A Well Spent Weekend!

My favorite show on DIY network, back when we had cable, was Yard Crashers with Ahmed Hassan.

I dream of running into him and Home Depot or Lowe's and ending up with a yard the neighbors will envy! Well a girl can only wait so long! We started without Ahmed this weekend! My dad was kind enough to drop 10 tons of lovely topsoil in my driveway on Thursday night. Sir house and I took off Sat-Tuesday to get some things done around the ugly little house.  Sir and I do not own a wheel barrow. Borrowing tools from your parents is a big money saver when you're a new home owner but sometimes repairs are required. The handles on my dad's wheel barrow were rotted out so the day started with a trip to Lowe's. We picked up handles for the wheel barrow. Dad guessed we'd need some new bolts as well so we grabbed those, two bags of grass seed for our Scott's Snap spreader (which I love!)

Two gallons of the white paint that I decided would be the trim, door, and ceiling color throughout the house and a handful of other things. Off to the house we went. Actually off to the house they went. I had to get a haircut! I arrived back at the house to find dad and sir still tinkering with the wheel barrow. It wasn't long before our awesome neighbor handed over his wheel barrow with the sentiment of "I ain't pushin' it!"  Lol really our neighbors are great and I couldn't ask this man to help us move 10 tons of dirt. With Sir's dad's  wheel barrow and the neighbor's we got moving!

We covered about a quarter of the yard and then we decided that the swing set needed to come down.

It was in the way, of no use, and no one wanted to buy it no matter how long it sat on Craig's list. Sir's dad had begged us to save the wood and repurpose it.

I was very skeptical, what could we possibly use it for? Well we did use it! On Monday we built a raised garden bed!

It's not much but it's enough to house the plants the Sir's dad gave us until we have places for them next year! We spread the rest of the topsoil and seeded. 

There were a few more things we got done this weekend but that was the bulk of the work! I'm excited to have everything moving now!

The roof!

So this weekend, the big project we have been waiting for got done! The roof!

These guys move fast! We got to the house before 10 am and 85% of the old roof had been stripped off! All of the plywood sheeting in the rear of the house had been replaced. They quickly put up the weather paper and shingles were started before lunch.

We've already gotten compliments from the neighbors! It was crazy to see everyone driving by sooo slow to take a look at the ugly little house transforming! I had not said this before but there was a part of me that was really embarrassed to own this house but more and more that's shrinking and being taken over by the part of me that is so proud to rescue the house! We still have a long way to go, the soffits and the gutters need to be finished for starters, but this is a huge, happy step forward!!

What's under that tarp?

TEN TONS OF TOPSOIL! Yes you heard right! Ten tons of topsoil has been dropped in my driveway and has to be distributed this weekend! I know it's been slow on the ugly little house blog lately but it's about to pick up real fast!!

When it rains, it pours! Inside!

So we've recently had A LOT of rain here recently. I know, I shouldn't be surprised to find leaks in a house with known roof damage. but I was, and heres why: When we initially went to visit this house for the first time, it was raining. There was nothing coming through the roof, no rain inside. About a week after we made settlement it rained pretty bad. At that point we found water coming through the hole in the dining room ceiling. Its to be expected I guess, it is after all, a hole in the ceiling. But this past rain; it poured! That drip, drip, drip, filled most of a five gallon bucket!

Then we found water coming down behind the electrical box!

 

Then we found water dripping off of the fan pulls in one of the bedrooms! the light cover was also half full with water!

Needless to say, this is a little more than we thought we signed up for! But we will handle it and we'll keep you in the loop!

Tree hugger!

Normally I don't mind trees, I even like them most of the time. These days I hate them. There are two very large trees on our property. One of which already had a branch break off and fall through the roof.  Hence the large green tarp on the roof and the hole in the  dining room ceiling. Neither of these trees have been maintained for a very long time. We have had several people come out and look at these trees. The first one told us that the tree in the rear of the house is diseased and dying and they would recommend taking it out. They said the one in the front isn't as bad but they would probably end up taking it out in a few years anyway. The second person said the one in the back is fine, it just needs to be trimmed, but the one in the front had been struck by lightning and needs to come out. I even had one guy come out and say They're both fine but he'd take them both out for $7000.00! I'm not sure how my husband managed to not laugh in that guy's face. We still haven't made a definite decision but we're leaning towards taking out the tree in the back and trimming up the one in the front. The tree in the back hands over three different sets of power lines and well over the roof. Frankly, with summer and storm season coming It scares the sh!t out of me! Home owners insurance will look for any reason not to cover a falling tree!

The rear tree

Power lines to the left

power lines to the right

The tree in the front.

What is a U&O?

Well Kids, Your house, whether you know it or not, needs a U&O in order for it to be sold.
U&O stands for Use and Occupancy Certification. My Ugly Little House does not have one. That's why we can't move in yet...even if we actually wanted to. Normally, when a house is sold the seller would be responsible for obtaining a U&O. Because our house was bank owned the bank gets away scot free and we have to get the U&O ourselves. Its not that obtaining a U&O is all that difficult, it simply means for us, that the house may not meet some codes, and we will have to rectify that.
Not all townships Require U&Os but most in my area do. Some of the things they look for are:

• grounded electrical outlets
• smoke detectors
• proper electrical
• a heater/chimney in good working condition
• proper plumbing and sewage
• well maintained concrete and driveways

The township came out today to document the condition of the property



. Basically they come out and document what my house has in it so that when the final inspection is done, after all the work is done they know what changes I've made and  if I've pulled the proper permits, ect. Now that the township has seen our starting point we can move on with renovations! YAY!

ALSO!

Look what we discovered popped up on the side of the house on Easter!

These babies absolutely made my day! I hope we can save them from all the construction traffic! I'm going to try to dig them up and pot them until the chaos is over!

We got one!

After months and months of searching we found it! Its perfect! Its beautiful! I love it!

Thats a lie. all of them. lies.


Its awful! I hate it! Its really, really, REALLY ugly! But thats ok, because in my head I see a different house. I see a house thats renovated, and beautiful with lots of our hardwork put into it. Something that we built together and that I can love.

Thats it! Mint green, with black shutters, gutters, and doors. A roof that needs A LOT of help and its fair share of other issues. 

Like this awful wall texture.

Awful.

I like to call it 'thousand smashed spiders plastered on a wall.'

Don't forget the lovely texture on the ceiling. 

Or the random hole in the ceiling!

Then theres this room. This used to be a car port. Not too shabby right? 

Extra living space, 

A fire place,

lots of natural light, 

Except, no. That fire place is fake, it has a gas line that comes from God knows where, and vents to nowhere. Its not even attached to the wall!!!

Most of those windows don't have a either a screen, or a flat glass panel, or both! 

and the whole room is on a slope, because they never leveled it out to make it a reasonable part of the home. The fact of the matter is that the front of the room is actually 6 inches lower the the ground outside. Which means there is a lot of moister in the front of the room and it isn't really useable. 

Some times I shake my head and wonder why we bought this house but then I remember the house I see in my head and know that soon that house will be mine. 

What's next?

Now that we're home and we've decided to buy vs. rent what do we do next?

Sir House and I have decided to make the most of the time we spend in whatever house we purchase by building equity. We don't plan on just letting the house sit and grow money, though that would be cool...No. We're gonna buy a fixer upper, a real crapper! Then we're gonna fix it up, make it real pretty!

I know this might seem like a huge task, and really expensive, but I promise it will all be worth it! The right improvements can dramatically change the value of a home. The bottom line is: not a whole lot of people want to spend the time or money to fix a home. We're willing to spend the time fixing a home and because of that we'll be able to buy one for much less than many others on the market!

How you ask? We plan on using a 203K loan. This type of loan allows you to mortgage the cost of repairs to the home as well as the purchase price. Its a great loan for exactly what we're looking to do.  
As we move forward with the blog I'll explain little by little what I know about the process.