Week 1: It just hit me

Why do I always feel the need to have a project? As if remodeling two units down to the studs wasn’t enough of a project. I’ve decided to write about it. Thanks for the idea Lindsay! When I brought this up to Jimmy, he insisted that it would be fun, that I keep talking about wanting to start writing again, get more creative and learn something new (here goes). 

So the story… We’ve lived next to ‘the duplex’ for the last six years. When we heard the owner was moving out, I decided to put a letter in the mailbox saying that we were interested in buying the house. Long shot, I know. Lindsay and Marion were in the car with Jimmy when I called him and asked if it was too ‘aggressive’ of me to do it. He thought it was a great idea. A couple days later we see some workers in the house. We stop by and see my letter on the floor. Jimmy asks them to give it to the owner, which they do. A week later, I get a call from the owner’s niece / agent and we decide to meet at Denny’s in Berkeley to make an offer. The rest is history. Actually, 75 days under contract, a lender who was impossible to please, and the rest is history.

We’ve been in the house at least 20 times while we were under contact because with the rehab type of loan we got, we needed bids from EVERYONE to submit to the lender, which means 2 plumbers, 2 electricians, 2 contracts, 2 painters, 2 window companies, etc. had to walk through. And of course at various happy hours, we walked through it with 10 other friends.

We walked into the house for the first time this week as owners. Let’s just say I was completely freaked out. Throughout the bidding process while we were under contract, we were really idealistic of what we really could do with the place. Now, it just looks like a ton of work! I’m glad that we went through all the bidding process already, because we could just be at that starting point now and work wouldn’t actually start for another month.

The first day of 'rehab', we had our first wake up call, which we decided was the start of working on our patience. I met the contractor at 8am, thinking there would be a demo crew, but he explained that he only needed a set of keys, that he didn’t have a demo crew until Monday. Uhhh. First surprise. Jimmy was already at the building department pulling the permit, which he spent hours doing. We both came home pretty stressed out that we were already running 3 days late and pulling the permit was really tough.
First lesson – every time we walk into the house, expect that something will be wrong. Be pleasantly surprised if nothing is wrong.

Second lesson - be ready for the time commitment. We had three 7-7:30am meetings this week and three other lunchtime meetings and haven’t started any work yet.

So.. starting on Monday, which is really exciting. We’re shooting for getting a renter in by August to help with August mortgage and hoping to get us moved in by September 1. Wish us luck.  I’d love to use this to get feedback on ideas (we have so many!), share our story of a summer of rehab, and get creative!

Here are the before videos I took on our first walk through.  

First Floor Video

Second Floor Video