No More Knotty Pine Paneling, Por Favor

Just about had my fill of ripping out knotty pine paneling, but it’s just about all done. Well, sort of. The workshop room attached to the garage still has some, and in all likelihood that’s coming out too, but that project is  scheduled towards the end of the rehab,  as an optional item I’d like to do but may leave as is, depending on the  budget at the time.

I met with two more contractors on Friday and, fingers crossed, may have found my guy. He’s supposed to get back to me Monday with an itemized estimate, but his back of the envelope estimate after going over the house with me on Friday afternoon was well within the reasonable range. He’s a local builder and has a crew of five guys, tackling pretty much anything that comes along, as far as new construction, rehabs, light commercial work, etc.

Even better, though, is that he also usually has 1-2 flips running himself at any given time, as far as properties he’s picked up personally, and he prefers to work with older homes. Usually even older than House #2, as he gave me the addresses of some rehabs he’d done around town, and most are 1900s-1930s era homes, and all look really nice. So he’s definitely not of the bulldoze/gut mentality, and wasn’t at all bothered by working around some of the unique existing elements in House #2.

So yeah, fingers crossed, as our initial meeting went really well, but who knows if he’ll get back to me as promised, etc. He did pretty directly mention that he’d be happy to take on the job, despite the fact that it wouldn’t be as profitable for him as most, since I’m not looking for a turnkey bid from him and will be tackling some stuff myself, which eats into his potential profits. On the flip side, he also won’t have someone in his hair constantly yammering on about how the paint color selected doesn’t look like it did in the pretty picture, and if I keep doing the house flipping thing, it could be a pretty steady stream of work for him moving forward, both of which I pointed out.

If nothing else it was helpful to walk through the house with him, as he pointed out a few options and workarounds that I hadn’t thought of, as far as the layout, and he didn’t at all think my plan for the garage/workshop was nuts. I’d like to add a laundry room there, and turn the workshop into an office/guest bedroom with a half-bath, but the slab there is below the grade of the patio slab it adjoins, and is currently pretty wonky as far as settling in places. It’s far enough below the grade of the adjoining slab (about eight inches below) though, that I was curious if a sub-floor could actually be added and tied to the existing framing or with new mini-piers, bringing it flush and providing a stable, level flooring. He mentioned it as a possibility before I could even bring it up, which was nice to hear as far as validation that I’m not completely crazy.

Meeting with two different window replacement companies on Monday to get estimates, which is going to require some more finger crossing, as the prelimiary budget could definitely take a hit here. I allocated $3,000 for new windows, which is on the cusp of possible with just 15 windows to replace, but it’ll probably be a bit higher. I’m still mulling over doing a few windows with glass blocks, which would save a bit of money but would be more labor intensive, so it might be a wash in the end.

Still hedging on setting a firm target date for completetion of renovations, as it depends on getting a contractor lined up and rolling, etc. But in my head at least I’m shooting for November 15th, which is a bit aggressive but doable. I just can’t let this one drag out, even if it means paying someone to knock out jobs I could handle myself, such as painting, flooring, etc. That’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned so far, especially with House #1. It’s great to save money by tackling work myself, but holding costs add up quickly, and an extra month or two on the market completely wipes out any money I saved by tackling some tasks myself.