Squirrel!! 

We all remember the line from the movie “UP!”.  Ben, the dog, would see a squirrel and become alert.  I had the same experience yesterday while looking at a possible renovation / rehab project in the Village of Lancaster, NY.

I was sitting in front of the home taking a look from my vehicle when a small squirrel appeared in the window.  At first, I thought that it was on the outer sill.  As it turns out, it was inside the house having its way with the interior.  I decided to talk a walk around the property while waiting for the person who would be showing me the property and as I reached the back, I noticed a larger squirrel in the rear window.  I was able to take a picture of this squirrel (see the photo below) and couldn’t help but laugh when he noticed me, become startled and then tore half of the window curtain down while trying to climb away.

Squirrel in window

We did end up going into the house to have a look and we decided it would be best if we carried a snow brush with us.  We all know how much squirrels hate snow brushes.  Luckily, there was no incident inside.  Turns out, squirrels are pretty non-confrontational and I was able to view the property without trouble (I had my brush in hand, mind you).  I don’t recall much about the property since I was pre-occupied with my squirrel avoidance and preparedness to strike plans.

I get to chalk up another first in my search for properties to renovate.  Vermin ?

If you have a backsplash in your kitchen that you really don’t like, but don’t want to go to the trouble to do a major tile job, consider some of the peel and stick alternatives.  If you can do it for your floors, you can do it for your walls.  In addition to that, the price isn’t too bad for a real unique look.  I found some tile at Amazon for between $3.50 and $5.50 per square foot (click the image below for details).  The price depends on the color that you choose.  Oddly enough, copper was the least expensive option.

You could even go over an existing tile backsplash.  You will have to address any exposed ends in a unique way, but the look is completely new in just a few hours.

The idea behind this project came to my attention while at Home Depot. They carry a beautiful peel and stick tile product from Aspect Metal Tiles.  The tiles are 3″ x 6″, come in boxes of 8, and are available in 4 colors. The price is around $20 a box, so you can see how pricey this option might be with each box covering just 1 square foot.

Metal backsplash tile installation

You can find other options out there if you look hard enough, so if you are after something unique, you might want to give Ebay a try.  There are manufacturers who well direct such as www.stainlesssteeltile.com. This company seems to have the largest variety of designs and colors available.  The installation isn’t the peel and stick type, but it is still very simple with the use of a tube of construction adhesive.  The unique tile shapes provided make this a great source for a unique back splash look.

Good luck with your tile backsplash project.  A couple of hundred dollars and a few hours of your time can have your kitchen looking like a new, modern home.

Auction currently at $170. Ends at 7:30PM

I occasionally view listings at a local auction site (auctionsinternational.com) and came across an auction from CIL Asset Recovery. The location is nearby (Hamburg), so I decided to have a look at the items.

Turns out there is some great stuff including a Sjoberg workbench.  If you are a woodworker, you have probably seen the high end workbenches from Sjoberg, wanted one, and then looked at the price tag and walked away. They are pricey. A relatively simple looking bench can run over $1,000. However, they are precision pieces and are priced accordingly. The vise isn’t going to be out of alignment in a month like the $50 special that you might be using.

Sjobergs workbench auction

Click on the image to view the auction.  Hurry, this ends tonight at 7pm.

Here is the exact same bench at Amazon.com for $545. Even at $545, it is a good price, but for less than $200??!!

Do you have a very small bathroom and want to make efficient use of the space?  I do.

I have a bath that is 6′ x 5′.  Obviously, this is a very small space for a 3 fixture bathroom.  However, there are some great options to squeeze all of your fixtures into this space.   One of the issues that compounds my problem is the 32″ door that swings into the bathroom space (see image below).

Bathroom door swinging in

The current layout has worked for 60+ years, but the shower was on its last legs and needed to go.  The current shower was essentially a 30″ x 30″ tin can.  It was very likely a shower from an old ship or submarine.  At 30″ square, it isn’t too accommodating to most normal sized adults.  There is a lot of clanking from flying elbows when an average size person washes their hair.  The room was too small to get a good photo of the old shower, but I did include a shot of the shower with 2 sides ripped off.  As you can see by the condition, it was clearly time for this fixture to be sent to the scrap heap.  

Steel shower shell

We decided there weren’t too many options as far as the layout in this space. The current layout is tight, but it seems to work. We’ll keep the fixtures in their current place, but we will go ahead with some necessary changes.

Here is a view of the current layout:

Small cottage bath layout

Our New Bath Plan

The Shower

The shower is certainly the elephant in this room.  There is not enough space to enlarge the shower size by much, tut there are a couple of things that we can do to pick up a few inches.

The plumbing for the shower is between a finished wall and the shower shell.  We can easily open up the wall and move the pipes to the inside.  This alone picks up about 1 1/2″ inches. That might not sound like much, but stand in a 30″ shower and then stand in a 32″ shower.  You will realize that the difference feels significant.

By moving the plumbing into the wall, we are able to use a 32″ shower.   Since this is a corner shower, our options are limited even further.  We do not have the space to construct an end wall and still have proper clearance for the toilet. Our solution to this problem is to avoid the 32″ corner shower unit and to simply utilize a 32″ corner shower base from Home Depot. Rather than the complete corner unit that has a glass enclosure, we are opting for a ceiling mount shower curtain that is on a shower curtain track system. This will give us the enclosure we need as well as allow for a larger feel in the bathroom when the curtain is pulled back. In addition to that, it provides simple design options with the change of the shower curtain.

The Sink

The sink is s small wall mount unit that is built into an open shelving unit.  It is in decent shape, but we are going to make the room our own, so the 1960′s sink needs to go.  We are likely to replace it with a nice unit from IKEA that will give us more functionality with a cabinet below and a larger bowl.  The depth from the wall isn’t as much, but the sink itself provides a larger bowl. The old sink has a lip on the front and back that takes up a good 5″ of the approximately 15″ depth.

Current Sink:

Small wall mount sink

Possible Sink Replacement:

Ikea wall mount sink

The beauty of this wall mount sink from IKEA is that we gain a lot of space in the sink bowl and also decrease the depth from the wall by about 4″.  This is huge amount in a small space.

The Toilet

The toilet is a major move that doesn’t need to happen.  This fixture is in a decent place and is even a newer unit.  This toilet will remain where it is and will only come out to allow us to do the finish work in the room.

Toilet

We are likely to tile 2 entire walls of the bathroom with a large tile in a running bond pattern.

Needless to say, we’ll post updates to this bathroom renovation project when it takes place. Unfortunately, this renovation will have to wait. This bathroom is located in a seasonal cottage that won’t be opened up until the spring. In the meantime, we can plan and purchase. This will speed the renovation when the hammer starts swinging.

A number of people ask what the best method to use to track expenses during  a flip.  There are many methods, some good, some bad, and some downright ugly.

The following lists a few methods with the most complex at the top.

1. Quickbooks
   Utilize Quickbooks, categorize every expenditure, create sales accounts, link credit card and bank account for spending. Provide your Quickbooks file to your accountant at tax time.
   Relative Degree of Difficulty: 10
   Cost: 6
   There is a learning curve to Quickbooks and if you want to do things properly, there will be a number of hours put in for the initial company, vendor, account, and category setups.  I peg the cost at a 6 out of 10 due to the cost of the software.  Done properly, your accountant will thank you.
2. Hire a book keeper/accountant to do the work for you. 
   Schedule a regular meeting time during the renovation. At that time you can have receipts recorded properly by your bookkeeper while keeping your work on the project.
   Relative Degree of Difficulty: 1
   Cost: 9
   The level of difficulty on your end is minimal. Keep every receipt, provide it to your bookkeeper during your scheduled meetings, and provide fast answers when questions should arise.  You will certainly be paying a decent buck for this service, but you will probably sleep better at night knowing that you are prepared and up to date.
3. 

   Renovation Expense Recordkeeping

   Utilize our Renovation Record Keeping Spreadsheet (perfect for flippers).  Additional file formats are listed below.
   The linked spreadsheet will make your job easy and cost little.
   Relative Degree of Difficulty: 3
   Cost: 3
   This is the method that I have used for my last 5 projects.  The attached renovators spreadsheet is simple to use and just as simple to produce detailed accounts of spending (including categories).   This is a document (or file) that you can provide to your accountant so that they can determine if your categorization, and potential write off, is accurate.  To force the recording (feels like a burden when in the middle of a flip), I make it a habit to keep receipts that have yet to be recorded, in my wallet.  Spending 5 minutes entering receipts every 3 or 4 days clears things out and keeps you on track.
   The simple spreadsheet  format provides you with a view of your running total of expenses.  Take a look at the document above.  I include every expense including the purchase details so that I have a complete handle on my profit and expenses for a given project.

4. Throw every receipt in a shoe box,  hope that there isn’t a fire, and hand it to your accountant at tax time.
   Relative Degree of Difficulty: 1
   Cost: 10
   You are what your accountant might refer to as “a total pain in the a**”. The shoe box client is more than likely also the last minute client. If you elect to employ this method to record (I should say NOT record) expenses during your flip expect your accountant to charge you a rate that some might equate to ‘hazard pay’.

The simple spreadsheet method (Item 3, above) is the perfect balance of difficulty and cost.  Both categories fall in a low range which make this an ideal solution.  In addition to the ease, and low cost, you can host your spreadsheet with a free service such as Google Docs.  This way, you can share access, edit while in the field, and be sure that a fire or computer crash doesn’t add many more headaches to your renovation project.  Google Docs is like an automatic backup.

I hope that these documents help other renovators or flippers out there.  It is very basic stuff, but the number of times this comes up made me realize it was worth an offering:

• Renovators Spreadsheet: Google Docs
• Renovators Spreadsheet: MS Word Format

My wife and I had a wonderful trip planned on our 15th anniversary.  We were going to head to IKEA and purchase materials (cabinets, countertop, portable island) for our cottage kitchen.  Since the closest IKEA is a few hours away, I called ahead to be sure the items were available. Boy, am I glad that I did.  As it happens, weather and tight inventory management by IKEA, resulted in ZERO stock for the 3 primary items that we were after.

Because of this, I decided that I should build the cabinets from scratch.  After all, I am a handyman with a leaning toward finish carpentry.  I have assembled enough RTA Kitchen Cabinets to have a better understanding about the various construction techniques than most.

The cabinets that we needed weren’t going to be installed in a traditional way. I am going to use wall cabinets as a base cabinet and customize a platform to bring the counter up to the standard 36″ height.  A 30″ wall cabinet combined with a 4″ base and a 1 1/2″ countertop would get us close to our desired height.

Since the IKEA cabinets are out of stock, I decided to build the base cabinets as a traditional base cabinet would be built and simply make the depth at 12″ instead of the traditional 24″ depth of a base cabinet.  To be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to making the factory built upper cabinets look proper as base cabinets. Building from scratch gives me the opportunity to play with the toe kick set back depth and my counter overhang so that the shallow cabinet doesn’t look like it wants to tip forward.

The reason we are using the shallow cabinets as the base is due to the fact that our cottage kitchen is only 6 feet across! (see picture)

Cottage Kitchen - Before

About 20 years ago, when a member of a handyman book club, I purchased a book that detailed the construction of your own cabinets.  Looks like I will be breaking out the book and finding some time this winter to build the cabinets.

I’ll post the after (or during) pictures when the time comes.

If you are looking to build your own cabinets, you might consider the following book (PS: We get a small commission from Amazon.com if you purchase the book)

For the fans of “Storage Wars” or “Auction Hunters” I bring you some information regarding some storage unit auctions in the Buffalo NY area.  Enjoy. Happy bidding!

Auction Hunters - Buffalo

Storage Units - Live Public Auction - Private Property
Nov 16, 2011  Wednesday 10:00 AM Bidder Registration Start at 9:30 AM	Please call 1-800-536-1401 x 110 for more information and questions about the auction.
	Sale held at: Colonial Mini Storage Click for directions  45 Gardenville Parkway, West Seneca, NY 14224
	DETAILS: Fleming – Unit # 391; Garbe – Unit # 227; Riverid – Unit # 435; Marinelli – Unit # 63; Willard – Unit # 385; Grant – Unit # 249; Walker – Unit # 17

Storage Units - Live Public Auction - Private Property
Nov 16, 2011  Wednesday 1:00 PM Bidder Registration Start at 12:30 PM	Please call 1-800-536-1401 x 110 for more information and questions about the auction.
	Sale held at: Lincoln Self Storage Click for directions  115 Great Arrow Ave, Buffalo, NY 14216
	DETAILS: Parks – Unit # E145; Lother – Unit # A105; Boger – H102; Ahman – Unit # D228

Lake Erie Cottage

We are about two weeks away from closing up our cottage for the season.  This is our first year with the place and the closing / opening experience should be an interesting one. Fortunately, we are about 1 hour away from the property, so an emergency trip is not a big deal.

When searching on closing/winterizing advice, I came across a couple of terrific resources and felt the need to share.  The first is from WikiHow.com and covers many aspects of a seasonal cottage and also discusses how to address a situation based on a cottage with the heat remaining on and the heat being turned off.

• WikiHow – Winterize a vacant home

Our cottage has been seasonally occupied by the same family for more than 20 years.  Needless to say, they have the winterizing process down pat.  The prior owner was kind enough to provide us with about 4 pages of notes that discuss every aspect of the closing.  In addition to that, I had him walk me through each process and videotaped the whole thing as a reference.  There is something to be said for a visual cue.  Our cottage has well water, so some of the aspects of dealing with the well pump were very specific to our system.

The next resource that I found incredibly useful is actually an iPad application from “Cottage Life” magazine.  This is the Cottage Life Q&A app.  The application isn’t just about winterizing.  It covers hundreds of questions relating to a cottage. The questions are broken into categories and should provide any new cottage owner with a nice resource to call on.

• Cottage Life Q&A iPad application

If you are winterizing your own seasonal property we would love it if you could share some of your own tips in the comment section below.

For many, the search for inexpensive kitchen cabinets draws them to the Internet. If you are like me, you LOVE a bargain (don’t we all). I had some idea of what I wanted when I started searching for my project. I was happy to hear that one of my favorite suppliers of RTA cabinets had the color and style that I was searching for. The RTA Cabinet Store was able to supply me with my cabinets.

Disclaimer: I am an affiliate of the RTA Cabinet Store. If you order from there (after clicking through from WNY Handyman) we will receive a commission on your order. Because of that, we are happy to answer any questions that you have regarding your RTA cabinet purchase. Obviously, the company has its own support system, but if you would like some advice from someone who has used a variety of suppliers I would be happy to answer any questions that you have. Please post in the comments so that others are able to benefit from your questions.

Step 1: Kitchen Cabinet Layout

Step 2: Confirm inventory

Step 3: Place order

Step 4: Receive order

Step 5: Assembly

Step 6: Installation

Enjoy.

The following is a simple photo log of our window seat wall unit project. This was built off site prior to closing on our cottage. We were able to take accurate measurements of our window during our home inspection and took that opportunity to build our project off site (with fingers crossed that our measurements were accurate).

Window seat bookcase built off site

The window seat is essentially 4 major pieces.

1. Bench seat with a hinged top for storage
2. Left bookcase
3. Right bookcase
4. Upper shelf

Our base / location

Our inspiration - Window Seat Bookcase

Our nearly finished project - Window Seat with Storage

Window seat wall unit