All Forum Posts by: Tim Bradley

@Joseph Konney There is definitely tile everywhere.  All that white is actually white tile that I had reglazed.  There is tile on all the walls in that shower.  Water damage is not your friend.   

@Aaron Raymond honestly I didnt even notice the bottom drawers.  Just liked the vanity and it was the right price

Too long, didn’t read – Tim’s usual shenanigans occur, house rents in the end, before and after pics too

1. I finished I finished I finished oh sweet churros on a stick I finished!! Is what I would be saying to myself right now if this was any other rehab except this one. Or perhaps all rehabs go like this. Technically 100% of my rehabs have had every issue imaginable as this is my only major rehab so far. I got REALLY burnt out at the end and just couldn’t keep up with updates here. I was working 15hr days 7 days a week to finish up and bigger pockets updates just fell to the side. So I have about 8,290 stories I could tell but I'll stick to the last few to keep this down to only 6 chapters. Seriously, these are just the very last 2 stories that have happened in the last week.
2. 
   I Finished: So what I mean is that I really did finish. To the point where I had the place cleaned and listed for rent. But of course the flying spaghetti monster hates me and had other plans. Hey you have your religion and I have mine. While doing my final walk through I noticed that the small 40gal hot water tank for the master bedroom wasn’t creating hot water. Which kind of makes it useless if you ask me. The wife agreed and we decided to add hot water back in as a nice benefit for the master bedroom. Apparently this hot water tank has some stealth field around it b/c I had a ridiculous time getting people to look at it and fix it. The plumber said he couldn’t find it. I mean I said its in the master bathroom, inside the closet but hey, its not like it’s a giant hot water tank. Its easy to miss. So he came back and managed to locate it and says its not getting the 240V it needs to heat. Ok great, well not great, that just means my electrician stepped down that line when replacing the panel but he’s not getting a call b/c this is about the 3rd issue I have had with his work. So I get a different electrician out who ALSO cant find the hot water heater! I had learned my lesson and was very specific when telling them where it was. I even told them about the other hot water heater and explained that one was the wrong one. But he found the 80gal and said yup, this is definitely the one! It was in fact not the one. It was not in a closet, it was not in the master bath, it was not a 40gal tank. I really don’t know what is going on, its almost like I'm on some candid camera show. Anyway I guess it was actually a minor blessing since the line to that tank had shorted out. I had already fixed it once but apparently it shorted out again. Its an aluminum wire and that’s a big no no folks. I knew this, I just decided to do nothing about it and of course it bit me in the arse. So the electrician calls me AFTER he has left the house and done a temp fix for it. Long story long he is going back today to replace the aluminum line and upgrade the line to the 40gal tank. Assuming he can find it… That seems like enough for one week right? HA! You thought I only had one $hit show story to tell. Please scroll up for reference. I have an unlimited supply over here people.
   
3. I finished (part 2): When I got the place cleaned the cleaning lady mentioned my shower was draining slow. I knew I had a slow drain in the bathroom and had a plumber coming out to roto rooter it. This is all in parallel to the hot water nonsense mind you. So the plumber comes in and tells me he has to come back another day. His auger is too small and I have a ton on roots in the line. Super. So he comes back with a bigger auger and tells me actually ya know what, your septic tank is full. Go get that pumped. Ok no problem, I'm sure that will go off without a hitch and the tank is fine and I can go watch dancing with the stars (everyone get that podcast reference?). I am pretty sure at this point everyone knows where this is going. Dollar signs are going off in your head and people are groaning thinking about this project. So the tank is in bad shape (surprise!). It will need to be replaced. But doesn’t need to be replaced TODAY thank god. Oh, its $9,500 for what I need in case you were wondering. But only $280 to empty it. I went with just emptying it for now. So the poo is gone, the drains drain, the hot water tanks make hot water, the electrical lines carry the right amount of electricity, the out of code aluminum wire is gone and life is good. Actually I have no idea if that last sentence is true. I am simply putting positive vibes out as at the time of me writing this I haven’t gone back out to the house to check the drainage and the electrician is supposed to be there today to finish. So for once, please flying spaghetti monster let it be a good day. I really want to catch up on dancing with the stars.
4. 
   It rented! Seriously, it rented. Before all the above fixes were done too. I rented the place in less than 2 weeks! I'll also do a final numbers post since this is kind of buried but I am too excited not to post this. I got top dollar for it at $1,800/month. This is top dollar in the market its in as no comps even came close to this. I was really worried I wasn't going to get what I wanted. But I mean I should have since the entire house has been remodeled. I actually got $200 more than my original estimates. When I bought the house it was listed as a 3/2 (incorrectly) and I upgraded it to a 4/3 with an additional office. Refi is in progress now but regardless this will be a good cash flowing property at around $230/month after $270 a month is put away for CAPEX/Vacancy/Repairs. So I can go replace that septic in about 3-4 years paid exclusively by the renters. Fingers crossed it will last that long. But everything else has worked out for me so I'm sure that will too…
5. And now the good stuff, before and after pics.  All pics are taken in the same spot, so if there is all of a sudden a wall where there wasnt thats b/c I put one in!

@Jake Moran I thought the sealant was more to seal the grout and keep that clean?  Not the tile. Plus give up my dance party!?  I’m not sure if I can handle that kind of sacrifice 

December 6, 2019 update

1. Tile: Monday – tile, Tuesday – tile, Wednesday – tile, whats for dinner – tile, hey Tim want a drink? Sure ill have some tile, whats your favorite color? Tile. Can anyone guess what Tim has been up to lately. Yup it’s tile. I used to like tile. It was a really quick visual satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment. That was until I decided to tile a 2,000 sq ft house by myself. Now don’t get me wrong, its nowhere near as bad as my nemesis drywall but its getting close. Currently I have completed 100% of about 25% of the house and have tiled but not grouted another 17.0782% of the house. Which means that if I did my math correctly car A will arrive at 8PM with 4 watermelons. And that folks is how math works.
2. I finished a room! Great googly moogly batman I actually finished something. The guest bath is done. I now not only have running water INSIDE the house but also a toilet. A real toilet everyone! I am currently almost at month 3 of the rehab and have been without water or a toilet the whole time. Feel free to do with that information what you will… Amazingly I don’t have a funny story here (other than the no toilet comment). I installed and plumbed the vanity without issue and the toilet went in in about 15 min. Go figure, apparently I can actually do something quick and easy.
3. Paint: I painted more, no mishaps and amazingly the paint is starting to grow on me. Once the tile got laid and vanity / toilet installed it looked really nice. Yeah no that’s a lie, I still hate it. Ha imagine the emotional rollercoaster of a ride my wife enjoys with that kind of flip flop happening in my head all the time
4. Gutters: So my gutter guy didn’t install my downspout extenders (or whatever they are called) or splashpads (again probably not the official term but better than my first guess of water distributer thinga-ma-jingy). I left a couple texts with the company and didn’t get a response for over a week. But hey, I wasn’t worried since I had only paid them 50% of the bill. Eventually they called me (go figure) and asked me to pay. I said sure, no problem, as soon as you finish the job. And what do you know, my splashy thing-a-magoos and down spout extendomatics were installed the very next day. (I googled it and those were in fact the official terms. Plus you guys all know what I am talking about don’t pretend you dont). They called to let me know they were installed……..and to get immediate payment over the phone of course.
5. Door: I installed a door! The first one of the house and the first one I have ever installed. I had no idea how to do this but figured how hard could it be. Yeah well its not completely intuitive how to do it immediately. However once I googled it things went a lot faster.
6. Dance party: so I have one more funny story which is of course at my expense. After you tile you have to grout (if you didn't know that maybe a BRRRR isn't for you). Anyway, grout. So I grouted and then wiped it down once. After it hazes up you get the joy of wiping it down again…..and then again if you didn't get it clean the second time. All the while changing out water constantly. This part is really annoying (I can see you all shaking your collective heads yup right now) especially when you have a lot to wipe down. But I have found out that instead of wiping it down with clean water you can just scrub it off with minimal elbow grease with a dry towel. I simply stand on the towel and move my feet around. It creates a good amount of dust but its about 15.820 times faster than wiping it down with water. I was fried when I got to this point. I was at hour 16 of my day and just wanted to be done. So I put on my respirator and safety goggles to keep the dust off me because as you might remember from previous posts it's always safety first with this guy! I then cranked up some music to give me energy and I threw the towel down and went to work. I guess I really got into it b/c about 20 min in I was full on dancing around the room. Now the house is on a busy corner lot and this is the room at the end so its got lots of windows. Its dark out and fully lit up inside (because Im not a vampire and don't work in the dark, try to keep up here people). So dark outside, bright inside, full of light, lots of windows and busy corner lot. And there I am, dancing around like a fool, respirator on, safety goggles on, all while staring at the floor so I could see what I was doing. I can only imagine what I looked like and what passerby's thought. For sure it had to be something like "wow, that guy is several sockets short of a picnic." That's how the saying goes, trust me.
7. A week off: I have this week off from the rehab. Just the rehab though. I happen to be in this really looooooong workshop at work and it just means I cant get over to the house after work. So I only have to work 10hr days and one job this week instead of the usual 16hrs. Woo Hoo!!! Always try to see the silver lining everyone. Im like Polly Positivity over here.
8. Next up is more tile (surprise!), doors and trim. Finish work though so it makes you want to continue on as you are finishing things. Hmmmm maybe that’s why its called finish work (Im kidding guys, Im not that dense). The target is to be done with this adventure end of January. I have 3 weeks off in December so that should really kick things into high gear.
9. Tile! And some sweet new bigger pockets swag too!
10. Bathroom before (ha, imagine if this was my choice of after colors/style)
11. Bathroom after.  TaDa!  I have since put in new outlets and cover plates too.  Just didnt have a pic of that.

@Annette Hibbler  thanks for the tips.  I hired out the real electrical work like new panels and service upgrades.  I can run outlets and switches.  Ill look into the grey color.  Might switch when we run out of the 5gal we have.  The grey for the outside is ok in FL.  Its pretty popular.  Im talking light grey.  All the other tips were great too!  Except the kids one.  I would have to borrow some to bring to the job site as I dont have my own.  Ill have to check if my insurance covers that.

November 16th, 2019 update

I was sick last week so not much got accomplished. The wife was sick too. Essentially we quarantined the house, boarded up the windows, bought in enough Nyquil, Dayquil and whiskey to last us a week and hunkered down. My health is very important to me. Friday I was feeling good enough to go back to the house and get some stuff done. I would say I was at about 83.79% health with cold medicine in me. Now I normally only have about 12 really good brain cells to work with so doping them all up on cold medicine really didn’t do me any favors. Oh well, what could possibly go wrong…

1. (No real need to number here, all I got done was one thing) Painting. God why do you hate me so much. Its painting. This entire post should say I painted. End of story. Painting is easy. Why do I have a story for painting? Whoever is out there hoping and praying for more rehab follies please stop.
   So I actually primed, not painted. I know right? Who primes before painting with all those wonderful paint and primer in one paints out there. Well you have to sell a kidney for a gallon of that crap so I wanted to let the cheapO stuff, AKA primer, soak into the new texture and drywall. Plus you know, that’s actually how you are supposed to do things. Will Tim be rewarded for his use of painting best practices? If you just answered yes you clearly haven’t been following along.
   I used a sprayer for the first time ever. Ha, I think everyone reading this has already formed a hilarious mental picture of some sprayer mishap. Don’t worry, you wont be disappointed. So I use a sprayer. I really went all out on this one and spent $30 on it. Top of the line, spared no expense. Hey it was on clearance so technically it’s a $110 sprayer. I set it up, easy enough and turn it on. Whoa it just starts spraying paint with no trigger involved. I thought that was weird for this top of the line model but then figured it was just how these high end sprayers work. So I am going along doing just fine. I even started on a closet so I could learn in a safe environment. Braincells 3 and 4 were awake for that one. Its really slow going. The paint is coming out but its like Im slowly airbrushing the walls. Veeeeerrrryyyyyyyy sllllllooooooowwwwwllllllyyyyyyy. I did ¾ of the closet like this. Finally I got mad. What a piece of S. sprayer, this is actually taking longer than hand rolling would take. Why would anyone use one of these…….Waaaaaaaait a min. Why would they then? Braincells 5 and 6 decided to wake up. I check the instructions (always do that last everyone, it saves lots and lots of time that way) and don’t see anything Im missing. Whatever, I continue on and decide I will do the closet only with the sprayer. I pick it up again and BOOM paint comes shooting out. What the heck?! Yeah, I pulled down the trigger. I actually missed the trigger originally. How flipping stupid do you have to be to miss the trigger. So needless to say things went a lot faster after that.
   Oh but wait. You didn’t think that was it did you? Not a chance. Apparently aerosolized primer creates this sticky film. It gets in the air and on everything. And by everything I mean everyone. As in me. And Im a hairy guy. Imagine a 3yr olds hands after eating a popsicle on a hot July day.  Now imagine if those hands were a 6ft tall hairy dude.  Yeah, that’s what I was feeling. All over. Good times. And I was only 1 room of 5 down. Luckily I had a full body coverall suit I could put on. Future problem solved. However I got to stew in my own stickiness for the next several hours. Don’t worry everyone, there is still more. Because of course there is.
   The Aerosolized primer is also very potent in the chemical smell area. And im assuming if I smell chemicals then there are plenty of chemicals in the air. That’s math everyone. If A=B and B=C then climate change is real. But don’t worry, I kept all the windows and doors firmly locked tight and didn’t use a gas mask. More best practices. By the time I was done I was feeling really messed up. Cold medicine plus a primer high is not good times people. 0 out of 10 would recommend. While its funny, its also a little bit stupid on my part.
   One last minor thing. If you put the gun down and turn it off before it is empty it just kind of spits up paint like a baby spitting up food. Where is the pressure coming from? Why would you build in this design feature. Well there are some very nice looking primer white areas of my floors now. Excellent coverage.
   Will I be using the sprayer again? Shmaybe. I primed about 4 rooms and a brick wall in 4 or so hours. So I think I made good time. It was only primer coverage though so quick and dirty. Ha, whether I was trying for quick and dirty or not that’s what I got. I will say that it was excellent at spraying the fireplace. I have a full wall of brick that needed priming before painting (that’s just good practice people) and if I had to do that with a roller or brush it would have taken at least 2X as long. I have that same chimney outside (kinda how those things work) so will probably keep it only to paint that. Otherwise this was for sure not a good time. And I would have been royally screwed if I was doing final painting. It was not precise. Whats that? Did I tape. Come on people, do I sound like the kind of guy who tapes first?
2. Oh oh oh, sexy new black gutters are in too! So I did need to number paint 1!

Primed brick wall

This is totally how a sprayer should look after only one use right?

"Storage Case" I got for the sprayer when I am done with it.

Sexy new gutters!

@Christian Wilson you technically could use traditional financing but it would be rather difficult. There are books and articles on the BRRRR method but the short of it is that you find a distressed property, rehab it and force equity into the house, rent it out and then pull out all your money. Traditional lenders arent usually super excited to lend on house with a lot of problems and might not lend at all. And you will still have to figure out how to finance the rehab even if they lend on the purchase price. I was fortunate to have the purchase price covered with a cash out refi from my primary and I did private money loan for the rehab.

@Basem Isaac I will for sure do less next time around.  I wanted to learn all aspects of a rehab so I better understand how much things should cost and why. Example drywall!  Ha.  I do often ask myself though how much more it would have been to get a GC in to do it all.  I estimate with the tile that I will install and the room I built that alone will save me ~$5K.  Then all the demo I did, painting, electrical I am sure Im in the $10k range of savings. 

@Ira Tweed I will rent it out when done. Should be able to get 1500-1600 due to size and 4bed