All Forum Posts by: Stephen Spradley

@Joe Villeneuve

Yes, except I did 8 years instead of 4, which has no significant change to the benefits I brought up. Currently getting paid to attend school and just recently used the VA loan to move into my first property.

I would go into the military, do a minimum of 1 term (usually around 4 years) and come out with the Gi Bill, VA home loan benefits, and some very good life experience. Then, not only is college covered, but you get paid to go as well.

Thanks for all the help. We are almost done with the skim coat process. Definitely a good learning experience. Moving on to texturing next. If anybody has any advice or good tutorial videos I’m open to suggestions. Here’s the latest photo of the room 

That's awesome man. I'm also a Marine and was actually recruited out of Homestead, grew up right down the road from you. Also just utilized my VA loan to get into our first property and will one day turn it into a rental as well.

@JD Martin

The first wall I did actually came out pretty smooth after a sanding job, and the small bubbles seemed to disappear overnight when the mud dried. I threw the first coat of mud on the rest of the room today. The attached picture is something I’m seeing on a lot of the areas in the rest of the room where the wall paper was ripped off. I don’t remember seeing this on the first wall I did. Is this normal and can be taken care of by the second coat or is it my rookie technique? 

Thanks again for all the help! 

I'm 30. Bought my first property this year using a VA loan to get into a very pricey Fort Collins market, had originally set a goal to be able to leave my W2 job by the time I'm 40. After I lost my dad a few months ago, my perspective has totally shifted and I've become obsessed with trying to speed that goal up. Original plan was to buy a property about every year, live in it and fix it up, then turn it into a rental and move on, now trying to figure out ways to scale faster.

@Mike McCarthy @JD Martin

I ended up going with the skim coat method and am doing only one of the walls right now until I get a good technique down, then I’ll do the rest of the room. I slapped some oil based KILZ primer on it and just got done throwing the 2nd coat of compound on it today. I did notice after this 2nd coat, there are a few air bubbles on the bottom. Do you guys think it would be a good idea just to cut the paper out of those bubbles tomorrow, throw some KILZ on the holes, and touch it up with compound when the primer dries? That seems like the best option to this rookie. Also noticing a lot of little ridge lines, probably because I’m still new with applying the mud. I assume a good sand job should flatten all of these out.

Thanks again for all the advice!

@JD Martin

Awesome directions! I think I’m going to go with option 2, since it’s my place and if I’m not satisfied with the end result I can just hire somebody or try again.

I read over what you said, assuming I’m leaving the top painted portion alone until I repaint with a final coat, how would I get the texture on the bottom half to match the top half? Or should I just sand down the entire top? I may also be way overthinking this texturing thing!

Thanks!

Morning BP,

Recently I’ve seen an uptick in people advocating applying for mortgage forbearance simply for the fact that putting off paying a mortgage for a year can obviously help speed up savings and other financial goals. Supposedly it is extremely simple and has no long term repercussions on credit or anything. Seems a bit out there, but I’m interested in hearing the communities thoughts on this.

Thanks!

Hey BP, 

I’m about to find myself with a lot of free time and thought it would be a good idea to knock out one of the projects in a home I recently purchased. We are tearing these wooden boards off from the bottom half of the wall, and I definitely underestimated how many layers would be pulled off. Since I have no drywall experience whatsoever, other than paint, I have a few questions that hopefully somebody who knows what they’re doing can answer. 

- What would be the best way to handle the top layer that’s still painted? I was planning on just taking an electric sander to it and going to town.

- What’s the product I’ll need to apply to the cardboard looking layer when I knock all the edges down? 

- What is the easiest way to texture? 

- Should I stop while I’m ahead and just hire a pro? 

I really appreciate any advice you guys have. Thanks!