Oh the bathrooms...

 While our kitchen is brand new, our hickory floors are delicious and even our patio is coming together, our bathrooms are still in their gross original state. The previous owners had a love of weird 70's tile. At least our half of the duplex has neutral colors.

We'll get around to redoing the bathrooms eventually but in the meantime, we're just trying to make them as clean and livable as possible.

First task - redo the nasty caulk around the tub.

We scraped it off...

...and applied the new stuff as neatly as possible.

I would still love to just blow up the whole room, but for now, at least the dirt we see in the caulk is OUR dirt.

The Kitchen!

FINALLY! Our much overdo kitchen pictures! Hurrah! Let's first remember what we started with...

Gross. And NOW (almost the same view):

Ahh...so much better and brighter! I can't imagine having that terrible WALL where the peninsula now is. Yesterday I prepped dinner while watching the Olympics and was happy as a clam. There will soon be a dining room table in the middle there.

Here's a BEFORE of the actual kitchen - 

And AFTER: 

 I still want to put something on that back wall - maybe these cool graphic prints we got as a wedding gift in colored frames? And I will paint that wood stool something fun someday.

Here are some other details for you:

Normal size stove! (If you remember what I had before...)

Awesome flexible faucet.

Big deep drawers for storage - LOVE THIS.

Some green friends in our window.

Big ass sink.

Breakfast area.

SO HAPPY!

Here's all the materials we used if you are curious:

Cabinets - Ikea Akurum Adel Off-White

Drawer and Cabinet Pulls - Pulls Direct

Countertops - Honed Absolute Black Granite

Stove Hood - Pacific Sales

Appliances - From Sears

       - Bosch Dishwasher

       - LG Convection Range

       - Kenmore Elite Fridge

       - Kenmore Microwave

       - Kenmore Washer & Dryer

Sink - Kraus

Faucet - American Standard

Hanging Lights - Restoration Hardware

Kitchen Chairs - Restoration Hardware - On Sale!

Table - Neal's Grandmother 

Map - Style De Vie inside HD Buttercup

Fire! (Not ours!)

Hi all...this is not our house:

...but it IS in our neighborhood. Yesterday afternoon we heard tons of sirens and helicopters swirling...turns out a house 6 or so blocks away caught fire. See this post on The Eastsider for details. Yikes. Too close for comfort. Luckily, it sounds like no one was hurt and the fire didn't spread.

Even freakier is the fact that our backyard is basically a tinderbox of dried out weeds and trees that was making me upset because it is so ugly, but now Im panicked because it's probably not very safe.

Ironically, we had gone that morning for the second half of our landscaping consultation at Burkard Nurseries, where the owner Frank talked us through, not only adding a few walls to flatten out some yard for a garden, but how to put in super simple pipe irrigation to get water down to the bottom of our yard so we can start planting something more attractive then the weeds and old tile and drywall that exists now.

I will take a few BEFORE pics so you can see what we mean. Ugh. It's going to be a big project, but one that this house reminded me, is even more urgent for the safety of US and our neighbors.

Good News!

We FINALLY took some DONE kitchen pics yesterday and will fix em up and post them very soon. Back in the swing so vow to do a little more posting.

Stay tuned!

Our OTHER neighbors...

The tenants are good - took out the garbage on Tuesday night and brought the cans back in, unasked, on Wednesday. Neighbors on both sides of us are quiet and nice. Though we did think the apartment building on the left stole our yard waste can. (I stole it back.) 

However...there are some not-as-pleasant neighbors in the hood...

Echo Park is overrun with skunks...or maybe just one skunk that sprays pretty much every day. It's getting a little out of control. Open a window for fresh air - get a waft of skunkiness. What do we do!?

I do, however, realize how much worse it could be when I think of the poor dogs in the hood that are getting the spray directly. I should go see if the tomato juice supply at local grocery stores is low.

**Apologies for the lack of posts lately, we've been busy, and we've had Neal's little sister, Emily, living with us for a bit. AND since being finished, the kitchen has been cluttered and dirty because I've been enjoying it so much! Will take more pictures and post more this weekend!**

It's the little things...

Slowly but surely, we're trying to not only make our duplex a nice place to live, but also a nice place to look at. We want to do new fences, railings, doors, etc. but started small. House numbers.

There were crappy gross tile numbers over the rental front door, none on our half, and only gross stickers on the nasty mailboxes. We replaced the mailboxes with clean black ones asap. Put new sticker numbers on those, then bought clean, simple modern numbers at Home Depot to put on the front. 

Super easy, especially with the masonry bit my dad left behind. We laid out the included number templates. Used our newest Home Depot purchase, a hole set, to punch holes in the stucco, drilled.

3

Then squirted some silicone in the holes, and pushed in the numbers. We decided to go with slighly elevated numbers, so there's a half inch or so bar between the number and bar that makes them look a little 3D. We did them slightly askew - hinting to people that 2008 is in the BACK and 2010 is the front.

We dig them. Still need to touch up the paint around them, but they already look clean, modern and give us a LITTLE more personality than before!

Boom! Pow! Fireworks!

 Hi internet friends! Neal here, the co-owner of the duplex (and loving husband??). Since it's my first post, I figured I deserved fireworks! Actually, the firworks are from the bi-weekly display at Dodger stadium. They're amazing. Wanna know the best part? We can see them from our backyard. They're the perfect thing to use as a center piece to a relaxing evening with some friends. So two weeks ago we had our first get together at our new place. We watched fireworks, ate smores and talked shit about other people while sitting around our new firepit (the firepit might deserve it's own post). The night was amazing and we swore an oath that we'd have people over for every fireworks display.

Last Friday was a fireworks night, so having sworn an oath, we did exactly what you'd expect  ...We went out to dinner with some friends. Boo! Luckily, the Dodger game went late and we arrived home halfway through the fireworks. We ran up to the terrace off of our bedroom to watch the rest... but while we were watching, we heard something weird. People talking. (So weird, right? No wait, stick with the story, you'll see!) The thing was, every which way we looked, all our neighbors were either out for the night or they were asleep-- yet still, there were voices. Where were they coming from? Jodi thought they were coming from above us. But come on, above us? When the grand finale finished, we brushed off the idea of people hovering high in the trees talking, went inside, and got ready for bed...

That's when we heard the distinct sound of feet on our roof. Right above our stairwell. And we realized... our tenants were on the roof watching the fireworks.

Now I don't like to ruin the fun for everybody (okay, yes I do), but in this instance, what with their safety and the health of our roof on the line, we had to take a stand.

We were freaked. We had to do something quick, but we couldn't appear angry. I mean, come on, they thought we were cool when we met them, and any anger would ruin all our hipster points. But they can't get away with this!! We also had no FOR SURE proof, so we couldn't accuse them directly. I can't decide if we were making it a big deal, or if it actually was a big deal. Anyway, we certainly weren't going to confront them in person. We sent an email no less than 2 minutes after they went inside.

Here's what we wrote:

Hello tenants,
We heard a lot of noise on our roof tonight. We just want to make clear that going on the roof is not allowed. Not only is it unsafe, but it's also above our bedroom.
Thanks,
Jodi and Neal

I'd like to think it struck the right balance between stern and caring. Regardless, it was pretty effective. The next morning we received a genuine apology, and so far we haven't heard any other noises from the roof. Lesson? On our next lease, we'll make sure to specify what is and what isn't allowed on the roof. (Answers: nothing and everything.)

Wanna see something gross?

So remember our plumbing adventure this weekend? Well, we got that rotten pipe replaced yesterday and I can't help but share the grossness with you. It's not all subway tile and paint colors folks.

Gross:

Grosser:

And the pièce de résistance...

How could water even flow through that thing!?

 

Who lives here?

This is our garage. No one lives in our garage.

 BUT according to the City of Los Angeles, this is a separate unit in our multi-unit house so not only do we pay a separate electricity bill (that's ok) but we pay for separate GARBAGE AND RECYCLING PICK UP. What?
Obviously, we shouldn't have to pay the $31/month to have the GARAGE'S garbage picked up...but the city needs to make sure it's not a residence so in three weeks they will send a guy to take pictures as proof, then we have to chase them down to change our account, THEN they will stop charging us and apparently reimburse the payments we've made. Let's hope.

The surprises never end!

Our first "emergency"...

Saturday early afternoon, one of our tenants knocked on our door. A pipe in the garage was leaking all over her car. Neal and I went down to investigate and, sure thing, one of the sewer branch pipe that heads towards the street was dripping from the end cap.

LANDLORDS MOBILIZE!! We called AP Plumbing - the guys we would always call at our old place (who would bill our landlord) - and Tony was able to come by a couple hours later.

 

After taking off the end cap and letting all the water drain out,  Tony discovered a blockage in the pipe. Using an incredibly scary rooter machine, Tony and his guy basically raped our pipe, got out whatever gunk was blocking it and put a new end cap on it. Problem solved...until we have to replace that pipe sometimes in the next month or so to keep it from happening again.

It wasn't a particularly cheap fix, but he did it on a weekend, pretty much right away. We got to tell our tenants that the problem was fixed within only a couple hours. GO LANDLORDS!

However, only hours later, while doing our first load of laundry in our half done kitchen, the washing machine went bananas. Rattled and walked itself out of the nook, and somehow wedged itself between the brand new fridge and the freshly painted wall, while shaking the entire house like an earthquake. Oh man, this will not do. Imagine running downstairs to see a double stacked washer/dryer shaking like a paint mixer on your brand new wood floors. Freaky.

 
Neal did some research and we think there's some bolt they put on for transportation that wasn't removed during install...if it's not that, this could be a big problem. Stay tuned.

Our new neighbor...

This is Alister - he is one of our new tenants. Already loves the window sills and has been keeping watch over our driveway.

A foggy morning in the Elysian Valley...

The view from our bedroom balcony this morning.

Leased!

We did it! We found renters for the other half of the duplex! Well...WE didn't exactly. Here's the deal.

In the midst of moving, renovating, working to pay for moving and renovating, we got overwhelmed. When the place didn't rent after 5 days of our Craigslist and Westside rental listings, we got frustrated and impatient. Yes, I know that is a little silly, it was only 5 days, but when this rental is covering more than half our mortgage - first payment due June 1 - we started to freak.

So we could at least put some of the stress behind us, we hired, on the recommendation of a friend with a duplex nearby, THE RENTAL GIRL. In exchange for half of the first month's rent, the lovely Zaya handled the listings, showings, tenant screenings, paperwork and check collecting. We didn't need to worry about it.

 About a week after she signed on, we got an email with an information packet about our potential tenants. Personal info, references, credit scores and financial information. We're really running a small business - so all that stuff matters. No dead-beats please. These guys seemed great, and after meeting them in person, we felt like they would take good care of our place.

Who are they? Three 27-year olds, who went to college together in New York, who all work in creative fields - an ad-writer, a TV production assistant, a guy who manages fashion designers. Two boys and one girl - we for some reason decided a combo would be cleaner than three boys or three girls. Oh, and a cat. (They had to pay an extra $300 security deposit for him.) They are definitely fun, definitely wanted to live in our neighborhood for it's "hipness" and seemed very relieved that "you guys are cool" since we are living so close. (I have never felt older in my life after hearing that!)

They signed their lease on Thursday and I cashed the rent and security deposit checks on Friday. Tried to make it feel as ceremonious as possible. By myself, at the Vermont Avenue Chase Branch. Our FIRST PAYMENTS AS LANDLORDS. It's pretty cool. Even if no one there noticed how cool it was.

So far so good - they got the keys Saturday morning and will start moving stuff over this week. And after we send our workers in today for a couple finishing touches they forgot, we can put that place and all it's fixes behind us...

...until something breaks of course.

Before and Afters - Rental Bedrooms

The rental unit is ALMOST done - still a few lights to hang, corners to touch up, and floors to sweep. Here are some before and afters for you.

In all the bedrooms we PAINTED, put in NEW CARPET and replaced the gross LIGHT FIXTURES. We also washed the windows and the mirrored closets, which makes more differnence than you can even imagine. Here we go:

SMALL BEDROOM BEFORE:

SMALL BEDROOM AFTER (bye bye little cartoon men!):

SECOND BEDROOM BEFORE:

SECOND BEDROOM AFTER (bye bye crazy purple!):

MASTER BEDROOM BEFORE:

MASTER BEDROOM AFTER:

Ahhhh, I know it's just paint and carpet but it feels so much better. Let's just hope potential renters like it!

Apartment for Rent...

Last weekend, we listed the rental unit on Craigslist and Westside Rentals (a local LA apartment hunting site) and are waiting on bites. We had a few people come by last weekend, while the place was a bit of a disaster zone with workers. Now it's nearly ready to go, we've been replacing lights, drawer pulls, cleaning, and tomorrow, new carpet goes in.

WHERE ARE OUR TENANTS? This is getting really stressful, really nervewracking and we will both feel soooo much better when someone is living happily inside and we can just focus on making our half a cozy home. (Wood floors starting going in today! yay!)

WHY DOESN'T ANYONE WANT TO LIVE WITH US!??? WE ARE CALM NORMAL NICE PEOPLE...TOTALLY CALM. REALLY REALLY CALM! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH...

Is it too much to ask...

...for ATTRACTIVE flush mount lights for under $50?? Why must they all look like boobs or spaceships??

I want to replace the cheapy gross ones in the downstairs of the rental unit. Need 4. Don't want to spend much money. Ugh.