Big Week Away From The Condo

The blog will be a little quiet this week.

This week is a BIG week for Hannah that will keep us busy.  Her birthday is Thursday!!  She will also have two Charleston Youth Company performances this Friday and Saturday night.

Lucky for us, Al got the popcorn down in the hallway and the dining room on Sunday.  Just one more bathroom and the kitchen.  We get to gut the kitchen before we remove the popcorn!  I can hardly wait.  Here's why..

This is one ugly kitchen.

Until next week - Connie

Scope of Work and Budget

Now that you've seen a bit of what we are doing, I thought it might be a good time reveal our overall plan and budget.  As I've mentioned, we purchased a small, foreclosed condo.  The price was right but every square inch needs renovation.  Almost, a complete gut job.

Here's the floor plan.  A 2 bd/2bth condo, just a little over 1000 square feet.
Note:  Ours has a fireplace in the living room along the inside wall adjacent to the bedroom.

Here's what we have in mind:

• Entire Unit - Remove all flooring, light fixtures, baseboards, and door trim.  Scrape popcorn ceilings.  Sand, prep and repaint ceiling, repair drywall, replace trim, repaint walls and trim.  Install new flooring, replace baseboards.  Install new ceiling fans and light fixtures.  Replace interior doors and hardware. 
• Kitchen - Remove all cabinets, take out partial wall between kitchen and dining room, replace appliances, install can lights.  Replace cabinets, countertops, sink, faucet.  Install backsplash.
• Dining Room - Extend kitchen cabinetry along dining room wall for extra storage.
• Bathrooms - Install Durarock, create walk-in shower (1 bathroom), re-tile and grout floors, install new vanities, faucets, and toilets.  New lighting and mirrors.
• Bedroom 12'x12' - Install overhead light (there is not one), re-frame dual closets to create one walk-in.  Customize closet.
• Living Room - Remove the fireplace and re-frame the wall.  Remember, this is Charleston, SC and we are 2.5 miles to the ocean.  Do we really need a fireplace in 1000 square feet?  Plus, it's wood burning.  It's gotta go!  Create media storage wall in place of the fireplace.  This tiny space really needs storage.
• Balcony - Repair screen and install plexi-glass barrier for our sweet Yorkie, Cookie.

I guess it should be said that this renovation will most likely be done in two phases.  Both bathroom tub/showers are in good condition.  The bathrooms will be spruced up with temporary flooring and vanities.  Once the other renovations are complete, the bathrooms will be gutted and re-done.

And now for our budget!  Did I mention we are doing this on a shoestring budget?  This third renovation is my challenge to see how glamorous I can make this condo by "hacking" every great idea out there and turning it into a DIY project.  

The condo project budget has been set at $20, 000.  This is for renovation only and does not include furnishings.  The budget may seem unreasonably low, but I have taken the challenge to create something from nothing, and most importantly, Al is a general contractor and will be doing most of the work himself.  With a little instruction from me.  I'm fairly optimistic!

Ceilings and Floors

Work continued on the condo today.  Al removed the popcorn ceiling in both bedrooms. Ahead of schedule!  (I hope he can keep up this momentum.)  Even Hannah and I pitched in.  Hannah removed all of the vinyl tiles in the kitchen and one bathroom.  I cleaned up the ceiling and floor debris and removed shoe molding.  Things are progressing nicely.  While, demolition is fun, Hannah and I are ready for some pretty stuff.

Removing A Popcorn Ceiling

Lucky me!  Al felt like heading over to the condo to start scraping the ceiling.  He set a goal for one room per day, starting with the living room.  There are seven, tiny rooms total.  The process was a little messy, but overall a success.

Al used a garden sprayer with water to dampen the popcorn.  After about three minutes, he used the new popcorn ceiling scraper to remove the texture.  He attached recycled, plastic grocery bags to the scraper.  This caught most of the debris.  As you can see, there is still a little on the floor.

We will be replacing all of the flooring in the condo, so there was no need for a floor cover.  Al did  mention that the bag gets heavier as it gets full and may not use the bag since we do not need to protect the floor.

On a separate note, I forgot my camera and had to take this photo with my phone.  The phone doesn't take pictures as well as the camera.  So, it's a little dark.

Overall, it took about an hour and a half to do the living room.  He did the ceiling edges and touched up some areas with the floor scraper.

The ceilings are only 8 feet in the condo.  Scraping off the popcorn has already made the living room feel higher and more spacious.  Once we get the other rooms complete, the ceiling will need to be prepped, sanded and painted.  I can't wait to see what a difference that will make.

Note:  Some of the paper did loosen from the ceiling during the scraping.  This is to be expected and will be repaired when the ceiling is prepped.

New Tools To Get Started

I picked up a few tools for the weekend.  A popcorn ceiling scraper and a heavy duty floor scraper.  Al has been doing a bathroom renovation for a client all day.  Keeping my fingers crossed that these might get some use this evening.  I know all of you DIYers are chuckling about now.  Thanks to my co-worker, Allison, for finding the popcorn ceiling scraper at Home Depot for me!!

Closing Day! Let the Renovation Begin.

Well, today at 11a.m. we got the keys to the trashed condo.  First, a big thanks to our realtor, Steve Young with Coldwell Banker.  He did a great job finding us a fixer upper in a fabulous location while still remaining within our incredibly small budget.  I thought it would be impossible, but Steve managed to make it happen.  Thanks Steve!

The place needs a ton of work.  Today, I was reminded just how much work.  First things first, we need to remove the popcorn ceiling.  Al and I are going to attempt this ourselves since the reno budget is tight.

Unfortunately, the entire condo has this ceiling.  We will see how it goes.  Wish us luck!

Our Third Renovation Project

It's official!  This Thursday, Al and I will purchase a foreclosed condominium!  Maybe we've lost our minds but I've been itching for a renovation project.  This will be a BIG one!  Every square inch of the condo needs renovation.  The good news?  It is very small.  Small condo should equal a small budget (and I say...should).  Plus, it's a great location just 2.5 miles to the Atlantic Ocean!

I've decided to keep track of this project in a blog.  I've never blogged before and setting up the template was almost more than I could take.  Hopefully tearing out walls will be easier. I can't wait to get started.  I've already given my contractor my "must haves" (that would be my wonderful husband, Al).  It's a long list but we've got time.