad was a general contractor. I also lived on farm growing up, anything mechanical or carpentry related was fixed on the spot by me and pops. He often said, "why pay someone else to do it and pay for their vacation to Hawaii, we'll fix it ourselves AND go to Hawaii".

Anyhoo- That's some awesome work Jerry! Not only the work itself, but the dedication and self discipline to get it done in the alloted time. I am very impressed Jerry. There are lots of men half your age (40:lol:) that couldn't do what you did.

Thank you for re-posting this here, I enjoyed seeing your work:yes:

Contractors
 

Thanks a lot Harold. My father use to tell me pretty much the same thing as I was growing up. He said he wished he had more talent & skills so that he could fix more stuff on his own, and that made me want to learn and know more. It only made sense to me that the more you know how to do on your own, the less you end up spending to pay someone else to do it for you. On average you can save 60% TO 80% by DIY compared to spending your hard earned money having someone else do it. The other factor is that when you do it yourself you know it gets done right and it won't have to be re-done a few months later, because some jackass ripped you off and used cheap materials and did the job halfassed as well.

Thanks for the compliments sir. Too many contractors today look for shortcuts to save time and money so they can quickly move on to another sucker, and we end up getting screwed paying for a job that only gets done halfway right. I don't trust any of them, and I would rather keep that money in my pocket.

I also redid my kitchen recently. Removed a wall, rewired one side of the house (the orignal electrician wired thru a fir down that I had to remove, asshat...) moved gas and water lines and welded up and installed a 15' steel I beam and steel columns. Also had to demo around 1500lbs of bricks and move them manually... Allotted 12 grand inc the 3800 for quartz countertops and 5000 for the apliances. Spent the rest on a cabinet and some lighting and plumbing. God only knows what labor would have cost, maybe 15 grand...

Also plan to redo my closet, extend it into the attic space and double the size. Should be fun, attic work in the summer.

Good lighting
 

I never do attic work during the daylight hours, because of the heat. Put in some really good lighting even if only temporary. You can also open up one of your A/C ducts while you do the job and help to keep things a bit cooler while you work, than seal the duct back up. Plus do the work at night, when things cool down somewhat. Doing custom work of any kind is always a treat, because you get to do it your way, and don't have to explain crap to some half whit so he can screw it up and charge you through the nose for his version or interpritation of your expectations.

You been busy! :gasp:

You sure have the right to look back at it now and be proud sir, looks like you did real good. The place looks awesome, you should get a very good return on the investment not to mention that you can rent the place at a much higher price. From the pics I have only one suggestion, the sliding doors I saw in front of the washer/dryer. Maybe put a pair of folding doors instead so that you have access to both the washer and dryer at the same time. Or maybe you've done it already and I missed the pic.

I couldn't believe that the whole electrical system was not grounded to anything all this time.

I really like what you did to the place mate. Looks really good. I love the kitchen especially. I bet the wife loves it too. I also like what you did with the old kitchen cupboards. Brilliant idea instaling them in the garage. I helped a friend rip out his old kitchen and never thought of doing that with the cupboards. Anyway we had tons of fun smashing them with 10lb sledge hammers. LOL.

I could never get motivated to do that kind of work. For what ever reason I just don't like remodeling. I am the type of guy to smash everything with a hammer and start fresh. I built my first house. Did lot of the final work my self like tiling, painting, layed down the floorboads,concreting around the backyard and the driveway, all the garden beds.......... When I split with my ex and had to sell the place I was pretty shattered. All that work and I didn't even get a chance to properly enjoy and appreciate it. My curerent hose I just bought brand new from a builder. Paid a little more but the only seat I broke was moving in. Yeah, I guess you could call me lazy.:lol:

Anyway just registered with UE forum. Is it any good?

the site owner has lost interest and you will never get approved. Atleast I never did. PM me if you do!

Thank you sir.
 

It does feel pretty good about the whole situation, and the wife and I are proud of what we were able to do with such little money and not a lot of time. It was either that or file bankruptcy on it. I wish it was so we could reap great benefits from it. With the market crash the mortgage is upside down by about $100K making it impossible to sell without losing even more, and the rent still does not cover the entire mortgage, but we are in a much better spot now with it rented out. It sat empty for two years while we were covering the entire monthly cost of owning it (mortgage, taxes, & insurance) in California. In 2009 it cost us nearly $50k in expenses just to keep it out of the banks hands. I worked all year just to see about 90% of my pay go right into the operating cost of that house.

We still feel fortunate compared to alot of others, watching so many walk away from their homes who are in similar situations and just can not keep up. We still have steady income and the house is now rented out for the next couple of years at least. SO we have some breathing room for now.

The one thing the wife said as we had to leave Cali and get back to work is that with all of the work I put into the house she wishes that we could live in it and enjoy the beautiful environment that we created there. There is still work to be done, but we just don't have any extra capital to put into it. We may end up retiring there is things do not change over the next 5 years or so. I was hoping to sell it and build our own house on a 5 acre lot some place quiet.

Well that was two minutes wasted that I will bever get back. LOL. No worries dude, I'll let you know if it happens.

Just don't know.
 

Yea I don't know what to say about that anymore. The site is still in operation, but the owner has pretty much abandoned the place. He pops in once in a while and makes comments on threads, and there are still a few items in his store selling, but other than that he is a sleep at the wheel. There is nothing new coming out of the store and he seems to have pretty much given up on doing much of anything for his customers these days. He even opened a thread last April asking for suggestions about parts requests that he should get back into production and sell, but nothing ever came of it. He did make a short run just before that of setback arms, and high impact arms, and he got supershocks and shock parts back in stock. After that things seemed to go dead. We can only guess that the response was not what he was hoping it would be money wise.

He moved to a new location last summer, and started sharing photos of the move with everyone on the site including the new shop, his new house and remodels project, and even pics of a site where he was going to build a new R/C track on his property. We don't know if he got hurt, ran out of money, or got sick, but everything just went quiet around June or July of last year. I have tried to provoke him to pop in and share with us whats going on, but he just ignores any questions about the prospect of any future for his business. The only reason he even still has a forum is because he once made some of the best R/C gear in the business, and we would all love to see him going strong again. If not for that hope I think he would have closed up shop a long time ago. If Traxxas treated people the way he does no one would buy anything from them. Its the engineering design, and quality of the UE parts that have kept UE afloat this long. I love UE products, and I really do enjoy the UE site and the people on there, but from a business standpoint it sucks. I kind of feel sorry for the business, because it is really great stuff, but if you ignore your customers there isn't much hope for a future.

I was not aware of that. That's very unfortunate but what you did was probably the best solution so you can keep the property and keep it from depreciating even more. Nevertheless, I'm sure all the work you did brought the value up. Have you had it appraised by an agent just to find out how well you did?

Not yet.
 

No not yet. We were in too much of a hurry to get a renter in the house paying a monthly payment so we could breath a little bit. I had no doubt that this was the only way for us to go in order to keep things moving forward. We have no idea when the market will turn around, but hopefully before we retire stateside in 2018 so we will have a reasonable choice as to which way to go with the house at that point. We know it has to have appreciated somewhat, but probably not to near the level of the $100K difference that now exists. I was just reading that the market in California is expected to drop even more over the next year or so before any kind of recovery can be seen. A lot of people are just walking away and leaving the mess for the Banks to deal with, but this also ruins your credit for the next ten years. I understand that some people have no choice, but a lot of them do. Randy Quade's house in Cali was upside-down over 1million$$$$$$$ so he lit it on fire and moved to Canada last year. He did an interview a few weeks ago and he said screw the Obama Administration and what they have done to our country. He has no plans on ever returning to the USA. Some people just go too far in the wrong direction. We are trying our best to remain positive and move forward like Americans have done for hundreds of years. Hopefully things will get better for all of us.

[QUOTE=JERRY2KONE;404922]Randy Quade's house in Cali was upside-down over 1million$$$$$$$ so he lit it on fire and moved to Canada last year. He did an interview a few weeks ago and he said screw the Obama Administration and what they have done to our country. QUOTE]

Pity he buned the house. He should have just lit the Obama administration on fire and saved the rest of us the trouble... I do have a little more respect for him now.

Saving benefits
 

I still have to get more pictures off of the wife's computer showing the completed stuco job, and how the place looks now, but I will move them over here soon. One of the nicest features of our new kitchen was the included "Soft closers" on all of the drawers and cabinet doors. A must have once you see how they work. No more kids slamming drawers or doors. The range is one of those new glass top stoves that clean up easily with a built in convection style forced air oven. The micorwave is one of those convection micros that allows you to brown food as it is heated inside and out. The 3/4hp disposal is a double encased stainless steel unit that is nearly silent compared to the usual models, and came with a five year Manufacturers warranty. Plus it was an inventory close out item marked down 45% ($200 down to $110).

Here is why I shop at The Home Depot. The first noted benefit was that I received a special 10% discount on every item purchased for being a US millitary retired VET. Way to go Home Depot. The fridge and dishwasher were some of the best that Home Depot had to offer at the time, and all of these appliances were GE models on sale (reduced 20-30%) because of some special manufacturers discount program, plus there was a 10% sale on all of their appliances that were rated with some kind of 5 star efficiancy rating(state sponsered), and we got another 10% off of everything we purchased during that month for using a new Home Depot credit card for the purchases. We saved a ton of money because of their wonderful sales and policies. All totaled we received these appliances for less than half of the sticker price or MSRP listed on these particular items. Some or most of them were at a 60%-70% deep discount. Even the cashier was amazed at how little we had to pay for them. Just to give you an idea the fridge/freezer was listed at over $1500, but we got it for just under $650. We were able to purchase nearly $4000 worth of kitchen appliances for less than $1800 after taxes. Can't beat that with a stick. To top that off we purchased all of the kitchen cabinets and solid granite countertops under one of their special discounted programs for supporting the military/VETs which took 10%-15% off the top, and with the added credit card discount we saved nearly 30% on those as well. Home Depot is just awsome

More work done.
 

I forgot to mention that there were also a few things going on in the background while I was busy doing my thing. My wife's cussin painted all of the POPCORN ceilings for us, plus he did all of the sheetrock repair work for me after I was tearing into walls left and right trying to get all of the wiring done right and installing all of the new windows and doors. I poured some new cement and widened the front walkway two feet, and then painted it green. We rebuilt both bathrooms and put in all new fixtures. We replaced every doorknob & dead bolt with new hardware.

I also had to jack up the backside of the house 2.5" to compensate for some foundation issues. I had to repair/replace some rotted wood under the house before lifting it up to level that side of the house. I replaced the garage door, and installed a new Sears door opener. There was a back door in the garage seen in one of the first pics that was actually an interior door. I ripped that doorway out and installed a larger new metal clad security door with a new frame and triple locking system. There was also a window on the backside of the garage, which I removed and boarded up the opening. That is now stuco'd over. No one likes to have thieves breaking into the garage and stealing their tools, right? So why make it easy for them? I mounted a utility ceiling fan to keep air moving during the summer months in the garage for the new working area. We left the old side-by-side fridege freezer (two years old) in the garage for secondary cold storage. I know I am missing other work that we did, but trying to remember everything is hard at my age. And finally one of my most important contributions to this project is that I do not use nails for much of anything these days. About the only thing that received nails was the new floor moldings. Everything else was built or put together with heavy duty corrsion protected screws. Nothing in this house comes apart without using a big crow bar or a piece of heavy duty equipment. most of the exterior wall frame work was installed with pressure treated lumber to keep the termites from eating any of it. I never understood why houses are not built with PTL in the first place.

All of the plumming valves were replaced with 1/4 turn ball valves. The only place I did not work on this house was in the attic. There was never an access built into the attic of this house, and because of the daily high temps in this region during the month of June I stayed out of the attic. Even when I installed the new exhaust fans in both of the bathrooms I decided to mount them into the exterior wall just so I did not have to access the attic space. Maybe next year I will open it up just to pump in some added insulation to keep the heat out. I was actually not that bad in the house temp wise.

On the other side of the coin
 

[QUOTE=lincpimp;404928] Well on the other side of the coin Nicolas Cage just sold his 27 acre Rode Isalnd estate for 6.2 Million dollars. BUT he paid $19.6M when he purchased it just a few years ago. He lost about $13M. I can't even swallow the idea of losing $100K, let alone millions. I wonder if all these liberal hippie movie stars are still on the Obama band wagon while they are losing millions of US dollars, and will also be getting hit harder with bigger taxes? Things that make you go Hmmmm???

Sliding doors
 

[QUOTE=mistercrash;404897]You been busy! :gasp:

You sure have the right to look back at it now and be proud sir, looks like you did real good. The place looks awesome, you should get a very good return on the investment not to mention that you can rent the place at a much higher price. From the pics I have only one suggestion, the sliding doors I saw in front of the washer/dryer. Maybe put a pair of folding doors instead so that you have access to both the washer and dryer at the same time. Or maybe you've done it already and I missed the pic.

Just to get back to you about your suggestion for the laundry room doors. We had folding doors on that closet for years and have had to replace them 4 times since 2004. Those kind of doors are much too easy to damage and never last for very long. With renters in the house we needed to install something that would hold up to some abuse as well as look good. I used that washer & dryer for several weeks with those sliding doors installed and honestly it was no big deal. If you open the left side in front of the dryer you can reach right into the washer and move the clothes to the dryer with ease. If for any reason you need full access the doors lift right up and come out of the opening. The doors are actually fiberglass formed over a metal frame structure, which makes them a pretty tough alternative so they will hold up much better in the long run. Good eye though. Experience is the mother of invention, right?

We are actually hoping to stop by there during our summer vacation to speak with the tenants to see how they are enjoying the place. From all the reports so far they are loving how the place turned out. I will be installing one of those morden decor style heavy duty security screened gates at the entrance so they are free to keep the front door open for better air flow without being worried about anyone walking into the hosue unexpectedly. Most summer days there is a nice breeze that blows in this area. There is no A/C installed.