Number 16 – rented :-)

So, we took the keys and all relevant certificates for gas and electrics etc for both 16 and 4 to the letting agent on Monday morning.  He came round on Monday afternoon to check them out, took photos of number 16 (since it was finished), got them on the internet on Mnday night.  The first viewing was on Tuesday evening but was a none starter since the couple were already in a two bed on the estate and realised that the bedrooms were smaller in the 3 bed than their existing 2 (we are aware of the size differential given that we have one of each of these houses ourselves).  A second viewer saw the property on Wednesday lunchtime and almost immediately placed a holding deposit and paid his application fees – result.  The letting agent then had to cancel on the other 2 or 3 intereste parties…. 🙂

So we are pretty pleased that we managed to get it rented as quickly as we did – a total testament to the hard work that we put in 🙂

So, we carry on with number 4 – we had hoped to be finished by the end of today, but alas this is not to be 🙁

The upstairs is complete excepting a couple of windowsills and the gloss work on the staircase woodwork.

The downstairs emulsion is done in the hall and the lounge so there is just the kitchen and toilet to do.  Then, we need to jump onto the gloss work and clean the kitchen out.  There are a couple of other remedial things that we need to sort but they are pretty small items that should be pretty easy to sort out.

We did the garden today and the Ossett window cleaner has kindly cleaned up the windows and sorted the guttering etc – the home next door has issues on their roof which may well cause us problems downstream.  Basically the cement under their tiles has pretty much all come out and has slipped down the gulley into our guttering – so we may well end up with damp issues – we will be keeping our eye on it – there is no evidence of damp at this time.

Number 16 as good as ready :-)

We have almost completed number 16 – yay !

The first floor is 100% complete, and the ground floor is about 95%. We have just got to get some wood filler for the lounge laminate gaps by the door frames etc, put down some grass seed to help the garden mature, put up the house number on the door, ensure all light bulbs are in working order and get some small stones for the back garden just to tidy it up a little. Lastly there are some paint marks on the floor as you enter the house that we need to remove as they are a little unsightly and are therefore needing to disappear 🙂

All the work gear is now in number 4 awaiting the start in the morning 🙂 No rest for the wicked …

On the plus side we are just 2 weeks from the Florida holiday – MEGA YAY !!!

Rental Electrics are A-OK

We have had an electrician come to the houses and they are now good to go from a rental perspective – we will have our certificates on Friday of this week – result.

Just need an Energy Performance Certificate for number 16 (being looked at today we hope) and gas certificates for both (letting company will sort I think) and we are good to go from a legal standpoint.

Simon cleaned the upstairs uPVC yesterday and the loft hatch (is actually a big job with each one taking upwards of 1 hour to return to their rightful state 🙁 ).  He continues to whinge about it hurting his fingers – pussy.

Vicky is in number 16 today, painting the kitchen in preparation for the big clean in that room (cupboards) so that we can (hopefully) re-install the kitchen cupboard doors and to install the oven.

 

Keys for number 4

We collected the keys to number 4 today – the previous owners requested to stay in the property for a month or so after purchase until they found alternative accommodation.  Basically, their new house purchase sadly fell through just days before completion of the sale of their existing home.  They paid a good rent to us, so we were only too happy for them to stay a little longer, while we got sorted out elsewhere.

Number 16 is gradually getting closer to readiness – the tail end of the week has seen the carpets go down (today), the electrician come and check it out (he returning next week to upgrade the main fuse box to be up to standard – he will check out number 4 as well – no doubt we will need the same doing there 🙁 ), the painting is now complete everywhere except the kitchen (we think will need two more coats on the ceiling in there along with at least one on the walls and the kitchen is the room that we really need to focus on) and a little touching up following carpets etc going down.   There is still the windows to clean inside and out, the guttering to clean, the front door to clean and re-paint and then we are close to being able to rent the place out 🙂

We are really looking forward to the holiday in Florida in a few weeks time – the last 10 days have actually been hard work – it is really nice to see our efforts move towards a brand new home – it certainly feels like a difference house to the one that we took the keys for nearly two weeks ago.  We will have some before and after photographs in the coming days so stay tuned…

Working weekend…

We had the day off from painting etc yesterday, so obviously we went down after school to get a couple of hours in :-).

Today, the boys went the play at Grandma’s while mummy and daddy got stuck in at number 16. Granddad also popped down as he offered to help remove the scabby front garden and put some cleaner looking stones etc in place. This took around 4 hours all told as there was the original garden to dig out, which effectively ended up with approximately a half a ton of muck. Greg had already collected one ton of stones and brought them in his trailer. The front garden now looks sensational and Simon is very tired – we moved about 3/4 ton of stones and 1/2 ton of garden muck, although it was moved three times so 1 1/2 tons moved in total 🙁 It was moved because Simon was concerned over upsetting the neighbours as the driveway directly outside the front of the property does to actually belong to the property – it belongs to the neighbours’ property.

So, inside Vicky cracked on with the upstairs painting so we now have fully completed gloss work upstairs and the bathrooms have a coat of the white emulsion on the walls and ceilings (we decided to have them cleaner and therefore just white emulsion).

Finally the kitchen cabinet doors are prepped for sending and then three coats of the spray paint – the actual spray work will commence on Monday.

Slowly we are getting there, although we have set ourselves the tough target of having the house complete by next Sunday evening. Will we make it? Stay tuned to see….