Big Picture: Where are we?
Hardscape is 100% complete. Had our first big “event” at the house.
Moved new tenant into Duncan St.
Corp Update
- It’s been a busy couple of weeks. We had a charity event at the house on Aug 29, so my focus was on knocking out items in prep for that event. My lovely wife billed it as “see what my husband has been doing to the house and learn more about Hello Neighbor”, so it put more focus on the house than I was ready for, but we survived.
- I met the gentleman who owns one of my target properties. He’s not in a hurry to sell, so I’m biding my time while looking at other options.
Property Updates: Mintwood
- The fence is now complete. We went with a two-rail system (instead of the usual three) so we will have to see how well this wood holds up. Although installed it with every board butted to the next, they’ve already dried enough to create ~1/8″ gaps. As long as they dry mostly straight, I’m OK with that. It does create a nice sense of privacy in the yard, while also creating a place to stash things like the trash cans.
- The neighbor who was complaining about the concrete curbing was pretty insistent that we remove the curbing, so we did. The team came out and cut the curb and we chiseled away the concrete below the limit of what the saw could do. It isn’t how I would have chosen to do it, but he was insistent, so that’s what he gets.
- The other big project I was trying to finish was trim for the front door. There’s a process of installing a pre-hung door. It comes mounted in the jambs, but you have to install trim over the jamb to cover any gaps in the fit. It is NOT desirable to try to make the jamb fit the opening perfectly, as the openings are rarely plumb and square. Our front door was a perfect illustration of this. My millworks company came three times to confirm their measurements, which was great. However, the rough opening is about 1/” out of square. On the lower left corner, there’s a 1/2″ gap between the jamb and the existing trim. On the lower right side, the jamb is completely flush to the existing trim. Up at the top, that reverses and the left is flush and the right side has a 7/16″ gap. The door is installed perfectly plumb in all directions, so it’s clearly the existing framing that’s out of kilter. What’s a guy to do? Well, if you’re me, you mill your own trim out of PVC (never rots). Then you sand it, prime it, and paint it in the basement. Finally, you break out the scaffolds and install it. The sides were an easy taper, but because of the curve at the top, I had to make a laminate out of a number of 1/8″ pieces of PVC. Because it was all prepainted, though, you can’t see any gaps from the steps. I’m quite pleased with how it turned out.
- On the inside (the vestibule) I was hoping to get the trim made to also trim that out. I’m teaching myself Fusion 360 (a CAD program), so that took a fair bit of effort. I was able to mill up a couple of pieces I’ll need, but I didn’t have all of the pieces to get it installed before the event. Needless to say, the guests all commented “gee, great house if you’d only trimmed the front door” 😉 Seriously, it is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, and I’m slowly coming up the learning curve for both the CAD software and running the CNC itself. I expect it to be valuable over the long haul, though, so it’s worth putting the time in.
Other Properties
- I finished up the last of the painting over at Hatfield Street (after the water damage by the windows. Next up for that property will be to install some synthetic turn in the back yard. When tenants renew a lease, I usually get feedback about what could be improved, and I try to select a project that will make them happy and will add value to the property in the long run. This seems to fit the bill. However, it likely won’t be until Oct that I get around to doing it.
- At Duncan St, we turned over the tenants, so I spent a few days over there getting the building ready. Our previous tenant bought the house right next door (literally the same floor plan too). We have a new family moving in this week. Next project over at Duncan will be to repair the concrete porch (front porch). It had a serious leak, which has caused spaulding in the basement and also caused the rebar to completely rust out. Likely that won’t be addressed until this tenant moves out, though. Meanwhile, I need to strip and repaint the hand rails on the front steps and the back porch. It’s been on my list since I acquired the property. That’ll likely be a spring project.
Entropy Properties LLC 