Meet Clark

Yes, I named my flip house.  Wouldn't you?  After weeks of referring to him as "The flip house" which felt weird, I decided that I'd name him after his street. Meet Clark.  (WARNING: lots of pics ahead!)

clark before ext1

Clark before ext2

Clark looks decent on the surface, but the closer you look, the crappier he gets.  He was the victim of a VERY bad attempt at a flip which is probably the reason he was a foreclosure.  When you're flipping, you obviously want to do things on the cheap.  You do not, however want to cut corners and have it LOOK like you did it on the cheap.  Now I have to undo all the bad and make him awesome.  Challenge accepted!

He's a 3 bedroom, 1 bath charmer (or soon-to-be charmer) and needs a complete kitchen and bath gut.  Luckily, the rest of the rooms mostly need patching and painting.  Lots of painting.  Every surface- walls, ceilings, trims, closets....

The Living Room:

clark before living1

Looks decent on the surface, but the walls need lots of patching and painting.

Clark before living2

The original hardwood in this room needs a bit of love (read: complete refinishing).  I'm going to attempt this project with my own 2 hands, although a few things need to happen first.  Like opening up the wall between the kitchen and living room (the one with the arched doorway).  When I'm done with this room, Clark'll charm your pants off when you open the front door.

Clark before floors1

The Kitchen:

Clark before kitchen1

A good size but dark and dingy.  No room for a full-size fridge or a dishwasher- both a necessity for a happy home (in my humble opinion).  The bump-out on the right is the living room's coat closet.  Say buh-bye, cuz it's totally going away to make room for a better kitchen layout.

This is the aforementioned wall that will soon offer a pass-through to the living room, allowing for more light and better sight lines.

Clark before kitchen2

The previous bad flipper painted the lower cabinets to make them look better, but it was like putting lipstick on a pig.  Still a pig.  And pigs don't make for nice kitchens.

Clark before kitchen3

Neither do peel and stick tiles.  Vinyl peel and stick over green VCT (vinyl composition tiles).  YUM.  We're awaiting the results of our asbestos test to see if the VCT needs to stay (but be covered) or if we can rip it out. (I'm crossing my fingers we can rip it out with vengeance!)

Clark before floor2

The Bathroom:

This room is the most deceiving.  Looks rather nice/unoffensive in pictures.  Looks dreadful in person.  Only the sink and tub are slated to stay.

Clark before bathroom1

Linoleum that's molding from below= lovely.

Clark before bathroom4

Don't let your eyes deceive you- this it NOT tile.  This is chipboard molded to look like tile.  Cheap tile with visible finish nails everywhere...

Clark before bathroom3

Now that we've gotten through the worst of it, the bedrooms are a walk in the park.  They all have newish carpeting in a neutral color that needs a quick clean and just need lots of paint and new lights to make them sparkle.

Bedroom #1:

Clark before redbed1

Bedroom #2:

Clark before graybed1

Like I said, lots of paint in the bedrooms.

Clark before graybed2

Master Bedroom:

Clark before master1

I didn't get any images of the backyard yet, since it's covered in snow.  When the snow melts more, I'll take some befores of that too.  Its a quaint backyard that needs weed-whackers and cleanup.

I'm really excited to start the transformations and get Clark back on the market.  The goal is to get him done and listed in under 2 months.

Full steam ahead!!!