My Fifties Fixer

After I moved into My Fifties Fixer in October 2010, we had some amazing T-storms that dumped all kinds of rain.  This resulted in previously neglected grass seeds sprouting up through the dirt and providing a lush landscape that I enjoyed through the rainy months.  The whole yard looked pretty good and it was nice opening up the french doors from the kitchen and walking out to this…

Then the rain went away and my lack of irrigation led to this (taken after my water main cracked and we decided to run a line to the backyard - step 1) Wah, wah…

This yard is going to be a huge project when it comes to landscaping but really the hardscaping which is MUY expensive has to be done first.  Baby steps.  As you may have noticed, I still need to build a privacy wall.  I decided to start back at my lovely french doors and had a great patio cover built.

Then I had a paver patio laid.  I LOVE not walking out to dirt anymore and my house stays so much cleaner!

It’s been like this since October 2011 when the pavers were finished.

Now that Summer is just around the corner I needed to make this a more enjoyable space to be in.  The stucco is terrible condition and it is such an eyesore - so I covered it up as best I could.  I’m really going to enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning out here!

OR a tasty cocktail in the evening!

Patio Project

I wish.  The pressure was lacking when it came to the water in my house.  That meant no showers, no laundry and no clean dishes.  The general consensus was that I was going to need a new regulator.  The old regulator was on the side of the house hooked up to a bypass where a water softener used to be.  We were able to get rid of the bypass and hook up the new regulator directly where the water goes into the house from the main line.

I was able to get my hands a little dirty on this project but my dad did 99.5% of it.  Having a handy dad has been a lifesaver.  Contractors and plumbers aren’t cheap.

Having the water pressure working again unveiled other problems that were lurking in the shadows.  When we checked the pressure in the guest bathroom we discovered that the diverter stem to turn the shower on was bad,  Welcome to Halloween Day 2010.

No pictures of this project since I was pretty hands on and not worried as much about evidence as I was function.  We spent the day replacing all of the stems and knobs, flanges, shower arm and tub drain.

The best part about getting these projects done was that I could start sleeping in my new place!

Green carpet.  What else can I say?  I met with a carpet company a couple of weeks before I closed escrow and picked out a nice neutral Frieze to put in its place.  I had planned on having them take care of the removal of the old carpet as well but I think my dad was having a lot of fun tearing things up, so out it went the day I came in.

I got the keys late on a Wednesday and the carpet was scheduled to come the following Tuesday.  It was crunch time.  The bead board and all of the weird moulding had to be removed from underneath the windows in all of the bedrooms and the walls needed to be repaired, sanded, textured and painted all before the carpet came.

We got some help from my cousins husband with taping and mudding the walls - I didn’t realize what a process that was!  Escrow couldn’t have closed at a more inconvenient time since I was on a plane Friday morning.  I had to go to my Godson’s baptism.

Here’s what it looked like before I left:

Guest Bedroom

Second Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Thank goodness for my dad - he worked at the house all weekend to make sure it was ready for carpet by Tuesday.  When I got home Monday night I met him over there and we worked until 3am finishing up the baseboards.  Individual bedroom updates will be posted as they get done. :)

My dad was pretty excited about my first house too.  He was at the house as soon as he heard I was getting my keys and got to work tearing up the backyard.  

The only privacy I had between my neighbors houses and my own was a chain link fence that was lopsided.  Instead of looking at that dilapidated piece of junk for any extended period of time it was ripped out and taken to the dump.  Wish I had a before picture to show but this will have to do. You can still see the posts sticking out.

There was also a shoot from the large tree on the side of the house that had grown pretty big.  It was right in front of the window so it got ripped out too.

Another dead tree that made an overdue exit.

The slope in the back of the house.  I’m thinking it will be a good place for a garden.

The pile of things that were on the way out.  There was a bunch of lumber being used as a border above the slopes.  Buh-bye.

Just getting rid of all of this junk made a huge difference.  No plans to do any real work in the backyard until Spring or Summer 2011.

Behind the carport is a large concrete area.

The shed is behind that.  This will eventually be insulated, drywalled and used as an office.

There’s a small planter between the patio and the lawn behind the house.

There is a slope in the back and on the side of the house as well.  I didn’t take any before pictures.

How convenient.  The master bathroom is accessible as soon as you walk in the front door as well as through the bedroom.  The best part is the toilet seat and lid.

The small stall shower in the master bathroom.  I thought it was just dirty.  Turns out it was mold in the grout.  Ew.

The exposed ceilings go throughout the whole house.  I really like it.  This is the master bedroom.

Another angle.  Say hi to my brother :)

Guest bathroom.  Original yellow cast iron tub.  The vinyl checkered floors are not original.

I wish I had captured the sconce and mirror in this picture.  They were truly hideous.

The 2nd bedroom.  Yes, that is a sprinkler timer on the wall.

The future Guest bedroom.  I have a lot of family that lives out of state.  This room will be seeing plenty of visitors in the future.  The window above goes through to the kitchen.  Check out the crazy moulding again.  There’s also a piece of bead board under the window surrounded by moulding.

The hall closet.  It originally housed the water heater which explains the pipes sticking out of the wall.

Check out the next post for picture of the backyard.

It’s ALIVE!  Check out all that green grass.  So much more welcoming than the dead lawn that it replaced.  This is what welcomed me as I drove up to claim my new territory.

I’ll take you on a tour of what the house looked like when I got it.  The pictures were taken in August but not much changed, except the front yard.

The front door, which is more of a side door.  Most people dream of having a red door.  This one is peeling, so I’m not that impressed.  My brother wasn’t either.

Walking in, the living room is on the left.  The kitchen is straight ahead.

The other side of the living room.  I love this fireplace.  The living room, kitchen and hallway are all tiled.

The view from the other side of the living room.

The dining area of the kitchen.  French doors go out to the side yard.  Notice the lovely orange tiled wall on the right and the moulding going down the center of the wall.

My kitchen!  The door leads into a laundry room that was added on.

Other side of the kitchen.  The gas range was stolen the day after the house came on the market, so the bank did replace it before escrow closed.  The hole on the far left for the refrigerator was originally a hall closet with access from the living room.

The laundry room

I’ll put the bedrooms in a separate post…

A typical escrow lasts 30 days.  For foreclosures, they pad it at 45 days because there is more paperwork and bank response times are generally slow.  My escrow lasted more than 60 days.  The powers that be really didn’t want to make any part of this process an easy one.

Before escrow closed, there were certain items that the bank agreed to take care of.  One thing that was not listed was the landscaping, so I was pretty surprised to drive up and find that all the dead grass in the front yard had been ripped out and replaced with random planted flowers.

Within a week I noticed grass coming up too… right in between all the new flowers.  Not really sure what the landscaper they hired was thinking when he did that.  How do you mow grass in a giant flower bed?  Whatever - it looked better than it used to!

Next item was fumigating the house.  There was some evidence of termites in a small area and some wood rot on some of the eaves.  They replaced the rotted wood and tented the house.

All of the bare wood had to then be painted, including the underside of the patio cover.

I actually liked the unfinished look but they won’t close on an FHA loan without it being painted.  Oh well.

To add more to the list, someone broke into the house (which wasn’t difficult since some of the bank’s laborers left the house unlocked) and punched a hole in one of the bedroom walls, wrote some profanity in pencil (which is kind of comical) and broke a bunch of extra tile and light bulbs all over the back patio.  The master bath shower also sprung a leak and they had to get that fixed.

It all got done but it added more time to escrow which sucked.  Finally, 4 months after I put in the first offer, escrow closed and I got keys in my hand.  Needless to say, that made me a very happy lady.

To anyone who has ever bought a house that was in foreclosure or a short sale… I know your pain.  I never imagined what a long, drawn out process it would be once my offer was accepted.  Dealing with the bank’s asset managers was a huge pain in the ass.

Usually, it took no less than a week to get a response on any paperwork that we sent in.  So negotiating the price alone was a month long process.  Of course, anything sent to me had to be turned around within 24 hours.

After all the back and forth, I received a phone call while I was on business in Chicago that my offer had been accepted and escrow was going to open.  I was beyond excited.  It took 11 months but I had finally found my home and won the bidding battle.   Or so I thought.

When I arrived back in California, I was on the ground for less than 36 hours before another flight out of town was scheduled.  On my way back to the airport I found out that a miscommunication between my realtor and lender caused the last offer we submitted to be worded wrong.  An extra $30,000 of wrong.  My heart sunk.  I was back to step 1 all over again.

Instead of being able to fully enjoy my time away with family and friends, I was waking up everyday wondering if the issue would be remedied and still turn out in my favor.  Thank goodness it did.  It didn’t happen quickly but it worked out and that was all that mattered.