San Pedro

Quick Review: We bought a house near Rockwood Summit High School in Fenton, Missouri. My parents live about 10 minutes away, and we are very lucky to be in a beautiful neighborhood, with a lot of great neighbors, and a sweet backyard. Our house is a split level; upstairs has two bedrooms, a full bath, kitchen, and dining room plus living room area. Downstairs has a half bathroom, laundry room, a bedroom (office), and a big open area which we sectioned off part of for a storage closet. Instead of walking through a slow, mind-numbing, chronological story of the evolution of our house, I am going to keep it simple and interesting, displaying a few concise photos of the condition of several areas before, during and after.

Rehab Summary: The status of this house when we bought it was "Immediate Occupancy available." That should have been, "Immediate Occupancy available if owners want to live with two-level stench of urine in the carpets." My friend Larry and I began by removing all the carpets on both floors, and getting the stench out. First we took apart and rebuilt the upstairs bathroom, including floor, sink, toilet, and painted the walls. Downstairs, we took off some wood paneling and molded dry wall to reveal some water cracks, thinly constructed walls, and no insulation. So we took the walls and ceilings down (Demolition was FUN!), hired someone to seal the cracks, rebuilt the walls and ceiling, painted, and then Home Depot came in and carpeted. Upstairs, we painted, then laid down laminate flooring, then the trim. We rounded things out with a different stove and microwave in the kitchen, new water heater, and moved in. These three or four sentences cannot begin to describe the physical and mental struggle involved in this project. This photo might.

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Bathroom

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Kitchen

Most Credit goes to Larry for helping to lift these monsters to the kitchen, and cousin Davey for making them fit and bringing them to life. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

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Living Room

This is the before photo. Looks fine, but the smell was putrid, and we wanted a different color. So we went to work.


Larry and cousin Davey got me started on laying the floor, and my brother Mark helped. But, for the record, on the entire upper floor, I humbly and proudly inform you that I laid 80-90% of the floor all by myself. Long nights, but good times.

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Hallway

This hallway leads to . . .
Hiro's Room!

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Master Closet

Ugh.

Nice.
Larry enlightened me about the benefits of adjustable closet racks. He showed me how to mount the shelves in the pantry, then I tackled the closets in the bathroom, Hiro's bedroom, and our master bedroom closet (pictured here). The beauty of these is that if you want to re-arrange the shelves, the only wall attachments are at the very top, so it's easy to change things around.

P.S. Please do not leave without reading the "Thank You" post, found on the right or clicking here: Thank you!

Doors

These doors came with the house. Besides being old, nothing really was wrong with them.

So I posted them on Craigslist for free, and within hours, they had a new home.

An old Jennings friend, Brian, with Knapp Contracting, came in and installed six beautiful door frames. I then painted six doors, ordered these nice levers (ahem, doorknobs) online, in addition to matching hinges and doorstops.

P.S. Please do not leave without reading the "Thank You" post, found on the right or clicking here: Thank you!

Dining Area

Getting this floor up was really my first individual demolition job, fun, difficult and very rewarding, all rolled into one.

Besides the floor, credit for anything that looks good in this photo goes to Michiyo.

P.S. Please do not leave without reading the "Thank You" post, found on the right or clicking here: Thank you!

Laundry Room

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Downstairs Demolition

This picture gives a sense of what the downstairs area looked like. The wood panels were on three of the four walls, and only the beam in the picture stood in the center of a big open area. With no lights, the whole room was very dark. So after we removed the smelly carpet, took down the wood, and discovered some mold in the dry wall, we came upon a big crack.


Along with the crack, we discovered that the framing for the walls was thin, and there was no insulation. So we could make simple repairs and live with a cold lower level, or we could tear down everything, start over, and go for the gusto. We chose to have some fun with demolition!

Larry loves him some power tools, and taught me how to use them.

We rented an apartment five minutes away, and stayed there for a few months while the house rehab went on. Michiyo would stop by often while we were working, but her and Hiro had to stay away during the major tasks. I love that smile--she was so supportive the entire time.


To remove all the debris, we had to sort it into dry wall and wood. Thankfully, my neighbor Marty and others were always in need of some firewood, and we built quite a pile. His wife took one look at my tower and correctly stated, "You played with Legos when you were a kid." Still do.
The dry wall mess was broken down and fit neatly into 32 heavy duty bags. My sister Katie and her husband Mike assisted with the removal of all these, involving a wheelbarrow and an old door serving as a ramp up the steps. My new neighbors assisted with the, uh, disposal.

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Downstairs Framing

Larry and Hiroki went to work building the walls.



Then we added insulation everywhere, and this task was shared by my family. One Saturday, my parents came over, then my sister Katie and her husband Mike, my brother Mark, and others helped complete the job.
Next, we moved dry wall sheets downstairs.

My brother Mark, and friend since high school Dave contributed to putting up the ceilings. Another high school friend Mike, came over very often and helped out Larry and me, but I somehow did not get any suitable pictures of him in action.

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Walls, Paint, Finished

These pictures are the condensed version of MONTHS of torture. I am glad we took on this process ourselves, but if I could go back, I probably would have chosen to hire someone to tape and mud. If you don't know what "tape and mud" means, I hope you never have to experience it. Hire someone, seriously.

We had a bunch of good times thrown in with the frustrating moments. Let's enjoy one "union break" with Mike, my friend since high school:

Then again, the end result did come out pretty well, and it's very satisfying to have done it yourself.
I thought this day would never come. I took these finished pictures just before Thanksgiving 2010, nearly 13 months after we began.

P.S. Please do not leave without reading the "Thank You" post, found on the right or clicking here: Thank you!