Holly’s Weblog

We are FINALLY having our open house for clients, subcontractors, friends and family on Sunday, March 22 from 1-4pm. We’ve staged the house and I just have a few tweaks left to do to it. The landscaping should be finished on Tuesday…then I place the house on MLS and our first ‘Broker Tour’ might be on Thursday – it will be the one specifically for Willow Glen agents. I’m an official Realtor now! I have the pin and certificate to prove it! Now for the scary part…selling the house. Today we discovered another, ANOTHER!!! house on Franquette is “coming soon’. That will make 4, for heaven’s sake! And that doesn’t count the one that’s still being worked on but looks close to being done… The other 3 are at the crowded end of the street where there are lots of cars parked on the street all the time because of the businesses at that end. I think the employees must park down Franquette. We’re closer to the middle of the street so we don’t get cramped like that.

Anyway, we’ll have pix pretty soon!

Murphy’s Law must govern my life! Not big things going wrong, although there was the potential for something big.

The appliance guys come and start working and right off they notice that the oven isn’t gonna fit in the cabinet. This cabinet was ordered based on the spec of the oven so…WHAT?!?!? Anyway, problem averted by the appliance guys, G.A. Installations, offering to fix it, not free, I wouldn’t have expected it to be free. Thank God the opening was too small and not too big. I told the guy to make sure he measured twice and cut once! Then they go install the downdraft stove and the vent for it (in the floor) is about 6 inches too far…not fixable but not a showstopper, either. The mechanical guys will come back and create a vent in the correct location. THEN, the plumber switched the hot and cold valves under the sink so the dishwasher has to be connected to the cold water, for testing. Mr. Plumber will be coming back anyway to put in the fridge water line, which we forgot about, so its not a big problem. >whew<

The gravel underlayment for the pavers were delivered today…big truck, little street but the driver can really thread a needle. Definitely, I think that guys really love having to do ANYthing involving a bobcat! They are digging up dirt, putting the dirt in a pile, then putting the pile of dirt in a trailer and then spreading the gravel around. The landscaper was by and his guys were marking off where the pipes were going to be laid. Lots of coordination! I am very glad that we hired two companies that are very used to working together. We don’t have to be the go-betweens.

well, recycling, really… The paver installer came yesterday with his little bobcat and was excavating all the asphalt. He called and asked when the junk in the backyard would be removed…darn it…we were hoping he could get rid of it. So Andrew and I went to the house and Andrew backed the truck down the driveway and we filled bags and boxes with styrofoam and cardboard (the little stuff that could blow away) and lots of other boxes were flattened, bits of metal scraps and plastic bags that all the products come in, took away the old front door and scraps of plywood and stuff like that. Filled the entire bed up to the roof! They take everything except appliances, electronics and liquids. I was amazed that they take everything else! Rick and I had actually argued about it…he was right and I was wrong and here it is in writing for everyone to see – write it down on your calendar cuz it don’t happen too often

Anyway, that was a relief cuz now there are but a few things to get rid of – we didn’t know whether to get rid of the old siding or not and there was a pallet we didn’t see until we’d already packed it all up. And it only cost $66.xx!! Wow…at that rate we will never get back our stupid CDDD (Construction Demolition Debris Deposit). We had to pay the City of San Jose about $3000 and then we give them receipts from our trip to the dump/recycling and we get reimbursed for our receipts. Its supposed to help people recycle vs just dumping the stuff. Since you pay to have it dumped OR you pay to have it recycled and if you recycle some money is returned to you. But there is no way will we have $3000 worth of receipts! And we recycled virtually everything! The asphalt and metal roof might make a difference, I suppose. The metal roof we gave to the roofing workers to recycle (they appreciated it!). I dunno…

Anyway, I’m glad that’s done and more landscape work will happen tomorrow. I scheduled the appliance installation guys for Tuesday and the cleaners come on Thursday and Friday to work on the inside. They can’t clean the outside until after the landscape is done so that will happen the next week. We’ll begin staging the weekend of Feb 6. We might actually be ready for sale by Valentine’s Day. We are thinking of having the open house party the following weekend. I can’t believe it!!!!!!!! wow

We actually have to remember to turn off the lights when we leave! Hard to believe that we did without them for so long.

Rick has been creating blocks of wood that slant with the siding so that the outside lights have a more vertical base rather than an angled one (due to the angle of each plank of siding)…while there is a product that does this, its more for east coast houses with siding of a certain distance between them and ours was done to match the existing siding so its a further distance – naturally! Poor guy…not hard to do but tiresome. And, apparently, the lightbulbs we bought (at $2 per light) are so cheap that they are buzzing in the fixtures – there weren’t a lot of options of bulbs at the store, we just bought one that was a good price and, we thought, a good name…NOT! phooey…

The electrician is working diligently and the plumber guys are working, but not so diligently…when the boss is away, the mice spend a lot of time chatting with each other while they are installing a sink or what-have-you.  Or maybe I just don’t realize how long it takes to install things…shrug…

The landscape is now a week behind schedule…thanks to the rain. They are supposed to begin demo of the old asphalt tomorrow afternoon.

Its easy to get irritated about all this because I want to be DONE and on to the next phase…the last few things feel like they take forever!

And, of course, 2 of the latches for the sliding glass doors are missing…I have to find them or find replacements… aargh…they are only about 2.5″ x 1.5″ so they are easy to overlook.

Still, things are looking more and more finished every day! And when its done, we’ll start looking for our next project! Providing, of course, that this one sells and gives us our investment back

Sunday we went to a consignment store and an antique store and found some very good deals on furniture. After meeting with Ron on Saturday, I put all my staging ideas onto a spreadsheet and figured out what I needed to get. I knew exactly what to look for!

We bought a beautiful marble-topped buffet for staging the dining room that we can use at the office afterwards. I’d looked for a buffet for the office about 5 years ago to use as a coffee bar but ended up using an Art Deco piece from home that didn’t fit the era of the office at all, so now I’ve got a perfect replacement.

We found a marble-topped round table to use in the master bedroom, as sort of a ‘reading nook’ space.

We found a little round table with a top of inlaid wood in the design of a chess board. Rick wants to use that in the living room and actually get chess pieces for it.

Finally, we bought a dining room set – table and 6 chairs. If you’ve been to our house you know that our current oak set is falling apart after about 20 years of use. The new table seats 6 and, with 2 leaves, we could sit 10 if we squished a bit. We will use the old oak set in the office kitchen, although some of the chairs are broken so they are headed for the dump, I guess.

Every item was on sale and most of them were at least 60% off, otherwise we wouldn’t have made the purchases. You should have been there while Rick and I ‘discuss’ whether to buy because I’m so darn cheap and I know that the oak set could have lasted another few years!

But, we have to stage the house and that costs a bundle, believe me. When we did our old house in 2007, it cost $1800 for the first month (and that’s with me negotiating every point) and $1000 per month after that – we sold the house in 3 weeks so we didn’t have to keep house staged, thank God. Us buying all this furniture cost less than that and we get to keep the furniture. Pretty good, eh? The antique store, which has consignment stuff from many dealers, said we’d made their weekend!

I’m looking for rattan furniture to stage the family room. Once the staging is over, we’ll use that in our own family room and get rid of the pathetic-looking couch and love seat that we have in there now.

Today, Rick is at the house, working with the ‘finish’ guys. They poked 2 large holes in the laundry room, looking for the outlet for the ironing board that mounts on the wall – who pays to fix that? He still has tilework to do at the fireplaces and that basement floor will be a horrible task – will look excellent when its done but, still, its a lot of work. I’m going to get all the serial numbers off the appliances so we can process our rebate – I don’t even remember how much that is, $500? Every little bit helps.

The bamboo flooring is finished! Had a bit of an upset the other day when the installer calls and says that we are short about 4 bundles of bamboo and need to get some more. OK, I think…I call the supplier and he has some in stock, yay! So Rick picks it up and takes it to the house, upon which time we discover that its from a different mill and so a different color… aargh… so I call around and find a branch of the supplier in Concord (no thanks to the original store) which has some of the product from the same mill but a different ‘run’ date. This means that the flooring might not match exactly but will be closer in color than the other stuff – which was beautiful but dark compared to the 85% that had already been laid down. Its over an hour to get to the store but the flooring matches close enough so I race back to the house with the bundles in the back of my car and the guys finish the installation, finessing the slightly different boards together so you don’t even notice a thing…they are talented, they are.

The landscape guys have been hired and they begin demo late next week! The electrician and the plumber will be in sometime next week to finish the installation of their products and then the appliance guys will install those and then we’ll have the cleaners come in and make the place sparkling!

Oh, yes, Rick still has to finish some tile work but he’ll work around everyone else.

The fliers are almost all gone from the box on the side fence at the front of the driveway. This means there are a lot of lookiloos out there…this is OK, cuz you never know where a buyer will come from!

We’ll have help with the staging portion of the job, because Rick’s brother, Ron, will work with us…and he has an ‘in’ on where to get some furniture and decorating items that we could use. Ingrid did say that Cort, a furniture rental place, also has a staging department…

Speaking of which, I am now fully LICENSED as a real estate salesperson!!! whoopee! I can hardly believe that I did it. So, now I’ll be contacting Intero and signing up for all the stuff – signs, business cards, picture, web page. I have my own website now – www.hollyhartman.com – it became available so I nabbed it – years ago I’d looked into it but it was taken…by a 12 year old… I figure she’s married now and didn’t need it anymore. And I have to join the realtor board and sign up for this, that and the other. I’m so excited!!!

The bamboo flooring is really lovely. Its a little pale for my own, personal, house but its good for this space.

Rick started tiling around the fireplace in the family room and that looks fabulous, too! The colors are so harmonious and warm. I was worried that it would look too busy, but it doesn’t, not at all!

The painters are almost done with the outside…the trim is still being painted. We bought new window boxes and they were painted yesterday. Those plus the shutters will be re-installed soon so the house will look crisp and fresh!

Our new front door and master bath vanity came in last week so those will be installed next week, I think.

The bad news is that the landscape quotes are coming in WAAAAY high compared to what we budgeted – $ouch$

Oh, and we’re getting lots of hits on the www.988Franquette.com website and most of the flyers we put out at the property are gone and I have to replenish them! yay!

Now, I’m thinking how to market it – I’m not licensed yet, darn it…waiting for the fingerprint analysis to come back … according to the Department of Real Estate that’s all that’s left to do. Then I’ll sign on with Intero and get my business cards, open house signs, signpost signs and webpage done…hurry up and wait…

The bamboo flooring is being installed this week and the plumber is FINALLY after a couple weeks of phone calls installing the fixtures, potties, etc. Unfortunately, he is working while the bamboo flooring is going in and they are kinda in each other’s way. We got call from the installer saying that the plumber was not being careful of the floor so Rick called the plumber and read him the riot act.

Then the plumber calls saying that the granite counter in the bathroom is too thick for the faucets…the connections aren’t long enough…so we go to the job site and check out the problem and…

We went to Home Depot and bought a few rolls of protective paper for the floor, 4 welcome mats for the guys to wipe their feet on (one for each entry to the house) and a huge commercial mat for the entry. Plus, we talked to an idiot who thought he was good at his job and who was a ton of no help until he said there was a resident plumbing expert we should talk to and then he looked around and said, ‘we need to find John’. But didn’t actually attempt to find John. Finally, we got someone else to page John (the idiot is still swivelling his head around saying ‘I’m looking for John’)…he figures out how to fix the problem without us having to buy different fixtures. At one point, the idiot tells us to talk to someone in kitchens who then comes over to plumbing and finds the spec book (that the idiot should have found in the first place) and we are looking at different models of faucet and finding which ones can handle a thicker ‘deck’ (granite counter or tile or whatever). But, while that is happening, Rick and the expert are talking about the problem and ‘voila!’ find a solution! yay! All is well.

The cabinet drawer we had to re-order came in…wrong…its not beadboard, so that has to be re-ordered. The extra bamboo flooring and stair nose I ordered wasn’t actually ordered by the bobohead at the store so that has been special ordered and should arrive on Friday…brother!

Now, I’m getting landscape quotes…so far the guys I’ve spoken with have seemed very knowledgeable…we’ll see what the prices come in as…

Happy New Year!

Well…we are behind…but, I can’t fret because I can’t control everything …and its Christmas…that delays us, too.  But, it is what it is and I refuse to agonize over what I cannot change.  Good attitude, eh?

The construction fence is gone and the bamboo flooring has been delivered and is ‘resting’ in the middle of each room of the house.  It needs to acclimate somewhat to its new environment, they tell me.  The installer comes on Monday (God willing and the creek don’t rise).  The doors are now re-installed (were taken off for the painters) and the lovely bronze hinges and door levers are on them.  We had to buy bronze hinges last week because I seem to have ordered all the doors with brass hinges – what I was thinking way back in June, I don’t know.  The closet doors are hung, too.

We took a huge load of stuff – concrete, cardboard, lumber scraps, etc. – to the recycling place on Saturday and I spent a couple hours picking up trash in each room that the vacuum would have a hard time sucking up…nails, plaster, wood scraps…then the finish guys came in on Monday and now, there’s more stuff to pick up…it never seems to end.  I can hardly wait until I have a weekend where I don’t have to go over to the house and do something.

I’ve finally sent in my papers to become a real estate agent…got fingerprinted last week and filled out all the paperwork and gave it to the administrator at Intero, where I’ll be hiring on part-time.  They’ve got a pretty impressive training program and I’m such a newbie that I feel I need it.  I hear different stories about how long it takes the Department of Real Estate to get the license processed.  Another reason not to stress about the timing of the house being ready for sale…I won’t be licensed for at least a month, maybe more.  Will I go ahead and list the house as ‘for sale by owner’?  dunno, maybe.

Met with a great supplier for the pavers last week…$2.05 per square foot (x 1800′ish square feet) >ouch< but still less expensive that 2 other places where we looked.  Now I have to find the installer (for less than the $9.50 and $10 per square foot than we’ve been quoted).   

There’s a house for sale down the street at about our price range and another one at the other end of the street will be going up for sale soon, we’ve heard…lousy to have 3 homes for sale at the same time!  aargh…one is a 2 story and the other is a 1 story…none of them look similar…we heard that one of them hired non-licensed people with high-end finishes.  So they cut corners where they don’t show.  I think I’ll include a blurb about how all our subs were licensed in our ‘finish book’ where I show all the materials and warranties and permit information…that might help us stand out.   We shall see.  Its all in God’s hands.  And its been fun and Rick and I didn’t get a divorce!  How about that?

Rick finished the master bathroom floor yesterday!   Wow, it looks fantastic.  He won’t be working for the rest of the week since the painters are there and he’s in the way. 

We met with a floor installer…hard to believe we’ll have a finished floor in a couple weeks!

I got 2 estimates for the property fence.  Unfortunately, both of them were over budget, but wood has gone up in price.  We’ll have our framer do it since he has a team that needs work.

I’ve met with two real estate firms and they both wanted to hire me!  yay!   Very nice.  I was a bit concerned that I’d be allowed to do my own thing – since I’m only interested in buy-selling my own properties, for the most part…although I’m not going to completely discount the idea that I might be able to take on clients in the future.

 Now I have to decide between them…both are really strong in their own way.  One’s office is closer, one’s farther away, one’s smaller, one’s bigger, one’s more high tech, one is more personable, one has higher agent fees but not enough to make it a deal-breaker…it will be hard to choose…