Why we are renovating and not restoring

We took Friday night off to recuperate, but we were at it early on Saturday. Three heating and air vendors were scheduled to come out and give us bids to replace the furnace and a/c and run ductwork to the upstairs bedrooms. The previous owner had a window unit installed up there. Unfortunately only two of the three actually bothered to show up. We would like to install a heat pump as opposed to a traditional furnace. Our electrical company and many others offers a reduced rate on electricity during the winter months if you install a heat pump. Heat pumps will heat your home using electricity to about 30 degrees, after which the backup furnace (gas or electric) will kick on.


While they were poking around I finished ripping the old linoleum up. Lots of staples are left in the sub-floor, not to mention the glue residue, and they don't come up very easily, but if we want the floor to be level and firm, they really should come out.



After that I pulled off the trim and around the windows and doors in the soon to be kitchen and then ripped the paneling down to reveal... Lime green painted plaster. The black stripes were under the joints of the paneling we think to prevent the lime green from showing through any gaps. While I was tearing down the paneling I cracked the sill on the window. Oops...


The Little Pink Hammer® couldn't take the heavy duty demolition work. It was "made in China" so maybe I shouldn't be surprised. If you are wondering, Rachel received a Little Pink Toolbox® for Christmas. This was our only hammer until it broke, then I got to go buy a new one!


While I did all this Rachel prepped for painting which we hope to begin soon. Unfortunately we discovered there is wallpaper in both the Living and Dining room under the paint. Ick...

Rachel's Mom and Dad were out on Saturday as well to check the place out. I think they approve, but probably think we have taken on more than we can handle. So far our spirits and confidence remain high, though we are constantly thinking about the budget. A heat pump is more expensive than a traditional furnace, so we may have to squeeze some place else to make up for it.

What Lies Beneath

We've started on demolition of the breakfast nook / soon to be kitchen by taking down the cieling fan. Cieling fans in a house with short cielings and a 6'5" owner, not the best combination. Turns out the lighting in the entire first floor of the house is run off of a single 15 amp breaker. I wonder what all the rest of them do? After that we removed the toe-kick on the baseboard, ripping up one of 2 layers of vinyl. I originally thought that there were 3 layers of vinyl layed down, but now that we are in to it, it turns out that there are just 2 layers each with a 1/4 inch plywood layer underneath and stapled through to the sub floor with some 1" staples. The first layer actually came up rather easily. We just shoved a straight hoe underneath as a lever and up it comes with a very satisfying pop. The bottom layer is going to be a bit more troublesome I think.

Top Layer


Bottom Layer


As for the Dining room and Living room we have a couple of pictures of the flooring in there after we removed the carpet and pad.

Dining Room


Living Room


After we get the vinyl up in the kitchen the floor there will look like this, but I imagine even worse for wear.

This weekend Rachel's mom and dad are coming out to check out the new place, so we should get lot's accomplished with the extra help! I think we are heading to the Home and Garden show at the Overland Park convention center on Sunday as well to get some ideas.

Renovations - Day 1

Many couples would spend the first day in their new home toasting with champagne, ordering a pizza and and just enjoying the slendors of ownership. Seth and I, however; skipped the subtleties and went right to business... ripping up the carpet! We knew there were original harwoods underneath and we couldn't wait to get a look at them. Unsure we each grabbed a corner and pulled.

The result was mixed. The living room floors had survived with few superficial water stains. The dining room however seemed to have suffered a significant amount of water damage or perhaps rot. And then there were the unusual marks left by our home's quirky past owners. Both rooms seem to have been stained only on the perimeter (perhaps the only flooring not covered by a large area rug (which appears to have been nailed into place with very large and long nails). We were unsure of what lied ahead; could the floors be refinished or will we have to put down new floors?

For the time being, I continued to prep the floors for whatever decision we made by removing the tack-board while Seth changed the locks (a necessity when you are dealing with 16 previous owners).

Turning in not too late Seth and I walked away with a few war wounds but not defeated. We will return again every night after work and every weekend until it's ready (or until our lease is up).

To Date: Day 1 - Possession

Hi everybody! Welcome to our home renovation blog. We'll try to post daily with lots of pictures as we make progress on the house.

Here's how we got to where we are now (5206 Riggs, Mission KS. 66202)

Rachel and I started looking for a house to purchase fairly seriously after the start of the new year. We had gone to several open houses in the fall, but mostly just to look at different styles of houses. We met our wonderful realtor Rick Philhour at one of these open houses. Rachel and I were by this time in agreement that we wanted an older house that we could fix up, with lots of character and room in the back yard for a garden and a dog. Our first saturday of looking with Rick, we actually looked at our house. We thought it was cute and had lots of potential, but also that it was over-priced. We really weren't willing to make an offer on the first day.

So a month or so passed and we looked at many other houses, even making a lowball offer on a 2 story home near the Brookside neighborhood in Kansas City, MO. It was at the top of our budget and needed alot of work so I'm glad that our offer was not accepted. About this time we noticed a disturbing trend, the market was getting HOT! Some houses that we wanted to see were sold before we had a chance to even look at them. (cue the organ music to indicate fore-shadowing).

I was perusing Rick's website one morning when I noticed something, the house on Riggs was now at the top of the list of homes we were interested in. Since this list was sorted in ascending order by price (low to high) this was quite a development. I called Rick to ask if the new price could be right. It was! Rachel and I made plans with Rick to view the house on that Sunday, but on Saturday Rick calls us to tell us another offer has been received on the house! I think our exact reaction was: NOOOOOOOOOOO! After a few moments of panic, we came up with a plan; meet Rick at the house right away and submit our own offer before the other offer expired. We did and nervously awaited a response. I was sure the sellers would counter back to us. Somewhere in all this mess we learned the reason for the huge price drop, the house was originally listed for sale with a vacant back lot. The sellers had split this into two properties. That's ok, we thought, it still has very large yard.

The next morning I was making some pancakes when Rick called. He told me right away that our offer was accepted! He wanted to play a little trick on Rachel and I agreed. With a straight face I handed her the phone and said that Rick wanted to talk to her. That was fun. : )

What now? The home inspection and mounds of paperwork being faxed back and forth and signed. We were purchasing the house from the heirs of the previous owner. There were something like 14 signatures required from each of them, one of whom we were told was in jail! (note to self: change locks first thing) We were a little worried about the appraisal since we were purchasing with an FHA loan, fortunately the government had just changed the rules regarding what conditions are acceptable for FHA loans to make them accessible to many more people. Beauracracy in action! It was valued above what we purchased it for, so more good news!

Now we wait. That was the hardest part I think. The closing was scheduled for February 20th and we were ready way before then. The day finally came though and Rachel and I sat down at the table. That's when Rachel (wisely) decided to look at the survey. WARNING: Drama ahead.

Apparently the fence at the back of the yard does not mark the new property line. Our property ends about 30 feet short of that. Grrr... Looking at a piece of paper is not the same as seeing the real thing, so we left the closing with Rick to go and take a look at the property one more time. About 1/3 of what we thought was our back yard would no longer be ours. What to do? We really want this house! If we walk away from it, we have to start over and leave alot of money behind (appraisal, home inspection, and stake survey). We decide to go ahead with it and return to the office to sign about 50 documents, finalizing the closing. We were disappointed to find about the yard, but we still feel like we made the right decision.

That night we went out for a celebratory dinner at Granite City (the last for awhile I expect) and perused the appliances at the Mart (Nebraska Furniture Mart for the uninitiated). We both have Tuesday off and we meet Rick in the morning to get our keys!