It's been a while since the ceiling fell in at our old house. Almost three months, I think. And, thankfully, a lot has happened in those three months. The condition of the house is much, much better, but it got a lot worse first.
When we last talked, I showed you these sad pictures of our living room with no ceiling.
Before we left on our beach vacation, we had lots of choices to make. The extent of the damage was so great that nearly everything in the house had to be replaced. Not wanting to hold up any renovation progress, we quickly selected hard woods, carpet, tile, paint colors, light fixtures, vanity, and who knows what else. For the most part, we stuck with what was already there.
Mid-summer, we visited the house to check on the progress and saw that LOTS of demo had taken place. While the ceiling had already been patched and looked much better, everything else had been torn out. Gone was the upstairs carpet, all the hardwoods, bathroom fixtures, and window blinds. When our contractor removed the hardwood floors, they found standing water on the foundation so they had to wait a week for it to dry out and then had to let the new wood acclimate inside the house. Talk about a long drawn out process!
We stopped by a few weeks later to see that the new hardwoods were in and the thin set was drying in the master bath. The new chandelier was also hanging in the dining room.
Work continued until finally, about two weeks ago, we visited the house one last time before our tenant was set to move in the next day. The new carpet had been installed; the new hardwoods were in; the master bath had been tiled; and new light fixtures were in. All the walls had a fresh coat of paint. We learned that they also had to re-tile around our fireplace, and that was finished. While there was still a lot of cleaning up and finishing touches left to do - including hooking up bathroom fixtures and setting kitchen appliances back in place - it was finally starting to look like a real house again!
Practically a brand new house!!
So that was the last time we saw our house. The sealer was going to be applied to the stairs and banisters later that same afternoon and then our tenant would move in the next morning. A terrible situation was coming to an end.
If only it had all ended there. What we know now is that the new vanity in the master bathroom is four inches too short. Grrrr. And it was custom made so a new one had to be re-ordered. Thankfully, it's set to go in this Friday. Also, the tenant complained of the master shower leaking. Grrrr again. Luckily this is a fairly easy fix with some re-caulking. So, fingers crossed, by the weekend the house repairs will be D-O-N-E.
But we all know the landlord fun never ends, right?
We received a formal complaint from our HOA this week about the noise and parties that go on at our house. Apparently, our tenant likes to party hard and, as the email sent by a neighbor said, is turning our house into a fraternity house. Parties go on until the wee hours of the morning and the party-goers litter our neighbors' yards with cigarette butts and vomit. Awesome.
Our management company is working on the situation and giving some kind of "cease and desist" letter to the tenant. If he doesn't clean up his act, he'll get the boot. It's possible that less than a month after our first major landlord renovation, we'll get to serve our first eviction notice!
Ay, yi, yi. When does it ever end?