Cheapskate Tips: Fix Up An Old House While Living In it

I’m separated for some years now and I rent a three bedroom tract house in Roseville, California, cheap from an old school friend in exchange for my refurbishment and maintenance work on it.

All these houses and others in the Dry Creek neighborhood called Lincoln Estates flooded, including mine, in 1995. Many were previously flooded in 1985 so most were raised 4-8 ft to prevent subsequent flooding of living spaces. Far right home was not elevated but so far has not flooded since 1995 despite some close calls.

Although the structure is getting on in age and is a cheap, stick-built gorilla cage, suburban house, it is still basically sound and should last another several decades if it doesn’t burn up or get swept down Dry Creek in a huge flood.

As Groucho Marx noted in The Cocoanuts, “You can even get stucco… boy, can you get stucco!” That was in Florida but stucco is also very popular in beautiful this area, especially in cheap tract houses from 1967.

The front was overgrown with ivy and eradicating it took years and left these black marks. Water resistant Hardie-board panels below window cover the 4ft pony walls of the house raising procedure.

And despite the tatty old 1995 paint and half rusted off gutters most of the house functions pretty well. When I moved in three years back it had not been lived in for some time and was neglected and worn down, despite my decade long work on it for my old college pal.

This is a mystery volunteer lily looking plant that comes back every year with one bloom, then dies off.

So I earned my low rent the first year or so, ripping out and removing pet peed carpets; paying $350 to have our local handyman replace the kitchen sink plumbing, and the defunct 1995 HVAC thermostat.

Early on I paid $700 to have a grand pile of leftover old deadbeat tenent junk, smelly carpet, derelict furniture, house refurb scraps and other assorted detritus carted to the dump. An 8ft high pile of wet trash maybe 20ft in diameter. Worth the money.

I normally cut this rose off to about a foot tall in winter but neglected to do it this year so it’s a big mess. It puts out red blooms but they dry out before they fully open, probably from too much shade. Haven’t weeded out the smelly fake onions smothering it either.
This smaller rose is even more shaded and overgrown with weeds, it comes back every year but has never bloomed.
After weeding. Pale and wan leaves.

Then my landlord/buddy paid $500 to have the HVAC igniter board replaced so I’d have heat. I seldom run the heater except on cold mornings but they are pretty frequent in winter here in North Central California.

I remember when the former house owner had this HVAC unit installed after the 1995 flood and it was rather marginal in power even back then, amazing it is still working. Marginal, true, but nice to have even in our generally mild climate.

The roof is worn but does not leak except from maple leaves clogging the roof drain valley (the cricket), easily fixed and prevented by clearing maple leaf roof mats off the cricket. But a scary tall height for an old man with arthritis and a fake hip. I let my also elderly LL climb that tall ladder.

Downspouts rusted away, gutters gone or going.

The gutters were a different story, rusted and flooding the foundation, so we ripped off and cut off some of it. It should all be removed and gravel poured on the house’s ground drip line.

Windows are 1967 single pane with aluminum frames, some with cracks, with next to no insulation value. Likewise the loose excelsior paper attic insulation is matted down from age, and trampled thin by racoon gangs when the house was unoccupied.

So even when the old weak HVAC gets the place to a comfortable temperature, within an hour it’s guaranteed to be too hot or too cold again.

Did I mention I ripped out all the cat, dog and hamster smelling carpet and have been living on the hard particle board underlayment for over 3 years?

Breathing that dust can’t be good for my allergies and sinusitis. And drafty, and unable to be actually cleaned. I never go barefoot here except in my back lawn.

My pal scrounged me some good used laminate flooring but spackling came first, and painting also comes before flooring installation so I’ll be walking on 1967 carpet underlayment for some months more.

I beefed up the weathered late 1970s redwood fence through the years with my LL’s recycled dog-ear fencing boards to keep it from collapsing entirely. Then I built this gate for it after the half door my son, a former tenant, had built for it fell apart from rain, sun and wear. Recycled non-matching hinges, handle.

So the heated or cooled air sneaks out the walls, windows, doors, attic and floors. This would probably kill me in Battle Creek, Michigan, but here in the milder Great Valley low foothills it just makes me a tough old bird. Not one illness in the going on four years that I’ve lived here so far, knock on Pergo.

Tips are coming here soon on how I spend so little on gas, water and electric bills despite the leaky old house I rent. But you will be required to be a tough bird, old or not, for the weird tricks to work for you like they do for me.

I converted an old Black Cat class dacron marconi type sloop sail into a bimini or dodger for my porch to keep it dry; missing rain gutters and poor design were flooding the front porch.

My benefactor gave me this window room AC unit to augment or replace the old house Carrier HVAC unit on very hot days. It cools the dismally dark living room and helps in the next room too, my small dining room nook, with the only newish, double pane, windproof window.

The large and, since 1995, very tall attached garage. Note the 4ft tall water resistant Hardie-board panels from the flood raising. I’m slowly getting it organized and decluttered enough for some grand futile project like a van camper conversion, school bus tiny home, or VW Baja bug jalopy.

Back yard pics, garage improvements shots and indoor shots in further episodes. And Cheapskate Tips on spending half as much on energy as your energy efficient neighbors, and three times less than your average energy use neighbors. In a decrepit old rental house.

Unless noted, all text and images by todgermanica.com

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