Renovations part 4

Where to start? I wanted to write a post this weekend but I worked every day (Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday). By the end of the day, I was so mentally and physically exhausted, that I had no desire to write.

Everything has been a battle with this condo. I had to call in a plumber because there were old “spaghetti lines” used for the water supply to all the sinks. I purchased the new hoses and the valves but couldn't remove the old ones because they were frozen in place and I was afraid to ruin the copper pipes.  Also when I tried to connect the gas range I found that the supply nozzle was incorrect and I could not get a tight fit and the gas line was too high so the rage would not sit flush against the wall. If the range did not sit against the wall then we couldn't open one of the drawers.

When the plumber came out he moved the gas line and installed a correct nozzle.  It also seems there are two types of copper pipes used in residential, “L” and “M”. When the valves are installed on “L” pipes it does not affect the end and you can just install the new valve. With “M” pipes the valve will compress the end and this causes the pipe to leak when the new valve is installed. Take a wild guess on which type I had?

He initially tried to use the old connection but it kept leaking so he had to go back and cut each pipe and then reconnect the valves. Thankfully he had enough pipe available to cut, barely.
The blinds we ordered did not fit because each of the damn windows are either not standard sizes or are different by ¼ to ½ inches. So now we will need to go and have custom windows cut.
It is finally looking like a livable place and now we are left with the small things that seem to take so much time.

Living Room/Dining room

Hallway looking to 2nd bedroom from laundry

2nd bedroom

Master bedroom/Master bath on left

Kitchen from dining room

Dining room from kitchen

Kitchen

Guest bath

Master bath

Renovations Part 3

The Electricians did their thing and the painter kind of did his. I got word that the work was done and all that remained was to clean up. Mmmm maybe not so fast. The guy said to take a look and if I noticed anything then to write up a punch list.  They were suppose to use flat paint for the entire condo except the kitchen, bathrooms and doors. It turns out that everything was done in flat (actually eggshell).

Then I discovered they painted over the bath fixtures. Not sure why they did that, but not good. And it continued downhill, because someone used the toilet in the guest bathroom and did not flush it. Now granted the handle was broken, so it would not flush, but is it that hard to lift up the tank lid and pull the flapper up? I mean C'MON MAN!!  I guess the guy figured out that something was wrong when his turd didn't magically go away. He must have thought that the water was off so he turned the water supply "off". Guess he never heard of "righty tighty, lefty loosey".  So if you turn the knob and you turd still doesnt go away, LIFT THE DAMN TANK LID AND TAKE A LOOK!!!! Nope "I'll just leave it and hope no one notices".

Moving on they also painted over the vents, which is actually a good thing, because they were pretty nasty and we were thinking of replacing them.

There were other smaller discrepancies and so I made the punch list and also texted Elmer. He is the guy in charge and I am pretty sure he did not do this painting job.  I got a text back this morning and he was not too happy. He left the painter on his own to do the job trusting that he would do a good jobe. It turns out the semi-gloss was there but the guy he used to paint did not "notice" it. So today he is sending over another painter to repaint using the semi-gloss and fix all the over spray.

Speaking of over spray, I mentioned that one of the toilets handle was broke? Well we bought two new toilets (which we will get a rebate on due to the high effecincy) and placed them in the bath tub for the floor guys to install. Damn if the painter did not get paint on it when they washed their stuff in the tub.

Apparently my dry wall patch job and texture work sucked. Once the paint was up it really stood out. More work for me, yea!  These are the photos before the painting.

Thursday the floor guys should begin their work!

Renovations Part 2

Progress is slowly moving forward on our rental property. We finally have the granite installed and tomorrow the electricians will wrap up their part. This weekend I patched all the holes that the electricians made on Friday and textured the patches. Tomorrow morning I will meet with the painter and he should begin on Tuesday. I had the floor guys scheduled for Wednesday bu will now push them out to the following week. 

Whew!! Playing general contractor is rough work. But thinking of the $$$$ that I am saving is keeping me going. Below are the photos of the granite and the flooring that we have picked out.

This is just some of the stuff that we will be installing.

Texas/Wyoming Vacation

We interrupt this renovation to take you on a vacation. I took two weeks off to attend a family reunion and make the annual pilgrimage to the Ranch.

First leg was to fly into Albuquerque and meet up with my brother. The next day we drove to Dallas, Texas to meet with my other brother and attend the family reunion/60th wedding anniversary on my biological father's side of the family.  It has been 45 years since we have seen them, needless to say I didn't remember any of them.  However I had a great time and want to attend another reunion in the future.

The weather was horrible!!! The temperature was in the upper 100sF with upper %90 humidity pushing the heat index to 105F, but the room was a cool 65.

This isn't the hotel we stayed at but I just had to snap a few pictures because those wolf statues were HUGE!

From there we visited Mom and Dad in Casper for a few days then headed north to the Ranch. However our stay was almost cut short. Five minutes after we arrived, my brother was walking back after parking his truck and was struck at by a rattlesnake. Fortunately he has quick reflexes and when he jumped the snake missed. Shortly thereafter there was one less snake around.

Snake no more

Mother or Father Robin feeding baby

Mother Sage Grouse and babies

After four days in the "wild" (not really, we had running water and electricity), we went back down to Casper for a few days. On the way back down to Albuquerque I jumped out at the airport in Denver and flew back to San Diego.

Renovations part 1

Wednesday the granite guy came and ripped out the kitchen and guest bath counter tops. If you remember in the kitchen we had we had a "bar" area in front of the sink. I guess the idea was that you could put stools and people could sit and watch you in the great expanse of the kitchen (just a little sarcasm). The problem, was that it cut off the kitchen and reduced the counter space. So "A" had a great ideal that we would cut down the raised bar and extend the counter top in front of the sink. Brilliant!!!

Friday our good friend Ron helped us sand and paint the cabinets. If you have ever tried to paint cabinets you know that it takes ridiculously long to do. It sounds really simple, just sand and paint, but not really. Especially these because there was so much grease and gunk caked on, yuk.

We were able to put a coat of paint on the kitchen and guest bath on Friday and today we did the master bath. Unfortunately I am sick and not able to put 100% into the project but overall I am pleased with our accomplishments this weekend.

We also had a floor guy give us an estimate for laminate floors and on Monday I have another floor guy coming in. I could do it myself but I really don't want to.