Nov 10
4
Riding the Renovation Roller Coaster
by Julie Broad
Today we’re closing on a great 5 bedroom 2.5 bathroom home near the hospital in Nanaimo. We’re pretty excited because we already have two different people anxious to get into our rent to own program with this home. In fact, one of our prospective tenant buyers is so excited about the home he was angry with us when we put our sign out front of the property last week. He didn’t want us to offer the home to anyone else! So, we’re hopeful that we can get this one filled within hours of taking possession tomorrow – which would be pretty darn fantastic!
Meanwhile, we’re still working on the 70′s house renovation project. When I last wrote about the house we were going through a bit of a permit problem. The main issue at that time was that a lot of work on the home previous to us buying it, had been done without a permit which could cause a notation to go on title. Thankfully the building inspector didn’t see a need for that and we moved forward quickly through the initial permit process … then it stalled!
We should have had the permit by mid-October but instead of the permit we received a letter saying that we were in violation of city by-laws because we were operating without a business license.
We were confused as to why we needed a business license to be real estate investors. We don’t live in the city so it’s not as though we’re operating a home based business there. Then we realized that the City probably figured we were acting as General Contractors on the project because we’re not on title for the property. Our joint venture partner’s corporation is on title and we had to have her sign a letter giving us the authority to act on behalf of her corporation. That third party authorization letter made it seem like we were general contractors.
It took 5 business days and 3 phone calls to the City but eventually we got the right person on the phone, explained that we own the property by way of a joint venture agreement and that we’re not general contractors, and the permit was issued two days later (and only about 9 days later than we’d expected).
The day we picked up the permit was the same day we found a MASSIVE water leak! 
I have so many things to be grateful for on a daily basis but this incident is FULL of things I was saying THANK GOODNESS for …
Thankfully my Mom and Dad were at the house when the leak began so they were able to get the water shut off and a plumber on site within a few hours. Even more wonderful was the fact that the major water issue occurred in a room we were about to demolish anyway. And THANKFULLY Mom and Dad heard the water rushing and were able to rescue most of the baseboards and laminate flooring we’d been storing in that room before they were destroyed! So yeah – it sucks because our plumbing expenses went up by a few thousand dollars but this leak could have happened AFTER the renos and it would have REALLY been bad to have to redo a room you just finished! Like I said – SO MANY REASONS TO BE GRATEFUL.
We immediately selected our plumber because we had to get him working that day and then we quickly picked the electrician and drywall guy from the quotes we had and got them all lined up. Mom and my brother Wes hit the house to begin the demolition of the rooms to get things ready for the electrician who started on Monday and the plumber who was kind enough to begin immediately. I wasn’t there for the demolition but Mom and Wes had quite the adventure.
Their first big discovery was a giant hornet’s nest:
They were pretty concerned that the hornets were sleeping and not dead. I don’t know who was the one who ultimately disturbed the nest and got it out of the house – but I know they were both ready to run away fast if there was any sign of life from the hornets. There wasn’t. The nest had been there for a long time.
The next discoveries fell out of the ceiling when they were removing the boards from overhead.
This magazine actually hit my Mom on the head:
My Mom called this discovery Hidden Treasures. All of these items (Penthouse Magazine, little Nestle toys, a home made hockey stick) fell out of the ceiling! I guess you never know what is hiding in a house, do you?
So this is where the renovation is at as of 2 days ago:
At least this is the main floor part of the house. The upstairs is looking AMAZING and once the finishing touches are complete we’ll share the before and afters of the kitchen, living area and bedrooms where we’ve done all the work. I think you’ll be pretty impressed …
I guess the lessons for today are expect the unexpected and always find things to be grateful for – even when things get a little rough!
First Image Credit: © Pichayasri | Dreamstime.com
All Other Images: Ruth-Anne Broad
