"New" house

[Talonstorm]

I posted a thread asking for help with my 30 gallon cube. It got really neglected during my recent move. I figured I would post here to show what was taking up my time. I closed on my new house in February. It was a foreclosure and was pretty trashed. The people had cats and were filthy pigs on top of that. We did the work in the span of a month and a week so that I could move in (try living with your parents again sometime!). My dad provided the know how and my sister and I did all the physical work, my mom did a lot of cleaning. The only things I hired out for were: the carpeting and the plumbing (the house had 8 broken pipes due to freezing). I wish I could have included smell-o-vision on the slideshow because this place stunk! All the floors (and the subfloor in the powder room) had to come up and then be treated with enzymatic cleaner and sealed with 3 coats of bin to rid the place of the horrible pet odor. Anyway, here is the slideshow, hopefully the link works:

http://www.rockyou.com/show_my_gallery2.php?instanceid=63754075

The only thing I don't have after pictures of yet is the outside of the house.

Lots of tank neglecting work! At least I can now say that I know how to do wiring, tiling, put down pergo, patch walls, fix siding, put up shutters, replace thermostats, and I think I qualify as a professional painter now (not that I ever want to pick up a paintbrush again).

Tina

 

[boozeman]

Congratulations !
you have a lovely house...it was well worth all the hard work !!

 

[blange3]

Looks great Tina!

I haven't gotten that much work done in my house in the last ten years!

 

[Talonstorm]

Thanks! Being forced to live with my parents until the house was ready to move into really motivated me to get the work done! ;D If I had needed to live with them just one more week I think I would have lost my mind!!

Tina

 

[mikem]

Nice work Tina. If you ever need a job in the building field, LMK.

 

[AnDom1]

Hi Tina,

Best Of Luck in your lovely new home...I am envious of the fast work. We started renovations inside and outside a year ago and are still at it :'(

Dom

 

[JohnS_323]

Wow, you did a really great job Tina. Congrats on the new home.

 

[Hawkeye]

really nice...i wish I could have done 1/4 of that work. I ended up just paying money to contractors to get our place up to snuff...and it's still a money pit!!!!

Nothing like cats and smokers in a house. I recall visiting a house and the realtor went downstairs (where the owners kept who knows how many) and he came running back up gagging for air and telling us not to go down...

I guess if I had an ounce of courage (and skill like you) I would have gone down to see what needed to get fixed. But I was just afraid that if someone doesn't care about the "odor"...what else do they neglect? I know the two don't really relate, but that was our thought process at the time.

So glad it worked out for you. Now with all the money you saved you can maybe go even bigger on the tank!

 

[JRodrig692]

Looks real nice.

Destroyed houses thats the norm when buying something that people know they have lost and don't care.

Nice work!

 

[Talonstorm]

These people didn't care about anything. Some of the more interesting things I have found out about/experienced with the house are:

-My current neighbor said he was in the house once while the previous owners were living there. He said there was so much trash, clothes, who knows what else, on the floors that he had to wade through it!

-The horrible blue in the living room extended partway down the hallway where they just stopped painting, leaving huge blue roller marks on the bottom of the wall and white paint on the top. No nice even line, they just rolled partway up the wall in a zig-zag pattern and stopped. That blue paint was a pita to cover too!

-They stole all the light fixtures (with the exception of a few, most of which were hanging by the wires). I'm not sure why they did this, they were really cheap light fixtures!

-They wired the entire house with cat 5 wire, it goes to every room. They just punched a hole in the wall and pulled it into the room, then left it like that. All the wire goes into the basement where there are bundled coils of wire. Nothing is labeled as to which wires go to which rooms. I have tried several methods of tracing it (including a wire tracer), none of which has worked out.

-The previous owners started urinating on the floor in the powder room (this room had to be gutted and the sub floor removed entirely). The worst place was right behind the pedistal sink, how disgusting! I can't believe someone actually did this, it lowered my impression of humans in general a little, lol.

-When the sheriff evicted them, they tossed all the cats they kept outside, so they are always hanging around my house (the neighbor feeds them). The smell in the house was pretty gagging when I bought it. I was really nervous about it, but I guess between tearing up all the carpets, scrubbing with enzymatic cleaner, and sealing with bin, we must have got rid of the smell.

-There were several large sections of siding off the side of the house that the previous owner refused to fix, even when the HOA went after him (it did look pretty shabby). When Tami and I climbed up to fix it there was a bat colony living under the loose pieces.

-Finally, right before they were evicted from the house, the people got into a fight in the yard. They threw some things at each other during the fight, guess what they threw? Garbage, yep, garbage, and wine glasses, and potted plants. I have been working on the yard all summer and everytime it rains I am still finding garbage out there!

It has certainly been an experience. Whenever I complain though, my dad reminds me how much I now know how to do. For example, I learned some very important lessons on how to paint a porch this summer. The biggest on was: Just hire someone, that is one job that isn't worth it!! ;D Oh yeah, and paint the spindles before the floor, or you will be repainting the floor. My porch is pretty big, maybe it wouldn't be too bad to paint a smaller porch.

Anyway, thanks for the compliments on the house!

Tina

 

[Brian]

-The previous owners started urinating on the floor in the powder room (this room had to be gutted and the sub floor removed entirely). The worst place was right behind the pedistal sink, how disgusting! I can't believe someone actually did this, it lowered my impression of humans in general a little, lol.

That is freaking disgusting!!!!!


Great Job on the house!

 

[Talonstorm]

That is freaking disgusting!!!!!


Great Job on the house!

Yeah, I wore a tyvek suit, triple gloves, and an N-95 respirator while cleaning that room. There was no way I wanted to be exposed to that filth!! The whole time I was cleaning it I kept saying "Why, why, why would someone do this?!"

 

[jazzsam]

-They wired the entire house with cat 5 wire, it goes to every room. They just punched a hole in the wall and pulled it into the room, then left it like that. All the wire goes into the basement where there are bundled coils of wire. Nothing is labeled as to which wires go to which rooms. I have tried several methods of tracing it (including a wire tracer), none of which has worked out.

If you need a hand with the CAT5 let me know. I have done that a few times for different compaines.

 

[Phyl]

Great job on a complete transformation. I'm in awe about how disgusting those people could live and not seeeem to mind. In one of the photos I saw that the toilet was strapped shut? Was that because it had been deemed some sort of hazard, or was that part and parcel to replacing the room? What was the note on the toilet? I can't help but wonder if that's why they were urinating on the floor.

In any case, you've done amazing things with it and I'm now not at all surprised that you HAD to completely renovate before spending one minute (not in full gear) there! Yuck!!

It's a beautiful now (now that you've given it back its character). Good for you for seeing through the filth to its beauty.

 

[Talonstorm]

In one of the photos I saw that the toilet was strapped shut? Was that because it had been deemed some sort of hazard, or was that part and parcel to replacing the room? What was the note on the toilet? I can't help but wonder if that's why they were urinating on the floor.

Here is the deal with the plumbing. Since a bank owns the foreclosed house no one is living there. Since no one is living there, the bank does not want to take the risk of problems should the heating system, plumbing system, electrical system, etc. fail, so they have the house "winterized". Normally, this would involve pumping the water out of the toilets and drains, blowing out all the pipes with air, putting a bit of antifreeze in the drains, and opening all the faucets (to allow for expansion in case there was any water in there that might freeze). Well, the bank that owned this house was based in Utah, so they hired a company to winterize the property. The company they hired did none of the above steps, they just turned off the water and electrical service to the house, taped the toilets closed, and stuck stickers on everything. If you remember back in February, it was bitter cold temperatures that month. Unfortunately, I could not turn on my heat until the water service was on because the heat is hot water baseboard. When I had the water turned on, the entire house was frozen solid. So, I had to rent a torpedo heater and sit in a freezing cold smelly house the whole day while it was warming up inside and thawing out the plumbing. Once the house was warm I turned on the main water to the house and was shocked to see water pouring out of the living room ceiling. Yep, the house had 8 broken pipes, all conveniently located on the 2nd floor (in the ceiling of the first floor).

So, if any of you are thinking of a foreclosure, get it in the summer before anything freezes!

Tina

PS - on a side note, the disclaimer printed on those orange stickers was fantastic. It basically absolved the company that "winterized" the house of any liability for damages caused by their shoddy work.

 

[Talonstorm]

If you need a hand with the CAT5 let me know. I have done that a few times for different compaines.

Thanks for the offer, I might take you up on it eventually! My biggest issue is tracing the lines. I even tried climbing up into the attic, following the line across the house to where it dropped down into the basement and pulling on the line so my sister could see which one it was. Problem was that the lines must be stapled partway down because I couldn't wiggle them or pull them up and down. Hopefully I figure it out soon.

Tina

 

[Phyl]

Well there's a "To Make Matters Worse" addendum to the story! Yipes! Talk about when it rains it pours, huh? D'oh. I can't believe the bank and shoddy company got away with that. What a shame. I guess it was an "as is" sale with no ability to use an inspection company?

Oh the stories you'll have to tell about the house for generations to come!

 

[Talonstorm]

Well there's a "To Make Matters Worse" addendum to the story! Yipes! Talk about when it rains it pours, huh? D'oh. I can't believe the bank and shoddy company got away with that. What a shame. I guess it was an "as is" sale with no ability to use an inspection company?

Oh the stories you'll have to tell about the house for generations to come!

I actually got the bank to pay for the plumber to repair the broken pipes. It would have been a deal breaker because I found out about the pipes before I closed. The utilities had to be on for inspection to get my mortgage. The bank would not, however, pay for the repairs to the ceiling where all the holes had to be cut. Have you ever tried to match a textured plaster ceiling?! It isn't popcorn, it is stippled (uses a fancy brush and a soupy plaster mix). :