It's been One Week - Barenaked Ladies

Well, it's been one week since we had a "threat" of snow. I remember thinking last Wednesday morning that maybe we got away with one and that all the weathermen might have been exaggerating. Then around 4 PM, the snow hit. And it hit HARD. It took me 4 hours to eventually get home, after being stuck on Mercer Island for over 2 hours.

This picture is what our neighborhood looked like yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon. There are still people getting stuck on this part of the hill. Luckily, nobody lives below us yet (new neighborhood). But people checking out the houses for sale have gotten stuck, and my car has been stuck in the street for the past week now.

I feel bad for students who will have to make up all these missed snow days IN JULY. At least, that's what I'm starting to hear now from parents in the Issaquah School District. I don't think I've seen a winter like this since the early 90s. And even though I'm used to driving in snow after all those trips up to the mountain, it's not my own snow driving ability I'm scared of. It's these guys... (to be honest though, this video was shot in Portland, Oregon)

WARNING : The nasty side of house flipping

Okay, so this isn't really an "update" to the house flipping blog, but just thought I'd mention a little bit about what really goes on "behind the scenes."

The few people who have written me about house flipping, remodeling homes and doing all that work all seem to think "it's a piece of cake." And compared to other things in life, it is. However, there are things you must do that some people won't do. Replacing toilets isn't just unbolting a few screws. Snap-in flooring doesn't really "snap together effortlessly." Walls don't paint themselves. Anytime you're replacing light fixtures or anything electrical, something could go "terribly" wrong if you're not paying attention. Anytime you're dealing with a wall (removal, addition, modification or repair), you're dealing with the potential for dust, mold, dead rodents, insects, and other nasty things that could be behind that wall.

So with that said, the two pics above show what I found in the pipes below the sinks. Now, don't be alarmed, it's just HAIR. But it's not my hair. It's some strangers hair (and I think that's what really grosses me out). And some of it's probably been in that sink since the house was built, so approaching 10 years now.

Right after dealing with this "hair", I had to go meet clients in Bellevue for dinner. Hey, maybe looking at these pics will help out my diet, because that night, I didn't want anything to eat. I kept smelling the smell from those pipes.

But anyway, those of you thinking about remodeling a house, take a looong look at these pictures. After I undid all the plumbing, the pipes refused to come apart. The reason? They were being held together with hair. Just imagine what's clogging up those sinks in your bathroom right now.

Day 47 - Flip Project - Cedar Grove

$ spent since last update - $690.52

Total $ spent - $10,530.03

Budget $20,000
Target Finish Date - 2/5/2006

I figured it's about time for another update. Unfortunately, the snow over the past week hasn't helped much. In parts of Issaquah, it's only beginning to melt.


However, the house is coming along nicely. Over the past 2 weeks, we've had the garage door openers installed. After installing light bulbs and programming all the remotes, it's all set to go. No more worrying about the garage. GarageTech, who installed the openers, did such a good job, it's hard to imagine that I'll ever try to do them myself again. I've tried installing garage doors and openers at 2 other homes before, and it was comedic.

We decided to do away with the parquet floors in the kitchen and entry, so we went and bought laminate wood floors that gave the home a really nice, clean, and bright look.

Luckily for us, the wood floors were on sale, and we saved a ton over regular price. I've personally installed laminate wood in 5 homes, so this one was relatively easy since we were only covering about 300 square feet of living space.

So far, we've been lucky enough to get both flooring, various installation, and appliances at a major discount.

We got our millwork delivered and is ready to be installed. As soon as all the snow melts, we'll have some workers out at the house. Carpets and laminate countertops have been ordered. Now we're just waiting for people to install them.

One thing I'll have to do on my own (with Jordan's help) is install vinyl flooring in the bathrooms. And we'll have to do that before the millwork guys put in the base trim.

I'll try to update with more pics soon.