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.

The October (one-day) Blizzard

On October 26, 2011 northern Colorado got dumped on!  Really dumped on.  We had about 12" on our back porch.  Although we'd had a fabulous and gorgeous autumn, all the leaves were still on the trees and the weightof the snow damaged about 20% of the trees in town.  Our rental house was no exception!  It is bordered by 70 year old elm trees. The little locust trees completely snappped and they're goners!  The old elm trees were damaged but luckily noen fell on either the house or the one next door!  We'll be doing tree-survery next spring!

Additionally, we got two calls from one tenant in three days!  Two stove burners not working, furnace won't turn off,  toilet leaking, water leaking in laundry room.  Diagnosis:  clean the do-hickies on the burners, replace the water supply line on the toilet, fidget with the spring in the thermostat, and replace the pressure relief valve on the hot water heater.  Of course, this was easy for my fabulous husband.  It would have cost us an arm and leg if we'd called a plumber, a furnace guy, and an appliance repairman.  God bless my handy husband!

Diary of a Dead Deck and a Dying Water Heater

In mid-July we finished preparing the last vacant apartment.  Jana rented it a week later and it's been all good there.  Just once a week mowing the lawn, basically.  Oh yea, and a dead refrigerator this week!

So, we're done, right?  Not so fast Tonto!  You forget that we still have my Mom's house as a rental.

Death of a Deck
We knew the back deck was creaky and unstable.  We knew that at least one of the posts didn't even touch the ground.  But we did not know that only hope and good thoughts were holding that thing up!  We started dismantling the deck on Saturday, Sept 2. 

Nail by nail we started taking the deck planks off.  Then, when we pulled the last plank away from the joists nearest the house the entire frame of the deck, joists, header, and all, just tumbled to the ground.  Really?!  I think the deck planks were holding the deck together with friction.  It turns out that the header didn't even attach to the house!  There were no footers under any posts.  Some posts just landed on the dirt or a sidewalk.  One post missed the ground by about six inches! 

Saturday we tore the deck apart. Sunday we hauled the wood out to the back pasture where old tree branches and scrap wood goes to die. 

Water Heater Crisis
Monday, Labor Day, we were distracted from the deck.  We knew the water heater had been leaking a tiny bit for months.  Now it was REALLY leaking.  So off to buy and install a new hot water heater. 

Back to the deck
Saturday, Sept 10 we turn attention back to the deck.  After stringing lines, measuring, doing the 3-4-5 thing to make sure we were "square" with the house, we finally located where to dig post holes.  Dig, dig, dig. Dig, dig, dig.  Dig, dig, SPURT!  What the heck?  Yes, we hit a sprinkler line.  We also found the sprinkler line when digging the second hole. 

No worries, we thought.  Keep digging.  Dig, dig, dig, ping!  What?  Yep - hit the sewer line out to the septic tank.  Good grief!  Later when we were tracking down which sprinkler zone pipe we hit, we found out that we cut through two different lines.  Definitely a Murphy's law day.

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!

You never know what you're gonna find

Memorial Day.  Harley owners are out riding their noisy Hogs.  Others are in the mountains getting their cabins ready for summer.  Families gather and fire up the barbeque.  Children are playing in the yard and blowing soap bubbles, watching them float with the breezes.

You can guess where we were.  Last weekend Diego put a new subfloor down in the kitchen of #102.  A scant 1/4 inch of plywood to give the new floor a nice level place to live.  Then on Saturday we put leveler on the seams.  Later, while Diego was working in the bathroom upstairs, I sanded the leveler down.  Sunday we got a late start at 3:00 and cleaned and vacuumed the floor and then painted the floor with a primer in prep for tile.

Today, Memorial Day, we started at 9:00 a.m.  We decided to use self stick vinyl tiles, thinking that when the inevitable gouges occur, we can pull and replace individual tiles instead of replacing the whole floor.  The field tiles went down really fast.  The border tiles each had to be cut, and although not difficult, did take quite a bit of time.

Meanwhile upstairs....Diego was fixing the walls in the bathroom.  It became apparent that a part of the drywall was damaged and would actually have to be replaced.  When he had the wall opened up there was something back there.  Diego came downstairs with - no kidding - a pair of dirty mens underwear hanging from a screwdriver. Eeew!  I can only imagine how they got there.

Sold but not over

Monday was a "key" day -  the day we turned over the keys of the 8 plex to the new owner and the day passed without drama.  Frankly I was ready to walk out of the closing if needed.  The buyer(s) are a family; mom, dad, and son.  Son is local but mom and dad are several hours away.  This is a good thing since the dad is a bully and tried to pick at least two fights with me the first day I met him.  Fortunately, the son had a power of attorney which meant he signed everything and mom and dad didn't have to be here. 

When it was all over Diego's question was, "so if I go over there now am I officially trespassing?"  Ha! 

So after closing I went over to the other building to work on that apartment.  Like I've said before, my knowledge of electricity can be summed up pretty fast: white to white; black to black.  So when I decided to replace the back porch light switch this is what I found: black to black to black, but the white and ground wires were just bundled up together.  Yikes.  The amateur in me says don't touch this one.

That didn't stop me completely, however.  There was still the dark bathroom to address.  Sunday I hung the medicine cabinet and Monday I tackled the light bar.  The wire was coming out of the wall in the wrong place.  Diego gave me a few pointers on how to pull the wires and said he was confident I could do it.  What could I do?  I had to prove him right. 

White to white - black to black.  With only one finger bandaged in sacrifice (utility knife cut both the sheathing on the wires and the sheathing on my finger), I finally pronounced "let there be light," and there was!  (and I only had two light bulbs, thank you very much!)