Remodeling

September 24, 2016
On September 9th the bailiff served the writ to my tenants and they were gone! Thank goodness. The place was empty but they left a mountain of trash in the front yard and a $556 water bill including a hefty charge from the trash collectors for picking up their piles.
We ripped out flooring which was warped and buckled from water damage in the bathroom and the kitchen under the washer. Cabinets went because drawer fronts were missing, drawer slides were AWOL and the cabinets had water damage as well. Plus the boss (my wife) told me to get rid of them. So they went into the dumpster. Out came all the laminate hardwood and carpet in the bedrooms.
Since then we have tiled the bathroom and kitchen, repaired about a hundred holes in the walls and some structural cracks from settling using five gallons of drywall mud. Becky has become quite adapt at fixing and filling holes. Trim has been pulled down and primered. We replaced the front door because the frame and the structure around it was broken in the wall, the bedroom door was missing, the second bedroom door had a fist hole in it and both closet doors were broken. The back door frame was pushed out of wack by half an inch. The only door we didn't need to repair or replace was the bathroom door.
I have a whole laundry list of things that need to be repaired and replaced. We seem to be making headway now and once we get the walls painted we can put in the hardwood floor and then its finishing the trim and getting it rented.
Then maybe...maybe...we can get back on the road...well to Florida where we'll spend the winter.

Thanks for reading the blog and I hope you are enjoying it. This year has not gone nearly as I planned and we haven't done as much traveling as I wanted. As Meade Breeze says in the Ed Robinson series...."Shit works out."

Update

Since we got back from Florida we had a family get together with Becky's family where we camped in her uncle's yard for three days. One of the highlights was making tie dye t-shirts. Becky made one for me while I was in a euchre game.

 Patrick was in charge of making trophies and Becky won third prize for her shirt. Patrick gives her her cowboy hat and a plastic spoon.

 Dinner in a can!

 My niece turned 18 while we were in Florida and I promised I would take her sky diving. So I took her to Skydive Greene County. He tandem master was a cool guy who quit the construction business to be a full time sky diving instructor who travels the country in an RV to whatever school needs an instructor.

 I wished I had brought a better camera than my cellphone so the pictures would have been better but this is what we got.

I gave two apartments 30 day notices to leave before we went to Florida and the plan was to get them cleaned up and ready to rent in the month of August. Only one of those tenants moved and the other I had to file eviction on. In the mean time we got things rolling in the one apartment. I smelled so badly like smoke and the white fridge was yellow after the lady lived there a year.
We painted and cleaned.

 Becky slipped while cleaning the mirror and broke the sink basin so we had to replace that too.

I also got my new chair that I've waited about six months for. It fixes many of my issues but it heavier and larger than the previous versions.

 The old chair.

 The new chair with a custom molded cushion and hard back.

 One of the things Becky lamented when we were traveling was that I had no push handles. Now I have them and they adjust in height and angle. None of my other chairs have push handles and someone asked me why that was and I jokingly said it was because I didn't want anyone pushing me around and he asked why did you get married.

I had hoped we would be back on the road by now but instead we are going to be doing some major work in the next apartment to get it ready for a new renter. The plan is to be out of here by October because the trailer isn't designed for cold weather and neither am I.