Sorry, cross posted with Notelling
I could just cry! Its going to be $700 to fix floors perfectly, and even worse, I have to move all furniture out of living room area, put plastic hanging up everywhere and close up house. After discussion with agent, we’ve decided to postpone work until the middle of next week. Last thing we want is to cancel showings and Open House over a weekend.
She’s so optimistic! She thinks we’ll be in contract by then and we can close up the house
What’s he going to, re-sand and refinish the entire floor?
He underestimated the work on the stairs and now he is trying to recoup.
That sucks.
Its because he has to sand at a 45 to get warped edges down so he needs a wide enough space for sanding machine and then he has to do whole length to sliding door because its impossible to cut straight line of sanding and stain in the lengths
We are still working on the house as we try to sell it. Today my carpenter tried to plumb in the master bath sinks. Everything for photos is smoke and mirrors, we barely had 10 minutes just to drop the faucets into the holes (after granite guy did emergency return to drill the holes out correctly) and tighten them up. The master bath IKEA cabinet has been a nightmare because the sinks are dropped in and it interferes with the top drawers. He had to modify all the plumbing (not totally to code!) and then modify the top drawers to get them to slide in because the plumbing was in the way. Meanwhile, making a mess all over the place while we are supposed to be ready for showings. This involves me following him around and cleaning everything at the end of every day just in case someone comes to view the house.
Installed handles on master closet sliding doors, handle on the master walk in closet pocket door, new handle/lock on master bath pocket door, new closet rod in one of the bedrooms, new closet rod in master sliding closet. Also, we re routed all of the drainage from the retaining wall because the neighbor was complaining. We also installed super tall 96" high mirrored closet doors in front bedroom because the opening was really tall. Still trying to figure out how to do closet doors in middle bedroom because the opening is a very unusual size 66" wide by only 68" tall. We are going to have to customize something.
Went to three different hardware stores trying to find a solution to finish the handrail down in the family room on the final 3 steps. We need to finish this handrail in order to call for final inspection.
I loaded some photos of the mess these guys make as they work through the house with the final details.
Stain the railing to match the wood on the stairs or paint it to match the color on the baseboards?
I agree that staining it to match the wood on the stairs would look good.
cb, why did you decide to put the house on the market when you did, knowing you still had these issues to contend with?
One possiblity for the odd shaped closet door - put a bath tension held shower curtain rod in there and hang a lovely shower curtain over the space. If that doesn’t fit, use a lovely piece of fabric. I am a fan of using fabric to close closets because it makes ventilation better, makes closet easier to access, etc. Use the shower curtain hooks that have little beads to make the curtain glide better. Low budget solution!
I have to say that I have never seen a fabric closet “door” that doesn’t look cheesy. Hypothetically, it could be well done and work with the other furnishings. Hypothetically. 
I was thinking about the market timing for CB’s flips vs what I see around here. The only house I can think of that sold in a matter of days was a couple years before the market crash in 2008, and it was a FSBO priced significantly below what they could have gotten for it. They put out a sign and it sold in three days. Typically, houses are on the market for months and months. I think it would be considered a quick sale if it went in 2 months or less.
Agree, Consolation. I think fabric closet doors look weird.
RE market data reported by CNBC today suggest that inventory is still very low. Fingers crossed for CB!
It’s always like this. We push push push to get to photos. There are a lot of details that aren’t finished before the photos because the photos won’t show. For example, photos don’t know that the faucets aren’t exactly hooked up and flowing water. And, we had not finished the baseboards inside the closets.
Then, we push push push for the next phase of things to get done before Open Houses. For example, we finished all the baseboard install and touchup painting by Friday night. Unfortunately, the dishwasher leak happened on the day of photos (last Wednesday) and we didn’t have any choice but to keep moving forward because the Broker Open House and the weekend Open Houses had already been advertised. I wanted to stop the weekend Open Houses because the floor was pulled up, but agent insisted that buyers could see past it and she has a comment in the listing ‘final details being completed, floor repair underway’. Hopefully people can see past all this.
I still haven’t decided what color to stain and finish the handrail. Right now it is raw Douglas Fir. Today I have 3 stains I am going to try on an extra piece… Country Oak (trying to match the laminate on stairs), the custom stain we used for oak floors upstairs (probably will not look good) and a light grey stain. That’s my project for today.
The issue with the strange size closet is that most closet doors, and regular doors for that matter, are hollow and there isn’t enough ‘bite’ at top and bottom to try to cut them down to the right size. Standard closet height is 80" and the middle bedroom closet is only 68" high with a set of cabinet doors on top. This means we would have to be able to cut off more than 12" from top and bottom of any doors purchased.
I think that I might have found a solution… there are cheezy flimsy white closet doors in stock at HD and Lowe’s. These have a metal frame around them. We might be able to cut these down and reapply the metal frame across top with Gorilla Glue or something. Then the cut end can be shoved up inside the hanging track and may not be noticeable. Another customization hack job at the last minute - just great planning on my part 
Agent won’t allow a fabric curtain - it just wouldn’t go with the style of the house. It might work if the style was shabby chic or vintage or something.
re hollow doors:
As long as the door is flat (i.e., no raised/recessed panels or design) it is actually pretty easy to cut off the top and then cut and insert a board to fill in the hollow space. The hardest part is making a really clean cut so it doesn’t rag out the edges. A table saw with a fine-tooth blade is the best bet.
You can also get solid core wood blanks at HD or Lowes for fairly cheap, such as this one for $61:
I love the house and think you will get an offer soon. Ocean views are a huge selling point in my area.
Regarding staging. A few months ago a house on the road above us was open house. I convince H that we should stop and look. I have driven by this house for 27 years and I think the outside is super dated and not attractive one of the ugliest in the neighborhood. It was designed in the 70’s by a somewhat big architect. The property was 2 parcels and already subdivided. Unobstructed ocean and Channel Island views. The lay of the land so that no one can ever build in front of you. We walked through and I thought the house was wonderful. Dated but nice. I realized that it was all in the staging. The staging sold the house to me. Until the agent told me it had been staged I thought everything inside belonged to the owner. It appeared to be the home of an educated person who had traveled the world to exotic locales and filled his home with items discovered in his travels. List price was almost 6 million for a house that will need work. It sold pretty quick for a house in that price range. I think the selling price was just under 6mill. I think staging helped that house sell. ( I live in a neighborhood with home range from 1.3 to over 12 million depending on house, lot size and view) I hate walking into a home where they stage half the rooms with a twin bed and a card table covered with a tablecloth.
You should get the name of the stager from the realtor. He or she may do other interior design; it is always nice to have the name of a designer that you admire.
That staging sounds divine and probably was expensive, as it should befor a $6 million house.
Yes, we have cut down doors before and then replaced the top with an insert. Carpenter has to perform surgery. I think it might be easier for this closet because we could cut only the bottom and keep top intact for good grab for top sliding mechanism
I actually think it would look cool to have the handrail be a sharp color. I knew someone whose stair rail was bright lime green with wire below. Looked fantastic. Since blue seems to be the theme in your house, not this actual color, but:
http://cdn.decoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Staircase-1.jpg
