Yea! A we have a toilet - well kinda.

Utilities -

If I had to sum up the last week in one word, it would be 'utilities.'  The folks from Air Extreme (heating/AC guys)  got furnace fixed, gas lines ready for inspection.  City inspector approved the gas lines.  Atmos came out to put the gas meter back on and reconnect the gas so we have heat in the house and are ready for those cold days to come!  YEA!!!!  So far the only thing keeping us warm was the 1000 trips up and down the stairs (see below!).

City's water meter guy came on Thursday and swapped out the meter and then turned the water back on.   Although many of the pipes are split, we now have one faucet in the basement with which we can fill up a bucket with water.  And with that bucket of water we can flush a toilet!  This alone will save quick trips around the corner to Carl's Jr. 

Saturday, Oct 20, 2012, was a quick clean up day.   We hired a high school student to help us carry out all the demo'd basement walls.  The three of us carried everything in the basement upstairs, packed the dumpster with drywall, packed the pickup with paneling and a made a big pile of scrap wood in the garage.  When I say packed, I mean carefully layered, each piece laying flat with as little airspace between pieces as possible.  A bit OCD?  No - I'm just too cheap to pay for a 1/2 empty dumpster!  (See $$ alert below)  We also pulled nails and knocked out the drywall in the basement staircase. 

Finally, we talked to a contractor about installing egress windows in the basement and doing all the work in the basement.   

$$ alert -
We had 2 cubic yard dumpster delivered. Cost? $60/load - emptied on-call
Diego took a 1 1/2 cubic yard pickup load to the Larimer County Landfill and it only cost him $10.69. What is wrong with this picture? Of course he was already in Loveland, so there wasn't the issue of driving over there AND the extra time it take to get there.   The dumpster is definitely a necessity but it sure is a money-saver when we can take a load over ourselves! 

What's up next? 
1. Call electrician to rewire the house (with the 1956 original wiring fairly exposed, now is the time rewire!)

2. Give a key to the contractor so he can get started in basement while we're gone.  We'll be out of town for the next two weekends, so we're trying not to lose momentum. 

3. Keep an eye out on Craigslist for used kitchen cabinets.  By the way, I used the Virtual Room Designer on the Lowe's website to redesign the kitchen.  Love it!  (the software, that is!). 

Reciprocating saws and brute force!

Renovation - Day 2

Recriprocating saw and brute force.

Deconstruction:  We got a late start today since church took priority!  More de-construction.  I don't say demolition, since that implies total wreckage.  We've learned that plunging in with a sledge hammer isn't always the best approach.  Of course, that doesn't mean there isn't demolition!  Crowbars and a recriprocating saw were the 2 most used tools of the day.   We still have 2 more rooms to clear out.

Neighbors:  We met the neighbors on both sides today.  Sounds like a really stable neighborhood - the lady next on the south has lived there for 23 years and with the exception of our house and one across the street, they're all owner occupied for years!  That's encouraging.  We also got some of the gossip -

Water:  Diego inserted a faucet right above the shut-off valve for the house.  He'll do an air pressure-test and if that's good, then we'll as the City to turn the water back on.  We still need to replumb the house, but this will at least give us one source of water and the ability to manually "flush" the toilet. 

Electricity:  On Friday Diego noticed that some outlets worked, but other didn't.  My husband, the Hardy-boy detective, discovered that we only had one leg of electricity coming into the house.  Translation?  Apparently there are 2 legs/wires of electricity that comes in from the street.  Each leg has 110 volts for a total of 220 volts.  We called Xcel and they sent someone within 20 minutes.   The power comes into the house through some tree branches.  The branches were weighing on the wires and effectively broke one of the wires.  A definite fire hazard, according to Robert,  my favorite electrician-friend. 

A dive into the pool!

We've taken the plunge again and bought a house intended to be a rental.  It's a HUD home, had been foreclosed and vacant for a long time - so we knew at the outset that this would be a crazy ride.

The ride began in earnest this week. Here's the list:

1.  We can't turn the water on because the pipes have been frozen and blew out in numerous places.  Additionally, the existing plumbing is corroded and in some places the pipes are touching either heating ducts or other metal surfaces, causing them to corrode and leak. Many of the joints weren't soldered well and are literally breaking apart in our hands.

We'll have to completely re-plumb the house.  Meanwhile that means we can't wash our hands or answer nature's calls while we're there.  Good thing Carl's Jr. is only a block away!

2.  There is no heat -The gas/furnace guy hasn't made it over to the house yet, but this we know:
2a  the furnace won't turn on - why?? Diego has tracked down wires and fuses, but it still doesn't come on. 
2b  The gas lines leak. 

3.  The basement is 'finished' but horrible!  So we had a dumpster delivered and started tearing the basement out today.  We filled up the dumpster, but not by dumping!  We carefully packed the dumpster so that there is no empty space - really, the stuff in the dumpster looks like a completed Tetris game:  paneling, ceiling tiles, shower base, more paneling, some drywall, a few wall studs (we separated most of those out!). 

Whoever 'finished' the basement loved construction adhesive.  The light switch in the bathroom wasn't even nailed it - it was glued.  On the other hand - they also were screw happy.  They used scraps of drywall on the ceiling and used 2" drywall screws every 3"

The basement bathroom is a plumbing nightmare - so we tore out everything except the toilet.  Ultimately, we'll have to jackhammer up the concrete floor and move the pipes. 

A Little Maintenance goes a Long Way

President's day may have been a day off of paid work, but a day of work nonetheless.  We told the tenants that we would be there on Monday afternoon to replace the furnace filters and check smoke detectors. 

Minutes before leaving the house I got an email from Jana that unit 104 had no heat and she'd already called McCreery for a service call.  I quickly cancelled them and we headed over. 

Diego started looking at the furnace.  Nothing looked wrong immediately and, as he had a bundle of wires in his hand, he said "we may just have to have McCreery look at this.   If it were my house I'd just track it down.  It's probably just a loose wire ... kind of like this one."  Sure enough just as he said that, one of the wires just fell out of it's place into his hand.

He pushed it back in, firmly, and we were back in business.  I don't even want to think about how much McCreery would have charged us for that call.  Not only would there be the service call, but I'm just guessing that they would have found something to replace, rather than just plug in the loose wire. 

That's my guy - what a gem. 

Crisis averted, we moved on to each of the other apartments.  The furnace filters were nasty dirty.  We also checked for leaky faucets, looked at the grout/caulk, and just generally checked the condition of the units.  We encouraged to see how good each unit looked - clean, in good shape, overall.  Whew! 

A Tale of Eviction

Jr. has been late on his rent nearly every month since he's lived in our building (1.5 years).  He catches up once in a while, but in January 2012 I told the property manager that I was done!  If he didn't catch up  and pay all of February rent to proceed with eviction.  February 1st came and went with no money so Jana put the three day eviction notice on his door.  But he didn't move out, or pay - so a court date was set and he showed up in court to tell his story, sure that the judge would see it his way. His story?  He spent all his money on other things and he was stunned that the judge ruled against him.  So, now not only does he owe use $842 in back rent, but now he owes $500 in attorney fees. 

Flash forward to last weekend.  Diego was at the apartments and Jr. approached him to tell him that
1.  he wants to pay us
2.  he doesn't want to move
3.  he doesn't want to deal with Jana - only with us.
4.  we should give him a chance to catch up and pay

Good grief!  Jana says kick 'em out.  I said kick 'em out.  My mom, who actually owns the apartments, said kick 'em out.  Diego said give them a chance.  Sigh.  So we set up meeting with Jr., Jana and me for this afternoon. 

After much discussion I agreed to let him stay on the condition that he
1.  Pay as much as possible now
2.  Pay all of March rent on or before March 9
3.  Pay all the rent every month.
4.  If anything happens to call Jana.  Anything!  And he has to still work with Jana - I am not going to be his contact.  

So he paid $840 in CASH today and promises to pay another $550 by March 9.   Good grief - couldn't had have done this two weeks ago?  And we are left holding the bag for the $500 attorney's fees.  Yes, technically we have a judgment against him to pay the attorney fees, but in the interest of moving forward, and getting any money at all, we'll pay the attorney fees and move on.  The reality is that even if we pay the attorney fees, there is still more money in Mom's pocket than if he moved out and paid nothing. 

The biggest consolation is that the eviction judgment against him is good for six months, so that in three months when this all falls apart, we can still move forward without additional court costs for eviction. 

I'm not sure what the lesson to be learned here is, but we are trying very hard to be merciful.  The thing that frustrated me most?  He didn't even say thank you. 

Post Script:
Shortly before our 4:00 meeting Jana received a phone call from another property manager who was doing a reference check on Jr.  He was trying to rent a condo for $750 per month.  Jana's reference put a quick stop to that!  It's just amazing to me, however, that the guy who can't stay current paying $550 per month is trying ot rent a place that costs $750 per month? 

Bedbugs (ugh)

We got the good news this week from one of our tenants that their apartment has bedbugs.  It's our fault, of course, since the apartment had bedbugs when she moved in.  She, of course, expected us to call the exterminator immediately and purge her apartment because it was, of course, our fault.  Never mind that she has five kids who come and go and bring in all their little friends along with second-had furniture. 

Although we take bedbugs pretty seriously, I just couldn't imagine that there were bedbugs when she moved in and here's why: 
1.  She moved in last August 1 - and she's just now noticing the infestation? 
2.  The unit had been vacant for over a year prior and we spent a lot of time there since it had been in such rough shape.  Over all those hours, days and weeks, no one ever saw any evidence.
3.  We painted every wall, ceiling, pulled up all the carpets, and replaced both the carpet and the vinyl flooring throughout the entire place - again, no evidence - ever.

What to do?  Our blessed property manager consulted with an attorney who confirmed for us that it is the responsibility of the party who 'brought them in' and sent the tenant a letter to that effect.  It was a nice letter, but basically said it's her responsibility.


After we got the estimate from the pest control guy I had a moment of  - what shall I call it?  Compassion, fear, self-preservation?  I sure don't want the adjoining units to join the pest party!  We agreed to split the cost as long as she paid $50 immediately and at least $25 a month to pay for it.  To which she immediately agreed.