The Nellie Mae Project

So Yes. We had started the process of getting our home renovation on HGTV, but we had to turn them down…. I was emailing with the casting director and they wanted us to hault our project and wait until September to start filming it. They offered to pay us for the show, but it wasn’t enough. And, it wasn’t worth our time to wait until then to start filming. I don’t really like the idea of the project going into the winter months either. Another reason we declined was that it wasn’t a show where they help you. They just send out a camera crew of about 5 people to follow you around. They like drama, demo, and real life problems. Right now, there is enough drama with babies and projects and moving without a darn camera crew! Ha! Anyway, we think HGTV is pretty awesome, it just wasn’t the right thing for us right now. We are ready to keep trucking along and be happily settled by September. Maybe we’ll send them our before and after pics and they will do something with those!

Anyway, we found some termite damage and that is being repaired today! Tomorrow, the re-wiring of the house begins and the plumber is also coming out with a game plan.  I never posted depressing pictures of ripping the walls down and the termites. It was awful. We tore them down to put brand new ones up. Good thing b/c we got rid of mold and termites and are putting in insulation.  It looks like a drywall hurricane came through. The termites are inactive, but we are doing massie termite control to prevent them from ever coming back.  Here is the worst our house will ever look…. we call it our “Rock Bottom Week.” This one below shows the termite damage we found. Tim has to replace the subfloor in this section as well as part of the framing, not a huge deal, but GROSS.  I will post more pics of the house after the repairs and how clean, bare, and empty it is!

Some days it seems like this project is moving really fast. Other days, it feels like we have set backs and it’s going to take forever! Right now, we’ve ripped down all the walls, as well as the ceiling. We found some termite damage that needs to be replaced before moving on with the next phase of electrical and plumbing. It isn’t a huge deal, just a few pieces of wood to be replaced, but time is costly!

Here are some updated pictures of the 3rd bedroom! I am so excited about this room. It is a small 10 x 10 room, but its very bright and has a vaulted ceiling. It will be a perfect room for our smallest child. I’m excited about this week and we are having our first “Nellie Mae Yard Day” on July 5th. We’ll be renting a bobcat and taking out all the sheds, removing all debris and trash from the property, and dumping out some gravel for the driveway! It will make a big difference cleaning up the outer appearance. We are repainting the whole exterior and going to landscape the house last. Such big dreams for this little house!

In the corner of the den, there was a wood  burning stove. At some point, it was removed and “coverd up.” After we took out the ceiling, you could see where they left the other half of the chimney there. However, if you notice, there is no direct support under the chimney at ALL. It is probably 1,000 lbs of bricks and mortar suspended between some lumber in the structure of the house. UNBELIEVABLE.  We refer to this corner of the den as “Dead Man’s Corner”. No one is allowed to go near that corner b/c it truly could give way at any point in time. This causing chimney to come crashing to the ground. Tim is going to brick by brick, remove the chimney from the roof, patch the plywood and shingles, and then no more death trap!! He said the bricks are so old that chipping them off is not going to be a massive deal. I can’t wait to watch this sucker come out! Crazy!

I know the “box kitchen” idea is not new, but my brilliant husband thought we should do it for our kitchen layout!

When you have a blank slate, it is good to actually visualize your cabinets! If you just get a ton of empty boxes, for free of course, and some spray paint… you are ready to go!

It is a great idea because you avoid making dumb mistakes. For example, having the most efficient use of cabinets, light switches, the kinds of drawers you want, and making sure you dont put the oven and dishwasher opening up against eachother! Here is our lovely box kitchen, now we are ready to purchase cabinets and know the exact sizes we need.

Don’t worry, I’m not keeping the window treatments, just keeping them for a little privacy until the house is ready! I found the deal of all deals… check our our updated deals and budget page!

My suspicions are confirmed about renovation shows, it is truly annoying and slow dealing with the county to get permits and inspections. The inspector was a no show yesterday and is going to try and come today or tomorrow…. or next Christmas, whatever is best for him. Sheesh!  Well, yesterday I decided to take the kids over to see the demo. My 3 year old thinks there is no greater thing in life except this house. The house looks at its WORST right now if that is possible. All the walls are coming down!

 Why? Well, #1. There is no insulation in the walls, so we will put that in. And, #2. It will take all worries away with any mold being there if it is just gone! #3. It will allow re-wiring and plumbing to go about 10 x’s faster!

So, we found TERMITES. But, they are inactive. AND, they didn’t eat any wood, they ate the darn DRYWALL! Unbelievable and lucky I guess. We are taking steps to make sure termites never come back in the home again. So, we are glad we ripped it down. It was kind of fun. My 3 year old was allowed to kick, hit, and hammer the walls to knock it down… he was in heaven!

This picture shows the termite colonies through the drywall, just amazing to me… and nasty!

Also, we found several dead hornet nests in the walls. If you read our tweets, we also put up a mailbox, killed a small snake in the yard, and gave another tour to a drive-by. It was quite a day, I have tons of pics to post of the addition that is almost done, and a fun update with the kitchen!

We wanted to stop and thank all the friends and followers we have made since The Nellie Mae Project was launched! We have had an overwhelming response to our project and had 500 hits to our site yesterday!! It is so encouraging that we are not the only ones who love real estate and seeing past something destroyed. We can’t wait to share all the progress!

I’ve added another new tab for the Budget Breakdown, listed up top. It will document everything we are buying, for how much, and where we got it. I also added new pictures of some of the Deals We Scored so check that often!

We roughly think we are less than 60 days out. The electrician inspector comes out tomorrow to inspect Phase 1 of the electrical work! We are also starting the process of plumbing this week! The lights and water work…. we are just re-wiring the house and bringing it up to current 2010 code. Same with the water lines. Tim will be adding a tab soon so he can share his personal contracting thoughts. You will really get to read about the brains behind the chaos and how he has tackled each obstacle this house has presented. I am really excited about this because he is eating, sleeping, and breathing this project right now!

We have submitted the project to HGTV and may sell some advertising space soon! Thanks again to our supporters, we think this is pretty darn cool!

I added a new tab above this morning to start documenting all the deals we have gotten so far!! They are incredible and worth passing along! You will find tips, locations, and prices for everything we are doing.  Just click up top to see the deals!

So, I was about to chunk this old piece into the dumpster, until I was informed by several people that we had our hands on a rare antique!

Apparently,  these are a collectors item because it was made out of 100% cast iron porcelain. It is HEAVY.  It is also unique because it sits on an all aluminum cabinet!

So, they are retailing on ebay for around $500. We are going to clean it up, paint the aluminum with a coat of white, oil based paint, and sell it! I’m going to put it on craigslist first.

Why aren’t we keeping it? Since we are updating the house and the “antique” look isn’t completely my style…. it makes sense to sell it. It would be more expensive to antique the whole house with original items than to sell this and get updated pieces.

Ill let you know how much it goes for and put up some after pics!

Big news with Nellie Mae, she’s getting an addition =) We decided for many reasons, including my sanity, resale value, and appraisal of the house…. to add another bedroom!! I am one happy mama!

With the house being on 1 acre of land, a front porch, and a fence we are going to put up in the back yard…. we decided to kiss our back porch goodbye. Granted, it will not be a huge bedroom, but it will have a closet and a window, and a french door leading outside! I am SO excited about this. Now it can be categorized as a 3 bedroom, the third room being for an office or nursury!

So, framing has begun…. its a perfect stage since we are underway with electrical.

Other things going on:

1. The house has been tested for asbestos, we should find out the results by Monday. The inspector said he is pretty sure there is none. If there is any it is just on the kitchen floor. It can be removed, not easily, but it can be done. We know how and will do it if it’s a positive test.

2. Next week the plumber, family friend, is coming out. We will get plans and materials going for that so when electrical is done…. we’ll be ready for plumbing. Tim now officially talks in “builder lingo” and had to explain to me what a Ditch Witch was today. For pete’s sake, its a digger that digs out plumbing lines super fast and easy. Who knew?

3. I can’t WAIT to post our purchases so far on the house, how our budget is going, and share the kitchen plans!!! I am going to post every dollar spent on here and money saved. We have found some AMAZING deals out there and I will share all my secrets!

Well, I don’t even really know how to begin to describe the backyard of this place. Since it is on 1 acre of land, I guess the renter decided to get a bit creative with what to do with all the space. So, he decided to build a shed, and another one behind that…..

 And, just in case those 2 sheds were not enough, he built 3 more…

Unbelievable, right? I just don’t get it, here’s another shot…

A sweet, elderly man was the renter of this property before. God bless his soul because he had extension cords running from the house and through the trees to power these sheds and have electricity. Sweet Jesus he was safe and the place didn’t burn slap to the ground!

Anyway, it’s been an ongoing joke that these are our “inlaw suites.” Since my inlaws, who are just Saints,  are letting us live with them during this rehab and helping with the kids so much, we decided to return the favor. Aren’t we nice?!

Anyway, after seeing the “structures”, or as I also refer to them as, “The Shed Train”, I was curious as to what was inside. Dear God.

In Shed # 1: A WELL. Thats right, a real live well in the ground. Great, that’s just what I need my toddlers to play with since they are wild. No worries, Tim is capping that bad boy off right at the ground. No more well.

In Shed #2: Canned/ Pickled vegetables of all sorts

In Shed # 3: Junk, just a whole lot of crap

So, there you go. What will we do with these little structures? Well, unfortunately for them a bobcat is going to come mow them down and haul them off to the dump. I’m thinking nice, green grass with a playground. It’s hard to envision that one right now…