The Roof

So Bob's dad and uncle came to help with the roof. They arrived Saturday afternoon, and we got right to work. That morning we had a 20 cubic yard dumpster delivered for the huge amount of trash we were about to generate. Redoing the roof involved several steps. First, we laid a tarp on the ground to catch nails so they don’t end up in the lawn mower. Then, we’d clear the old shingles off a section (with a shovel; there are special shovels, but why make it easy on ourselves?) and toss them down onto the tarp. This step was primarily done by Bob's dad and uncle. Then we had to lower the edge of the roof 3/4 of an inch. See, the edge is supposed to stick out a bit to prevent water from just going down the side of the house, but some previous owner had done it wrong. Additionally, most of the plywood along the edge was water damaged. So we had to take it all off anyway. We decided to take this opportunity to put in the insulation along the edge (with vents, which also weren’t in the original roof), since that would be a lot easier to do from the outside once the plywood is off. Orsi’s dad and Bob ended up running all over town to find the right insulation and get plywood. We're still suffering from sticker shock. During the plywood phase, Orsi’s dad put his foot through the ceiling in the corner bedroom. This started a trend with Bob's uncle that would continue the rest of the week :) So we finished the shortest edge of the roof that evening. Bob's dad and uncle had never been so tired. At least, not until the next day :)

Sunday called for rain starting in the afternoon turning to snow overnight, but we pushed ahead. We cleared off the entire back of the house, and replaced the plywood in the long center section. The plywood over the garage part of the house (including the room behind the garage) was too thin (technically legal, but not stable). The internal support beams weren’t done right, either, so we had to reinforce them. Bob's dad and uncle also tried to haul the shingles up to the roof: they each got one up (of 120) and called it quits :) Throughout the day, Orsi and Bob took wheelbarrow loads of shingles to the dumpster. And Bob's uncle went through the roof in two more places. Long story short, when it started raining too hard, that part of the roof was just completely open, and the gap from the lowering the plywood on the center section hadn’t been filled yet. The center section we were less worried about – what’s a little more water damage in the house? The open part we covered with tarps and hoped for the best. If they thought they were tired the day before, they were pretty much dead now. And they had an entire week to go :)

The next day it was still snowing, and it was much too slippery to be up on the roof. We thought this might be good; it should be a lighter work day indoors, so they’d have a chance to recover. The best part (for Bob) was that he had to go on a business trip the whole week – see ya suckers! Apparently, it was not a lighter day. They ripped the remaining tile out of the bathroom, moved the remaining garbage in the garage to the dumpster (Orsi and Bob had done some of that Saturday morning already). They also ripped out the shelving unit in the family room, and ripped finishing nails out of old baseboards we intended to reuse (apparently those are expensive to buy new). All said and done, Monday was harder than Sunday (but maybe that’s partly because Monday came after Sunday).

On Tuesday, they were back on the roof. It was slippery, so they were tethered to avoid falling. They shoveled the roof off, but the center section still leaked a bit. The tarped section, on the other hand, had no problems at all. They put new plywood up over the open section, and they tried to bring up more shingles. Bob's dad and uncle had devised plans involving ladders and ropes, but Orsi’s dad said it wasn’t worth it. Between the three of them, they got four more bundles up, and decided that we needed to hire some help. Orsi had already looked into getting a friend of a friend who had been laid off to help, so she gave him a call. He gave a very good price, and it turns out he had a lot of roofing experience (it’s how he put himself through college). So not only did he carry up the shingles over the next few days, but he shingled half the roof, too. Orsi’s dad said it was the best investment we ever made. By the time Bob got home on Friday night, half the roof was completely finished, and the front center section was cleared and had the paper down and shingle bundles evenly distributed over it. The only part that hasn’t been touched is over the garage, which will need all the plywood replaced as well. But this is lower priority since a leak in the garage is not a big deal.

During the week, Bob's uncle went through the roof in two more places. And Bob's dad introduced himself to the neighbors, telling them he didn’t want them to think he was just a construction worker. Orsi said she didn’t think anyone would make that mistake :)

On Saturday, Bob's dad and uncle decided they couldn’t really work anymore. But we pulled out some bushes with Bob's dad’s SUV. We had to stop when we tried to pull out a small tree and broke the strap (but the tree did come out!).

Over the next week, Orsi's dad managed to pretty much finish the rest of the roof except for the garage (saving that for the fall), and that the toilet and shower/tub will get put in the guest bathroom this week. We’re starting to run out of time to get that house in livable condition (we have to move in less than two weeks). By then we’ll need a working bathroom and kitchen, and a laundry room would be nice (we’ve had the washer and dryer for a couple weeks now). It should be interesting.

Getting Started

The first thing we did was head to Home Depot and Lowes to get stuff. What stuff? Well, lots of little things (broom, garbage bags, etc.) and then the roofing supplies. I applied for a Home Depot card and immediately maxed it out (I had to put the rest on another card).

We also went to a homebuilder’s show that happened to be going on that day. We got lots of information on things ranging from fencing to geothermal to tubular skylights. Big George’s was also having an appliance sale there, so we got a new washer and dryer (the place didn’t come with one). So in one day we racked up a lot of bills. Way it goes, I guess.

Orsi’s dad wanted to start on the roof, but the weather was bad, so we decided to start on the master bedroom instead. The plan was to move the closet wall (the existing placement made the room bigger, but the extra space was unusable). We also needed to fix the ceiling (it was done incorrectly) and rip out the bathroom.

One week in, things were coming along nicely. He was essentially doing demo work during the day and we were doing cleanup at night. Then he got to the bathroom. It turns out that there was no plastic lining under the shower in the master or the guest bathroom (which share a wall) and no moisture resistant drywall, which means that parts of the floor and wall were rotted. It was so bad, it wasn’t safe to walk on certain parts of the floor. Bottom line, both bathrooms needed to be ripped out together. On top of this, the vanity in the guest bath was built into the wall, so there was no way to get at the wall without destroying that, too. So we won’t have a finished bathroom when we move in, but Orsi’s dad promises that there will be a functioning sink, toilet, and shower. The good news is, we get to move the wall between the bathrooms a little, so there will be more room for Orsi’s claw-foot tub in the master. We’ve purchased a shower/tub (one-piece acrylic, no gelcoat – that’s hard to find!) and a toilet for the guest bathroom, but we still need to get tile, a vanity, and a fan.

Lots of other minor things have been touched as well. Orsi and I ripped out about half of the overgrown plants and brush around the house and cleaned up the backyard. We also vacuumed the guest bedrooms that we won’t redoing for a while. Orsi’s dad also removed the random (live!) wires hanging from the ceiling in the basement. And we got all of the appliances from Orsi’s parents in the house (but not yet hooked up). The garage door has been fixed, and the utilities are all turned on. See, there’s been progress…:)

My dad and uncle came last week to help with the roof, but that’s another (comical) entry.

Closing

Closing on a foreclosure? Hard. Closing during the housing crisis? Hard. Closing on a foreclosure during the housing crisis? Really hard.

The first lender we worked with was our credit union. This started out really well: they had the best interest rate. When we were in the office getting paperwork, we mentioned that the roof needed work. The guy stops and says something like, “Well, if it comes up in the appraisal, the underwriter is going to require that you put funds in escrow to fix that.” In fact, it’s much worse than it sounds. The underwriter would require us to get a quote from a certified builder to fix it, then require that we put 1.5x that into escrow, then require us to fix it within a certain amount of time (e.g., 60 days) using our own separate funds, and then after it passed inspection, they would give us the escrow funds back. That’s right, we’d have to have 2.5x the money on hand to fix whatever problems came up in the appraisal. Yikes. But apparently that's the way things are these days.

But an appraisal is not an inspection, so chances are nothing would come up, he said. So the appraiser came, and the report was scathing. Every little crack was cited, and used to claim that there might be foundational damage (Orsi’s father had previously said the foundation was in excellent condition). The house was then valued at barely more than what we offered. Things were not looking good. When we heard back from the underwriter, they wanted a structural engineer to go through the place, and a mold inspector, and would only give us a loan for much less than what we offered. In the meantime, the selling bank wanted to close within a few weeks or else they were putting the house back on the market. Things were not looking good.

While we were waiting to hear back from the underwriter, we went ahead and got an inspection, which confirmed that the foundation was in excellent shape. The inspector still wanted to discourage us from buying the house given the amount of work it would be (he had done a similar thing with his wife, and said he would never do it again). But we have something he didn’t have: Orsi’s dad :)

We also got in contact with another lender. The new lender looked at the appraisal and couldn’t believe the underwriter would accept it. “Besides the numerous spelling mistakes, they cited cosmetic things that shouldn’t be taken into account, and compared to completely different kinds of homes.” This guy said he could get us to closing in a week using something called a “portfolio loan.” The way this works is, you get the funds to buy the house at a slightly higher interest rate, with no appraisal required. Then you get up to a year to fix the house up, at which point an appraisal occurs and the loan is rolled into a standard mortgage. The key is being able to fix up the house within the allotted time so nothing comes up on the appraisal.

So after our original lender ended in disaster, we immediately switched to the new lender, and were able to close on the house with a week to spare. As soon as we got the keys, we went to the house with Orsi’s dad, and all he could say was how overwhelming the amount of work was. And so it begins.

Growing up

Bob having finally graduated from school and getting a job, we immediately started house hunting. Actually, Orsi has been looking at listings online and hitting up open houses for a year. 28 houses or so later, we finally narrowed our choices down to two.

The first house we put an offer on was a 3 bedroom/3 bath, 1800 sq ft. two-story on a quarter acre. The owners are an interior designer and a builder, and it shows. On the one hand, the place had a gourmet kitchen, which was very nice. And the bathrooms were awesome. On the other hand, we didn't like the decorating (Greek columns everywhere), and we wanted to replace all the carpeting upstairs with hardwood (Orsi has allergies, and we have lots of pets). And we'd have to put up a fence. So, even though the place was in great condition, we were going to have to put a significant amount of money into it anyway. And they weren't willing to budge on the price (which was already much more expensive than the other places in the neighborhood).

Still, we saw some other places that were "fixer uppers" that were only a little less expensive, and would require a lot more work. This was discouraging, and Bob was leaning towards just paying for the Greek house.

But then Orsi brought up a foreclosure that they had looked at earlier. At the time, Bob didn't take it very seriously. It needed a lot of work, and Bob doesn't have the skills (or patience) for that kind of thing, and he knows it. But Orsi's dad is a contractor, and offered to help us fix up anything we might buy, and after much discussion, Bob actually got pretty excited about it. The place is 3000 sq ft. ranch, 2.5 bathrooms, full, partially finished basement, on 2 acres. And it was cheap (well, the taxes aren't, but still). We could take the money we saved and turn the house into exactly what we wanted. And at the price, we could almost turn around and sell it immediately for a profit. (Of course, we're planning on staying for a long time).

These pictures show the front and several angles of the backyard. About half of the back is wooded.

So we put the offer in, it was accepted, and we expect to close by the end of February. Our lease doesn't end until March 31, so we'll have some overlap in which to get things into shape, specifically a bedroom and bathroom. Orsi's parents also just redid their kitchen, so we're going to take their old appliances and cabinets.

So when we say it needs some work, what exactly are we talking about? Here are some pictures that illustrate some of the issues:






Garage door broken.











Kitchen floor damaged. Island not attached, and appliances missing or in bad shape.











Hole in master bedroom wall (intended for A/C unit).













Bathrooms need a lot of work, too.












Here's a sample of some of the work that needs to be done:

• Roof+gutters
• Insulation
• Windows
• Bathrooms
• Kitchen
• Floors
• Fence
• Siding
• A/C (we're considering a geothermal system)
  

So, basically everything. Of course, we don't have to do it all at once. With Orsi's dad, we'll only have to pay for materials for most projects, which will help a lot. We're going to try to get into the house again before closing so we can make some more concrete plans so we can hit the ground running.