Power to the People

My new (used) portable power generator

When you buy a "fixer upper" there's always surprises.

The first one came when I broke out the power washer to wash the siding (which was filthy) before I scraped and painted the peeling paint. When I plugged in the power washer, it wouldn't run properly. Apparently, the power washer was pulling too many amps for the current power circuits on the house. (Note: The house is getting new circuits as part of the upgrade).

 In order to run the power washer, I was going to need a portable generator.

I went to look at portable generators at Lowes and Home Depot and quickly discovered that they were both sold out. All the generators had been purchased for work going on down in Houston from the flooding and hurricane. So, I offered to purchase the floor model at Lowes. The sales guy said that they weren't allowed to sell the floor model, but he would talk to the manager.

We went and talked with the manager who told me that corporate would not let them sell the floor model. However, she said they did have a used one (with only 60 hours of run time on it) that someone had returned because they needed a larger model. They had marked it down since it was used.

She went into the back and brought it out. Turns out, it was a larger model than what I needed and although it had been marked down, it was still more expensive than the smaller model I was trying to buy.

She thought about if for a minute and then told me that she would sell me this used one for the same price as the smaller model that I was trying to buy. "Sold" I said.

Luckily, when I got it to the Denton house and fired it up, it ran like a champ, and provided plenty of power for the power washer.

Scraping and Priming

Before

After

There is quite a bit of the exterior wood siding and trim that has peeling paint and bare wood. 

One of the first tasks to protect the exterior is to scrape and prime the exterior surfaces that have peeling paint. 

Here are a few pics of the before and after results of the scraping and priming activities. It is likely to take quite a few days to complete.

 

 

Before

After

First Things First

Tools of the Trade

Given that the house had been a rental for ten years, it was quite dirty.

All that I did for the first several days was to clean each room, mostly by wiping down the ceilings and walls and mopping the floors with bleach water.

One of the first rooms that I cleaned was the living area where I setup our blow up bed as my bedroom and base of operation for the first couple of weeks.
 

Home Sweet Home

I also installed a new carbon monoxide and smoke detector, since I was going to be staying at the house while we got things rolling.

In fact, when the ATMOS gas company technician came out to turn on the gas and ran a "pressure test" (to make sure the gas line would hold pressure) the test failed.

He asked if the house had one of those "old gas heaters" in the bathroom. I said that it did. We went in and checked on the heater and it was in the "on" position, which was why the pressure test was failing. As soon as we turned it to the "off" position, the gas line pressure tested fine.

The Offending Heater

The Master Plan

The remodel will be broken into several stages.

Breaking the work into stages will help spread out the funding (since part of the budget won't be available until we sell our house in Carrollton).

Phase 1: New Addition

The house is roughly rectangular with a small extension into the back yard on the east side.

The plan is to add a master bedroom and bathroom which will extend an additional 30 feet into the back yard from that extension. This will require adding a wall in the back bedroom to create a hallway to the new addition (which will make that bedroom a bit smaller).

Re-roof the entire house and replace guttering as part of adding the new addition.

Phase 2: Remodel the Existing Space

Remove the wall that separates the two living spaces. (If the wall is load bearing, this will require adding a beam across the space to carry the load.)

Move the heating and air handling unit and the water heater up into the attic. Replace the water heater with a tank-less water heater as part of the process.

Remove the wall that separates the kitchen from the living areas to create an open living area.

Redesign the kitchen layout and replace all cabinets, counter tops, and appliances, including a gas cook top.

Remove all paneling and existing wall boards and replace with new sheet rock and plaster. Replaster all ceilings. Repaint.

Rewire the electric circuits, plugs and switches as needed.

Replace all lighting fixtures.

Remove the HVAC vents from the walls and reroute them into the ceilings.

Gut the existing full bathroom and replace with new sink, shower (no tub) and tiling.

Replace all windows with new, energy efficient replacement windows.

Replace all the floors throughout (wood floors in bedrooms, kitchen and living spaces, and tile in the bathroom).

Remodel the utility room for a stack-able washer and dryer and room for an extra refrigerator. (Possibly remove the door that currently goes from the kitchen to the back yard to create more wall space that can be used in the kitchen and utility room remodel).

Repaint the exterior of the house.

Phase 3: Outdoor, Fencing and Pool

Add an eight foot, board on board fence around the back yard.

Add a pool and hot tub in the back yard.

Various landscaping and flower beds in both front and back yards.

Next Steps

We have already had an initial meeting with a local construction company (TriStar) with whom we walked through the house and discussed our master plan.

He suggested that we meet with a local designer who can help us figure out how we want to layout the new addition and the remodel of the existing space, and create drawing from which he (and other companies from whom we want to get bids) can produce cost estimates.

We have scheduled a meeting with the designer.

Overview of the Fixer Upper

The house was built in 1949. It has two bedrooms and one and half bathrooms, with about 1,200 square feet of living space. It has carport (no garage) with central heating and air conditioning. The heating and water heater are natural gas. The front of the house is brick and the other three sides are wood siding. The lot is 10,080 square feet (which actually larger than our current lot in Carrollton) and has several large trees.

Here are a few pictures of the house we took shortly before we closed.

 

 

Looking out the front door.

Living room, French Doors (to back porch) and into kitchen.

Kitchen

Back Bedroom

Front Bedroom

Full Bath

Half Bath

Back Porch

Back Yard

In the beginning...

This is the story of the remodel of our "fixer upper" house in Denton, Texas.

Our plan had been to relocate to Denton (from Carrollton), once both our daughters had graduated from high school. Once our youngest graduated in June 2017, we began looking at houses in Denton. We placed offers on several homes, only to be outbid each time. Denton had become a "hot" market over the last few years.

We had started to become discouraged about whether we were going to be able to execute our plan, when we saw a listing for a "sale by owner" of a small , fixer upper house in an area of Denton that we liked.

The owner had been renting the house for the last ten years. He was interested in selling the house since he was trimming the number of rent houses that he owned in Denton. Having been a rental for the last ten years, the house was in pretty rough shape, but had "good bones" as they say.

Here is a picture of the house as we first saw it on Google Maps:

Here is what it looked like when we went to view it (the owner had started trimming some of the over grown trees and bushes).

 After a short negotiation between us, the owner, and one other interested purchaser (unfortunately), we were able to come to terms. We closed on the house one week after we first viewed it.