Musgrove Family Blog Wandering the Parent Hood

Back to Work, at Home

After three years of ignoring most of the non-structural needs of the house, It was back to work about four weeks ago. So far, the unfinished section of the basement has been re-organized, the finished section of the basement has been organized and cleaned into usable space, the third bedroom has been emptied and the wallpaper removed, and the dining room is mostly emptied of random stuff and usable as needed. The next steps are to sand off the loose paint in the third bedroom, paint the third bedroom, and remodel the upstairs bathroom. Every time I think I have accomplished enough to be proud of myself, I make the mistake of reading up on Paul’s exploits and it reminds me to put down the computer and go back to work.

I estimate that I have tripled the usable space in the house, so given the current housing market in an emergency we could now sell the house for a handful of shiny beads, and some mittens.

ReFi

Over the past three weeks I have been working with Virginia Commerce Bank to refinance our house. We were able to take advantage of the new conforming loan rate and the increase in value of our house to get into a 30 year fixed-rate primary loan and a small 15 year fixed-rate secondary loan.

This is the second time that I have used Virginia Commerce Bank, at Mike’s recommendation, both times the process has been relatively painless I worked with the same person both times and surprisingly he remembered me when I called him earlier in the month. I didn’t think a lot about this until I started talking to some of my friends and everyone else had complaints about their mortgage application process including their mortgage brokers forgetting their names (in the midst of the financing process), forgetting what paper work had been submitted, losing paper work, and screwing them with undisclosed closing costs. At both of my closings, conservative estimates were made, and we ended up walking out having paid slightly less than estimated in closing costs.

If you are buying or refinancing a home, I would definitely suggest giving Virginia Commerce Bank a call.

We used Synergy Title & Escrow this time, and the person assisting us wasn’t very professional or knowledgeable, but they did successfully transmit the funds to the appropriate places.

House Update

Since moving in on January we have been steadily working on tasks around the house. I always feel like I haven’t accomplished anything useful around the house, but after compiling the following list, I feel a bit better about not getting anything done over the last two weeks of vacation.

Projects completed around the house in 2005

• Removed carpets
• Refinished the hardwood floors on main and upper levels
• Moved in
• Remodeled master bedroom (remove fixture, remove wallpaper, repair walls, paint, new fixtures other than the toilet)
• Removed two layers of wallpaper in master bedroom
• Primed and painted most of master bedroom*
• Replaced laundry sink plumbing and faucet
• Ran two new circuits with wall sockets to the basement
• Replaced roof
• Repaired brick wall surrounding the backyard
• Installed master bedroom ceiling fan

* Katherine is still working on the painting, the ceilings and walls are done, but the trim needs to be finished.

It is a rather large list, and the cost for the things that I could not do my self (floors, roof, and brick wall) totals around $10K. I have no idea what the cost of all of the small projects would add up to. Hopefully the master bedroom will be done and furnished by the end of the year and I really will feel accomplished!

Happy Halloween

This Monday, we dressed Murray up as a Bumblebee and Katherine carved a pumpkin to celebrate Halloween. After talking with the neigbors we were expecting between 50 and 100 kids. We had 5 lbs of candy and I rationed it carefully to the first couple of kids. Of course with all of that preparation we only had 15-20 kids, so if anyone wants some candy we still have plenty. More pictures can be found in the gallery.

Hah! roof leak, most unexpected!

While not as surprising as a roof pig and not entirely unexpected, I found a small leak upstairs when I was examining the attic for the need for additional insulation, and any other problems. It is right beside the chimney, so probably just a flashing problem. The roof is rather old, and over the original set of shingle, so I am probably going to replace the whole thing.

It is killing me that there is a structural problem with the house that I can’t act on immediately I have requested a quote from one Shiner Roofing through their website, and plan on calling a couple of other companies today. After a rough night sleep (partially because of some more rain) I am still anxious over the problem. I don’t know how some of my friends with actually old and historic homes, deal with setbacks and discoveries of this nature .

I love this townhouse, and I love the fact that it is 30+ years old, but with a house of this age there are going to be problems. I knew that the roof would need to replaced within a couple of years of moving in, I knew that the furnace would need to be replaced, and last winter I determined that our brick fence needed the top re-pointed. But it still kills me that I haven’t been able to take care of all of those needs yet.

On the positive side with my step-father’s help, I have replaced the leaking valve in the master bath tub, run two new electrical lines to the work area of the basement, and replaced the failing plumbing fixtures and faucet for the tub sink in the basement (now I even have shut off valves in case it starts leaking). I am also doing a good (if slow) job on the master bedroom. The master bath is done and ready for use, the walls are painted, and the new ceiling fan is going up today. Once we get the trim painted we can move out of the guest bedroom.

Bathroom Update

I managed to install the new light fixture in the master bath, while only slightly electrocuting myself (twice). I also tripped a breaker, but not during one of the mild electrocution.

Now I have a working light that turns on and off from a light switch in the master bathroom. All of the problems started when my original wiring job had the light on at all times. Who in their right mind runs the hot side on a black wire?

Old Drywall

I just want to take a minute to bitch about Gypsum Board! Our new house was built in 1972 and most of the walls have been covered with wall paper for all of those 32 years, leaving the walls dry and brittle. The bathrooms are the worst as the builder didn’t bother to put a coat of primer on the walls prior to wallpapering.

I did a relatively good job in removing the wallpaper. I only damaged 5-10% of the dry wall (when you rip the outer layer of paper off it exposes the fibrous inner layer of the paper and you have to patch it prior to painting). I repaired this reasonably well with joint compound, considering this was my first experience with joint compound. The walls have been primed and painted giving me the illusion of steady forward progress.

What put me over the edge was the area over the door when removing the masking tape, a large chunk of paint along with the first layer of drywall paper came off. Upon further inspection the area where the tear started was in a suspiciously straight line. Apparently when installing the wall paper the builder used a razor knife to trim the wallpaper to size after it was on the wall, and at the same time scored the drywall underneath. Why oh why couldn’t the contractor cut the wallpaper to size prior to installing it on the wall?

Happily the damaged area is patched and primed; now I just need to apply a coat of paint.

It only set me back a couple of days, now I can prime and paint the trim and ceiling, install the new fixtures (vanity, mirror, and wall cabinet), replace the toilet, and keep my fingers crossed that I don’t F something else up in the process.

Last Load

After way too many weeks of packing and moving, I am 100% out of the house in Vienna. The house is emptied cleaned and I am done with it 8 days early! Thank Jeebus!

Thanks, James, Mike, and John.