Big Picture: Where are we?
Been a busy couple of weeks, mostly closing out items at Mintwood. Getting ready for Christmas visitors (YEAH!!!)
Also- Duncan St. is rented for Feb 1st, so I need to press to complete everything there.
Goals from Week of 21 Nov
- MINTWOOD
- Order countertops for living room (done)
- Order tile for entryway (done)
- trim basement doorway and powder room doorway (done)
- Trim kitchen door inside (done), and order new brick mold for outside (not started)
- Install remaining baseboard in kitchen, hallway, and LR. (This will be “trim complete”) (done)
- Start varnishing the entry doors (not started)
Corp Update
- Dec 20th-ish kids arrive for the holidays
- In a show of efficiency, the SWIF people contact me proactively to review my classification rating. I filled out a questionnaire about the business, so now I just wait to see what they decide.
- Spent a lot of time evaluating a property in Shadyside. It would be a “restore/ sell”, not a rental. Unfortunately, I don’t think the pricing is in line with the amount of work that is needed. It would be OK for someone who wanted to live there, but to do what I normally do, at the quality we like to do, it would be cost prohibitive.
- We are evaluating a different property in Garfield. It’s a vacant lot that we might develop. The adjacent property is also vacant, so it might be interesting to get both.
Accomplishments
Mintwood St
- I’ve completed the installation of all trim on the 1st floor, which means we are trim complete. We donated the left-over trim to Construction Junction. Fortunately, they were able to come on site and collect it. There wasn’t a lot leftover- about 500 l.f. – but it was in 15′ sticks, so they were able to get nice long boards.
- I completed the cabinet installs last week, and I painted the living room fireplace this weekend. The fireplace is all black, at the request of the primary occupant (Kathryn). I’ve also begun the process of running the wires in the wall for the TV.
- The painters will start painting the 1st floor trim this week. I’ve been finalizing all of the prep work. We’re in pretty good shape for them to start, although I have a bit of touch-up sanding to do on the hallway ceiling plaster.
- Sanded & filled the original trim on the LR windows and DR window. This likely was lead-based paint, so I took all of the normal precautions including closing off the rooms and masking up. The paint under the top (brown) layers were all kinds of crazy colors. The trim at the top of the windows was in surprisingly bad shape (crappy paint job, and lots of drilled holes). Looks better now- and will be MUCH better once it is filled and painted.
- I also spent a ton of time (about 30 hours) prepping the inner vestibule door for paint. This involved completely stripping one side (where the paint wasn’t adhering well to the door). I’m going to try to install that door before I start the tile work, or start installing the outer vestibule door.
- All of the plastic sheeting is down, and the HVAC system on the first floor seems to be working nicely (though the basement is now noticeably cooler than the 1st floor, as there are no vents down there)
- All of the materials for tiling the vestibule have arrived. It’s likely that I’ll do most of the tile work while the painters are working this week. This will also include finishing the tile on the backsplash in the kitchen.
- I haven’t done anything with the landscape plans bc we learned that the neighbor in the back (with the failing retaining wall) is selling her place. We’ll wait for the new owner to take possession and then we’ll approach them about sharing costs on the wall.
Pearl St.
- Tenants held Thanksgiving dinner at the house and it was a big success. Nice to see people enjoying the building.
Duncan St.
As noted above, we rented Duncan St. It was not planned at all- the property isn’t finished. However, a friend-of-a-friend was looking for a place, and was pretty keen to get it, so I’ve committed that we will have it done by Feb 1st.
Goals for week of 5 December
install tile in vestibule.
Complete backsplash tile in kitchen.
Install granite countertop (laundry) and marble countertops (living room)
Trim painting/ hallway painting (Wolfe Painting)
Entropy Properties LLC 