Weekend Project: A Bit of a Scrape

So, as I mentioned in my earlier post the foundation people left several big holes in our floor when they left and now it's up to us to decide what we want to do about covering them up again. We've been told that ceramic tile is not a good idea as this house will most likely need to have the foundation "tweaked" at least every few years or so and tile will crack at the slightest slip past level. If we had decided to stay here I would have opted for hardwood throughout, but cost-wise that just isn't practical in the situation we now find ourselves in. So instead we are going with a top quality (not terribly ugly) linoleum tile (hah! oxymoron) in the kitchen and bathrooms, and we'll most likely do a laminate in the rest of the house.

In the concrete bald spot left by the foundation people in the spot where the fridge once stood, we noticed that this house has had at least 6 (that we can count) layers of new linoleum laid over the years. Now if you consider that the house was built in '85 it means that we're talking a new layer about every 4 years without a single person taking that extra step and removing the old layers before adding the new. Now ordinarily P and I would have done exactly the same thing and slapped our layer on top of the pile... alas the hole being completely stripped bare would have caused a noticeable dip underfoot. (I know this because my lazy nature caused me to check before going ahead with plans to remove old lino) Rats! Foiled again!

Admitting defeat we traipsed off to Home Depot to find the necessary lino removal accoutrements. We were advised by a perky sales clerk that all we needed to do was stab a few holes in the surface with a Stanley knife, spread a bottle of linoleum removal liquid, wait an hour and then commence scraping. P had a better idea. Something he learned while researching the project online (I know...) he wanted to try lots of soapy water... I don't know why I let him talk me into it... I mean, isn't soapy water also what you use to clean this kind of floor? How much soapy water is it going to take to loosen 6 layers of lino from their home of 25 years.

We did decide to get a... well... scraper I guess is what it's called. There were two options... the $8 version or the $30+ version. Here's where being thrifty sometimes bites you in the bum... "Why pay more just for the extended pole?", I asked. "I plan on doing it in small intervals anyway," P agreed. Together we chimed, "We don't need the longer handle!" And with that we walked out of the store with the $8 model complete with spare packet of blades.

Turns out, 6 layers need a heck of a lot more than some soapy water and a tiny scraper. We're definitely going to have to bring in the big guns on this one. We're going to need to get a few bottles of the toxic remover for a start, some spare blades for our Stanley knife, and at least one Big Boy Scraping Implement... Judging from the smell coming from under those layers, it probably isn't a bad idea to look into some Kilz or similar primer too... just in case we have a damp issue as I suspect. But most of all I sense the need to stock up on pain killers and Band Aids for surely we're going to need them before this project is over.

Seriously... You want to do WHAT to our deck?

These are words I wish I had said to our foundation repair estimator on Friday. Since we moved into this house in March we have noticed a number of hairline cracks grow nasty and more aggressive. Since July they have been absolutely incredible and really had us scared.

The plan was for my mom and step-dad to take a look at them when they were in town to let us know if we would be able to fix all of them while they were here. (These cracks had clearly been here for a while, and looked as though the seller had simply patched them for sale... the Band-Aids have started to lose their stick and now we have gaping wounds on every wall in every room of the house).

After some discussion we decided that the cracks were far too many for us to properly correct while they were in town and it was decided that the best use of their time would be to help us with the deck -- besides, we had the wood standing in our front yard already!

We decided to call in the foundation company who had done the most recent foundation work on the house. We bought the home with a double lifetime warranty as you may remember... the house had had to separate lifts in it's life. Once at the back and once up front... each of these lifts has a lifetime warranty. We finally had our guy come over on Friday.

He was a great guy, and very sensitive to our first-time-home-buyer-low-cash-high-stress-freak-out situation. He explained that after the last lift he had advised the previous owner to have the plumbing pressure tested to make sure that the property shift had not displaced anything under the house. He stated that he had told the previous owner that the warranty would be voided if he did not take care of the pressure test, and repair any plumbing leaks that may have occurred. He told us yesterday that looking at the giant cracks in our walls, it would seem that the previous owner did NOT take care of this... the middle of the house is sinking and the edges are bobbing up....

You can see where we're going with this can't you...

We quickly asked if that would affect our warranty? I mean... the foundation was the biggest question in our minds when we looked at this house. I still have copies of numerous emails back and forth to our agent and the sellers agent discussing our fears, and asking questions. We were finally told that there was a warranty on the foundation, and we were put in touch with this company who assured us that whatever may come down the road, we were covered as far as the foundation was concerned... cosmetic repairs were our own problem. Fair enough right? Well after taking some time to think about it we decided "better the devil we know (and have a warranty for) than the devil we don't know"... this is Central Texas and foundation issues exist everywhere in our area... at least this way we would go in knowing that it would be a problem, but having the warranty to cover the $20-50K foundation repairs that could be incurred. In all we decided it was a safer bet for us.

Fast forward to yesterday. We stood dumbfounded as Isaac explained that the warranty COULD be voided if the previous owner did not make necessary repairs to the plumbing. He suggested that we get a pressure test done to the plumbing before calling him to come back. We turned white as sheets and I swear I thought I was going to have a heart attack.... when finally he said, "Well, I mean I know this is not your fault. I just needed to mention that this is in the contract so that you know... if you were not such a nice customer I wouldn't need to make the repairs if the plumbing hasn't been seen to, but since it's not your fault and had nothing to do with you, I can tell you that I WILL fix it as part of the warranty and if necessary I will just go after him myself." It was at this point that Peter added, "If he didn't make the repairs (repairs never mentioned in the sellers disclosure) WE will go after him too!"

OK. So enough doom and gloom right? Let's say he DID have the plumbing repaired. Let's say this is just a shift in the foundation and they need to repair it. How do we do that? What are our options?

"Well," began Isaac, "we have two options. First, we could go around the edges where everything is raised and remove shims so bring everything down back in alignment... but if there is an issue in the middle it would continue sinking and might not be the best option. Or, we could rip up all of your floors, go through the concrete foundation and reach all the piers under your house and make necessary adjustments to level them. Of course, this would require that you move out of the house for 2 weeks. I would recommend that we just do the edges... but oh... I don't think that deck was there when the warranty was written up... Uh, geez... the deck needs to come off. We need to access the piers down that side of the house, and certainly when we lift the house the deck (which is attached by bolts to the concrete foundation) will lift with it... Yes. The deck will need to go."

!!!!!!!



Isaac leaves... we sit down and begin to panic. Naturally we each call a parent to share the disturbing news. My mom is understandably hysterical about the impending death of the new deck... We beat around some ideas for alternatives and come up with something... Moving out for two weeks is the least of our problems, we would be happy to do that. The deck cost nearly $7,000 plus a week of labor in mid-July Central Texas summer... i.e. H-O-T!! The $6,000 doesn't include the 3 cases of water, hospital bills incurred from my foot accident nor any of the other incidentals we picked up... I think ultimately we were closer to $10k invested in that deck... no WAY were we giving it up.

I left our plans with Isaac on his voicemail and he called us back with another option. He says that since the corner where the deck is is on the high side, we COULD just bring everything else up to match that side of the house. ANd to avoid needing to access that side of the house, we could just pull up the carpet (YAYYYY!!) and go throught he floors. Perfect!

So where are we now? OK. We have to pay for a plumber to come out and do a hydro pressure test on the pipes. (Around $500). Once we have the results of this test we will decide on next steps. If there is a leak under there we will need to have that fixed once the foundation is lined up again... and we will have two VERY mad people trying to find a certain Mr and Mrs G. Martin of Austin for answers... Hopefully it is simply a matter of getting the piers sorted out and we're good to go again... oh... well after we get the drywall patched, taped and painted...

We're learning a LOT about this whole house buying thing. I know for sure that the next time we are trying to buy a house we have many more questions we want to ask... and honestly, I don't think we will buy anywhere near this area again. We asked Isaac if he has much business in the area. He told us that our street is one of the busiest as far as foundation repairs. We asked, "Where do you NEVER have to go?" He said North-West Austin where he lived is pretty solid. SInce AUstin is out of our price range and Peter starts a new job in the town of Leander soon I asked about Leander... Isaac says he rarely if ever has any calls out there... sounds like a solid place to buy! haha We'll see how it goes.

What we have discovered is that the previous owner here just had the foundation repaired, brought some cheap labor in here to slap patches over the cracks, spray in some paint and lay cheap carpet and then get this baby on the market. Peter keeps saying that we should just "put the lipstick back on the pig and get the hell outta here!" I still think we could make it work and really make this a nice place for the next person. Besides... we're not going anywhere until the market starts picking up again.

My Parents House & Ikea

Haven't had time to post a full photo story of our recent changes yet. Promise I will do that this weekend. In the meanwhile, here is a link to my mama's house in Canada. It just went on the market today, so she had some lovely pics to share with me, and I am going to share them with you too!

Photo Listing

Slideshow

P.S. No comments about the fake plants. I've heard (and made) them all before... bottom line is, they're in Calgary, Canada... plants don't like that kind of weather! At least they're good fakes! Love ya mom! hee hee :)

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Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! New Ikea catalog just arrived! Time for me to soak in the tub and peruse the gorgeousness. :)

Wordle + Printer = DIY Art

Yesterday I gave you a sneak peek at today's project post. I am totally proud of this one! Seriously, if you're ever in need of inspiration head on over to Katie Bower, she'll soon have you floating away with ideas. Like this post about DIY art.

This weekend I went through some of her posts that I had previously bookmarked and was taken with her States of the Union post (link above) and suggestion of using Wordle to achieve a similar look to the pages she created. I sat down with "The Big P" and together we came up with a bunch of places that mean something to us. I pasted them into Wordle, hit randomize and watched the magic happen.


This beauty took only, ohhh 50 "randomizes" to materialize. (Followed quickly by two more close contenders). I printed all three and decided that this one had the greatest impact, framed it, placed it on the mantle and voila! Personalized art for the cost of about 30 minutes, an old frame, paper and ink.

Totally cute, right?

It's the Little Things that Make Me Happy

Like this for example...


When we had this house inspected our home inspector pointed out that some of the insulation on our a/c unit needed replacing right quick, both on the outside unit as well as inside.

We also needed some other a/c fixes and had a quote drawn up for this as well as the insulation repair. Well, summer got here quicker than we thought and we aren't ready to get started on the large a/c project just yet so the insulation remained untouched until a recent trip to HDizzeepo where I found this and for $2.25 I did it myself!

This was one of the first things we did to the house and it took only a few seconds, but I cannot tell you how proud I am of this little thing. Saved me $7.75 of the $10 the a/c guys were going to charge and I had enough to do both pipes AND have enough insulation left over to replace them next year as well if necessary.

:) We need to get planting and weeding back there...

Weekend Project: Curb Appeal

Well, we did it! Our first project is now complete... well, it's almost complete, we still have a few other things we want to add before we can completely cross it off our list, but we're just happy to have made as much progress as we did for as little moolah as we spent.

Behold, I give you Operation Curb Appeal.

Here is the not-to-bad starting point.


Here are the spoils of our $200 Home Depot shopping spree.


Here is the (almost) finished product.


I think it's a huge improvement. Everything just looks "fresher", as though our house spent a week at a spa and returned to us well-rested.

Here's what we did:

• Replaced the builders standard, totally 80's house numbers for these slick brushed stainless ones.
• Replaced the beat-up mail box.
• Inserted solar powered path lights in a brushed stainless finish.
• Planted the front bed with some annuals, perrenials and ground cover with interesting leaf shapes and colors.
• Added a bouganvilla plant for some height. Our hope is that it will grow up the soon to be placed trellis and cover up some of that drab grey brick wall.
• Lastly, I cleared an easy water run off round the sides of the beds, so that water can easily drain away rather than sitting and creating a big muddy mess.
• As a finishing touch, we added a hanging fern to soften the porch and
• Threw down a bright, fresh welcome mat to finish things off.

What is still on the cards:

• Repainting the house in a sage green color, with a red front door.
• Adding a bright red bench.
• Replacing those ugly, outdated light fixtures for contemporary brushed stainless ones.
• Planting the facing bed.
• Replenishing grass seed.
• Maybe adding a third bed in front of that little retaining wall
• Oh, and fixing the retaining wall where it has come loose.

We're really happy with our first little project. I know what you're thinking... "What about the inside?" Well, we hear ya. BUT, with closing costs, tax being due and my upcoming visa renewal we need some time to save up for those larger projects. We do have some big'uns on the cards for the summer. I will let you know more as we get to them. But for now, our el'cheapo first project was a good one for us to tackle.

Our front yard is the first thing people see when they get to our new house. It was an instant facelift! We feel that it was the best way for us to spend our $200 for the most bang. What do y'all think?