Well, at this particular moment in my life, I really feel that if we do not end up getting the 4100 house, I will be relieved.
For those of you new to this situation, you can read our former posts here:
Oct 9th 2012: dreaming of possibilities
Sept 4th 2012: more possibilities
Nov 21st 2012: progress report and yard pics (before and now) and video walk-through
Nov 24th 2012: things that need attention
Feb 12th 2013: timeline narrative
Anyway….we went back over to see the house over the weekend to REALLY look at it and determine what needs to be done in order to get it renter ready. Having been through a full home renovation recently, we knew what to look for this time.
We found a lot of the same….a house that needs to be painted (exterior) and have the roof cleaned and maintained (moss). Except this house also needs new gutters and some facia boards replaced.
Inside there’s quite a bit of missing trim, and trim that needs to have the holes filled and then be repainted.
Many rooms need painting- the two smaller bedrooms need complete color overhaul. The Master bedroom still has that wonky 2′ area that needs retexturing. And sadly, although the living and dining and hall are in pretty good shape, there’s spots that need touch-up, and well….there’s no touch up paint. The sellers took all that paint with them (it was there at our first two walk-throughs, gone the last two), and to try to color match will be horrific.
Part of what makes this home really pop is all the use of color- the beautiful cherry floors with the apple green walls and dark tan walls.
We are NOT in the mood to to paint the whole entire house, so I think we will try change to color match as best as possible (or just leave them as-is).
Upstairs we found that nearly all the walls in the loft area are painted- but over textured wallpaper. In many areas that wallpaper is peeling. Do we glue it back down and paint over it again? Or do we peel it all off and then paint those walls? Decisions decisions.
The kitchen cabinets need a good scrubbing and repainting (looks like they weren’t shellac’d so I should be able to put another coat (or two) of fresh white paint on them)…..but oh I do NOT look forward to another kitchen cabinet job. Besides, the drawers sound awful and the cabinet doors don’t close all the way- really the whole kitchen should be gutted and remodeled, but we aren’t in a position to do that. Maybe down the road when we decide to flip it to sell….but not now.
Carpet tear-out will be required in the Master Bedroom due to the massive staining. We will likely do the two other bedrooms for consistency and freshness. The Living Room carpet looks OK (large stain pending removal)….but when it comes to the stairs and loft- that’s where things get a little more complicated.
The original stair railing/spindles were carpeted around (as they should have been), but the newer stair spindles were put on top of the carpet- so we’ll have to pop all of those out in order to remove the carpet. We still want to “fix” the stair rail to an easier fix for future recarpeting needs, but I don’t know if that’s going to be possible.
I also don’t like the yellow color in the kitchen or family room- I want to repaint that- badly. But maybe I’m the odd one out and it’s not really that bad of a color. I just think there’s A LOT of yellow.
So that makes us wonder….what is really necessary when you are just cleaning up the house to rent? Do we really need to touch up the walls with fresh paint, or just clean them?
Do we really need to change the color of the kitchen and family room? Or just leave them lemon yellow.
And don’t get me started on the yard. Ugh. There’s just going to be so much to do.
Elisa's Ramblings 