Millie: Week 6

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I hope you enjoy these weekly updates as I learn to navigate through the business of flipping houses.  This flip, Millie is the most challenging and most exciting yet! You can find more about this house and about my 3 previous flip houses here. At some point the mess in Millie will start getting less and start to look like a functional house again.  That point was not this week.

A dumpster for trash/demo debris was delivered yesterday, so in the days leading up, I used that as a reason to get all smashy and messy inside.  So much so that I've run out of smashy room until I totally load up the dumpster.  I've only loaded it with stuff from the yard and it's more full than anticipated.  Looks like I'll be playing dumpster tetris again.

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One of the larger items that I've been waiting for in the yard also happened this week- stump grinding!  I can just feel your excitement!

Once upon a time, the yard was lined with large evergreens that got damaged in an epic ice storm.  Instead of dealing with the entire tree, stumps and all, they chopped the trees down and landscaped around them, leaving me to deal with the stumps.  All 22 of them.  The pic below from last weeks progress highlights 12 of the 22.

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Well, the stumps are no more!

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The enthralling exodus of the stumps means that I can now finish landscaping as necessary.  I need to plant grass, do minor weeding (of the little guys that I ignored the first time around), and mulch.... a lot.

Inside the house is all about selective demolition.  Well, every room except the blue bathroom.  That is exclusive demolition.

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I find it amusing that once I demo-ed the tile-covered drywall, I discovered that this bathroom did in fact originally have a wall hung sink.  Prior to this discovery, I also purchased a wall hung sink for in here (that I showed you in last weeks update).  What's old is new again, right?

Selective demo was the kitchen.  With plans to reuse the cabinet boxes, I had to carefully remove all the doors, and not so carefully remove a few 100 year old cabinet shelves to create an alcove that I'll be able to eventually tuck the fridge into.  It hurt me a little to mess with one of the original cabinets, but it's what needed to happen logically to the kitchen.  I'd rather have a layout that functions for a modern kitchen than a few old shelves.

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And if anyone is counting, I believe I'm up to 13 different wallpapers discovered so far in the house.  4 of which were in here..... and all were pink.  Apparently this room has been pink since its creation.  This pic was taken after 2 layers were peeled off.

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You may have seen 3 of the 4 on my instagram this week.  The 4th was a pink gingham that I found only a few scraps of.

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My head was definitely in bathroom-mode this week, though.  More selective demo happened in the future master bath, as well as some layout planning.

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I removed the plate rail from in there which will be used to patch on the bedroom side once we close in the wall for the new pocket door.  Yes, there are 4 windows in the bathroom, and yes, I plan to frost them so the neighbors don't get a free show.  In addition to the layout planning, lots of plumbing fixtures were ordered for both baths.  2 claw foot shower rods and hardware were ordered which means that the new master will be getting a claw foot shower as well.  The visual side of me screams NONONO, but the functional side of me concedes to the fact that people want to take a shower in their bathroom.  Silly people.

Millie the fliphouse plumbing fixtures

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Other exciting stuff like rotten exterior trim repair and stripping paint from a claw foot tub also happened this week.  Not as pretty as shiny faucets, though.  Plans for the coming week include more exterior paint prep (yay!), more dumpster filling, more demo, more paint stripping, and more planning.  This house will be a stunner eventually!