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My "House" Build

g60_corrado_91

Go Kart Champion
Location
IL
Car(s)
2006 GTI 6MT Pkg 1
Last year around this time, I started looking at small houses and townhouses/condos. I was paying $1000 a month for a one bedroom apartment and an external 'shared' garage. While the amenities were nice (an outdoor and indoor pool, pool tables, a full work out facility, and tennis courts) and it was only 10 minutes from work, I am single and would pretty much just go straight to my place and not use them. I will say the service was pretty good and they fixed things relatively quickly compared to some other nightmares I've heard. But anyhow, $1000 a month was adding up and I had essentially no fun money.

I started looking at a bunch of places that were closer to my parents and friends, all of them foreclosed and a couple that were short sales. Some of them were just plain dives. Others were covering up stuff (like the condo that was remodeled inside and we found out that was due to the water heater valve failing and flooding it and the neighbors garage).

Fast forward to middle of April I want to say, and I came across the place I ultimately ended up with. Out of all of the of the places I looked at, only this one was not a foreclosure. I put an offer on it at asking price initially, and got a scare when someone else put an offer in. I ended up going higher and they took my offer. After a chaotic closing (the papers to sign my life away weren't there when I showed up), the place was mine.

I'll use this thread to document what I've done up to this point and future plans. Ironic since I don't have a car build thread.

This is one before I made an offer.



Cleaning Phase

This is where things start getting ugly. The lady who owned it not only was a heavy smoker, but she had no reality of cleanliness. Yes, that's mouse poop and who knows whatever else under the refrigerator. The fridge itself? So bad, I got a new one.



I thought I had more pictures of the kitchen before it was clean, but apparently not. Same idea though. Under the stove was bad, the dishwasher had poop everywhere, and even the drawers.

Here's a few of the miscellaneous walls and what not. You can see the nicotine and tar on them.







Guest bathroom:



Upstairs:

 

g60_corrado_91

Go Kart Champion
Location
IL
Car(s)
2006 GTI 6MT Pkg 1
I thought I had more finalized pictures of the family room and what not, but I'll need to take some.

Anyhow, sometime over the fall I power washed my garage.



My dad and I went about to replacing my glass sliding door since the old one had a blown seal and the window appeared white. While doing that, we replaced a few of the deck boards. After that, I painted my deck with Rustoleum Deck Over. That was an involved project.







We put in a storm door as well, but no pictures of that either.



December 2013

The kitchen linoleum was originally white, but as you can imagine, nicotine made it yellow as well. Rather than going ceramic tile, I went with vinyl tile. Still can use grout which I chose to do. The cutting of the angles was sort of a bitch for my father, but we got it all done. 8 boxes was right around $300 and one gallon of grout.



Before







During











Unstained:



After









 
Last edited:

FaLLeNAn9eL

JESUS HATES FLAT TIRE
Location
Narnia
Lower it!
 

g60_corrado_91

Go Kart Champion
Location
IL
Car(s)
2006 GTI 6MT Pkg 1
The next project is the guest bathroom. Paint the walls, put in a new sink, and do those floors as well. This will also involve cutting the mirror to make a little room for a cabinet. Should be fun times.





Need to stain this:




Carpet is also in store, but not for awhile. Planning on going with the top one (darker).





And besides the pictures I need to take, that's all for now.
 

g60_corrado_91

Go Kart Champion
Location
IL
Car(s)
2006 GTI 6MT Pkg 1
Needs more Jew finds

No doubt lol.


I tried to be comprehensive, but forgot some things that we did along the way. In painting/sealing the downstairs walls, my dad and I replaced the light fixtures. I got some window shades for Christmas. All of the light switches are new.

Also, the aforementioned mouse poop issue...Started noticing poop on my dryer downstairs. Bought a trap and got one. Then, by the sump pump, I noticed there were leaves and other things falling down. Ended up taking the insulation out and yeah, what we thought was a 10 minute project ended up taking an hour or so. All of the pipes leading to the outside of the house were not sealed. So I picked up some Great Stuff Pestblock and we sealed all of the holes up.

However, we had to go through and clean/vacuum all of the stuff along the way. It looks like at this point they were using it more as just a "home" rather than feeding since I don't leave food out and keep my place clean.



So far, I haven't noticed any more poop, so hopefully I'm through with that. At some point while I was working on my deck, my dad re-did my sump pump to put in their old battery back up unit. I didn't grab a picture of that, but will eventually. Basically, they couldn't use the battery back up at their house because they have an underground 'river' flowing by the house, corner lot, and both houses next to them built higher. So, they have two main sump pumps in the same well and a full back up generator that kicks on if the power goes out (they flooded in 2007).

That's all I can think of for right now.

Dining Room








Living Room



 
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