Lizzy needs a good cleaning

We went over to Lizzy with a contractor right before Christmas. We asked him to provide us estimates for fixing the foundation, restoring the roof to its proper shape, and replacing the non-historic windows with the goal of having an exterior tight and structurally sound house. He was hopeful after seeing the foundation, as, apparently from the inside, he expected it to be much much worse. He worked on our Oakwood house and we have a great deal of confidence in his work, professional ethics, and billing.

He did caution us against jumping in the kitchen/hallway as there is a joist that is about to break.

While we were there I was saddened yet again by Lizzy. I know it's just a house. But here, this house is standing in for human suffering taking place for the profit of others. This house was rented out in this shape. Children made their home here. While we were in the back bedroom that will eventually be the kitchen, we found a hypodermic needle. While in the crawlspace we found those plastic sharps-esque stoppers that used needles are placed in. A lot of them.

It was then that I noticed the upturned barrel in the corner, the lights above, and realized that at some point, the crawlspace of this house was a shooting gallery. Who knows how many people have gotten high on that earthen floor while kids were playing inside on moldy carpets in a fire damaged house. Who knows how much money people made on that house, sucking every last useful cent out of families through the structure.

So for a little while at least, we'll not be going inside Lizzy unless it's broad daylight. We'll clean up and quietly sleep and let some more of the sadness of the place dissipate through the cardboard siding and cracks in the walls. Harris created a drawing of the house and I'm going to be digitizing it this week in the hopes that we can get our application submitted.

Proposed Timeline -
Have plans approved (or very nearly so) by May.

trash removal costs

Harris and I had planned on doing all of the demolition ourselves. However, we didn't count on how little light there is at night and how dark the house is (charred wood) now that we've removed a lot of the white surfaces (drywall and painted paneling). Our Craftsman lantern does absolutely nothing against the darkness that inhabits Lizzy.

She wears white on the outside and is black on the inside.

We decided to hire Bill to fill the dumpster. All told, we paid him $135 cash and agreed to buy his next amtrak ticket (we would have anyway...) to carry the detritus we've already removed, and he paid someone else $20-30 (unclear) from that money to remove three ceilings. Apparently the guy is 6 foot 3 inches tall and in under 45 minutes had three drywall ceilings removed and all of the junk in the dumpster...without a ladder.




Later that evening, I got the wild hare of "oh man, this dumpster is leaving tomorrow and there's still room in it. Bill and I went back to Lizzy and removed carpets from two rooms. This work was gross and disgusting and very hard on Bill. I was there mainly for show it seems as I couldn't get a good grip on anything. I tried. I supported. In the end, Bill removed two carpets, but not the padding. Here's what's under the padding.







Wood Floors!








It's also difficult to see because of the char, but there is a wood ceiling in the front room. Once the drywall was down in the other three rooms we found attic. There are two rooms remaining where there might be wood or plaster ceilings left and one room we're pretty sure is going to have attic. The hallway is attic.



Next steps include getting the floor plan drawn (as is) and then creating our proposed plan that includes creating one central entranceway and moving the kitchen out of the hallway.



This image of our hallway kitchen shows some of the best plaster remaining in the house. You'll notice a drywall patch that is incomplete, water damage, and smoke/fire damage.


We have dawdled a little in drawing out our plans. First we couldn't get the measurements right, then we had moved so much junk around we couldn't measure right, but we need to get back to work. Now that the house is relatively clean again, we'll get to drawing.

We are also waiting for new estimates for the foundation work. We're toying with the idea of doing this house without a loan and the cost of the foundation repairs will determine if that's a realistic goal. We're really not sure if the foundation work will be $5,000, $10,000, or $40,000. We know we need new piers and to rebuild skirt wall, and jack the house, and replace girders. Once we get the foundation stable, we'll focus on the roof and walls.

Wood Ceiling!!!!

Ceiling cat? Are you there?

There's a wood ceiling!!!! Pictures coming soon.

Harris has been sick and the weather so cold he hasn't been able to get over there to get good pictures. By the time I get home, the light is minimal and pictures just don't capture the beauty.

It's beautiful in a charrded why did they leave it but so happy they did way.

Wood ceilings are a fantastic find. It means we most likely won't have to go with smooth surface ceilings in all of the rooms since we have evidence that there were wooden ceilings.

Dumpster drama

We'll be adding $40 to the cost of the dumpster. It seems they could not find a place on the property to locate the dumpster so it has to be placed in the street. For the honor of placing the dumpster in the street, Harris and Madeline spent an hour and a half at City Hall + $40 this morning.

You run into things like this a lot. Basically, City Department do not communicate well nor do they help you anticipate problems. On Wednesday they couldn't decide how much notice was needed nor if we should be prepared to pay with a check or credit card. Today, it's an on-street fee for a dumpster because they didn't like the off street locations provided.

It's best to have a little free time to navigate these things.

Dumpster

The first dumpster arrives on Thursday!

After talking to Solid Waste and One Call and getting different information from both, Harris just went to Solid Waste to fill out the paperwork. We're going to clock this at 1 hour and the $200 dumpster rental fee.

On Thursday our friend Bill will remove the paneling and drywall that we've taken down so far and place it in this dumpster. If this is quick work and there is more room in the dumpster, then we'll see about getting more stuff down from the ceilings and into the dumpster.

Once this is complete and we can wander around inside again we will draw the proposed floor plan for the tax credit application.

delays

Sometimes it's the smallest deals that take forever.

We're trying to get a final deal completed, but are running into normal family drama.

Thankfully, though we've experienced drama of this type before, this particular drama is among another family and not ours.

Hopefully this week our costs will increase by 33%.

We're still investigating dumpsters as, with our work so far and the time change, we can't really move around and do much in the house right now. Hopefully we'll have the place cleaned out, the lot cleaned up, and the plans for the renovation up in the next month.

We did run a very nice scheme though. We traded 1.5 hrs of babysitting for some of the reusable materials in the house. We have less to dump and were able to have Madeline play with someone else one morning! Great trade!

Bamboo take 2

Madeline woke me up around 5am and we all decided to get up around 6:22. She of course then decided to nap at 10am when I was full of the energy.

So I tried a new approach to bamboo removal. I took a pair of loppers over to the house and individually cut each piece of bamboo. At the beginning it went really fast and I was quite accurate, however, about an hour in to the process, I noticed it was taking much, much longer. I then started moving bamboo to the pile until Harris called me home for lunch.

We're estimating there is about three more hours of bamboo cutting to be done. Then there will probably be 5-10 hours of junk picking, raking, recycling glass, and hauling stuff to the curb.

There are several trees that I was able to see today up close. Once the bamboo is gone, the yard is going to be beautiful.

Land

our costs might be jumping by 33% very soon.
This is a very good thing.

Cops & Robbers

The house has not been broken into...yet.

Sure, it's going to happen at some point and Harris will freak and I will down play it. This weekend we got our first taste of shenanigans. We walk by the house every day, sometimes multiple times, just to say hi. On our Sunday walk for Madeline Nap 1 we noticed new items in the yard. Seems someone thought we needed a subwoofer, tweeters, two stereos (one missing its face plate), a huge car jack on wheels, and an assortment of taillights.

We called Durham's finest to see if they wanted to pick up the stuff since we were pretty sure it was stolen. When the officer arrived he asked why we thought it was stolen then insisted that we could make some money if we could just flip the house. Got to get that flip.

After the officer left- without any of the goods (he suggested we just throw it away) I went and spoke to the guy who lives two doors down, giving him my phone number in case anything untoward happens again.

splitting hairs

Ok friends. The time has come. We need a new word. Natalie has been saying "deconstruction," and frankly, I don't like it. However, "demolition" doesn't work either. See, the Internet God that is Wikipedia sez that deconstruction is "the selective dismantelement of building components, specifically for re-use, recycling, and waste management." Demolition, as we all know, is smashing the fuck out of things. What we're doing is somewhere in between, as we clearly don't intend to "re-use" any of this crap. Maybe "de-slumlordification?" "de-wtf-ification?" I dunno. I await your suggestions with bated breath.

Lizzy's showing her...

Studs!
Only in one or two rooms though.

What began as an attempt to determine the scale of demolition that would be needed has actually turned in to a bit of deconstruction. We began in the back bedroom that we learned was an addition. Here we were looking for where the house used to end and to see what shape the chimney was in.

The two layers of paneling covering the drywall on the chimney were making us wonder if we were going to find multiple layers everywhere.

Nope.

Who needs insulation???? Or actual siding and sheathing...




If you step back from the fun of dismantling a room and notice the rat nests and holes and mold it can be depressing. However, we only had two hours, so instead of focusing on human misery we just picked at drywall.


The kitchen is currently located in the hallway. Don't ask. At some point, in order to avoid having to buy a custom door, they just sort of used some scraps to make the doorway small enough to accommodate a standard Home Depot hollow core door.

I convinced Harris that I just wanted to get one piece of drywall off, well then there was this annoying scrap, and couldn't we just get it down to? There's a kids book with the same theme...



Right now we are guessing that there was a nice big doorway here. We've got more deconstruction so that we can determine if it was a pocket, standard, or french door.


We also pulled the paneling off of the fireplace. Yes, there was paneling on the fireplace. It's really not in great shape, but I am hoping that once we get the ceiling back to proper height we'll be pleasantly surprised.


You can also see some of the remaining lathe here, but no plaster. The removal of the lathe and plaster by the previous owner was quite haphazard. In some rooms there are only studs yet in other rooms there are random lathe pieces just...hanging out...

Right now we are planning on removing the rest of the paneling and drywall, getting a dumpster, and then getting estimates for the restore. We have about 40% of the walls back to studs, none of the ceilings done, and we're ignoring that the house has indoor plumbing for a minute.

Do beers count toward costs?

Harris and I worked on the house last night and should be posting video tonight.

A question - should we include the cost of the Fullsteam Chocolate Stout in the costs of the house? We would have most likely still enjoyed them if we had not been working on Lizzy, but they were espeically tasty after two hours of nasty demolition.

Back bedroom is officially stripped to the studs...if you don't count the ceiling. Front room is wall stud revieled as well. The kitchen/hallway is beginning to appear from behind bad drywall.

Preservation folks

We had some folks from the State Preservation office out to the house last week to help us figure it out. To give due credit- they are the ones that discovered the evidence of the previous fire. Harris and I had been looking at the walls going, damn, it's odd for a slumlord to paint the wallpaper black, but hey, we've seen weirder things.

Yeah...that was soot.

They did point us to the Sanborn maps for Durham. In 1913 the house appears on the maps in a different form than what is there now. The preservation folks were also able to point out that the room we were in with the dropped ceiling- yeah, that was an addition- couldn't we see the wallboards behind the drywall?

And the drywall, they can look at the wall and in under five seconds tell if it's plaster or wallboard. I thought I was good; they are amazing.

Nothing really new this weekend. We had a fun guest in town and hung out with her instead of working on the house.

Helper elf

Someone wanted in on some pre-naptime action


Mad'l grabbed a hard hat and proclaimed "hat!" She then put it on her head, and carrying a glowstick flashlight that I handed her to keep a grabby little hand occupied, she placed the hat on her head and began to head off down the aisle. It was by the miracle of the lord and sonny jesus that I was able to snap a picture before she changed her mind.
-H

Deconstruction

Before demolition there is deconstruction.It is in this phase that you find very scary things, hysterical things, and some remaining gems that keep hope alive.

Before we made an offer on the house we pulled corners of carpet to check for wood floors. While in the crawl space we also looked for signs that the original wood floors had been removed. If for example, we saw new floor joists and plywood from below then we would know there were no wood floors waiting to be uncovered. Today, being bona fide owners of the property, I sliced into the carpet and ripped it back.

WOOD FLOORS! Beautiful wide plank floors in 4 of 5 rooms checked. This is good.

We are leaving the carpet down for a long time. Not only will it trap dirt that we put down, but we're hoping that it will keep the dust down in the house. We also know that there are holes in the floors- you can feel soft softs in different places. The carpet will help us not break ourselves while doing demolition.

Harris and I were very curious to figure out if we're dealing with plaster or drywall. Our little house has plaster and I love the soundproofing it provides. In the big house we had to remove the plaster as after we removed the paneling and drywall, the plaster fell off the lathe in huge chunks. Removing plaster and lathe is gross and time consuming. We were hoping that our new place did not require that.

4/5 rooms in the house have paneling covering the walls. Today, I removed some of the paneling and found the fireplace (double sided) and that some walls are studs with paneling affixed directly and others have 20 year old drywall underneath. So far, the only plaster we've found has been near the fire place and in the "undisturbed" room. We will remove more paneling on date night and post pictures. Today, I used the claw of a hammer and flashlight to peer behind.

Hysterical - After finding the double fire place I went looking for the other side fireplace. Since the house was a duplex, the right side needed to have a heating mechanism. I went to the back bedroom and pulled at the paneling on what I was 99% sure was a fireplace.



I pulled back the paperboard paneling to reveal....




...more paneling! The second layer was wood type paneling that seemed to be of a higher quality and much older. I'm guessing some slumlord installed in the 1970s or 1980s to class up the joint. I wanted to check on the condition of the chimney, but Mad'lberry woke up from her nap so we headed home for a shower.

Bamboo

The vacant lot next door is currently overgrown with Bamboo.


This invasive is incredibly hard to kill and LURVES North Carolina. Our side yard provided the most perfect growing conditions evAr and is currently covered in the stuff.




Hats off to Danny Hunt at Hunt Surveying for getting in there and finding that damn property line, marked with orange surveyors tape. You, good sir, are brave.



Here you can see the jungle and our various game faces that we employ to scare the bamboo.



Using the pictured orange machete we spent about two hours hacking at bamboo. Yes, there are probably more expedient methods to initially remove bamboo stalks, but how often do either of us have the opportunity to wear ourselves out hacking at stuff with a machete?

Our destruction- a pile of bamboo stalks about four and a half feet tall and as many feet wide. Sun is shining on parts of the side yard that have probably not seen light in years. We were also able to pull a contractor bag of junk out of the bamboo.



Little known facts about slumlords:
1. They will go around their ass to reuse anything that has not been utterly destroyed yet.
2. Nothing is ever hauled off site- yards that are covered in ivy, or in this case, bamboo, make the perfect dumping ground for any materials that have been utterly destroyed.

It's not because they particularly care about craftsmanship or recycling or their impact on the environment;they are just cheap.

Simple little house

The North Carolina State Preservation office surveyed the neighborhood back in 1980. For a whooping $8 (shipping included) we were able to get copies of the exterior photos of the house.

It seems the crawlspace door has not been shut in 30 years.

Filed!

Papers were filed with the clerk of court.

We officially own the N. Elizabeth house.

Once we got the news, Harris went over and changed the deadbolts to the doors. In at least one instance (as a testament to how good our hood is) he installed an actual deadbolt where a dummy plate had been.

We think we own it

We have not yet changed the locks on the house, while we closed today, Freddie Mac has not yet signed the papers. We are waiting for the deed to be filed in order to go padlock the crawl space and change the locks.

Considering we just turned the contents of our savings account (including couch cushions, diaper bag, and pants pockets out turned) over to a lawyer to turn over to a bank, I am hoping that we get some sort of confirmation soon.

No plutonium was stored in the house prior to closing. We checked.

We had plans for today and I took off work because I knew I'd be too excited to focus on my job and we had to scrap them. We did go for a lovely lunch at VITA and 2/3 are now enjoying a nap. After lunch, I'll admit it, we did go to the property and hack some bamboo :)

Pictures from Day One.

We will be spending our date nights working on the house together. However, the schedule is such that we will actually have to wait a week to get our hammers, crowbars, and wonderbars out.

Here is the current state of the house. You'll notice there is no power or running water.

On approach from the sidewalk...



One of the bedrooms. Such FINE carpet! There are at least three different types of carpet in this house.



Scary bathroom #1



The back bedroom in the addition.

What's wrong with the house

Currently, our little Elizabeth St house has no name. After we're free to pull down walls and get rid of the nasty, I'm sure her special character will reveil itself to us and a name will flow.



Since we're discussing the problems, it's probably best that we're not associating a name with her yet.



We did not have a home inspection done on the house. Why? Because we know that the house is utterly fucked. If it wasn't why were we able to buy it for $9,500? If we are buying it for $9,500, why waste $500 on an inspector who will tell us what we already know.

We anticipate having to do the following:

1. Demolition - Removal of carpets, vinyl, and plywood flooring. Removal of dropped ceilings, removal of fake walls and smaller doorways.


2. Install new roof - fix the inadequate roofing and replace all shingles.


3. Fix the foundation- build new piers, replace and shore main girders and floor joists where appropriate, rebuild portions of exterior skirt wall.


4. Yard infill- slope soils so that water drains away from foundation instead of TO the foundation.


5. Rebuild front porch


6. Replace broken replacement windows- some of the original windows remain (YAY!) however, some of the replacement windows are crappy and will need to be replaced.


7. Replace fake siding with German profile siding - A previous owner ripped and painted plywood instead of installing siding...


8. Gut bathrooms.


9. Create new bathrooms.


10. Check on electrical wiring.


11. Build new kitchen.


12. Fix plaster or drywall

Contract

We started negotiating for the house in August. We finally agreed to a price and one week before our set closing date have a signed contract to purchase the house in cash.



In one week we will own the house and its special little problems outright.


We initially offered them 30% of original asking price. We finally agreed on 57.5% of original asking price.





First costs


1. House - $9,500


2. Survey - $350


3. Title Insurance - $ 20


4. Attorney closing - $ 675

5. Prorated taxes - $ 195



Purchase price of house = $10,740