I finally took the plunge, well at least I signed the contract over a month ago but the work was finally completed today. I won't tell you what it cost other than it was at least half an arm. There were a couple of things that were motivating me to finally do it. One I was really worn out after years of fixing cracks that came as a result of settling of the house in the back, and two wanting to possibly move on from here after the announcement of them going to put in a soccer stadium about a mile or so down the road, not to mention a amphitheater about a mile south of where the stadium is going to be. Not that I haven't wanted to move for a long time, it's just I am rather picky and can't find the right place I want to go. I'd prefer a rental property because it's nice having the extra income but finding one in a nice area is slim pickings. Ultimately I figured if I took the plunge I could eventually move and rent out my side of the duplex but first needed the work done to enable me to do such as this side was more affected by the settling. There has been a tremendous increase in growth due to gentrification in population and traffic, adding thousands more to the mix several nights a week during the summer, if the noise pollution don't get to you, the traffic jams will.
Deciding to get the work done came with the jitters. Back in 2021, the last time I remodeled next door, I wanted to put in a dishwasher but the settling had caused a slight dip where I wanted to put it. I hired a company, Roll Away Movers to come in and see if they could take care of the dip. They sent a couple of guys over to do the work, and well, honestly, I am not even sure they knew what they were doing. This is what I ended up with. A torn up wall and they didn't even bring a beam tall enough to cover the needed lift so they sat a block on top of it. Not to mention either that the beam wasn't even new. I called the owner of the company to complain and mentioned it to him which he replied he had it laying around his barn. It didn't solve the dip problem on the other side, but it sure helped out my side along that wall but that wasn't the objective. There was other damage they did also by jacking up the house like they were merely pumping up a bike tire.
So I forewent the idea of putting in a dishwasher, but there was several other huge projects that needed to finally be addressed that I had been putting off for awhile, plus some that came as a result of the last tenants. My house is old, 125 years old this year to be exact. Not only does it have some original back in the day wallpaper but it went though that period of time when spray stucco was all the rage. The living room, dining room ceilings had it sprayed on them along with the hallway up the stairs. If one hasn't removed that stuff off ceilings or walls, man is that a sucky job. When it comes with strict supervision, it can be rougher yet, and you never knew next where he'd have his watchful eyes.
If you don't have a good sander that could knock off the tips of that sprayed on drywall, the next best alternative is to take a wallpaper knife and scape it. You take a spray bottle of water and wet it, let it sit ten, fifteen minutes to absorb into the drywall, and proceed to scape if off. You repeat this process until it is completely scraped off. It sucks, it really, really is a sucky job. You repair all the cracks that were underneath it and sand the ceiling/wall smooth again. This round I did the dining room ceiling and the wall that lead up the stairs. The living room and the rest of the hallway, the ceiling, wasn't quite as prevalent showing cracks underneath so I left them for another time. There is always that satisfaction though when you are done and sense of accomplishment, or mission completed, however you want to look at it.
That wasn't the most difficult task this time around, nor the last of the cracks, one which didn't look like it came as a result of any settling but someone having gotten mad and slammed something hard into it enough that it took a whole sheet of drywall to fix that section. The most difficult came at the end, it was at the end because I spent several hours googling how to fix a pocket door, and getting the opinion of others who may have known how to put a pocket door back on its track. That and the fact it would take four hands and I only had two. The only alternative was to knock out part of the wall and take out some wood slats to get to it. If one ever wondered what the inner workings of a pocket door looks like, here it is:
Two hands, a crowbar and screwdriver later, it was back in place.
With the woodwork off I was able to get a vacuum hose to pull out all the junk that was stuck back there. I can't imagine how some of that stuff got back there but between that and tenants putting throw rugs against it is more than likely how it got off track. I always ask them not to use throw rugs against the sliding door because if they forget to remove it all the way it can get stuck underneath it. That and the habit of taping stuff to the woodwork and when they go to remove the tape it removes the finish. Like for example, hanging birthday balloons or holiday decorations between the doorways. So I spent a couple days having to finally, because there were so many of them over the years, stripping the woodwork down, staining and varnishing it again. The kitchen was the only place with painted windows so I removed all the paint (another sucky job), stained and varnished it. I did the same with a window that pulls down, held in place by a chain in one of the bedrooms. After all that I replaced the tub surround. New carpet and padding, stove and refrigerator and it was good to go.
It's by far not perfect, it has a lot of hiccups but it's clean and affordable in comparison to a lot of rents around here. Next up was a new roof. What a nightmare that turned out to be. I wasn't really planning at the time to replace the roof, though I wanted to. It was thirty years old and sending someone up there to make a repair was becoming a nightmare. So in a way when my insurance company said replace it or we cancel, it wasn't welcome news but in a sense it was. I had waited all those years, and I really always wanted a black roof but the contractor, Eastown Construction, he could lie through his teeth. I hired him because he does a lot of the college house rehabs around here and they look fantastic, but after what I went through with him, I wouldn't want to be an investor who bought one of his houses he rehabbed.
He asked me if I was going to replace the porch roof. which was a metal roof, as such, the metal extends up underneath the siding. I told him if I never had to paint that roof again I'd be happy. (another super super sucky smelly job) The only problem I had was tearing it off would it do damage to the siding since it is so old and I've had to tar a few places before. He said some siding may come off but they'd replace it but he wouldn't know the cost of replacing the siding until they replaced it not knowing how much would come off. I think he knew he was never going to replace it, you can't even find siding anymore in that size. Yes, siding has to meet the roofline or you are considered in violation of the code.
This guy though, he was a dirty dog. He noticed my chimney caps came off so he included the price of replacing them. I took him downstairs underneath the basement entry and showed him how the decking under the metal roof back there had rotted underneath where the metal rusted out. I told him I wanted another flat roof on there because we need to place a ladder on it to paint. Yeah, that never happened either, nor did he remove the rotted decking. They put underlayment over it, and a doghouse style roof on top of that, which left gaps where the rotted decking went out over the siding. To do so he cut into more siding, which must have wrecked some as they installed some sort of tile in its place. I also paid extra for him to repair the fascia and soffit above two windows in the back of the house. They did one side and because a snowstorm came in, he said they'd have to wait until the spring of the year to do the other side. I hired him in September, he didn't get around to doing the job until the end of December. I got a postcard from the city that said once they are finished call and they'll come out and inspect. It wasn't finished so I didn't call....but he did and the city inspector did a drive by inspection, which they aren't suppose to do, especially with it covered in snow.
Needless to say, in the spring I called him and asked him when they were coming to do the other side above the window. He said he never said he saw that. I don't know how, it was the worse side, and you can't stand out in the backyard and see one side but not the other. He also said he never said he was going to put new chimney caps on though he was the one who noticed it and put it on the contract. He said the word caps meant the roofing vents, which until the city came out between the dispute I was having with him, told me, those aren't caps, those are roofing vents. The city also told me there was nothing they could do but look at if he laid the roof right, and he did. They said it was a state building code issue over the rotted decking that had now two places where the roof lifted up, one over the basement entry, and one on the front porch roof where I now had birds nesting under it. I filed a complaint with the state, that was in 2021, I am still waiting on them. But the permit, obtained by the city, clearly says "An inspection ensures the work has been completed to the standards adopted by the State's Construction Code." There was nothing I could do about the missing siding but replace it myself despite the contract as having said replacing the siding would come at an additional cost, which is how I found out they no longer make that size siding. With the rotted decking, like I said, after all these years I am still waiting on the state. In the meantime I filled the gap in the back with expandable foam so insects, bats or birds wouldn't end up in the basement. As far as the soffit under the other window it was a matter of saying to him, "really, you are going to stand before a judge and tell him you never saw that", and he fixed that. He never did though, fix the fascia. I got my money back on that after he sent the BBB the bill for the job and offered me five hundred dollars to settle the case. I said why would I settle for five hundred dollars when you owe me five hundred dollars for not fixing the fascia. Never bother calling the BBB about anything, all they really care about is the money they get from the contractors to be listed on the site. Their final call on it was they wouldn't even go into arbitration because it was obvious him and I couldn't agree. The complaint you file, it only stays on the site for a short period of time before it's removed.
It doesn't end there though. To add insult to injury, I had my city inspection last year, rental property inspection. The lady came out and she noticed way up on top a tiny hole in some soffit. She asked, since I had been painting the house and she was complementing me on such a fantastic job in colors, why that tiny hole was there. I told her birds had been nesting in there and they had babies so we didn't want to throw the babies out. She said you can't have birds in there. I said, well yes, yes I can. I took her over where the roof had lifted and told her there were birds nesting under the front porch roof, and that according to the top dogs that came out from housing, that as long as the roof was laid right, that's all that mattered. So we get around to the back of the house and she notices the expandable foam in that gap. I told her it was there until the state ever got around to my complaint. She said it's not a city approved sealant. She advised me I had to take it out and put caulk in there. I told her you can't put that much caulk in a hole that big but she made me dig it out anyway. So, you can't have a tiny hole for birds to get into but you can have a gapping hole for bats to enter because she was satisfied that I removed it without caulking it, not that the caulk would have stayed in there.
I am not saying when it comes to the inspector who did my required certification I have to go through, but in my opinion, if a contractor makes all those blunders and you hold the landlord responsible over a contractor who had to be registered with the city to get a permit, and "supposedly" follow all the state construction codes, it's pretty obvious the inspectors haven't stopped taking bribes. Which back in 2014 I walked into my basement and watched a city inspector take a bribe from my insurance agent not to have to move the main breaker outside, which was required if there were any upgrades or repairs to the electrical system, which there was due to a downed wire outside.
When you hire people you are expecting them to represent themselves as honestly as the work you reference them off from, and that guy, he couldn't even have the decency not to rip your yard apart while he was at it. Look at those craters.
You can imagine I was about quaking in my shoes deciding to hire another contractor to do another huge job, especially one where there's electrical and waterlines all along the beam they'd be installing a new system to replace the wood beams. In the back they'd use a hydraulic system to drive down twenty feet to solid ground, so there were sewer lines to consider also. In the front they were to install what they called smart jacks, with a mix of lime aggregate with a special liner underneath that helps downward pressure spread out and not downward. Both systems designed to be adjustable throughout the years if re-settling occurs, and it come with a fifty year transferable warranty. Yes it was costly, but the assurance that at least during the rest of my ownership of the house, it was never going to get any worse. There was also always this conscience part of me that said I could get it done way cheaper, but considering how old this house is, someone else at one time, considering the pristine condition this basement was in when I bought it, did exactly to me what I'd be doing to someone else if it wasn't fixed right. Considering all the faults I do possess, handing a title over to somebody walking away knowing one day their investment is going to start to crumble isn't one of them. I know I probably drove the salesman nuts over the last four, five weeks, calling, worrying, wondering if I'd be left homeless by a busted sewer lines, broken electrical, or water lines. Repairing things isn't cheap anymore and this was already a substantial down payment and loan. No matter how much he tried to reassure me, I was having nightmares over it. He took it upon himself to have someone come out and scope out the sewer lines. After that I just had to hope for the best, and that's exactly what I got.
Honestly I couldn't have gotten two more better people who shared my concerns, I could see with own eyes that they really cared about how I felt, how concerned I was I could find myself seeking shelter somewhere else if they made one mistake. I really didn't want to stay down there because I wanted them to be able to concentrate on the job, not on my worries. I just couldn't help it considering the experiences I'd had. You think you are getting the best and it doesn't play out that way. But this time there could be dire consequences. The first day they did the front, it look rather tedious to me, but nowhere near the next day when they had to go down twenty feet, feeding tubes down using a hydraulic jack. When one of them ended up spotting two sewer lines that the plumber missed, I had all the confidence in the world in them. The pipes weren't even that far down, so jackhammering that floor and catching that was a huge kudos to them. At the end, the salesman came to be a third set of eyes for the lift. There was a lot of electrical and waterlines along both sides of that beam. I couldn't be more impressed with their efforts to soothe all my fears. Sometimes, we, as addressed above, can go on and on about bad experiences while spending very little time on the good ones. It's rare to acknowledge the good attributes and hard work people put behind their jobs and it's even rarer for people to appreciate that there are people out there in this world who put one hundred into their work, and they deserve to be recognized for it.