We’re wrapping up week 1 working on the Rocky Ridge house! The process has been going very slowly, but smoothly. Our two biggest issues have been:
1. CONTRACTORS- Finding someone to remove the mold downstairs for a somewhat reasonable price. We had a quote back in March when I first looked at the property for $5,000. However, to make a long story very short, we decided we could not use this contractor. The next quote we got was for $22,000. WOW. And everyone else we’ve called won’t even come give us an estimate without charging for a full testing. We don’t need testing. We know it’s moldy! Haha.
2. RATS- The upstairs unit was left completely full. Clothes in the closets, electronics in the study, linens on the beds, and, most unfortunately, food in pantry. There were two pantries FULL of food. So obviously there were some critters that were taking advantage of this. We knew there was evidence of rats previously, so that wasn’t a surprise, but I did not realize how destructive they could be! Not only does the whole house reek of rat waste, but they actually began chewing through the base boards, and even the flooring in the kitchen. I was really hoping to paint the cabinets in the kitchens and leave it pretty close to as is, but when we got in we realized that there was no way we could do anything but gut the entire kitchen. Even the subfloor has to be replaced, as rat urine has soaked through the floor. Definitely some added expense (We’ve done a couple of new kitchens from IKEA now, and have the hang of it, and even kind of like it!) But mostly the demo has just been DISGUSTING. FYI- Wearing long pants and sleeves and respirator in Alabama in July is thoroughly unpleasant.
Highlights:
1. We have cleared enough brush that the house is fully visible and accessible from all doors!!
2. We have finished the demo of the kitchen
3. We’ve finallllllly cleared out all the furniture, trash, and JUNK from the upstairs unit. This took WAY longer than we expected, but we were thrilled to find out that the City of Hoover would actually come pick all of this up instead of having to rent a dumpster.
4. My family has been an amazing help! Both my parents and both my siblings have been out multiple times, and my siblings have even brought friends with them to help us out. They’ve been clearing brush, scraping wallpaper, hauling trash to the street, and even demo-ing tile! This is the beautiful part of the Alabama community. We’re so grateful for all the helping hands.
Notable Mishaps:
1. I ended up with a massive, growing spider bite on my neck AND a nasty case of poison ivy by day two. Thankfully we have easy access to great medical care in Birmingham and got them taken care of quickly.
2. Animal spottings: I found two rats in the linen closet and opened a kitchen drawer to find a live snake. (I didn’t go back inside the house the rest of the day)
3. I fell through the rotting wood on the back deck (Why is it always me?) all the way up to my hip and have some real pretty bruises.
Goals for week 2:
1. Get the water turned on!! We are waiting on this for some many projects!
2. Get a crew to actually start clearing out downstairs.
3. Get the exterior of the house painted so that we can get gutters on.
