Flip blog - The heart attack house

[Aaron McGinnis]

With apologies to J Scott - typically, my team and I refer to our houses by the street number. In this case, we have two houses side-by-side, and referring to them by the street number is confusing everyone... so we're going to try the whimsical name approach. =)

The first house is going to be a tear down, so we won't properly get started with that until probably next month when we get the plans ready and the city approves our permits (I expect permit approval to take 30 days)

In the meantime, this house I can start talking about. I've named it the Heart Attack House because it was owned by a gentleman and his wife, and they were going to renovate it and let their daughter live in it while she went to Georgia State. The guy was a contractor, so he figured he'd do the work himself.

Sadly, he cut his right thumb almost completely off, then had a heart attack. Then his daughter decided she didn't want to go to GSU anyway, so the project sat abandoned for 2+ years.

UNTIL...

We bought the house next door (I'm going to call it the Sinkhole) and decided that the biggest problem with the Sinkhole was the Heart Attack. So I found the guy and made him an offer he couldn't refuse... (Actually, I think we both won.)

(Ironic side note: My electrician was actually working with the guy to begin with. Small world.)

Our first step will be clean-up and correcting any unfinished/not to code framing, and some trivial moving of walls to make it 'just the way we want it', then we'll be off to the races with the rest of the process.

The house isn't huge. It's framed out as a 2/2 - about 1100sqft. However, it is an intown neighborhood where the houses (and the lots) aren't typically more than about 1500-1700sqft, and 2/2s actually sell.

Here are some pictures of the before.
https://picasaweb.google.com/109521566223059674424/HeartAttackHouseBefore?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCO-yrIrMn5Hl_gE&feat=directlink#

If anyone is actually interested, I'll do my best to keep this thread updated with our progress.

The next immediate step is the installation of a temporary power pole and getting that city inspection taken care of so we can get power on to the property. With a little luck, we'll be able to get started on the framing corrections next week.

We'll also have our structural engineer come out and make sure that the foundation is sound before we start buttoning it up. This is a big deal for me.

Biggest challenges so far are dealing with an extremely tight lot (It's about 40ft wide and 120ft deep), and incomplete framing, and possibly a questionable foundation. Also asbestos will need to be removed.

All in a day's work, though!

[Aaron McGinnis]

So we're done with the first day of cleanup. Got a bit short-changed today and ended up with 2 laborers, my foreman, and myself. I wanted 4-5 laborers... tomorrow we should be at 5-6 laborers.

Although we made great progress on the inside, there is a LOT of cleanup to do on the outside. I've been debating whether or not to put hand labor on the giant piles of debris in the back yard, or hold off a month+ to do it with a bobcat. 5 minutes with a bobcat, or all day with hand labor... on the other hand, the trash looks really, REALLY bad.

Today we cleaned the interior out, cut the padlocks off the door, and demolished the bathroom. The floor system is rotted completely, so we're going to end up shoring that up and rebuilding it from the sub floor.

We also started pulling up flooring that was set barely over concrete with batt insulation under it... there were mushrooms growing in the batt insulation. Gross. The underlying problem is that the guy who built over the new slab didn't do it right, and so there are water problems. We'll solve it tomorrow with a concrete saw and more hand labor.

Bonus of the day - the last guy left us about a $900 front door slab that I'm delighted to say we'll be reusing.

Problems so far include a roof system that will need to be reworked slightly, as the last guy didn't know how to match old roof gables to new roof gables (He missed it by about 8"). Actually, a lot of the framing needs to be dinked with to make it right. We'll be doing surgical repairs for about a week to a week and a half.

City of Atlanta has put us a day behind on getting the power turned on because they can't get their inspection schedule in order.

Otherwise, things are looking rosy. Today we had the roofer come out and measure, and the insulation folks come out and measure. Tomorrow the HVAC will be in to figure me an estimate (Although I already know what it'll be...)

Tomorrow starts at 5am so we can rent the concrete saw and get a half day out of it, so it's time for me to hit the sack. I'll leave you with a few pictures...

Tearing out the bathroom. Lathe and plaster never stops being fun!

Here's the floor with the batt insulation under it. I can't believe this guy was going to have his daughter live here... this is a health problem waiting to happen.

Over-exposed shot of the front door slab...