House remodel pics, suggestions, ideas, projects

[Poki]

Seriously impressive Pokes. Building a sturdy fence that affords privacy is no joke and this one is beautiful. I like the size of planks you chose. Is the wood treated?

What is the Pup's name (if you feel comfortable saying...)?

He is ALL KINDS of cute. What do the boys think of him? Vice versa?


PS. I think one of the features of mankind I find MOST puzzling is the choice of carpet in a bathroom?!?!? Look forward to seeing the finished result of that room.

Thanks

It's pecan stained cedar. I have stained fences before and I really didn't feel like staining so I bought everything pre-stained. Full 6" wide pickets

Her name is Bella. We were trying to figure out her name and SO said Bella and I said no because our friends dog is Bella. She agreed, then the next day my son said we should name her Bella and we both disagreed, then our room mate said Bella so Bella it is...lol.

They Like her, she is just getting past skittish with us and is as kind as can be. Will probably be around 50lbs full grown.

Yeah, the reason I put carpet in the basin is because it was the easiest to pull up since I knew we were redoing it. Bathroom will be tile and the shower tile we are going with will look like.

Will be a full tile near ceiling, then decorative strip, diamond tiles, decorative strip and then full tiles down to tub. Will be a deep soak jetted tub. 21" soak depth.

We just got plans approved and permit from city for bathroom

Granite countertops going in monday, man we feel broke between fence, counter, and bathroom. 72sqft of countertop total. Only had 20sqft of countertop before remodel. One 9ft piece with sink in middle and a 1foot piece next to stove.

 

[Poki]

The biggest pain about posts are digging the hole. Once hole is dug attach post level to post, put it in hole about 2ft feet, pour dry cement around it, pour water and use a piece of rebar to mix by a stabbing action and letting water mix. Less messy then premix and strong enough with the pole 2feet into the ground.

We reused most of the steel fence posts we already had. Only had to add a couple additional.

 

[Poki]

I don't think I will ever go back to standard 24" deep counters, much prefer 30" deep. We finally got countertops installed

Crazy to think it was this

 

[Poki]

Installed drain on patio. It slopes toward house due to settling. Becore we moved in we ended up with a river through house from a torential down pour do to a pourly designed patio. I removed all the stones that extended the patio which fixed 90% of the problem a while back. The drain handles the rest.

First attempt at any concrete patch myself, learning process. Gonna create a slurry when its fully cured and cleanup imperfections so its not as noticable. The color will match as it cures. Just need to fill in some of the spots next to the edges that i couldnt seem to pull up enough cream to smooth it all out as much as i wanted to.

 

[Poki]

Putting an offer on a house, find out monday if its accepted. Market here is really hot. Houses are going for alot more then they did 6 months ago. Bidding wars are now common where as last year you could offer below list easily. Keeping old house and using as a rental. Low mortgage payments and good area for rentals.

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[Poki]

GF really wants house, i see alot of potential. Add an attached garage, turn current into something else and open up downstairs.

Possible move master downstairs, turn upstairs master into a gameroom open to below. Or just expand living room and move washer and drier back expanding laundry room and add a good size pantry.

Not as good a spread on this one, but possibilities are present and doing work myself makes it worth it. Value goes up faster then what i put in. I can also raise the sqft up 50% to be same as other houses around it.

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[Poki]

Outbid...pit offer on another house. Post a pic later

 

[Poki]

Submittd offer on 5th house now. Bank owned foreclosure. Will see

 

[Poki]

Executed contract, close in 30 days hopefully inside needs quite a bit of work. New floors, patch walls, but we got it $30/sqft cheaper then market

 

[Poki]

I hate the waiting state. Extended option period so the sellers can have insurance look at roof. It has hail damage from recent...feels like a month long...series of hail storms. Luckily only marble size hit my house. But its been up to golf ball size in areas about 5 miles away.

Loan process good so far, had all paperwork submitted within 2 hours, shocked the hell out of mortgage guy.

Didnt realize my debt to income ratio is around 25%...lol. i really dont like debt, but all i pretty much have is a credit card from windows we had installed and mortgage. Car is paid off, i hate living paycheck to paycheck so prefer to live below means so i dont have to worry financially. I got a kick out of the beater car i had when i was in slacks and a polo for work and had to use back door to open front door so i could get in. Paint peeling, old looking hoopty.

 

[ceecee]

Executed contract, close in 30 days hopefully inside needs quite a bit of work. New floors, patch walls, but we got it $30/sqft cheaper then market

Very nice. Even though you don't have basements in TX, this looks like you'll have lots of room.

 

[Poki]

Very nice. Even though you don't have basements in TX, this looks like you'll have lots of room.

Its about 2300sqft. 150sqft bigger then current house. I was at a UBuildIt meeting the other day and the owner is also a custom home builder. He was explaining that he does basements in texas, its just that it has to be done properly and not as cheap as up north due to our expansive soil. My house is on black clay which is very expansive which can crush the walls of a basement if it gets wet and expands. You have to make sure you do some good soil samples of land if you want a basement here. Because of this you will only find them in custom builds.

I will probably use the UBuildIt system for next house. They walk you through the process of subcontracting out building your own home. They have a list of solid subcontractors they help you plan, bid, etc. Its up to you to get it all done though, make calls, schedule, etc. They provide knowledge, expertise, flow charts, etc. The cost is $5.95 per sqft under roof. So a 2500sqft house with a 600sqft 3 car garage and a 200sqft covered patio would be 3300sqft times $5.95 for the cost of the system. $3500 up front for planning rest is billed as you progress and reach stages. So if you for some reason cancel half way through you only pay based on stage you are at. You are free to work on your own house, change whatever you want. Its your house, they just guide you and give advice. You can hire whoever you want, find your own subcontractors, do your own framing, electrical, whatever you want.

 

[Poki]

Looks good for the house. Got my conditional approval from underwriter and seller agreed to replace broken window, roof, and hire professional cleaners. Conditions are all pretty standard and basic. Appraisal on friday, then get survey done, and wait for close. Will post pictures once we close. Dont want to put pictures of someone elses house up, even if its vacant. Needs alot of basic interior work. Flooring, drywall repair, paint. Not bad for 70k under market on low end in a sellers market. Being able to do this stuff yourself really pays off.

Sheetrock/molding repairs from dog, missing/damaged wood flooring, and destroyed carpet really make a huge difference. Sheetrock is cheap as well as mud. Just time. Floors if you do it yourself will be under 5k for this house. Tile is good, just replace all wood/carpet. Paint isnt to bad either in bulk.

 

[Poki]

Got appraisal back. Realtor said they usually shoot for appraisals at purchase price. So if you purchase a house for $200k the appraiser will shoot to appraise at $200k if it fits within comps range. The lowest our appraiser could get was $21k over our purchase price. That was using the 3 lowest price per sqft for comps. Upper end puts it $70k above what we paid. Our goal is to fhange house as cheaply as possible to reach high end of range. Still do quality work and good items, just do things smart.

 

[Poki]

Just to give people a heads up on the process and costs...requesting samples for engineered wood floor that runs 1.79sqft. glue will run about $0.50 sqft. Half the downstairs is wood, half is tile. Tile looks good, just need to regrout it. For downstairs wood to install myself is about $1850. I have found carpet for $1.98 sqft installed that seems like a decent face weight and a decent pad. We have decided we will probably only be in this house for 2 years or so. Upstairs is about 750sqft. With stairs we are probably looking at $2250. Stairs alone will be a couple hundred...stair bull nose is pricey or i would go wood. But at $100 a step for just bullnose it would be about $2000 to do wood stairs to match floor.

My process is generally to find good quality at a sale or clearance price. So we get quality without expense. We do have about 250sqft left over from the wood install we did, but that wood runs $2.69 a sqft right now to match so it would cost more to just buy what i need instead of replacing with a different style. We only paid $1.69 per sqft for it at the time on clearance.

 

[Poki]

 

[Poki]

Just a temporary house. Maybe 2 years. Biggest reason we moved was to help a friend out. Rent in our area is skyrocketing and they couldnt afford it any longer. Since our mortgage is really low on our house we can rent it to them several hundred below market for a year. She is moving out of the area in a year when her son graduates. Got this house $21k under appraisal and thats as-is appraisal. Floors are destroyed throughout, dogs tore up the sheetrock and trim everywhere. Its just visually a disaster...structurally sound. Plan on dropping $5-6k on it and it will be worth $70k over purchase price in current market. We can get it to $85-100k over but that would require expanding upstairs adding an additional 520sqft. Havnt decided if we are gonna go that route yet. I am interested in the framing experience of a second floor.

 

[Poki]

When i say filthy, here is a lamp shade on the fan in living room before and after. That is a thick layer of dust.

 

[Poki]

Wood on left is what we are going with. Its the click-lock type. $1.49sqft with underlayment thrown in. Stair nose trim they have for $10 for 10ft. So we are gonna do the entire house in this wood. It matches the rails on the stairs and we can do whole house for under $2500

 

[Poki]

Why we got a good deal