A number of years ago we bought this great little rental house near a major university. It turns out it wasn't so great and I now refer to it as the Shoddy Cottage. This year we decided to tackle a major upgrade and tackle an ambitious two week renovation- the available time between our old tenants and new tenants. See how this crazy project unfolded.
Background
This former summer home wasn’t all sunshine. Cosmetically it was looking a little sad, a little outdated, and little disjointed. We also knew there was galvanized plumbing somewhere that was impacting the water pressure and the house was riddled with a maze of pipes to deliver the hot water heat. At minimum we really needed to upgrade the plumbing and HVAC. This was something we wanted to do for quite a while but were having a hard time justifying the cost, until…
We realized we could utilize the hidden value of the bonus room and turn it into a space to be used as a studio apartment or master bedroom dependent on our rental needs. This increased the net income on the house somewhere between $400-600/month. Easy peasy. Except there is no basement and no plumbing where the studio will sit. We also only had 15 days between tenants to make any needed changes or upgrades and close the main house back up
The previous tenant was a delight. He allowed us to come in and make a mess while he was at school each day as long as we cleaned up. We used this time to do as much prep work as possible. During this time we swapped out the flooring on the 1st floor, opened up the new entry to the kitchen, and closed off the extra access to the bonus room (new studio), and removed all the radiators.
New Opening- View from the Front Door
Looking from the Bonus Room
From the kitchen
View from the living room
Entering the front door- Trim Done
Bonus room now closed off
I also used those two weeks to order as many supplies as possible- cabinets, counters, etc that could delay delivery for a few weeks.
He Moved Out and We Moved In:
Once the tenant was out the clock on our two week renovation started ticking. We ripped out the kitchen cabinets and tore down the ceiling to access the problematic 2nd floor plumbing. Unfortunately we found one DIY monstrosity after another.
No room to move in the little house
Holes for HVAC
New floors, new side door
The bad…
The Kitchen Demo
Kitchen Demo
When the kitchen ceiling came down we discovered the drywall was suspended a couple inches below the original ceiling using nails as spacers. This created a cavity where they ran all sorts of crazy electrical…not the safest. The original ceiling, just like all the rest of the walls and ceilings, turned out to be concrete (not plaster) with an embedded wire mesh.
Ceilings
On a side note, can you believe how decorative those little dollops are?
It is like someone took an baking tool to build this house.
Next came up the floor. We were disappointed but not entirely surprised to find a concrete slab under the framing. The plumbing crew needed to cut through all the framing and then use a wet saw to make a channel in the slab providing a place for the waste lines. Everyone was hard at work.
Wet Saw
Hauling out the concrete
New side door gives access to the back of the property
Let’s Talk About the Plumbing Crew:
Oh. My. Word. The head guy was so much work. Honestly I really did not want to hire them; he struck me as sketchy right from the get go. The only problem is everyone else was crazy busy or had no interest in the job.
Pro tip: If you don’t have experience run, don’t walk, from the sketchy guys. If you do have experience, well, you know what you are getting into.
Unfortunately I felt out of options. I knew he was going to be management intensive but would get the job done. The reality was my timeline was too tight to wait for anyone else. To be fair, his crew was great. They were hardworking, never complained, and drove their boss around. I wish I got their numbers for future jobs.
Slab is cut and waste lines are starting to go down
Waste lines for the new bathroom
All new!
Hard worker here! He demolished the back area on a crazy hot day.
The Really Bad…
The electrical was a mess. We were originally planning on upgrading the breakers in the panel and running a few new receptacles (outlets in normal people lingo). Turns out some geniuses had decided to do crazy things like run lamp cord (seriously, the cord that you use to plug your lamp into the wall) instead of real wire to power the outlets. It was an ugly mess and although my electrician seemed annoyed I think he had fun tackling the job.
As we were contemplating how the heck the hot water tank, furnace, washer, and dryer were going to fit in a utility room the size of a cracker jack box I bit the bullet a decided to install a tankless hot water heater. It solved a number of problems but did nothing healthy for my budget.
While trying to reinstall the toilet we discovered it was not installed properly in the first place and required extensive repair, finesse, and a new toilet to sort that nasty situation out. I am told it was a rather disgusting and frustrating experience. I, fortunately, was not there to bear witness.
On a positive note, let’s take a look upstairs…
Old floors up, ready for the new planks
And it just kept going…
Things were progressing fairly well although there was much to accomplish. With only about 36 hours left before the new tenants arrived I was sitting on the floor assembling the kitchen shelves remarking on my amazement at the work we accomplished.
Famous last words. I really should know better.
The guy installing the new tankless hot water heater walks out and says “you have a gas leak and the dining room ceiling is going to need to come down.” I was sure he was joking. The timing was too perfect. Now remember the ceiling is concrete? Not an easy task to just “take it down.” Well sure enough the gas pipe going through the ceiling to feed the stove in the kitchen must have broken during all the manipulations. I thought we were doomed, game over. Thankfully one of the guys had a great idea to run a flexible gas line to the kitchen along a chase we created for the plumbing and electrical. The HVAC guy took care of that the next day like it was no big deal. Problem solved.
…And Going…
The last full day before the tenants arrived everything seemed to be right on track. The painting was being finished and there was loads of cleaning to be done but it looked like a pretty nice place. I turned on the tun to start cleaning the bathroom and….
There was no water pressure. What?! That was what spurred this whole reno. Turns out some sediment from the old pipes was lodged in the cartridge and after some near panic on my part one of the guys was able to get the water flowing. Thankfully another crisis averted.
Back to the Good Guys
The guys rocked it. They worked tirelessly to get it all done and managed to share the tiny space with minimal conflict despite some challenging personalities. I was in awe everyday walking in and seeing what they accomplished. To think in just 15 days we completely overhauled that house is pretty satisfying. One of them even said maybe we just proved HGTV can be real life.
Furnace and ducts are in
Cleaning: the windows looks sad but we are happy to wrap it up
Here’s a recap of what we accomplished:
All new plumbing including cutting the slab to add the waste lines
Addressed the electrical issues including beautifying all the lines in the utility room
Took out all the crazy piping for the hot water heat and switching to forced air with all new ducts
Changed the layout making the kitchen feel open and bright and close off the studio space
Added a side/back door to access a previously unused portion of the property
