My Own D-day Report

Not to make light of the sacrifices that happened on the beaches of Normandy, I have my own action report to file. The renter moved out of the house May 31st, and left the inside of the house in good shape. The outside is another story though, and after talking with a neighbor it seems that the yard was moved only once during the entire year. We have decided to sale the rent house, since property values have gone back to acceptable values, and a few other reasons. The rental property has been nice, but the taxes on the income versus the tax write-offs, and the possible future taxes on the sale of the house once we get out of the "living in the house two years out of five" rule make it rather unattractive to keep. Any major repair could very easily eat into a couple of years profit. I have a huge list of things that need to get done to have the house attractively marketed by July 1st. Once school starts the housing market doesn't pick up until spring.

The List:

• Clean the twigs and acorns off the roof
• Spray 10% bleach solution on roof moss to kill it.
• Clean the gutters, check the nails, and flush spouts.
• Mow the front yard and trim edges
• Clean the flower beds 
• Mulch
• Remove refrigerator
• Remove tile by carport entrance, level floor, and relay something?
• Buy shower curtain and put it up in bathroom
• 3 new kitchen blinds
• 1 blind in bathroom
• 2 new master bedroom blinds
• Paint the hallway a neutral color
• Remove carpet, padding, tacking, and staples in hardwoods upstairs for restoration
• Remove flooring in laundry room to concrete and stain same color as office area
• Paint outside trim around doors that were installed a year ago.
• Pressure wash house, sidewalks, and carport.
• Major clean up of back yard (garden area, fence line, mow, and leaves)
• Repaint the ceiling lines in living room better (NOT FREEHAND STYLE).
• Clean and wash balcony.
• Stain concrete.
• Restore hardwoods.
• Paint two closets in downstairs back bedroom.
• Float, sand, and paint two walls (kitchen and downstairs bathroom).
• Paint the doors in the hallway.
• Replace dryer vent under house.
• Change locks (keys not returned).
• Fix carport door.
• Replace hinges on screen doors.
• Paint, trim, and lay runner on stairwell (make it nicer).
• Lag bolt on carport railing.
• Plant summer flowers in flower beds
• Put new doorbell on front door area

I have two contractors coming out Monday to put in bids. I'll also got to figure out the final deductions for the deposit refund. Sweetheart will be taking The Doctor on her shopping trips for supplies, and picking out the new colors, flowers, and other various needed items tomorrow.

Before and After shots (not the same angle PP) of the little side of the yard.

One of the three flowers beds after much TLC by Sweetheart. Especially after all the crap I blew off the roof into it....oops.

The backyard is gonna take a lot of TLC to recover to an attractive backyard for prospective buyers. A good month of study work. The leaves staying on the yard all year really broke my heart. I had the back yard looking good....

I started at the back of the house, the master bedroom, and worked on pulling the carpet and pulling the padding up...

prying the tack board up, and the staples from the padding were a special kind of hell. Evidentially it is standard practice, when installing new carpet, to stomp the old staples into the hardwood floor. The installer must have been paid per staple used...

Finally completed to my standards.

Thankfully, both of the boys old bedrooms were not carpeted. Our old bedroom, the hallway, and the living room were the only rooms with carpet.

How do you deal with the old tack board and room transition bars?

Cut some carpet and make a tacky burrito!

I'll update "The List" as the progress is made, and keep the pictures rolling along.  Today we were able to scratch off removing the carpet, mowing the front yard, cleaning the roof, applying one application of bleach solution to the moss, cleaning the gutters, mowed a portion of the back yard before it got too hot, and cleaning out the one of the flower beds. A very good day, and I'm pleased with the progress made...hopefully Sunday will bring the same amount of stuff scratched off the list.

Keep Right On Prepping - K

Oh! The Doctor started walking at 9 months and 26 days.