Property 2's Upstairs Renovation

Ah. It’s finished. 28 days later, I can say with exhausted jubilance that Nicholas’ apartment has been renovated has been renovated and rented out. Yes!

Things started on the wrong foot, as I waited for Alfonso to get rid of all the garbage. I waited a good seven days before I could finally get started, so things really didn’t start until the 8th. Looking back, however, I realized that I was just looking for excuses. Alfonso moved all the major stuff on the first day, so I could have easily worked around the trash to paint the walls, doors, and ceilings.

While I painted the walls, Alfonso worked in the bathroom. I had decided to replace the previous shower wall which was absolutely gross. He warned me that it’s usually becomes a harder job once I start removing walls, but I wasn’t concerned. It was just one wall after all. How bad could it be? For shame…

See that small space under the window where the last row of tiles should be? Yeah, that's all mold. The mold was so bad that it actually pushed the tiles out! Ugh!

I mean, that mold was so black it… you can pretty much insert any African American reference here. Not only was it black mold, but it was so thick that it pushed out the old tiles. When Al called me in to take a look, I nodded my head as if to say “Of course”, and then went back to painting. Alfonso and his associate Bobby got to work on the bathroom:

We also had to replace the bathroom sink

After cleaning off the mold with bleach, Al put up the water resistant sheetrock

Shower wall went over the new sheetrock and was sealed with caulk. The sink I got with a good deal from Lowes: Vanity + Top + Faucet for $63.

I got done with my first coat on the living room and dining room when the new appliances came in. Learning my lesson from Property 4, I found a reputable used appliance store where I found a stainless steel refrigerator and a stainless steel stove for $1000 and a one year warranty. Inspired by my new stainless steel appliances, I decided to get the cabinets early and have Alfonso install them same day:

The original kitchen

Since there was nothing wrong with the top cabinets, I left them as is and took out the bottom.

Al working on the new cabinets. Yes, I used this picture to help me in the Ass Crack game

Finished product

Finished product from the side. I know there's not a lot of space between the top and bottom cabinets, but I didn't really care then. I still don't care.

The stainless steel appliances.

At this point an entire 10 days had gone by and I was really lazy.

My inflatable bed with pillow and blanket. This was my bedroom for two and a half weeks

According to the Property Renovations post I wrote, sleeping over at the property was supposed to solve my procrastination problem. Unfortunately I had to stop sleeping there because I was inhaling the dust and my lungs got infected. I developed a ridiculously violent cough that I have even now.

16 days in, I decided enough was enough. There wasn’t much left for me to do except putting a second coat on the bedrooms and bathroom, and then polyurethane the floors. I needed motivation, so I put on some jazz and that got me in the mood. By February 24th the property was rental ready, and I was proud of the results:

I did a MUCH better polyurethane job than the one I did in the downstairs unit. I made sure to do it when the sun was shining at its brightest, which reduced the chances of me missing spots.

One of the bedrooms. White walls and shiny floors is usually a winning combination. As time goes on, I'd like to experiment with different colors on the borders. I see some people do a light brown color for borders and it looks pretty good.

In the end, the total renovation cost around $4,300, twice as much as I wanted to spend. The new appliances and cabinets made up half of that cost, and most of the repairs were one-time instances. So the next time I have a turnover in this apartment, all I’ll have to do is paint and possibly put down a coat of polyurethane… a max cost of $400. I also picked up some lessons from this turnover:

• Buying a cheap TV dinner tray table to put my painting supplies on saves me from bending down over and over again when I want to put more paint on my roller
• I have to buy a new step ladder, one that has a tray to rest stuff on so that I don't have to keep climbing up and down the ladder for the simplest things.
• Al's total labor cost was around $980. I could have saved about $300 had I planned everything out in advance. Once the bathroom was finished, for example, I decided that I wanted to replace the floor. Al charged me $150 because he now had to take out the sink that he'd just installed, along with the toilet. Had I done this while the bathroom was still under construction, he probably wouldn't have charged me anything. It would all be part of one price, and his original price was $650.

Finished. This felt especially good because it was the first time I had done so much work on a single property with my own two hands. I painted, I caulked, I replaced a toilet valve assembly, and even a few light fixtures:

One of the 3 fixtures I replaced

Harder to spot negative and positive wires in old houses

New wall light fixture in the hallway

I learned a lot with this renovation and grew as a handyman. But I’m looking forward to the day when I can do most of the repairs on my own.

P.S.: As I alluded to earlier, Sam and I had a very competitive Ass Crack game. Since he has handymen working round the clock, we only play when I have a turnover to do. Unfortunately I lost, but I got serious points for effort:

I seriously think that guy knew what I was up to.