House Update ~ Chronicles of a Bungled Real Estate Deal ~ Overall This & That Update

We’ve been working what seems like night and day to finish up around here. And even though we have accomplished a TON, it seems like the list is never finished! One of the biggest issues (or so we thought) was a pipe in the basement that was supposed to be fixed before the previous owner ever moved out, but they failed to do any of the conditions for the purchase of the house and now when confronted say, oh well, sue the inspector, he’s bonded. Nice people. Yeah right. Well, we’ve tried talking to the real estate people, we’ve tried being nice, we’ve tried arbitration and now we’re just going to get tough and sue them ALL. The home warranty didn’t cover it because of their fraud, the new insurance didn’t cover it because it was pre-existing and the mortgage insurance didn’t cover it because there isn’t a mortgage. Each person we’ve contacted has outright said that this particular county doesn’t enforce anything. So, before this is all over we WILL be contacting the appropriate agencies and filing complaints all the way up to the federal housing authority. What if we were a young couple just starting out with a HUGE mortgage? The laws, rules and codes SHOULD BE enforced everywhere!
So to bring you up to date:
The coat closet: I love this closet. It’s 6×6 feet and well located. It turns out though that it wasn’t original to the house. It was added on at some point using a portion of the front porch. Which is great, but it was never insulated, walls or floor, so we started by insulating the walls and floor and then building new walls and floor over the insulation. I wish I had a before picture, but oh well. It also had a single paned window. Who puts a window in a closet? So we eliminated the window, changed the direction of the clothes rod and built in a shoe rack for all the winter boots. Hubby added hooks for the frequently worn jackets. We also added a great rack for all the games so they are easily accessible and there is room for all the luggage too. Then I painted it the Oklahoma Wheat color and Voile we have an insulated Mud room.





The storm door: We had to replace the original one when we remodeled the kitchen and had never gotten around to it. We had installed the insulated new regular door and figured we’d get around to the storm door eventually. We were at my favorite place, The Habitat for Humanity Restore and found the perfect door for $15.00

The kitchen cabinets & counter tops: We installed the last cabinet and its counter top. Then I stained the cabinet and sealed the counter top.


The baking center counter top has now had 3 coats of mineral oil and is looking good!

The Basement drain clean out: This is one of the items the previous owner was supposed to take care of, but failed to do. At some point someone couldn’t get the plug off and they broke a hole into the rear of the pipe. So we hired a plumber to give us a hand. He melted out the old lead and was able to break off the old cap. The inside was then cleaned out and a new PVC pipe and cap were glued together and sealed in place to prevent further sewer gas from escaping.





The Downstairs Bathroom: The first part of this bathroom was here. Today we finished the down stairs bathroom. It had been a butler’s pantry originally and a cold storage room. We finally finished converting the cold storage part into a set of cabinets and finished the molding and paint.

The window at the rear was from my cousins house and will eventually be a mirror.
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jenjen

Tamy – I can’t believe how much work you have done! It is incredible! It all looks great. You should have a show on HGTV or This Old House!

So sorry about all of the fraud stuff – so horrible!

Jen