Flip 1, Week 2: Demo, Neighbors, and Keeping on Schedule

May 15, 2017

After one week and 15 hours spent dragging myself around in the crawl space, demo and rough plumbing are complete. All that time in the crawl space was spent ripping out old damp insulation that will need to be replaced and putting down a plastic vapor barrier so that my plumber could work in the space more easily. The more work I do on this property, the more I wish I were moving into the neighborhood permanently. In the first week, I’ve had my next-door neighbor fill up my water bottle for me and offer to let me wash up at his house before heading back into Boston and had the neighbor from across the street bring me pizza because she saw me still working in the yard at 8:00 PM. All of the neighbors who walk by stop to chat, and there is a tight-knit community feel to the neighborhood.

Already, the value of relationships in this business has become apparent. At the end of the week, a crooked tub wall almost derailed my schedule, as the tiler informed me that he could not put up cement board and tile unless he had a tub wall that was flat and flush to the lip of the tub. Fortunately, one of the neighbors is a professional carpenter and I just happened to meet him while he was out walking his dogs earlier in the week. After being informed of the issue Friday afternoon, I sent him a quick text and he met me out at the property on Saturday morning. Just two hours and $175 later, the schedule was salvaged. No pushing back the tiler, no waiting for a carpenter, and no overpaying. It’s hard to imagine a smoother resolution than that.