sixtwelvesixteenth: July 2012

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

From Renting to Owning to Renting AND Owning

You read that right.

Paul rented an apartment when he first moved to Oklahoma City.

Seven months after living here, he found a house and left his renting ways for a more settled down way of life. Home ownership.

Plus we got married.

I was used to living in the dorms and he in an apartment or shared housing so it was an interesting adjustment moving into a home.

Once we had sold that house we we're faced with the task of finding somewhere to live. Obviously we had found a house, hence the need for the blog, but in it's purchase state, it was not livable. At least not for a toddler. So we set off to find a downtown loft or something as simple as moving into a neighbor's empty house. None of those worked out which wasn't a big deal since we we're talking about six months of living here, not the rest of our lives. But the decision had been made, we'd have a mortgage and a rent for the remainder of the year and we still needed to find something.

We decided on a typical apartment in a typical apartment complex in the typical apartment area. It's close to our friend's homes, our church building and my part time teaching job at the university. It's not our typical urban location or filled with character like we like. Or even old. It's probably only had one or two short term renters in the unit before us. Here's how we determined it was right for us.

We wanted a 1 bedroom apartment. Addison could have the bedroom and we would turn the living/dining space into a studio apartment for our bedroom. We wanted it on the first floor for an easy move in and an easy move out. We wanted something fairly new. With a toddler who can find anything, anywhere and put it in her mouth, I wanted to make sure there wasn't 15+ years of some college boy's leftover chip crumbs in the carpet for her to snack on. I also have to get on my hands and knees to give her a bath so a fresher bathroom floor was a plus. We also decided that with all of the work we were going to be doing at the new house, we wanted something that felt finished and new when we relaxed on Sundays or the evenings that we could not be at the new house working. Fountain Lake had all of these things. Plus a pool for our hot Oklahoma summers that we could take Addison to (since she's quite the little fish).

It was too good not to take.

So while Addison and I visited Corpus Christi with my mom, the boys moved us from a 1,300 square foot home to an 80 square foot storage unit and a 800 square foot apartment. We're learning to be resourceful with space.

These photos were taken after Paul got us moved in. We've got some art and mirrors up on the walls thanks to handy dandy command strips and Addison's toys and books on her bookshelves. All of the boxes are unpacked, the TV is up and running and we can see it from our bed. It's not all that bad.

Again, only temporary. But incredibly exciting for some reason. Maybe because it's new and an adventure or maybe because I secretly missed living in a nice, new space. Either way, I don't dread where we live and look forward to the next few months, even with the tight budget.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Tweet Tweet

Are you following us on Twitter?

Well, you should be.

@sixtwelveDesign

All the cool kids are doing it. (Kidding, kidding, you hyper sensitive parent types).

We post status updates and extra photos that never make it to our blog (and we all know how much you love a grainy iPhone picture update). Otherwise, you'd be missing out on gems like this:

and this:

Obviously, the portable toilet tweet is the real gem here.

Seriously though, go hit that "Follow" button!

Monday, July 23, 2012

Jacking it Up (Literally)

Have you noticed anything terrifying about SIX TWELVE?

Oh, maybe something regarding the brick and the insane amount of damage it has received due to structural issues?

Yea, that.

I think one of the biggest detourants in purchasing this home was the structural work. While the repair is going to fall in the top three for costliest repairs on this job it has actually been the easiest to get taken care of. At least for us as the homeowner and contractor it has been. For the actual crew, well...maybe not so much.

We hired a licensed Structural Engineer to do an evaluation of the property before purchase. I can't recommend this enough. Because the house was in such poor shape and we knew we'd be replacing all of the interior systems we decided to forgo a typical inspection as it wouldn't really provide much more information than "the house is a costly mess" but a structural inspection was a must.

We shelled out $325.00 for an onsite evaluation and a four page report detailing what was seen at the time of inspection and the engineer's recommendation for our potential property. Worth every dollar. That inspection alone practically decided if we we're continuing with the project or not.

Want to take a guess at how many piers SIX TWELVE needs?

Twenty-one.

If you've priced piers lately, you know that needing twenty-one of them is a buzz kill.

We took the report and attached pier location sketch provided by the engineer and set off to find a company to do the work.

Paul took the lead on finding the company to do the work for us. He asked for recommendations, checked reviews online, met with multiple companies and we received three formal quotes from our top three contenders.

After evaulating the quotes and the work that was going to need to be completed, we picked our company. They started work less than a week after closing and exactly one month after the evaluation was completed. Not bad considering structural repair was second on our list of items to complete.

We decided to do the structure work before the demolition per the advice of the company we hired. "It's better to lift the house heavy (full of plaster, etc) than empty (demolished) when you'll be adding weight back into it." Well, yea, I suppose that does make sense.

Structural crew showing up for work (our house in the background).

That's one tall drink of water.

They hand dug twenty-one of these puppies. Gross. This is why I am not a paid laborer. I would have faked my own death by now if I had to hand dig holes in Oklahoma summers. Kudos boys, kudos.

Things are running a little behind. We are not at a point of pushing anything out, they technically have the remainder of this week to finish up without starting to impact our schedule. They estimated three days. It's going to take five at the least. Bummer for them.

Placing the piers.

The actual "jacking it up" part.

After they've finished placing the piers, they'll lift the house, repair the brick, re-pour concrete on the patio and backfill the holes they dug. For their sake, I hope they're done tomorrow. Otherwise, we got the service for a steal.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

You don't say! Asbestos is bad, huh?

If you've seen Band of Brothers as many times as we have then this quote will be familiar. I've replaced "the Germans are" with "Asbestos is":

Luz: Hey Janovek, whatcha reading?
Janovek: An article.
Luz: No s***. What's it about?
Janovek: It's about why we're fighting the war.
Luz: Why are we fighting the war, Janovek?
Janovek: It appears Asbestos is bad, very bad.
Luz: You don't say! Asbestos is bad, huh?
[Turns to Perconte]
Luz: Hey Frank, this guy is reading an article that says Asbestos *is bad*.

Ha! I laugh every time I read that (I can hear Luz's voice in my head). As it turns out, asbestos is bad. Who knew, right? Well, when we found out that our existing ductwork was wrapped in a canvas coated with an asbestos compound our little budgeted hearts did a nose dive.

We took the proper steps to have it tested. A nice man came out, cut a small sample, tested it and then recommended we stay out of the basement entirely. That we we're going to die if we we're even in the general vicinity and that it was going to cost us $25,000 + to have it abated.

TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND PLUS.

I used the term "nice man" loosely.

Paul got a hold of an old friend and asked for his opinion and if we we're totally hosed. We we're pretty sure this was outrageous but wanted some confirmation. We're not idiots, contrary to some subcontractors beliefs. To them, we're just homeowners who don't know any better. But what sucks for them is, we do this type of thing for a living and we know better. The friend we called laughed and recommended another gentleman. One that owned his own environmental consulting company and monitored the removal of asbestos.

Cue Jamie.

Who turns out to be our neighbor, living only a block away. He came over earlier this week, took a look at the house, determined that it was asbestos, that our linoleum floor also had asbestos (which we wanted removed anyways) and that he had a crew that could do the entire job, including his consulting fee and air quality monitoring, for $5,500.00.

FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS.

He has kids, he gets the need for it to be right in our house and for the material to be handled properly. He also has no desire to screw people over. No fear mongering here. His crew completed the work the next evening working late into the evening to get it finished.

It's nice not to have to worry about bad, bad asbestos anymore.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

If Walls Could Talk

When we lived in our little bungalow in Mesta Park, I couldn't get enough of the history that had to have occured in our house over the last 98 years.

We had spent the better half of a morning at the Oklahoma History Center scouring through City Directories from the early 1910's determining who had built our home, lived in it and man, can you find a lot of information out there or what?!

We determined how many residents had been in the home (upwards of 70+) over the almost century and we we're amazed at how good of condition the home was in for all of the students that came in and out of the house during the 70's and 80's.

The little bungalow was a modest house even for it's time. The typical owner that lived there worked as a druggist, a machinist for OG&E, etc. The families had anywhere from one to five children (all living in that bungalow, shows how distorted our need for space is these days). A very standard house for a very standard working family. That's what Mesta Park was for the most part and I love every second of it.

I knew we would do some research on six twelve when we got the chance, I just didn't know it had already been done for us. A couple from the neighborhood had gone through the neighborhood, house by house and done research on the older occupants of the homes.

The house was built in either 1929 or 1930. Possibly started in '29 and finished in '30 but I'm not really sure. The first owner of the home was RJ Benzel, who at the time was the general manager of Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. He was also the 29th president (or Chairman) of the Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce. Big wig. He was also sued a couple of times in the Oklahoma Supreme Court for same shady real estate deals. Love the juicy stuff. Benzel sold the house in 1945 to Johnston Murray.

Johnston Murray, get this, was the 14th Governor of the State of Oklahoma. Bigger wig. Murray was married to his second wife Willie Roberta while living in the house for one whole year. They moved out in 1946, the same year he received his law degree from Oklahoma City University. He was the Governor of Oklahoma from 1951 to 1955 following in his father's footsteps who had also been the governor of the state of Oklahoma. After leaving office he got into a nasty public divorce with Willie and then later married for a third time.

So, yea, a governor of the entire state of Oklahoma owned the house that we now own. Insane.

After Murray, the home sold to the Hoffmans. Pete Hoffman was a Vice-President at First National Bank and his wife, Marian Briscoe was from the famed Briscoe Oil Comapny. They lived there from 1946 until they sold the house to the Cathey's in 1957.

The Cathey's owned the home until 2010 when the home fell into foreclosure and became the property of a bank in Colorado. Donald Cathey, an accountant for the Kerr-McGee Oil Company, had passed away awhile ago, leaving the house to his wife Dorothy for many years. After talking to our neighbor last night who knew Mrs. Cathey quite well, we found out that one of her sons quite possibly made some really poor financial choices that he had involved her in and their home was the victim of those bad choices (i.e. the foreclosure). Dorothy's mother lived in the house with them for awhile after Dorothy's father (an early owner of the OU Faculity House, in fact he sold it to OU, just a few blocks away) had passed away. Mrs. Cathey passed away earlier this year and the house has been sitting vacant since 2010.

And now it's just little ole us. I feel like there's some pressure to actually make something big of ourselves now. Otherwise, we're the odd couple out for the house. The fifth owners of this home. Seems slightly more daunting now.