My Flipping Journal - Part VI

Disclaimer: This post is not my best work, but I am so exhausted with everything that is going on with the house, the writing definitely took a hit this week.

Day 21: The painters moved outside today, and power washed the exterior. In the process, PM identified a few minor leaks around a couple of the windows. He spent the rest of the day fixing all of the leaks, and caulking around them. This will secure the seals, and prevent further leakage from occurring. The new bathtub spout conversion kit arrived for the master bath. We also had a HVAC company, the one the previous owners used, come and service the system, and everything is in good working order. Most importantly, the cabinets arrived!!! PM will need to hang them tomorrow, in order for the granite template to happen on schedule. We had a no show Sub today. PM got on the phone with him and worked everything out. He also received confirmation that all of his tasks will still be completed on time.

Day 22: More painting, tiling, grout, and cement board installation today. The kitchen cabinets were installed today, as well. I got several pictures at 8pm from PM, so he is really earning his keep!! PM wanted to insure installation was completed as the granite template is scheduled for tomorrow.

Day 23: Another plug for the BP community...on my last posting, one of the amazing connections I met through BP sent me a private message about staging. He gave me an amazing recommendation that we ended up using. Special shout out to Percy!!!! During the cabinet installation, PM noted one cabinet was broken, and one was missing. He called the company, and they are able to get the cabinets ready by tomorrow. We had a roofer come out to give us an estimate on the minor roof repairs. He is not able to do the job until after the open house, but we are going to move forward with him as the price is right, and it will not impact the open house. AND, lets say it together, “the painting and tiling continued”.

Day 24: The cabinet company called to confirm the cabinets are ready. Fortunately/unfortunately there was a very bad storm last night (with tornado and flash flood warnings), and it is making it very difficult to get to the house. Several of the contractors have called to say they have tried four different routes to get to the house without any success. Side note: in my previous job in pharmaceuticals, I had to do these Risk Analysis Plans rating the likelihood, and impact of certain events to assist with project management. The scale was a 1-5. Typically environmental factors have a likelihood of 1. While I did not complete a Risk Analysis Plan for this house, just try to imagine my state of mind when I heard that even major highways were shut down prohibiting access to our house. Lets just say, I had a good laugh. PM, was in a better state of mind, and realized the opportunity to go to Home Depot and pick-up the kitchen faucet, master bath vanity faucets, master bath lights, light for hall bath, lights for hallway downstairs, a few extra tiling material, and pick up the cabinets. PM was later able to get to the house and check on everything. Luckily, we only had a bit of trash that had escaped the dumpster, but no damage to the house.

Day 25: Today, PM did a bit of patching in the master bath so the painting in the master bath can be finished. The master bath electric got updated to account for the two vanity lights over our new double mirors. A lot of trim work was completed in the kitchen around the cabinets. And going back to the staging, my Mom (PM's wife) and her friend went to the furniture rental company, and selected furniture for staging. Then they went to a few different stores to pick out a few more decorative items. It was a lot cheaper than the normal staging costs!! The same Sub that was a no show in the beginning of the week, was once again a no show. Lets just say PM is not happy!

Day 26: We received a recommendation for a few different cleaning people. One guy I spoke to appeared to be perfect for the job. He could do the cleaning in a few hours, and also worked on construction cleaning jobs previously. All I need to say, is if this flipping thing does not work out, I am going to clean houses post construction. His estimate was $1200, and that did not even include cleaning the windows! Needless to say, we found someone else. The painters began sanding all of the hand railings. PM installed the trim in the kitchen, and he installed the vanity in the hall bathroom. He also hung three replacement doors. And, once again that one sub was a no show. PM called him, and received confirmation that he would be be there all day Sunday. He also promised he would be finished on time.

Day 27: One week to showtime! The bathroom tiling continued (finally) today. The Sub promised to stay as late as possible to get all of the tiling completed. The painters moved on to staining the handrail. PM was concerned about how long the handrail staining would take, but was assured by their boss it would be completed on time. This is because there is a new oil-based polyurethane that dries in four hours. Thus, you can apply two coats in one day, as compared to the old process of needing two days to apply two coats of stain. Besides meeting with all of the subs and doing one more check that they will finish according to schedule, PM fixed a few windows as well.