Coincidental to our arrival in Carrollton, TX for the winter, our condo tenants moved out a week afterward. Our new property manager, Millicent Roberts-Reagins, had alerted us in advance, and we agreed to do all needed repairs and some upgrades. Our tenants had been two men, and while there was no unexpected damage beyond normal wear and tear, I was disturbed by how dirty the place was. MFI attributed it to their being males and was quick to give them a pass. I attributed it to their being pigs.
We did a thorough walk-through with Millicent and later saw additional repair needs the longer we spent time there. All in all, we developed a list of 42 items and spent 8 full days completing that list. Millicent contracted for a carpet and house cleaning according to their company policies and procedures. The house cleaning cost $250, but afterward, we shared with Millicent that the cleaning was not comprehensive and generally inadequate. For example, as I did the touch-up painting, I could see that the walls, crown molding, and baseboards had not even been dusted for cobwebs, let alone cleaned. And the floor around the toilet in the master bath was untouched and filthy. Similarly, after the carpet had supposedly been cleaned, we saw that it had been vaccumed, but couldn’t see any evidence of steam cleaning. Plus, there was an easily visible large stain in the master bedroom that hadn’t been addressed. We let Millicent know, and she had the carpet cleaners return. This time they steam cleaned, and voilá, no more stain. We took care of the other cleaning deficiencies ourselves.
The touch-up painting was substantial. Occupants hang things on the walls, so I did a thorough search for holes, spackled them, and painted. In the guest bedroom, something , such as, a string of lights or a stick-on border had been affixed to the wall just beneath the crown molding. It had been removed but pulled off chips or paint about every foot. More spackling and painting. Oddly, our drapery rods in both bedrooms had been taken by the occupants. Millicent advised that most properties don’t provide rods, so we didn’t replace them. Nonetheless, I had to remove the wall anchors, repair the holes, and paint. I had to paint the interior doors where paint had been scratched off, and I cleaned and painted all of the base boards in the living and dining rooms because they had taken a beating.
Four other areas required a lot more than touch up. The first were stains on the ceiling caused by water damage.




The second was a poor attempt at patching holes in the brick fireplace above the mantle. The holes in the joints had been haphazardly filled with some water-based spackle. Fortunately, I was able to smooth out the joint using a wet-rag wrapped around my fingers. Once painted it looked like new.


Third, the raised wooden floors of the three closets in the guest bedroom and bathroom had also taken a beating. Rather than having to paint them every time occupancy changes, we installed faux-wood vinyl flooring. Except for periodic cleaning, these floors are now maintenance free. We thought they were a nice-looking upgrade as well.



Finally, the end wall of the kitchen required significant help. During the original condo renovation, we applied a cork wall-covering to add a different texture to the kitchen. Occupants had splashed liquid laundry detergent on the cork, and the stains could not be removed. We decided to create a wainscot by adding a small chair rail and painted the cork below it. Now the painted cork can be wiped down, if necessary. This unintended upgrade also looked good. Time will tell how it actually holds up.

We (meaning MFI) installed a push-button lockset on the front door to the condo to eliminate the need for a bunch of keys. However, the thickness of the device prevented the exterior screen/glass door from fully closing. Therefore, another project was to increase the thickness of the door jam, so the door could close properly. This also entailed extending the existing threshold and removing, then re-installing the exterior door trim. I painted the trim, the jam, and stained the existing wood threshold to complete the job.



The outside patio was a mess. The plant wall we had built and the wood patio tiles laid were badly weathered. What plants and vines had been there were dead. I removed the dead plants and weeds, cleaned the entire area, stained the plant wall and patio tiles, and rearranged the flower pots.






We agreed with the property management company that we’ll retain responsibility for the washer, dryer, microwave, stove-top, and oven. We expect to sell the condo in the future, and thought it best that we ensure these appliances are well maintained and remain fully operational. During the walk through, we saw that while the microwave worked fine, the LED screen was shot. MFI tried in vain to find a way to repair or replace it, but we had to buy a new one. MFI also ran the self-cleaning cycle on the oven only to have the circuit board overheat and fail. Strangely, this too couldn’t be repaired or replaced, so we had to purchase a new oven. Videos below show our work.

The renovation of the condo has made it a hot property. Interested renters were contacting Millicent for a walk through even before she had placed it on the market. Once on the market, it rented immediately. The new occupants moved in the day after we finished our work. Phew!