Rehab is DONE.

We have tenants in there now, and they're such a sweet, cute couple.  Army Lady and Mr. Dad, two little girls, and a baby on the way in a few months.  My favorite part of the real estate biz is providing a good place to live where a family can be happy and make memories. 

I'd posted pictures of the place before, and was able to get "afters" this time--the contractor was only a week late on this one instead of a month and a half.  :~)  This is a picture-heavy post, but to my mind, they say way more than a thousand words.

Note the giant prickly pear patch...it was fifteen feet wide!

Still not sure I like the paint colors I picked, but our contractor did--he's using them on several of his houses now.

The previous owners had knocked down a wall to add space to the kitchen.  Once they established their bad layout, they got Creative With Plumbing.  This resulted in rotted cabinets and general nastiness.  We put the wall back to recreate the fourth bedroom.  Smaller kitchen, but it's clean and healthy now.
 

Rotted cabinets, weird plumbing, and pink walls...what's not to love?

New cabinets, appliances, and plumbing, better layout.

Looking over the bad cabinets into the dining area.

Not a lot of counter space, but a better dining area.

The flooring is a sort of vinyl tile that looks like wood and DOESN'T sound like laminate.  We put it through the entire house, and because it's vinyl, it works for the bathrooms too.

Living room before...

Living room after.

Ooh, mixed media paneling in the Man Cave!

Family room (man cave) after...new tenants have a pool table.  :~)

The bathrooms were a health hazard, but now there are new toilets and vanities, and a new shower in the master.  It's all contractor grade, but it's clean.

Front bath before...

Front bath after.

Master bath before

And after.

Seriously nasty shower.

New tile, squeaky clean.

The house was built in 1967, and apparently they don't make 8 ft bifold closet doors anymore (at least not that we could afford), and since the budget had already stretched to cover a few Rehab Surprises--like a new roof--we decided not to reframe the openings for now.  So I made curtains.  The tenants have two little girls and a baby boy on the way, and she was tickled with the colors of fabric I'd supplied.  The little girls think their closets are fun hideaways. 

All the bedrooms had rather interesting paint schemes...

I happen to LIKE interesting paint, but for a rent house, ya gotta go neutral.

I like wainscoting too, but not in a hallway.

Floor guys jacked up the tracks for the closet door...so, more curtains in a pale gold.

The tenants like to garden, and promised to take care of the plantings.  So I put a turk's cap by the front door and a climbing pink rose in the back.  This weekend I'll put in honey suckle and trumpet vine in the back too, so within a year they'll have flowers, fragrance, and hummingbirds to enjoy.  They plan to stay a couple of years, so they'll enjoy the fruits of their labor, and their kids will learn to take care of the landscape.

Welcome to the haunted house?

Still a little more trimming to do, but mostly finished.

~~<{+}>~~

Thanks for visiting our rehab!

The newest project.

We closed on rent house #4 last week.  So much craziness and so many fires to put out trying to get this one purchased...if I'd gone through that kind of turmoil a year ago, my head would have exploded.  I guess I really am learning.

So now we've got a contractor out there rehabbing, and it'll be another big one--looking at 21K, barring any unforeseen major stuff.  This contractor actually seems to be working out, at least he moves pretty quickly.  Fingers crossed that the work is as good as he claims it will be.

These are the Before Pictures.

Living room.

Kitchen

Bath?

Master bedroom.

The giant prickly pear bed in the front will be gone, as well as the dead tree in the back and all the junk left on the porch.  The inside has already been painted--not my colors, but we'll fix that NEXT time he does a job for us.  The light tan and white trim is still way better than Pepto Bismol Pink, navy/red, and turquoise blue. I forget what all else is there...traumatic block, I think.

The kitchen will be returned to its small but new self (they'd taken down a wall and made a three bedroom instead of a four, but we're putting bdrm four back in.)  The contractor has some cool flooring that is essentially like wood laminate on steroids, but it's glued down so it doesn't have that icky hollow sound when you walk on it. 

I'm going up today to pick the exterior trim and siding paint...figure a white and putty gray to go with that odd red/black/white brick.  "After" pictures when it's all finished.  I have native morning glory seeds to plant along the back fence.

Then it'll be all about starting the refinance and getting tenants in there.  I will be SO much more careful with this one, so I don't end up with tenants like we have in house #3.  I let initial (read: wrong) impressions sway me, and I didn't do the background checks like I should have.

The trick is to avoid people who will treat the house the way the owners/last residents of this place did.  They lived in this house, in this condition, right up until a month or so ago.  I can never get over how people can treat a HOME this way--and yes, I've been through dire financial straights, divorce, death, all kinds of depression-causing issues.  But a home?  Homes are sacred, and should be taken care of.  It doesn't cost much to clean bathrooms.  Little vinegar & baking soda goes a long way (and can be bought with food stamps--I know this from experience as well).  There...I've probably gone and said too much.

Oh well...it'll be SO much better when we've administered some TLC. 
Lessons learned...I just keep on learning.  :~)

Happy Arizona's Birthday and Pinteresting Developments

Well, Happy Arizona's Birthday to everyone!

Here's the deal: the Hubs long ago decided to boycott Valentine's Day.  Instead, we celebrate the day Arizona joined the States.  I don't get candy, valentines, or jewelry, which is fine, because I don't eat sugar, don't save cards, and have all the jewelry I need.  But once in a while, on a Tuesday of no particular significance,
he brings me flowers.  It's a better surprise then anyway.

I bit the bullet and...got on Pinterest.  Holy cow.  I can't figure out which was better...avoiding it or joining it.  Within minutes of pinning Phil's leather, it was being repinned all over the place.  I think that's pretty cool.  But I can see how it can become a Time Vampire.  The rationale for the hours lost today was the Setting Up...of course there's a little curve there, right? So I have boards, but they're a little sparse.  The link is on the left under Contact Info, if you want to see or follow any boards.  I have lots to explore there (and lots of you to find and follow), but have to budget time as I go.

In the meantime, I have walnut ink to package, dolls to work on, a house to clean, and oh, did I mention we're buying another rent house?

In a month there will a Rehab to manage and a house to rent out.  That's cool too, because once we can replace the hubby's day job $$$ with rents, he can do the real estate while I do the dolls and the homemaking.  Seems like a pretty good set up to me.

I have new business cards on the way...

And I'm really tickled about them.  Way more foo-foo than I would have ordered even just a few years ago, but change is part of life, right?  Now I'll have them in time for the doll show in February.

We have some coming in for the real estate biz, as well...way fun to design.  Of course, no foo-foo allowed.  Not even one single foo.

More time to make dolls?

Ordinarily, that's a good thing.  A great thing!  But in this case it's looking like our Thanksgiving Trip to Phoenix is soon to be our Christmas Trip to Phoenix.  (Sorry Mary Jo, if you're reading this...Phil plans to call home this weekend.)  Which is hard to see as a good thing, because I miss those people something fierce.

The reason  for the delay...is, well, constant delays.  The contractor working the rent house rehab is making a lie of all the good things he told us about himself.  Into the third week and very little done, and half of that done incorrectly.  The house is rented, tenants to move in December 1st...and our "final walkthrough" date set for Nov. 30th--the day after the return from ten days in Phoenix.  We can barely get him to show up at the job site now, I can't imagine what a week and a half of no supervision would bring.  Well, I can imagine it...and it's ugly.

It makes me sick to my stomach to think of coming back to find it still undone, with this guy still making excuses and promises...the tenants with their U-Haul loaded and ready for their move.  This real estate thing can be fun.  And then there's now.

So I'm trying very hard to look on the bright side: I love to spend Christmas with family, and it looks like now I'll have the chance.  In the meantime, we'll be here over the next few weeks, poking this contractor with a stick (a.k.a. threats of no pay and bad Angie's List Ratings) to get the house done in time.  Since that isn't a 24-7 job, despite how it feels, I'll have time to get more of Phil's leather listed in his shop and work on some dolls.

But I miss our Phoenix people.  I'm looking forward to this visit, and looking back fondly on past visits.  You know how you can start planning, practically on a cellular level, for a certain experience?  Good times, a gracious home, chatting with Mary Jo while we (heh, I said "we") cook supper, a game of password, maybe?  Coffee with Gabe, feeding the quail in the mornings.   Love you, Gabe and Mary Jo.  Well, we'll still be there, just a few weeks later.

Fun with Vintage Art

Lately real estate has eaten my life again, so I haven't had any time for art.  But as Yoborobo reminded me today, life balances out, so one of these days I'll get to spend hours at a time in my room, sculpting, painting, sewing, whatever.

Right now, I'd like to share a link I found this morning, for Vintage art--old postcards, etc.  Please respect their terms of use, and avoid copyright problems.  Some lovely stuff, though.  I plan to play around with it, once I get the chance. 

Vintage Holiday Crafts

 Cheers.

And in other news...

Our cool mid-fifties house deal fell through.  The seller was crooked, and now we're having to work to get our $2,500 earnest money back (he didn't even own it to be selling it).  So I've dealt with it--because I really loved that rambly old house--but I'm still angry at how this guy could be involved in a market of serious investors.   

The good news is we've got a new deal going on a little work-horse of a house near our other two...a 3/2/2 that needs a medium-sized rehab of around 15K.  One of those little houses I wouldn't want at my current stage of life but which would have been perfect when I was young and starting out.  I like these little houses, because I like being a good landlady for a young family living life, raising babies, and making a history together.

This little house has a great backyard with big old trees.  I'll have to fight the urge to landscape it--it's not that kind of rehab--but I do look forward to seeing the Before and After Photos.  Here's a pair of pictures of the first project we did, before and after...

Well, looking at the house this way, it's not all that evident what we did.  I'd have to include all the pictures of the rotted siding, ripped out walls, broken windows, and moldy kitchen.  Ah well.  Currently the little family living there is expecting a new baby in December, and they're raising chickens in the back yard.  (That's legal in San Antonio city limits, as long as you only have three, and as long as they're quiet.)

If somebody had ever told me I would enjoy being a landlady, I'd have asked for some of whatever they were smoking.  But it's really okay.  Yes, it's really okay to create passive income from a house.  Let's not kid ourselves--we work to make money, and before I get one rented, it's a lot of work.

But more than that, it's a real people job, and I didn't expect to like that part of it as much as I do.  So...on to the next project, and another little family.

Tired but stoked.

Looks like we'll be good to close next week...amazing to me that we can close on a house in just a smidge over two weeks, from purchase agreement to keys.  Wow.  Amazing that I even know what any of it means, given my vast ignorance of the real estate industry less than a year ago.

Now to plan the renovation.  Landscaping is under the pervue of yours truly, and that's what I'm stoked about.  Since the weather is cooler (down in the mid-90's) I'm itching to dig again...and this time, I'll have a budget and be able to actually shop for plants.  Holy Silverado Sage, Batman!

This time next week, they'll be starting the foundation work...should be interesting to watch, as they have something like 25 piers to put in and have to lift two sections of the house at the same time, since the slab is broken in two places.  Scary stuff.  Then we'll see what damage was done inside to plumbing, tile, walls, etc.  As there is cracked tile and drywall everywhere already, I think the plumbing is the only real concern.

EDITED TO ADD:
The hubs is not happy with the survey, because the added-on garage and guest suite in the back extends WAY over the building set-back line.  But it's been this way for twenty or thirty years, so now we have to wait and see from the lender if this a real problem or only a minor inconvenience.  If it's a real problem, we'll be out $800 in survey and appraisal fees...
Real estate investment...it's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.  Oiy.

Down Time

Riiiiiight.

I have been jumping through hoops for weeks, my house is a wreck, the garden all but dead of record heat and drought, we just bought another house to rehab, and the holidays are coming up. 

This weekend, the hubs and I agreed that we're going to try to go one place, once a month, that we've never been before, just to go.  To explore, enjoy, and experience. 

But right now, all I want to do is finish the monster of art-fair-booth-RV laundry (it was pretty dusty in Ol' Bandera) and clean my poor neglected house.  The weather is helping...it's all the way down to the low-to-mid 90's.  Who would have thought of simple house-cleaning as down time? 

Music?  Check.
Iced Tea?  Check.
Trash bags for Goodwill donations?  Check.
Let the cleaning begin.

Kitchen Pics (Before)

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures I took myself, just the ones off the MLS listing.  But either way, there's no way to make the "Before's" any less grim.

That is the original Kitchenaid range hood, and I plan to have the contractor clean it up and put it back.  It won't match the stove, but it's just too cool to do away with it.  

The kitchen has light beige tile, which will all have to be replaced when the foundation is lifted.  (Thank goodness the same does not have to be said for the wood floors!)  As much as I'd love to do a black and white linoleum, I have to conceded to the Common Denominator and remember this is a house to sell, not a house to renovate my way. 

The cabinets will be stripped, sanded and repainted: 56 years of paint on them right now.  Bottom cabinets darker (warm gray, sort of "putty" color?), the uppers will be the off white of the rest of the house's trim.  Black appliances (this is not a granite/stainless steel sorta neighborhood, market values dictate.).  A dark floor tile, as close to slate as I can afford.  The counters...no I can't do the Boomerang Laminate with metal trim, as much as I'd love to.  So instead, a darkish speckled gray/black with some warm elements in it... 

I think this kitchen is essentially the Universe telling me I need to learn to compromise.  It won't be an easy lesson...but maybe I'll be better off for it.  :~)

A new house!

We bought another house to fix up and rent.  Well, the hubs says we'll try to flip it, and I won't stand in the way if we can make a pretty good deal on it.  Buuuutttt, I want it.  To live in.

This house was built in 1955, and has a laundry list of things wrong with it.  Starting with around 6K in foundation work.  The owners have almost doubled the square footage, adding a big family room, converting the original one-car garage, and adding a giant two car on the back of the house w/ alley access.  A plain but private, comfy guest suite through the garage.  The backyard is an exercise in compromise, since the add-on cuts it in half.  The front yard has tall trees--one of them has a cactus growing out of it.

It's really a mess, but I have fallen in love.  Wood floors through the living room, hall and bedrooms.  Tons of space for storage, workrooms, an office.  Original 50's kitchen!

We used to believe we needed to be out in the country.  Strike that.  We used to NEED to be out in the country.  But over the last several years, we've discovered things change, people change (I promise not to break into song here) and what used to fit just doesn't anymore.  Sooooo...Phil and I have talked about renting the house after we fix it up, and then in a year...maybe moving back to town.

I'm working hard not to get my heart set on the place, but it might be too late.  We'll sign contracts and close by mid-September, then the rehab begins.  After the foundation lift, there will be lots to fix, new tile, drywall repairs, some demo of parts that need to go away (godawful fake fireplace in the family room) and lots of landscape cleanup.  New appliances, paint, etc.  We're looking at around 32K in rehab costs--if there are no ugly surprises.

Have I mentioned the original 50's kitchen?
Ahem, where was I?

Well, anyway, if I seem a little distracted from this weekend's show, from making dolls, from cooking dinner...it's because I am.  This silly old house.  Pictures as we proceed.

Mmmm, tomatoes...

With my job recently leaning toward a 60/30/10 split right now (that is the real estate to housework to art ratio) I am especially grateful for a few days of cooler temps and actual rain--so the garden can sort of tend itself a short while.  Last Thursday's half an inch might not have been enough, but it was something and the landscape breathed a big sigh of thanks.

Apparently the tomato plants were happy about it too.  They smell so good, still warm from the sun...

Who am I? Where is my car?

Last week was crazy.  While wrapping up from the art fair (who uses that many tablecloths???), we had two rent-house closings--one was a refinance on the first, and the second was the purchase closing on the second rent house.  Lots of signatures and bank paperwork.

But the second one dominos over into this week, because as soon as we close, it's time to get the rehab started so we can get it rented!  Utilities on, paint colors picked, contractors who need codes the lockbox, oh--and a new For Rent sign for the yard, because I painted the last one w/ permanent black paint and now my phone is dead.  Sooooo a new one w/ HIS number on it.  Yeah, boring details, but it's one way to build up a retirement fund that won't go down the toilet every time the stock market wobbles.

For now, I have pictures of roses.  The Peggy Martin rose I'd posted earlier hit her prime for the season...she'll bloom a little more on and off over the summer, but will likely wait to really re-bloom this fall.

If you're ever shopping for roses/landscaping/plants and find this rose, get it.  It'll climb twenty to thirty feet (doesn't "climb" but when tied, it grows loooooong ramblies) and it seems impervious to bugs, mildew, etc.  Rose growers call this one "The Katrina Rose": Peggy Martin was a rose grower in New Orleans, LA.  When Hurricane Katrina hit, she had over 300 varieties of roses on her place.  Everything was flooded and covered in salt water and debris.  This was the only rose that came back.  Proceeds from the sale of this one go to continued hurricane restoration in New Orleans...

And now, back to my regularly scheduled madness.  Time to run errands.  (How many switch-plates and towel bars was I supposed to buy?...)

What is my name? Where is my car?

Spinning around a little lost lately. We got the rent house rented (a cute couple who asked if they could have chickens in the back yard!) and are now in contract for another one. All that is well and good, but it sure puts a giant dent in the doll making.

The peach trees are blooming!

On the positive side--spring is HERE and I have gotten LOTS of landscaping done!  Finally cleared away the white rock and @*#$^* landscape fabric the previous owners were so enraptured with. Perennials all around, but small with room to grow. Veggie garden is doing well, except the broccoli. I think the 40 degree mornings and 80 degree afternoons have confused it, because it's growing tiny little heads and then flowering straight away. Oh well. We'll have sugar snap peas soon.

I have desperately missed the daily blog read, and made time to sit and read this morning. Posted a Tips and Tricks over at ADO, (on photography) and have been working on

Tshilaba, as she was when she arrived here in San Antonio...

my visiting Traveling Doll Project friend, Tshilaba. Pictures of the rent house re-do, the garden, and Tshilaba coming up this next week. (And maybe one of the dog with a new haircut--he is sooooo shaggy!)

Be well y'all. I miss you.
Jan

Real estate has eaten my life.

No, not really.  It just feels like it this weekend.  We close on our first rental house this next week, and then the work starts to get it rehabbed and rented.  Spent all day today looking at other houses, ending with putting an offer on another one.  Tomorrow we'll drive out to look at yet ANOTHER one.

All I really wanted to do this rainy weekend was stay home, do domestic stuff, and play in my nice clean room.  (Pout, pout.  Yeah, okay, poor me.  A little cheese to go with that whine?)

Oh well.  It's a three-day weekend for the hubs, so maybe Monday we can just fart around in footy pajamas.  :~)