Everyone in this business has reminded me that the last 10% of any project is the hardest (and takes the longest). Now that I’m down to the last 10% of The Bulge House, I’m really starting to understand that. Part of the problem on this house is that I was originally planning to rent it, so there were aspects of the rehab that I neglected (since you don’t want to do too much work if you’ll have a tenant in there potentially destroying things).
Once I decided to turn around and sell it, I created a list of all the additional work items that needed to be completed:
– Lay new vinyl flooring in the kitchen
– Repaint the kitchen (the original paint color we choose was too white)
– Trim some tree branches over the driveway and house
– Put down some “crush ‘n run” (gravel) between the driveway and carport to allow additional parking
– Fix some minor, but ongoing, plumbing issues
– Stage the house
As I wanted to get the house on the market as quickly as possible, I’ve spent the week dealing with lots of contractors trying to get these things done. From multiple plumbers, to multiple landscaping quotes (for the gravel) to finding a good handyman to put down the new kitchen floor, to getting my painter back for an afternoon to repaint the kitchen, it’s been a busy week.
On top of it, my wife has spent the entire week picking out furniture to stage the house. Because we’ll be using the same furniture for multiple houses, it’s important that the stuff she chooses is versatile and coordinated, but also reasonably priced. All told, it looks like we’ll be able to get a house full of staging furniture for about $4000.
The rest of the weekend will be spent taking care of all the remaining minor details (re-cleaning, paint touch-up, final landscaping, final staging, etc). And if all goes as planned, the house will go on the market on Monday.
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