Problem on Terracotta

You can't paint the wall with 4 layers of wallpaper on it. Sometimes, it is hard to tell that the wall actually has paper on it instead of paint! The old wallpaper was more like cloth and could be very thick and durable. It isn't until a seam starts to pop that it becomes visible. Often, I have seen rehabs and homes for sale with the wallpaper painted. Sometimes, it works...Most of the time, it doesn't.

Wallpaper can be a huge pain to remove. I have seen many buyers in search of a home that have passed on houses plastered with wallpaper even if it was deeply discounted. Furthermore, I have seen buyers in search of a deal buy a house with wallpaper stating that they were going to remove it, and years later it is still there. Even this real estate agent is guilty of that one. ;)

The investor on Ginger bought a steamer to remove the paper on that rehab. To much chagrin the steamer didn't work near as well as a spray bottle and water.

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Floors from Start to Finish!

Finding hardwood floors is like hitting pay dirt. If you know they are there, it's a bonus. Just like paydirt though, you are going to have to work for them. Ginger is a perfect example...Yucky beige carpet in the living and dining rooms, more carpet in the bedrooms, hall and kitchen covered in layers and layers of vinyl and plywood tile. What has tp happen is all of that crap has to be removed and then, and only then do you know what you are working with.

Here are the "Before" pics of Ginger's floors:

The kictchen has LAYERS of pressed board laminate. Gross.












The living room and dining have YUCKY BEIGE carpet.











The Bedroom has blue indoor out-door carpet.

I can't say that I am a huge fan of any of these looks! Below are some of the during shots.

As you can see, the carpet glue didn't come up very easily or well on the bedroom floors.  That just means more work when they sand. :(

In the living room we found that they have removed a large section of the decorative inlay. We aren't sure why. One side of the fireplace was OK, this side was not. This fix was not easy but we got creative. We found a decorative medallion corner piece in the closet under carpet. Needless to say, the closet is now missing a medallion and the living room has a new one. The floor was then patched in the closet with scrap hardwood and refinished. :)

The kitchen had so much glue on the floor that the original floors could not be saved. No worries, we will be matching the hardwood from the house and installing it here. The tools are not included in the sale of this house.














Now, on to the finished product:

The hallway no longer has pressboard tile!

Bedroom floors refinished!

Dining redone!

Kitchen floors redone!

There you have it! Floors from start to finish!

There is Treasure in Them There Walls! ARGH....

I know that my first couple blogs were super long and maybe even a bit boring. However, I do promise-swear with all my heart that the rehab business is really fun. Somedays, I do feel like I should take a long walk off of a short plank but, who doesn't? So, today I thought we could take a look at the "real" hidden treasures found in the walls, attics and basements to date. I have left out the 5 BAZILLION beer cans and the countless baggies and rolling papers found hidden in rafters in favor of other truly "cool" items.

And a REALLY COOL OLD MAP THAT I CAN'T FIND THE PIC OF! :(

Ginger's Kitchen is gutted!!

I know this doesn't look too exciting, but when this kitchen is put back together it is going to ROCK! Look for the finished results around the last week of March, just in time for a first time homebuyer to enjoy it and get the tax credit.
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More Hidden Architectural Details!

We found MORE windows on Ginger. Yes, that is right...there was a second set of hidden stain glass at this quaint bungalow. Luckily for me, Dan the contractor was there to satisfy my need fro instant gratification and cut them out. Ladies, I do have to say that being a female on a job site can have some perks :). I have posted the photos so you can see the discovery unfold. We immediately removed the windows and took them off site to prevent theft until the project is done. When a property is occupied thieves don't tend to target them. However, a vacant site is a different story.

Dumpster Diving Dan...

Last blog we talked a little about Ginger missing some of her original charm. Some things we found....We found original doors in the basement, hardwood under the carpet, stain glass behind the drywall. Which, as I am sitting here writing this blog I wonder if we are missing another set of glass that is common in those bungalows. I think I need to have the Investor take a look. Anyways, onward we go...

One thing we didn't find was the original mantel. We know that one had to be there because we found the floor tile for it. Curious, we went into the foreclosure a couple doors down to see what their looked like. What we found was a total shame...Most of the stain glass had been stolen, copper was gone on top of the fact that it never had central air/systems whoever purchased this one had a long way to go to get it back to right. The mantel however, was still in tact it was a typical flag stone decorative mantel with the same crazy tile mosaic at the base in front of it. We knew that we couldn't replicate something similar without incurring a HUGE cost and started brainstorming other options. I just knew that I didn't want it to be too fancy. It had to be simple and clean. With those basic parameters in place, Dan set to work creating a replacement piece.

What Dan crafted was beautiful and resourceful. Unbeknownst to me, Dan had started collecting remnant pieces from other projects and looking for pieces of wood that were going to go into the dumpster. I always prefer to use what was originally there if at all possible, but when it is not I like to reuse materials. Dan made the mantel surround out of completely reclaimed wood, not to mention that it was handmade by a local craftsman :) Here is the masterpiece that trash built!!!

I am sure that whoever gets to purchase Ginger will be glad to have this in their home.

A girl has to have some secrets! Eventually, we all tell...Including Ginger!

In the very beginning I told you that we would be showing you how rehab was possible using "old" materials. A big focus with my rehabbers and contractors is reusing what you already have to cut costs and be kinder to the environment. In this particular case we had discovered some hidden things on Ginger. Most of the time when you run into something hidden on a rehab property it is not so good. In this case, we have a lot of good blended with some, "how do we fix it?".


Earlier in this blog series I had shown you that Ginger was covered in carpet. I don't know about you, but I personally hate carpet. Carpet is full of dirt, mites, sticky stuff and who knows what else. Boo hiss on carpet! Did I just say that? Yes, yes I did. So, needless to say I was eager to learn what was underneath Ginger's beige carpet...Unfortunately, you can't go ripping up the carpet to see what is underneath before you buy the place (or I would have). You just need to take your chances that the floor is probably wood given the architecture (OK, you busted me. I sometimes do peel back a small portion of the carpet just to see. Like my rehabber says, "I'm not stupid, just slow").

The day we closed on Ginger we peeled back more carpet and found that it was indeed hardwood underneath. They removed a large portion of the shaggy grossness, but because they were going to paint they didn't do more than a quarter of the room and left the carpet in place as a drop cloth. Work went along as scheduled....Until, another house 2 doors down came on the market as a foreclosure. This house was just like Ginger, so naturally we went to see it. Dan the Contractor, the Investor and I viewed the house together and we were bummed that our house didn't have the features that this one did. Its floors were hardwood with decorative inlay. It had loads of stain glass, and a mantel with a decorative mosaic motif on the floor. Ginger, as far as we could tell was missing all of this. We had a few brainstorming session about how to make up for the missing architectural details and then proceeded with the rehab.

In the next few weeks Ginger would reveal several things about herself that would indeed thrill us and send us back to the drawing table. One day, about three weeks ago, I got an email from the Investor that was doing most of the rehab on Ginger himself featuring 2 pictures of the same wall. One picture was taken from the inside and another was taken from the outside. Again, both of these pictures featured the same wall. The subject line of the email read, "Can you tell the difference?" I felt like I was playing along with a Sesame Street game... Here were the 2 pics. Can you tell the difference? It took me a minute.

The stain glass is on the outside, but not the inside! Someone had covered it up on the inside to make the wall completely smooth. Why? I have no idea...These unique details are like gold now. Maybe when they covered it up (in the 80's) people took it for granted.


Shortly after that the Investor called to inform me that the floors had decorative inlay and a tile mosaic for the hearth, but was missing the mantel. Here is what the mosaic looked like without the mantel...

So, what do we do now? We have a mantel made and cut out the windows,of course! The windows will more than likely need to be retrimmed and the mantel will need to be replaced somehow. Have you ever seen those BS ready made electric fireplace things they sell in Home Depot? Gross! Look to your RIGHT if you don't believe me.To me, that was just not an option. We needed to replace the mantel, make it non functional (it never was), look good and keep it cheap. For this mission we will call in our best agent. His mission? To craft a mantel from recycled materials, make it look hot and keep costs down. Should Dan Carter be willing to accept, he will be held to Leigh's picky standards (which actually, don't even begin to match his own) and risk being laughed at as he crawls in dumpsters looking for materials (SERIOUSLY).  I wasn't really expecting much.....What Dan produces exceeds my wildest expectations. In fact, it was SO SPECIAL that I am going to save it for the next blog. Until then!