I spent most of the day yesterday on my knees. I woke up feeling a kind of under the weather, didn’t feel like just laying around all day, so I decided to go over to the Walberg’s to help Keith and Catherine get their house ready to show to sell. Next thing I know, I’m tearing the layers of flooring out of the two bathrooms upstairs.
The realtor suggested they put tile in the bathrooms. That made sense, but when you think about it, why wouldn’t all realtors want you to fix up all the houses that they are planning on listing. They make more commission, or at the least, they sell the home, making their commissions, quicker. They aren’t the ones spending the money to upgrade the home. I have a friend, Joe Irwin, who says any house he sells is as is, where it is. That makes a lot of sense to me.
Anyway, there were a couple layers of vinyl down which was nearly impossible to tear up. Upon closer inspection, they put a 1/4″ layer of plywood down, so prying that off the floor exposed pretty pristine wood. I think construction is nearly the best cross training a cyclist can do. You do so many different motions that you would never do normally. I’ve been trying to get my shoulder working better, pretty much the whole year. I did do 30 push ups yesterday morning, which was mildly motivating, but working for 10 hours on this bathroom after was 1000X better/harder. I am so sore today I can hardly move.
I probably walked up and down their two flights of stairs 100 times yesterday. I know that doesn’t seem like much, but I live in a ranch house, so I’m not doing stairs much. Carrying cement board, mixing and moving thinset, etc. just adds to the workout. My hamstrings are usually worse than they seem to be today. Maybe that will be a slow process and they will get more sore as the day goes on. It is always humbling when I consider how well I can tune my body to do one specific thing athletically and then when I attempt to do other things that fall out of that range, I am so horrible at them.
I’m doing a cyclocross clinic down in Dallas this weekend. I’m not sure that sitting a car for 10 hours is the best way to loosen up, but that is what I’m doing. I needed to start doing some different motions, so it’s all good.
I saw this guy hanging at Lowes yesterday. He was looking for his people.
Start of the small bathroom.
It got way easier after finding the 1/4″ plywood.
Starting laying the cement board.
The bigger bathroom floor removal went way quicker.
There were a ton of weird angles, more cuts, so it was tedious.
I am a contractor and would be very nervous buying a house that was a flip or where repairs were recently made to “update” the home to sell. In most cases, (especially with tile projects) corners are cut to save money and 6 months later it all has to be ripped up and installed properly. BTW, your installation process looks spot on!!
Always remember: We don’t lay tile, we lay women. Tile is “set”.
“I think construction is nearly the best cross training a cyclist can do. ” reminds me of what my father used to tell me when I was younger & he was constantly dragging me in on some remodel or construction job. “Just think son, your friends are spending all that money at health clubs to try and get fit. I am letting you train here for free, no charge waht’s-so-ever.”
Every adult on the planet should do some type of overload-and-progression based weightlifting program for a minimum of 30 minutes twice a week. If you have artiritis use lower weight and up the reps. I’m talking a total of one hour per week. Take the holidays off or whatever and that’s only 48 hours a year. Makes a huge difference.
CX clinic in Dallas? what clinic? I’m in the cx scene here and haven’t seen any announcements… is it public?
wildcat.. totally agree. i do 8 hrs a day farm work and get in an hour riding.. hahaha..
What SB said…?
Steve- Quick tip for floor tear out that’s worked for me…
-Check the depth and layers of laminate/underlayment at an air vent opening or toilet flange hole.
-Take a circular saw with a crappy blade and set the depth to the bottom of the underlayment
-Cut the room into a checkered pattern like 2ft x 2ft
-Cut right through the vinyl and underlayment…you will hit nails and staples…reason for the crappy blade
-Tear up the smaller pieces
Im a realtor. Getting 2k extra on sale price is negligible. 2k x .06 = 120 dollars. Now split that with the other agent 60 dollars, now split that with your broker 10 – 50% = 30-50 dollars… now pay 35% tax on
that … 20 to 35 bucks…. This is on 6%… sometimes its 5 or 7.
It is all about volume and speed. Selling quickly is 1 less phone call you have to make to the seller every
week/month. It is 1 less potential open house that you have to sit at and waste time. 1 less thing to
update online, etc….