Purchased big project home, certain will need suggestions/advise/moral support too :)

[Floridagal]

I'll see if I can download some of the photo's of the home and post.

 

[Floridagal]

Nealtw,

Question re staircase treads, do most match the steps to the wood flooring used? When we get to the staircase I'd like to install something that's not going to be slippery that also looks nice, any suggestions? I've noticed there are many staircase kits that we can order, not sure if that would be advisable… either way we will hire to complete whether kit or not.

We will be using slate flooring in this area where the staircase is located which is a fairly large open foyer area, wood everywhere else except bathrooms & laundry room. However its pretty much an open concept so not sure if we go with treads if normally you would match the wood treads to the wood flooring, that will be visible from the foyer.

 

[nealtw]

Some go for wood to match, more often we see hardwood end caps under the spindles and carpet on the stairs
http://store.kinzelwoodproducts.com/false-tread-cap/

 

[frodo]

central vac is EASY EASY to install, did i say easy, i meant real easy

 

[nealtw]

central vac is EASY EASY to install, did i say easy, i meant real easy

They do a good job and in most cases will outlast the house but there are down sides too. Draging the hose around the house, riping the woodwork apart on every doorframe and drywall corner.
Get tired of haulling the hose up and down stairs, go buy a second hose and beaterbar and it will cost as much as a protable unit.

Now we see battery driven units and I am sure they will get better in a few years, I would not go for a built in again.:2cents:

 

[frodo]

then put a outlet in each room. did someone only put 1 upstairs in your house and 1 down stairs?

i have never had m that system. i just drag the vac around with me.

funny thing about vacuums. I bought the top of the line mega..does everything. for the house

my wife bough a cheapo wally world unit. she likes the cheapo better

 

[slownsteady]

One word: Roomba............

 

[bud16415]

Assuming Neal to be correct as he normally is he estimated 6 to 8 weeks for a well-oiled crew. Assuming 10 hour days and 6 days a week and with an average of say 5 people working any given day that’s maybe 2400 hours of work left. You guys will be working 3 full days and some partial time on the days you work other jobs so let’s say on an average week between the two of you and factoring in inefficacy of this not being your normal jobs and fatigue etc. say you can get an equivalent labor of 40 hours a week done that comes out to be 60 weeks or 1.25 years.

Having just done a whole house although quite different than yours but roughly the same amount of work pretty much alone but with the help of an 80 year old guy that was a skilled builder in his day it was 2 years of coming home from work putting the tool belt on and hitting the ground running eating dinner on a ladder most nights a bite here and there. And it was about 2 years to finish.

The savings in my case was massive as almost everything I did was high labor content and I wasn’t assuming my labor to cost anything. These kinds of projects have to be viewed as a labor of love and that you will be ending up with so much more than you could have had any other way and being able to enjoy the rest of your life not being sky high in debt. They will wear you down slowly and you have to keep your eye on the finish line. You two sound like you are up for it and we will all be here to cheer you on and answer questions when we can. The best of luck on this and it’s great seeing someone going for the smart thing not the easy thing.

 

[nealtw]

The difference between this house and Bud's house, he was able to move in and make do. With a new house not so much, sometimes a home owner can get get an extention and move in with some things yet to do, but you want that permission and extention in writing.
First thing is the white board with all the jobs left, in the correct order, which trades come when and who can overlap.
If you do hire trades, they will want a time line and you have to have certain things ready for each of them and some framing is required after trades like hvac, plumbers, and some times electricions.

 

[beachguy005]

I could never understand a desire for a central vac system. You still need to schlepp around a long hose with a vacuum attachment. They might of had some value when you had old, heavy, dusty vacuums. Now, vacuums are of much better quality, smaller, lighter, also cleaner. While it might be nice that the motor is out in the garage or closet, I just don't think they're worth having.
Kind of like a 30" CRT TV. Cool when they first came out but I'd much rather have a 32" flat screen LED.

 

[Floridagal]

Thanks Guys,

Now I'm not so sure about the central vac system. LOL We'll check into it, but not sure what we will do. If I didn't I would think having 2 vacuums would be the smartest thing for us, one for upstairs and one of the first level.

To address the amount of people helping us, we have 3 adult sons that all can help as well during the weekends. We also have a neighbor that is a carpenter, and all around good worker. All said they would help, plus we will subcontract some of the work out… (those jobs that we feel would be best left to the professionals). Such as the drywall mudding and sanding, it's so time consuming and when we remodeled our primary home my husband attempted it and wasn't happy at all as it wasn't as smooth as he desired.

I'm curious as to how much work is required before we are issued a Cert. of Occupancy. Like do we have to have the floors in prior to getting the CO, do we have to have all the bathrooms complete, do they require all the appliances and kitchen cabinets in…. Not suggesting that anyone would know for sure because that's certainly up to the Building/permit department, and I'm sure every area is different with a different set of requirements.

It would be great if we were to complete one bathroom and a bedroom, bring in a portable fridge, and grill, then we could stay there while we're working on the house. Hey if a inspector shows up, it's easy to answer the door with a hammer in hand, who says we can't work in the evenings as well.

I might be incorrect but I do feel this home will be a little easier then a fixer upper, because we don't have to demolish anything it's already to start working without having to knock down walls, remove cabinets, move walls or layout of bathrooms, not to mention having to gut the kitchen and bathrooms, etc. We're excited and at the same time a bit nervous, not because of the work to be done, it's a big step for us to take on our vacation home/investment home/future retirement home.

Trust me I'm certain that we will have many questions that most of you guys can answer, or advise, make suggestions.

 

[Floridagal]

The difference between this house and Bud's house, he was able to move in and make do. With a new house not so much, sometimes a home owner can get get an extention and move in with some things yet to do, but you want that permission and extention in writing.
First thing is the white board with all the jobs left, in the correct order, which trades come when and who can overlap.
If you do hire trades, they will want a time line and you have to have certain things ready for each of them and some framing is required after trades like hvac, plumbers, and some times electricions.

My husband has that punch list of what must be completed, not so much a white board but on his cell and he printed it out so that we can hang it in the home.

 

[nealtw]

Most people build with a builders loan and convert that to a mortgage when complete so I don't know if the city or the bank that is the biggest problem.
The best trades people will be lined up with a handfull of builders that each have a few or many houses on the go at the same time so scheduling will be tricky. But those are the contractors you want.

 

[Floridagal]

Most people build with a builders loan and convert that to a mortgage when complete so I don't know if the city or the bank that is the biggest problem.
The best trades people will be lined up with a handfull of builders that each have a few or many houses on the go at the same time so scheduling will be tricky. But those are the contractors you want.

Neil,

We were going to go that route getting a construction loan that could be converted to a traditional mortgage. The problem we found with every single bank, mortgage broker, etc was that the home is too far along to get a construction loan, and not far enough along to get a conventional mortgage.

And yes, the tricky part is scheduling a contractor/sub contractor to do the jobs we don't want to take on, mainly because of where the home is, they truly do live on Island time. If it's a nice day (its a fishing day) for most down there. Which is why we will be hiring out of Miami or Ft. Lauderdale…. our friends had more problems with getting people to work then the work itself.

 

[nealtw]

Up here you can buy a building lot with 20% down, balance on completion or 6 month. Then the bank pays for the lot out of the builders loan, leaving people without enough to finish the house. I sent a friend back to the bank to ask about that and he got unrelated answers until I went with him and asked questions that the banker had to answer. He would have been short $100,000 and the banks don't understand what the problem is.
How much travel would off island contractors have to do? Or will you be paying for hotels too?

 

[beachguy005]

I wouldn't be too concerned with a C/O as long as the house is tight to the weather. I'm not sure what the technical aspect of the law is but I would think as long as you have working plumbing and a functioning bathroom, a legal source of electricity and neighbors that aren't nosy complainers, you'd be ok.
Just remember that the more furniture you move in, the more you'll have to work around or move it. Cheap air beds are easy to move around and we've all lived with temporary kitchens and partial baths while renovations were being done. I'll also add that working smoke detectors is especially important.

 

[bud16415]

Neal is correct as is Floridagal. There is a huge difference between a rehab and completing a partial done home. You guys won’t have the demo work and won’t be dealing with a million unknowns as you can for the most part assume all that has been done has been done correctly and to code. We could have moved into our home at any time after closing as it was technically sold as an established dwelling but we chose to take about 6 months to get the major dirty work done. Even though we had a working bath and a bed there like you mentioned oh and a microwave and mini fridge.
We paid cash at the sale and cash as we went along for supplies so there was never a note against the property and that allowed us to run pretty much in stealth mode.

You won’t have that option. Around here it is very difficult if not impossible for a person to secure any kind of line of credit solely against a project such as yours based around the home owner doing the work unless he is a contractor with a track record. In my parents day my dad went to the bank and said I bought a lot and I’m going to build my own house I have a job and I want a loan to build the house and they said ok. More recently I have helped one person build a house and have a good friend that built his own home and both were on their own as far as money and in both cases the same banks later said oh nice house would you like a home equity loan against the home we thought you couldn’t build. You may have to leverage your current home or something to secure a loan.

I don’t know how it is in Fla and I know a lot of financial houses are holding paper on a lot of unfinished projects so maybe they are ready to think outside the box. I always try and look at it from all perspectives and I did this with the short sale we bought. I say to myself this house has been on the market for 2 years and they are almost giving it away. How come some builder/flipper/rental landlord hasn’t scooped this up. In our case it was the little town was exactly where we wanted to live and a place where hardly anyone else wanted to live. So for a builder or flipper putting a lot of time and money into it he would still have been competing in a depressed market. For a landlord they are looking for turns on their money and not major renovations. In this town it would have rented but there were more for sale that just needed fresh paint.

The only real thing an individual has going for them is sweat equity and location. You have to view it as you are in competition with everyone else that has looked at it. They have all carefully calculated what the final cost will be for them and how they have to finish the house and then they factored in after it was done what they could likely expect to get as a return and how long that might take. You have an advantage you know you have a homeowner ready to move in and it is what you want. You also don’t need to turn a profit you just want to come in under the market value.

 

[Floridagal]

Up here you can buy a building lot with 20% down, balance on completion or 6 month. Then the bank pays for the lot out of the builders loan, leaving people without enough to finish the house. I sent a friend back to the bank to ask about that and he got unrelated answers until I went with him and asked questions that the banker had to answer. He would have been short $100,000 and the banks don't understand what the problem is.
How much travel would off island contractors have to do? Or will you be paying for hotels too?

Normally, a bank would give a construction loan, then we would simply convert to conventional loan. However, as I stated above the home is too far along for a construction loan and not far enough for a conventional loan. Then contractor that we've been in contact with that is on the island right now, is actually doing work at the resort on the island but the resort only allows him and his crew to work 3 hours a day because it is a resort… they are putting him and his crew up for the next few months, so we won't have to pay for any accommodations. Which is excellent in our case, they are right there within 3 minutes of the home.

 

[nealtw]

So he is already charging them for a full day so he should be really reasonable, you would be the dream customer he could only dream of having.
Which trades would he have?

 

[Floridagal]

I wouldn't be too concerned with a C/O as long as the house is tight to the weather. I'm not sure what the technical aspect of the law is but I would think as long as you have working plumbing and a functioning bathroom, a legal source of electricity and neighbors that aren't nosy complainers, you'd be ok.
Just remember that the more furniture you move in, the more you'll have to work around or move it. Cheap air beds are easy to move around and we've all lived with temporary kitchens and partial baths while renovations were being done. I'll also add that working smoke detectors is especially important.

Hey Beachguy,

We're not planning on moving any furniture in until the dirty work is complete, been there and done that with our renovations in our primary home. Which was a disaster, we had dust even in the fridge and in drawers/cabinets, etc. So wouldn't move anything into the home until all the dirty dusty work is complete. I don't think there will be a problem if we brought in a mini-fridge/air mattress/microwave so we can stay there once we get a functioning bathroom/shower. No one can just walk in as we can lock all the doors, and who says we can't work in the evenings too . I don't think the neighbors would be a problem but you never know for sure. I'm going to call the building department today to get more information from them. I think smoke detectors are good to install even before we're finished, which is easy to do.