Flipping a House

All last week, Steve has been in Virginia working on his rental house. I joined him last weekend to finish it up. It's amazing how much work he got done in a little over a week, and it's horrifying to see how much filth and damage the tenants had created.

We expected to paint and clean. Steve was even aware of the garage door which had been accidentally smashed by the tenant and needed replacing. But what we weren't prepared for was the overwhelming stench of cat urine in every room.

Although according to the lease agreement pets were not allowed, the former tenant let his cat use the house as his large personal litter box. That smell is so rank! Steve had professional carpet cleaners do their best, and while it lessened the odor, it was still noticeable. So he pulled out all the carpet and used Kilz to seal all the floors. New carpet has been ordered and should be installed in the next two weeks.

We also found that they must have had a small fire. There was smoke damage in the master bedroom and the adjoining hallway, and we found a spent fire extinguisher.

Then there was the filth. It appeared to me that these people had shook up soda cans and allowed them to spray on the walls and doors. The cobwebs in the corners of the ceilings were so laden with dust even the spiders had moved out. Everything was just disgustingly dirty, so it was amazing to see the transformation when we were finished.

Fortunately, Steve had help from his neighbor, who offered all his tools, and his dad, who can fix anything. They replaced faucets, fixed leaky sinks and toilets and did other repair jobs. We are also SO grateful that he already found new tenants! It's the sheriff's son, who is a policeman, and his fiance, who is an EMT. They are so excited about the house, they offered to help us clean and paint! We are hopeful that they will take better care of the place, and they promised to treat it as their own.

Steve and I often watch TV shows about flipping houses. Now, we know we could do it.