Wanted: new tenants

Today marked the absolute donenatudeness* of our last vacant apartment.  The flooring guys installed carpet throughout the apartment on Thursday.  Today we did the final vacuum, installed a final few phone jack covers, and put drawer slides in the stove drawer so it opens and closes easily.  All in all, this apartment is sweet.

Now we need a tenant.  Our property manager showed it this week to the perfect tenants.  They liked the apartment and they seemed perfect.  Perfect, that is, until they said they had an 80 pound dog.  Screeeech.  The brakes locked up on that conversation.  No, no, no.  A small dog maybe - 5, 10, 15 pounds, maybe.  But 80?  To quote the Wizard's guard in the Emerald City, "Not no way. Not no how!"

Is there anyone left who doesn't own a big dog????

*Donenatudeness:  From the root word, donenatude.  Meant as a reference to something that is finished, or complete. 

Independence Day - almost

It's almost Independence Day, and I'm not talking about July 4th.   If you've been following this blog at all, you know we've been working on 102 forever.  It is our last vacant unit - and it's been vacant since last June.  Our Independence Day will be the day we take the lock box off 102 and declare that it is done.

The tenants moved out last June (2010) without notice owing us a boatload of money - surprise!  It was a mess.  There was food in the cupboards, trash everywhere, a mattress and other "furniture" left behind, feces on the bathroom floor, and the carpet was Nasty, with a capital "N." 

So, facing this mammoth task, we focused our efforts and money on other vacant units that we could turn around faster.  It sat vacant month after month after month.  Finally, in March we turned out attention to 102.  When Courtney moved out in April we were briefly distracted by refreshing her apartment. 

But, basically we've spent every weekend in 102.  Here's the drill Saturday morning - arrive at 9:00 a.m. and work til 5:00 or 6:00.  Sunday work from 2:00 - 5:00.  That's about 22 total 'man hours' per weekend. 

Here's what we've done:

Downstairs bathroom:

• CLEAN the downstairs BATHROOM.  That was job #1.  Bleeech.
• Replace medicine cabinet
• Replace light bar

Tear out carpets (all of them).
Scrape the popcorn stuff off living room ceiling and refinish and paint
Paint (God bless Tino who painted the apartment in exchange for rent that month)
Replace outlets throughout the apartment.  They were all loose and cords would actually just fall out.
Kitchen:

• Replace back door with new steel door (all the glass panes were broken out and door was falling apart). 
• Replace broken window (we did that last June when they first moved out)
• Replace floor in laundry room (not floor covering..the floor clear down to the joists.  It was rotten, rotten, rotten.)
• Replace hot water heater,
• Lay new kitchen floor.  We're experimenting with self stick floor tiles.  I think I'm gonna like them!  They have a nice weight and we'll be able to replace one at a time when they get gouged.
• Clean cabinets (inside and out) and replace hardware
• Clean nasty refrigerator, find and replace door shelf brackets.
• Replace kitchen blinds.  (Bali makes some very nice vinyl blinds that are super easy to install!)
• Replace dining room light fixture

Upstairs bath: 

• Remove grout from tub tile, and re-grout.  Easy to say, hours and hours to do!
• Replace upstairs bathroom floor.
• Paint vanity.
• Replace wallboard behind toilet. 
• Replace medicine cabinet.
• Replace outlet - yes, honestly, the outlet was fried!

Replace smoke detector and CO2 detector.
Replace light fixtures in almost every room
Remove bi-fold closet doors, scrub down, and re-install. 
Remove sliding patio door in master bedroom and replace with 6' window. 
Fix the rotten floor along the base of the patio door.

Buy new carpet for both bedrooms, hallway, stairs, and living room.  615 square feet. 
The guy is coming to measure on Tuesday.  Hopefully we can get the carpet installed yet this week. 
I'm exhausted!  Going to bed for about a month!