What Did We Start With?

I own a 4-unit rental building near the top of Sehome Hill in Bellingham.

When I bought it, Unit #3 was by far the the most humble of the 4 apartments in the Liberty St. building.

Like the others, it's a 2-bedroom, 1-bath apartment with a small-ish kitchen, a living room, a couple closets and a full bath.

But since its birth in 1967 -- the year the building went up -- it had merely been nursed along from tenant to tenant with the only apparent upgrades being some paint and flooring.(Even those were antiquated -- and soon to be wet, thanks to a major leakage event in December 2020 -- by the time I took ownership).The pieces and parts that make up a home or apartment wear out over time.

Residential building components have a "design life" — meaning, they're meant to be functional and useful for a finite number of years.

I can tell you assuredly that almost nothing has a 54-year design life.

Imagine 54-year-old, used-up and worn-out...

Electrical outlets, switches, and fixtures
Baseboard heaters and thermostats
Faucets and sinks
Toilet, tub, drains, supply valves and hoses
Cabinets and counters
Doors, handles, hinges
Wall and ceiling panels
Have I left anything out?

Now run those things through dozens of different tenants over the decades, not to mention past floods and freezes, parties and pets, dirty deeds and damage and who knows what other forms of craziness!

It's a hard life for an apartment!

Now, cross-reference the worn-out-ness of Unit #3 with my own personal philosophy that...

I WANT TO BE PROUD OF THE PROPERTIES WE OWN AND MANAGE.

I am not looking to slum-lord my way to squeezing every last penny out of a property or a tenant, as things fall apart and threaten to crumble to the ground.

On the contrary, when prospective tenants walk through a vacant apartment, I want to hear them say:

"This is the cleanest apartment we've looked at."

When neighbors walk by, I want them to feel that our buildings are a positive influence on the neighborhood... not a negative one.

The Liberty St. building has tremendous potential to achieve those reactions... and the remodel of Unit #3 was a golden opportunity to make it so.

So here's what we did...

We started with an almost full gut-job... ripping and tearing nearly EVERYTHING out of there.

That included:

Gutting the kitchen to studs
Gutting the bathroom, completely
Gutting the electrical system including the service panel
Gutting every inch of flooring
Gutting every closet of every shelf and bracket
Gutting the entire ceiling and insulation
Trashing the baseboard heaters and thermostats
Trashing the light fixtures
Trashing the dark brown wall panels
Trashing the window shades

And hauling load after load to the dump with a "Sayonara, sucker!"

TOTAL DUMP/DISPOSAL COST: $414.00

The only thing we left was sheetrock on (most of) the walls, the windows, and the door jambs.

OK... let's get into some Before's and After's...

KITCHEN BEFORE

KITCHEN AFTER

The kitchen is the social epicenter of every home.

We tore everything out including the wall that made it into an isolated cave, divided from the living room, and started fresh.

The new kitchen elements included:

New hardwood cabinet package
New granite counters and backsplash
New stainless steel fridge, stove/range, microwave and dishwasher
New stainless steel sink and brushed nickel faucet
New waste disposer
New light fixtures
New infrared heater and thermostat
The new flooring, trim, and paint (that all extends throughout the entire apartment)

TOTAL KITCHEN REMODEL COST: $8747.00

BATHROOM BEFORE

OK, small disclosure about the bathroom photo below.

On New Year's Eve, 2020, the tenant at the time called to say their toilet had backed up.

First thing on New Year's Day I'm in there with Best Rooter Services, tracking (exterior drainage repair) mud all over as we pull the toilet and try to open the clogged sewer main.

But still, look past the mud into the nasty, stained tub... onto the vanity top... that's how bad it was.

It was *disgusting* in every way.

BATHROOM AFTER

The bathroom is the launch-pad to the day.

EVERYTHING about the previous bathroom had to go, go, GO! Ugh.

The new bathroom elements included:

New shower surround and fixtures
New toilet
New vanity, sink and faucet
New Mirror and vanity light
New towel bars
New ceiling light fixture and exhaust fan
New shelving in the closet and beside the vanity
New paint and flooring

TOTAL BATHROOM REMODEL COST: $5150

NOTE: About $3K of the bathroom remodel was labor cost. I hired Bellingham Plumbing and Heating to just TAKE OVER and fully install the shower surround, the vanity, the toilet, and connect all the plumbing.

BEDROOMS BEFORE

BEDROOMS AFTER

A bedroom is a sanctuary.

The bedrooms were the epicenter of the flood damage, and they also had the window-enlarging project. So they were ripe for a makeover of their other elements.

The new bedroom elements included:

New luxury vinyl plank flooring
New paint top to bottom
New closet shelves and brackets
New LED light fixtures
Sanded and repainted doors
New handles and hinges
New infrared cove heaters and thermostats
New 2" faux wood blinds

TOTAL BEDROOM REMODEL COST: $2100 EACH

The bedrooms were areas where I was able to re-use some things.

All the doors, for example, were in decent shape. They just needed sanding and repainting before re-installing them with black hinges and handles. They look gorgeous.

The vertical grain doug fir closet shelves and rods were covered in layers of paint, so I took them home, ran them through the planer, and rubbed them down with some oil.

Re-installed with black brackets, they look awesome.

All the rest...

Along with the details of the rooms mentioned above, there were a number of other aspects of the remodel and — of course — their respective expenses.

I did a lot of the "grunt" and carpentry work myself, but I also relied on various subcontractors and installers. Some of those were:

Dillon Electric: $5440
Bellingham Plumbing and Heating: $3919
Countertops for Less: $4261
Color Pot Flooring: $4914
Storm Drywall: $5978
PNW Eco Insulation: $1522

It would have taken me forever to do all this work myself.

Instead, with the help of these awesome subs, total time from the move-out date of the former tenants to move-in date of the new tenant, was 81 days.

GRAND TOTAL FOR THE FULL REMODEL: $41,758.

One last Before and After...

The very last thing I did on a semi-focused day before the new tenant took possession, was rebuild the sloping, rickety front steps into a solid, more gradual and much sturdier version.

We began with this...

And on that final, sunny, glorious day, built this...

Grooving out on a simple carpentry project is one of my favorite ways to spend a day. I had an ear to ear grin pretty much the whole day.

In Summary...

I had a blast doing this remodel because I love designing and building, I love carpentry, I love this particular four-plex......

and let's be honest: Because it's a rental, I didn't have to live there or subject my family to the dust, noise, inconvenience or distraction of living in a jobsite.

That counts for a lot.

Also...

I sleep better knowing that Apartment #3 is essentially brand new in every way.

The space is light and bright and positively enjoyable.

My good friends' elderly mom now has a beautiful place to call home, with things that are new, high quality, and that work correctly.

It's a place she can be proud to call "home".

Oh... and from the window near the kitchen, where the dining table now resides... she can look out at this view:

If I can help with any aspects of YOUR remodel, or provide any subcontractor's information, or anything I learned along the way that would be helpful to you......don't hesitate to reach out to me.

What It Cost: A 2-Bedroom Bellingham Apartment Remodel