What I’m Doing on My Summer Vacation…

It’s been a while since I have blogged but lets be real we aren't traveling right now and have mostly been steadily working on our rent house. However, a few readers recently chastised me for not keeping everyone up to date, so here goes…

Things aren't going as well as we had hoped as the tenant keeps delivering excuses for not leaving on time. Granted he has paid through the end of the month but we did let him out of the year lease on the condition that he would let us in to do some work and he would be out shortly after the twentieth of July.Well here we are a few days from the 20th and another excuse arose where it seems he will be there for another week or so. Thankfully he has at least honored letting us in the house to do some work despite his still being there.

He usually allows us a half day so we have been chipping away at the inside work. We are happy to be working on the inside where it is air conditioned since we are experiencing heat in the upper 90’s. He packed up the master bedroom and most of the master bath so we have been able to attack those rooms in earnest.

Out went the old carpet, the carpet pad and all those nasty carpet tack strips. We were then able to clean the trim, walls and ceiling to prepare for painting. Two coats on the ceiling followed by two coats on the trim and all that was left was the walls. Two coats of light grey paint on the walls and the Master Bedroom is all but done.

The Master Bathroom needed some more TLC. I had to replace the overhead light as the tenant decided to plug in an LED light to a fluorescent fixture and not surprisingly burned out one side of the light fixture. The light has been replaced with an LED light which is a heck of a lot brighter. I also replaced the large vanity mirror with two smaller, more intimate mirrors.

All that is left is a little touch up paint, re-caulking the tub,a final clean up and the master bathroom will be DONE. Unfortunately that still leaves about 80% of the house to do. We have been nicking away at some tasks such as cleaning walls, baseboards  and removing wallpaper as well as repairing small holes, cracks and nail holes in the sheetrock. There’s still a lot of painting to do and flooring also needs to be replaced. We are desperate to get as much done as possible so it will be ready to show when the students begin their return in August.

Also we had to replace the vanity faucets which was a bit challenging due to tight quarters inside the cabinet. With new paint for the cabinets inside and out the Master Bathroom is looking pretty good. Sharon did a great job on cleaning the bathroom and was able to get all the SCUM off the the faucet fixtures saving us a hundred bucks for new ones. The bathtub and toilet were also a mess but Sharon worked some magic with a scour stick which had been recommended by a friend who is a professional cleaner.

We have taken a few breaks from working as we enjoyed the fourth of July at the George Bush presidential library which was open to all ending with a great fireworks display. Some old friends have also reached out to host some dinners for us which we have very much appreciated!

Sharon is still seeing a physical therapist for an overuse injury and I have a VA appointment to check out my knee pain. Otherwise we are enjoying some happy hours in town and had a nice break enjoying the George Bush Library’s July 4th celebration. Well, that is our life right now in College Station, Texas and we hope to be leaving by August 7th, Wish us luck…

NOTE: We are back in our old home town until  August 7th…

Finishing Up the Outside Work on the Rental…

We are a little over midway through our return stay in College Station to whip our rent house back into prime shape after having been rented to the same two fellows with three dogs for 8 plus years. The good news is that we are about halfway finished with our major repairs as well.

I spent the better part of a week completing our fencing project. The first 3 days were spent removing and rebuilding the side fence after negotiating with the neighbor to purchase materials as long as I performed the labor. I mostly worked from around 7:30 am to about 1:00 pm as it was simply too hot and muggy to work any longer than that.

It took longer to build the back fence because it took more time negotiating with that neighbor to pay for the materials. She finally agreed so I was able to tear down the old fence situated on her property line. Without her approval my alternate plan would have been to build our fence in front of her old fence without tearing it down since it was in her property.

Since there was slightly more fence in the backyard than the side it took another day to finish. Also temperatures had risen into the upper 90’s along with the usual summertime high humidity so there were heat advisories suggesting the “feel like” heat was in the mid 110’s. As a result I rarely made it 1:00 pm on those days. Thankfully the fencing project is all done now so we can check that off the to-do list.

While I was finishing up the fencing I had a concrete contractor come in to tear out our old, cracked driveway and replace it with all new concrete. As they were finishing up I also repaired our backyard deck and the side gate. While I was doing the fencing Sharon was busy with the power washer power cleaning all of the deck and the outside of the house . With all that done there is only a little touch up painting and tree work left on the outside.

The majority of the remainder of our work will be inside where at least it will be air conditioned. Our tenant will be closing on his duplex sometime near the end of June but because of the pre-existing leases in his new duplex, he cannot move in until late July. He has communicated with us that as he packs and empties rooms we can come inside to begin the last of the work.

We will replace all the flooring, repaint the entire inside, do some minor repairs and lots of deep cleaning.  During our down time while waiting to start the inside work we have reconnected with friends in the area, scheduled Sharon a series of physical therapy visits for an overuse injury and explored some of the new happy hours in town.  Such is our life right now in College Station, Texas…

NOTE: We are back in our old home town until  August 7th…Done