August 2017

August was the final push to get the fixer upper ready for renting, then showing it.  Part of the push involved blowing 12 to 16" of cellulose insulation into an attic that must have been 130 to 140F.  Thanks to our neighbor PJ for running the insulation machine for Linc, who did the attic crawling.  We spent the last week or so of August finishing up final details and cleaning, advertised the house and showed it to over 30 families who came to look, about half of whom filled out applications.  The hardest part was selecting one family out of that group and letting the others know that their search wasn't over.  It's really hard to find a place to rent in the North Fork Valley this year.

What follows are a series of before and after photos of the house.  We either replaced or refinished every floor, refinished all existing wood trim, added new trim (much of it was missing or damaged), straightened and repainted all baseboard covers, repainted all walls and ceilings, repaired all appliances and windows, re-insulated the attic, replaced all light fixtures, garage door opener, toilets, rebuilt or replaced all faucets and shower trim, repaired leaky pipes, rebuilt a front railing and stone wall, added basement egress windows and window wells, did a rough scrape and paint of the exterior walls and trim, rebuilt cabinets, removed a kitchen island and replaced with something that fit, tore out and rebuilt the water damaged bathroom subfloor under and around the tub, and I don't remember what else.  The inside is done, the roof was done later in the fall, and exterior painting and reroofing a shed is for 2018 or 2019.

Living room before.

Living Room after

Kitchen before

Kitchen after

Main bath before

Main bath after

Basement main room before

Basement main room after

Bsmt north bdrm before

Basement south bedroom before

Bsmt north bedroom after

Basement south bedroom after

New bsmt windows and window wells

And that's it.  Big relief.