Roadrunner: Week 9 Update

Grillo cuts a template to speed installing the siding around the newly replaced arch windows.

This post originally appeared on the 2016-07-29.

Yes, we're into the ninth week of our six-week renovation on the Roadrunner house. How did that happen?

Back Orders

Well, the primary culprit has been back orders. We thought we were ordering fairly common appliances, but Lowe's apparently didn't know the manufacturer was in the midst of an inventory reduction. The cook top we ordered didn't come in with the rest of the appliance order, which came in on time.

When we checked on the order, the cook top didn't have a delivery date. When we pressed the commercial desk to pressure the vendor for a date, they found out the manufacturer hadn't even scheduled another production run of the cook top.

Here is the siding installed around those arch windows. There are five of them in the front of the house. They'll look better painted.

We were able to cancel that order and order a different cooktop. But guess what? It didn't come in last Monday as promised. We'll see if it's here next week.

The arched windows were also backordered and didn't come in with the rest of the doors and windows for the house. We had planned on four to six weeks for the glass doors and windows to be manufactured and delivered. The bulk of the order came in after seven weeks. The arched windows came in 10 days later. There is so much new construction and renovation going on right now nationwide, the manufacturers simply can't keep up with the demand and are taking longer than usual to fulfill orders.

Invisible Repairs

This drain should prevent water flowing from the driveway into the garage. We'll see how well it stands up to hurricane Harvey.

Remember all those "invisible repairs" I've mentioned in this series? Well, many of them were unplanned, like having to reframe some of the windows we're replacing. It turns out the old windows were not only ugly and inefficient, they were beginning to leak. The leakage had caused some of the framing that holds them in place to deteriorate. Had this been allowed to continue, the damage could have extended to the walls and eventually made the house unsafe. We don't leave problems like that when we find them. We fix them. Luckily, we were able to get the house dried in again the day before Harvey hit.

We did complete two more "invisible repairs" this week. One was planned, on was not.

The unplanned repair only took a couple of hours to complete. We replaced the retractable attic stairs and repainted them. We hadn't planned to replace them because they looked fine during the inspection. But at some point, as different people accessed the attic, one of the springs gave way. Rather than replace the spring and leave the other one for someone else, we replaced the whole stair unit.

The planned invisible repair fixes a drainage problem. The driveway was sloped to drain into the garage. A previous owner had nailed a treated 2x4 across the entrance to keep water out, but that was an ugly solution that cause a trip hazard. So we cut four inches out of the driveway next to the garage and installed a drain. To get the water away from the house, we ran drainage pipes to the side yard. From there, the water will flow naturally to the small creek at the back of the house. Harvey will be a great way to test the effectiveness of this fix.

Hopefully, we'll be able to put the house on the market next week without any more delays. We'll have to see what Harvey does.

Appliances Going In

Installing the refrigerator Suna wanted a wine refrigerator in the kitchen. There’s a big one in the storm room.

“That oven is heavy. Let me think about this for a minute.”

Jaime and his son are hard at work installing the kitchen appliances. I think the hardest one is going to be the refrigerator, which is designed to fit inside a cabinet. Once it’s in, we can install the cabinet panels that will make it invisible.

I am glad the granite is tough because it is certainly being challenged, as you can see in the photo.

In Other News…

Suna is a member of a blue heeler group on Facebook. One of the other members read of Stella’s tragic accident and contacted her. She said her bitch had just pupped, and she offered us one of the two pups. It is an extremely sweet offer, but I’m not sure I am ready for another dog—especially one that will look a lot like Stella.

 

Peachtree Update

While looking for a gently used range for Peachtree, I found this classic full kitchen. Wonderful! It’s a steal at only $10-thousand. We decided to paint the trim red. It fits the neighborhood, and I think it will “pop.”

These cabinets will look great once all the crap is cleaned off and the sink is installed under the window.

The Peachtree project is coming along nicely. Demolition is complete. The popcorn is off the ceiling. The replacement stove is in the kitchen, and the new countertops and cabinets look superb.

Since Carol will list the property when it’s done, she came by to see the progress. She liked what she saw.

While we were thinking about what we wanted to do for lunch, she mentioned that Russell wanted her to go to an hour long presentation by a company called Fortunebuilders and asked if I wanted to go with her.

The hour long presentation turned out to be a two-hour pitch for a three-day event at the end of August. I was impressed and signed up for the three-day, as did Carol.

Fortunebuilders seems to focus on education in the real estate business. They introduced me to the concepts of wholesaling and reverse wholesaling in this event. They also have real systems that should take some of the load off of me. I have definitely turned this business into a full-time job. Maybe they can help me learn how to get back to enjoying my retirement.

Wholesaling

Getting a property under contract and selling that contract

Reverse wholesaling

Wholesaling to a known buyers list

I look forward to learning more in August.

 

Appliances!!

Installing the refrigerator Suna wanted a wine refrigerator in the kitchen. There's a big one in the storm room.

“That oven is heavy. Let me think about this for a minute.”

Jaime and his son are hard at work installing the kitchen appliances. I think the hardest one is going to be the refrigerator, which is designed to fit inside a cabinet. Once it’s in, we can install the cabinet panels that will make it invisible.

I am glad the granite is tough because it is certainly being challenged, as you can see in the photo.

In Other News…

Suna is a member of a blue healer group on Facebook. One of the other members read of Stella’s tragic accident and contacted her. She said her bitch had just pupped, and she offered us one of the two pups. It is an extremely sweet offer, but I’m not sure I am ready for another dog—especially one that will look a lot like Stella.

 

Shopping: I’m Not a Fan

What are the odds?

We went shopping for fixtures in Austin today. After several false starts, we finally found everything we were looking for (and more) in one location.

I knew Ferguson’s had a good chance of satisfying Suna’s wants when we pulled into the parking lot. There was an empty spot beside another XJ. It was like fate intended us to park there.

Inside, we found plumbing fixtures, light fixtures, and appliances. We bought everything we need for the kitchen, including two wine refrigerators.

My contribution to overspending was a built-in coffee maker for the master bedroom. Luckily, we’re in time to send the updated requirements to the cabinet maker.

 

Handyman

Installed Dishwasher

Well, here it is. Suna and I went to Home Depot today and found this beauty on closeout. It is a good match to the new fridge. Suna bought the dishwasher and I spent a few hours installing it.

“A few hours?” you might ask. A few hours. I’m not as fast at this kind of thing as I could be. X2B had me pretty much convinced that installing a dishwasher—perhaps even changing a lightbulb—was beyond my ability to do without direct supervision.

But Hah! Here is proof that I am not totally inept. There are no leaks, and I built the pigtail myself. Wire nuts are not the arcane science previously postulated.

My only complaint is that the installation manual had only a dozen complete sentences to describe pages and pages of text. It is a perfect example of taking simplification to the extreme. A few hints as to what the pictures meant would probably have trimmed 90 minutes off this job. Instead, there was a lot of getting to step 20 and realizing “Oh! So that’s what Step 15 was trying to say.” There is still cause to hire writers on English.