Grover: Week 13

I hope you enjoy these weekly updates as I learn to navigate through the business of flipping houses.  Check out more about this flip, Grover, or check out posts about our last flip HERE. I got a pleasant surprise yesterday when I got to Grover- the floors have a first coat on them!!  The only bad part of this news is that I had to try and take this week's progress shots for you while standing in the back doorway since I couldn't step on the floors.

I admittedly didn't spend a ton of time at Grover this week- the bulk of my time was spend schlepping things from Craigslist and staging Frankie for under $1000 (who's looking pretty spectacular if I do say so myself).  When I was over at Grover, I kept myself quite busy prepping the living and dining room walls and trim and starting to prime.

w13-floors2

but look at those floors!!!  The floor in the living room (the red area) is 100% original while in the dining room (bottom right of pic) new floors were woven in with the old so that the kitchen's (area on left in blue) new wood would blend.  I heart them.

w13-floors

I'm quite excited to switch out the dining room fixture for my 'new' craigslisted Restoration Hardware chandelier... of which I have no good picture of because it's in the basement and as I mentioned...I couldn't step into the house...  BUT, I found this picture on e-bay of one-size-up chandelier.  Mine only has 5 arms.

restoration hardware light

Mine's brushed nickel and doesn't have the shades.  No shades is a good thing, a very good thing- those shades make it feel traditional.  Without the shades, it looks rather mid-century like the house is and it makes me happy.  This is the high quality pic from the listing that I saved onto my phone.

rh-light

It is missing the chain and the ceiling canopy, but those parts are easy to replace and I'll take a Restoration Hardware chandelier for $50 any day!

Back inside the house, I have thankfully banished the dingy cream/yellow from the living/dining windows and it's an instant facelift!  With the yellow gone, it feels exponentially cleaner.

w13-window

Almost all of the trim in the house was the same odd cream/yellow as the front door (which, trust me, is much more garish in person.  So much so that the roofing guy who came to quote the roof mocked it).  So this is my current debate.  Do I leave the existing front door, add a little trim to make it a bit more architectural, and simply paint it?  Potential color options range from a better yellow, to green, to a deep red.

w13-original-door

Or do I switch it out entirely?

w13-hd-door

Apparently on home depot's app, you can hold up certain products and then take a pic with it in your space- I dig it.  I'd stain this door a medium tone, but keep it wood.  Hands down, I know the new door would look better, but I'm having a tough time justifying the cost of getting it installed.  The diamond door is just so dated (and not in the best shape), but I very much like getting a return on each element I put in the house and I'm not sure the ROI is there.  Thus is my internal debate.  I think I need to talk to my contractor a bit more before I can make an educated door decision.

So that is my enthralling Grover progress this week.  The staging over at Frankie is much more exciting, so I'll be taking photos of that today.  If someone doesn't want that house now they should have their heads checked!  Speaking objectively of course.