cb, all of them screwing up doesn’t mean you’re required to make it all better by letting the owners stay there. Having your owners living in a demo zone means a lot of additional headaches and work for you. (Like you didn’t already know that.)
Aren’t these your agent’s parents? Hopefully she’ll take the lead on finding them somewhere to stay if not her own house.
^This. What is wrong with the daughter that she’s not having her parents stay with her during the reno?
I am late to the party on this one, but this made me laugh: Grandma got a hold of a lot of wall paper and green carpet to decorate the house 20 or 30 years ago (possibly older than that).
LOTS older … sounds like mid-70’s. I remember that time period well … and I really cannot believe it has been more than 40 years. (My, I feel ancient when I think about that.)
Daughter (and their buying agent) doesn’t have any room because she rents a small downtown condo. She would have to ask her roommate to move out so parents can sleep in the other bedroom. However, I am going to start pushing my agent (daughter) to start finding them a place to stay because they are not good candidates for living in a construction zone.
My last clients … fine. They were young and I made it very clear what they were in for and they had set up a little kitchenette in their big master bedroom and they had a separate entrance.
I’ve already hit the first impasse. If you look at the photos you can see the dated curtains and ‘pouffy valances’ in the Grandma House. These are covered in dust and cobwebs from 30 years. We need to take down these curtains and curtain rods to do a good job of removing the wallpaper and painting. But NO!!! she likes the horrid pouffy valances and wants to keep them 
Ouch!!! It is going to be an uphill battle. Does she like them because she feels that she paid for them?
Well…they have to come down for the construction…period. If THEY choose to put them back up after you are all done…let them. Don’t include that in your scope of work. Do your work, collect the money…and walk away.
I think she likes them because that is what she had in her old house (probably just as old with 30 yrs of dust)
Here’s a funny story…
Remember that I did a walk through of the house being sold. I made a list of what I thought would help improve the ‘staging’ and showings of the house because they were not getting a ton of buyers. One of the key things was I recommended removing the Grandma pouffy valances which were burgundy/purple.
They went into contract. During the inspection period the buyers prepared an official list of items that needed to be repaired (not much) BUT then they specifically wrote into the request “Buyer would like to have valances put back up that were in the house during first showing but missing during inspection” What the hey??? My agent and I just laughed because the Joke Was on Us! Somehow these were the only buyers in the universe that actually wanted those ugly things
That is a very funny story! Rats. Grandma probably feels vindicated now.
I remember admiring some Laura Ashley valances when I was a youngster… they were sold with tissue paper to stuff them for extra poufiness. I thought that some day I would decorate my house with those. LOL!!!
Ahem…I think I did have those Laura Ashley valances…in 1978.
With any kind of luck…when you take those things down, they will fall apart from dry rot!
DW had a half-million dollar deal fall apart because the buyer wanted the window treatments and the seller wouldn’t give them up.
What the sellers were going to do with custom window treatments in a different house is anyone’s guess, but people get weird about that stuff.
Sad, NRE. I can believe that.
I chucked the custom window treatments that came with House2. Claw foot drapery rod holders are not my style! I would have been happy if the seller wanted to take them with her. They took too much space in the garbage can. Minimalistic Umbra rods look very good above our new custom panoramic slider!
I would always assume that the new buyer would NOT want them. But I guess you should ask…
Proof that you can always sell a house, no matter how unattractive the listing pictures try to make it look: http://www.sdlookup.com/MLS-170031902-3411_Lowell_St_San_Diego_CA_92106 I am torn between the Sessions testimony showing on the TV, the giant water bottles in the bedroom (perhaps to use in the shell of a sauna?), and the tangle of wires obstructing the view of the city.
Sales price was $100K down from original listing price. Not sure how they reconciled “Unique fixer opportunity” with “Tenant occupies the home until but would love to stay.”
Further evidence listing pictures may be immaterial: http://www.sdlookup.com/MLS-170039015-4415_Muir_San_Diego_CA_92107
This house photographed much better LOL : http://www.sdlookup.com/MLS-170044181-360_San_Gorgonio_San_Diego_CA_92106 And no curtains to worry about.
I bet those look worse IRL than in photos. Like the $1.8M local masterpiece I mentioned earlier. Out of sheer curiosity we toured it. Oh my.
1 0 8 8 2 NE 14th lane Clyde Hill
The photographer missed the two extra large open top cat boxes in the middle of MB and the fact that the flag in the laundry serves a very important purpose - it covers a rotted window. The masterpiece sold for $1.3M. I pity the developer that will be taking it down. That house is built like a German bunker with 20 inch thick walls. Not your measly 2x4 or even 2x6!
I just disposed of the last pieces of that custom drapery. It was 6 or 7 years old and already looked terrible (west facing window). I cannot imagine how bad 30 yr old drapes could look! Grandma needs to find some new ones that don’t have allergens and asbestos embedded in them.
I’ve said this on other threads, but I’ll say it again here: I’ve never seen a window treatment that I like. Curtains, draperies, blinds, vertical blinds, swags, sheers, whatever. I much prefer nothing on the windows, unless it’s necessary for privacy. In which case blinds that are drawn only during the evening are what I use.
VH, me too. My windows are all bare except in bedrooms which have roman shades. They are only pulled down at bedtime.
Oh goodie. I’ve had people tell me I’m weird.