6 months in,Overwhelmed and I can write about it

I did a terrible job at keeping up to date with a blog and youtube during this purchase and remodel project. I am going to make a promise to myself to write every Tuesday night, and use it as a therapeutic way to vent. I listened to a good podcast the other day from bigger pockets and the guy was doing 60 second videos every Sunday, and vented in his post mostly and said he would be able to watch an hour video of himself at the end of one year. I thought that was a pretty great idea, and I want to start doing something weekly so I can 

1. have something to look back on in the future at where I was at this time and 2. vent a little and get things off my chest I may be holding in. 

That being said, I apologize if you have stumbled upon this in hopes of a positive uplifting message, it should be known I am doing this for completely selfish reasons with not much intent on others reading. 

It has been a crazy 6 months, I got through my path of purchasing my first duplex, decided I was going to do everything myself, which has pretty much been true up until this point. I have managed to gut the house with a days help from my dad, and start to put it back together. At the beginning I thought I could have the entire project done by now, but now I know what "they" mean when it is said everything takes longer than you think. 

There is a great feeling of overwhelming when I walk into my duplex, I usually wonder around for 20 minutes or so just staring at things. I need to do a  better job of setting out a plan, and a daily goal to be able to have at least one thing to work on.

It is so easy to walk in and look around and start thinking of all the things there are to do and be a victim of paralysis by analysis. I have done a very poor job at managing my time while inside working. Once I start I am usually good for a couple hours, but finding that starting point has been the hard part and that is due to my lack of structure in having a process. I think some of this falls on it being my first property as well. 

Yea, overwhelmed is a good explanation of how it feels to own 2 doors, be staying with your parents, working 50 hours a week, and getting off to go to an empty cold house with no floors, trim, windows and just paint on the walls. It is so easy to walk in and think "wow, I have nothing done, and so far to go" I constantly have to remind myself to trust the process. I am not even able to refinance until after 6 months regardless, which is coming up in 12 days. 

I said I had been doing everything myself up until this point, I guess that is a lie because I did pay some guys to install 2 new furnaces and 2 new air conditioners. I want to list for myself everything the property has had done to it to this point. I will try to list some cost, I don't have exact number yet as I have not added it all up, but I do know what the larger purchases have cost. 

Ceiling redone - I had to rip down an entire plaster ceiling with lat siding underneath and let me tell you it is not fun. If I could go back I am not sure I would redo it. However, I did rip it all down and purchase Roxul sound n safe insulation put it up and covered it back with 5/8th drywall which I hung and mud and stomped myself. It looks like shit, but I did it. Cost on it was roughly $600 for 550 sq ft of ceiling.

Bathroom remodel - $2600

-Included complete gut

-Concrete board, shiplap, subway tile, regular tile, all new plumbing and sink, fixtures etc.

-Half of the exterior is painted

-Cabinets painted/ epoxy counter tops

-New Window, insulation, lighting and fan. 

Part of the new windows installed - All windows for the lower unit 13 in total $1747.00 

- Saving on install as I am doing it myself, that cost doesn't include the foam, stops, paint, caulk that is needed to truly finish them cleanly. Probably another $100 there. 

New HVAC system complete - hired out 3 ton unit up, 3.5 ton unit down, 2 new higher efficient furnaces. $8,747.00. Should be receiving a $500 rebate as soon as I get the invoicing.

I feel like I am in lowe's or home depot every day spending $100. It is crazy to just even build up the small tools you need to complete jobs takes time. 

I finally bit the bullet and decided to hire out some work when I started seeing some potential in my basement. There was some slight moisture issues but they really weren't terrible. I bought some hydraulic cement patched the interior/exterior spots where I thought may have been causing some leakage. Cut out some rot replaced some boards, and decided to bring a guy in to stud, drywall, and run some electricity into the room making it a livable area.

If I can get 3-5 years out of it before anything damages I will be plenty happy. I also am going to try to move into it to get out of my parents and be able to be there daily. This basement remodel on a 37x15 room what I have spent so far is roughly $1600 on material, 9 bags of Roxul, 44 sheets of 1/2 drywall, 2 buckets of mud, 14-2 12-2 12-4 electrical wire, 10 recess lights, outlets, switches, 100 2x4's. I will still need to get flooring which will likely be about $1,100. 

I believe I can put a smaller kitchen, shower, toilet, washer dryer in and make it almost an efficiency unit so that I can live in it when completed or rent it out while I travel.  It will be cool to look back on this and see what all I spent, my thought process and see if it pays off or if it is a regret. The contractor originally bid me $800 for the work, we are now up to $1250 and that was a frustrating part of the week to have to realize that big of a difference, although upset for a little bit at the cost I still feel it was fare, and his way of explaining it was he thought he shorted himself on the work with the hours it would take him after working on it for 3 days. I try to be understanding and agreed to pay the difference. 

So overwhelmed yes, but I plan to look back on this post and smile.