Grover: Week 5

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'm not quite sure how week 5 got here already.  This was one of those weeks where I was running around like a crazy person only to look back and wonder what actually was accomplished.  On top of it all, I almost forgot to take pics last night before leaving.  I was in the car with it running when I remembered and ran back in and snapped a few iphone pics (which means the photos in today's post are going to be very top-notch).

The big tedium of the week was started last week: sanding, scraping, and priming trim.  Thankfully all the trim in the 3 bedrooms is now ready for finish coats!

The other big thing this week was a dumpster.  Get it, big?

I've unloaded ALLLLL the demo from the house into it and thankfully have some room in the house to move around again.  There's also still room in the dumpster for when the wall starts coming down on Monday (got pushed back due to waiting for permit).

I spent several hours at IKEA on Wednesday ordering the kitchen and purchasing the bathroom vanity.  I've already half assembled the vanity in order to nail down a location for the new medicine cabinet recess.  Although there is a recess there currently, it's about a foot off center and would look pretty ridiculous if I located the new vanity there.

Heading over to the kitchen, I'm minorly apprehensive about the door fronts that I picked for the kitchen.  I hope the graining doesn't look dated.  I went with the one on the left which is real wood.  The one on the right, although I like the graining, it's just a print of wood on plastic and would be too dark.

Handy Dad also helped me clean out a few things in the yard yesterday including this modular fence (my guess was a dog pen) from underneath inches of dirt.  It's like they tried to bury it in hopes it would go away.  Not so, previous homeowners, not so.

I did hit a few small hick-ups this week too.

As I was hoping to prep the hall ceiling for paint, I noticed that the top layer of plaster was lose in one corner.  On a flat ceiling this would be no biggie, but on a swirled ceiling like this is, I'm going to have to get creative.  Luckily it's in the corner of the hallway- probably the most inconspicuous place in the house.  Guess who'll be googling how to repair swirl textured ceilings??

I also decided that the light fixtures that I installed last week just weren't bright enough with only one bulb, so I set out to replace them..... but the replacement lights that I got won't sit flat with the hardware provided.  That's what I get for going with cheap lights.

Not a big issue, just an annoying one since I now have to return these and buy a third set of lights for the bedrooms.  Third time better be the charm!

I'm very eager for the contractor to get started... I know once he does, the progress will be in leaps and bounds!

Have a great weekend!

Feeling Blue

I'm definitely not your standard house flipper.  Most house flippers would rip out an ugly blue bathroom and replace it with something neutral.

I spend hours ripping out blue tile only to plan on installing new blue tile on the floor.  I swear, I have a reason, though!  One of my goals with this house is to stay true to the history of this 1960s house, while also making it modern and chic.  Blue is a part of this house's story and I kind of dig it.

It all started with the floor tile.

Once I ordered the tile, everything else just started to fall into place around it.

1.  Portfolio vanity light from Lowe's

2.  Light gray paint above white board and batten.  The board and batten serves 2 very important purposes: 1- the scale of it will help the room feel larger, and 2- it will cover up the damaged walls from the old tile and bad renovations.

3.  Threshold shower curtain from Target with just a touch of blue.  This ties the room together and adds a pop of print.

4.  IKEA HEMNES cabinet and sink (I'll fancy it up with different knobs, naturally).  This is not as deep as most standard vanities which is ideal for this space.  Also with legs that raise it up off the floor, it gives the illusion of more floor space, and therefore a larger room.  When I'm done with this bathroom, it'll feel 3 times bigger than before it met my sledge hammer!

5.  The tile.  Oh, the tile.  I'm kind of in love with it and I hope whoever buys the house from me gets it too.  I ordered these EliteTile Retro mosaics in light blue from Wayfair.  The bathroom needed blue in it still... it told me.

I'll be doing the floor tile and board and batten install myself, but the contractor needs to take care of a few things before that happens.  He should be getting started this week, so I'm hoping that next week I might be able to dig in on the bathroom finish work!

So what do you think... am I crazy to bring blue tile back?

Grover: Week 4

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. Even though I feel like I'm crawling on this flip, I guess if you compare it to the last, I'm a bit ahead.  With Frankie at this point, I only had demo done.  With Grover, yes, I have demo done, but I also started some finish work.... and it felt good!

All 3 bedrooms have nice new white paint on the ceiling and 2 of the bedrooms already have new lights!

My paint strategy is ceiling, trim, then walls last.

I have determined, however, that ceiling painting is dangerous for me.  I apparently have the habit of not looking where I'm going and getting into trouble.  Last time it was stepping in the paint tray, this time I somehow managed to catapult the stirrer and paint UP my leg.  That takes talent (or a complete lack of grace).

And since I finished all 3 bedroom ceilings, I've already moved onto priming trim in the first bedroom!  I'm crossing my fingers that the trim here will require less coats than the last house since it's been painted, but I'm already finding the prep to be worse.  Yes the trims already been painted, but it's been painted MANY times, and BADLY.  Before I can even commence priming, I need to scrape it and sand it, and even then it's not as smooth as I would ideally like. Oh well.

It feels a little strange to be painting when the other side of the house is utter chaos, but the way I figure it, it will be a lot easier to paint the bedrooms and hallway before the hardwood floors get refinished.  The floors aren't starting yet, though, since the contractor needs to take down the wall first, but that's starting mid-next week.  I. Can't. Wait!  I'm also cautiously optimistic about the contractor that I'm using- a recommendation from our electrician.  The contractor on the last house did a decent job, however let's just say, our personalities didn't mesh....

Yeah, so that 'utter chaos' that I mentioned?

I only have a very small path to get through currently.  I'm thinking it's dumpster time!  Especially now that the kitchen's completely removed.

I almost wish you could smell this room through your computer.  Almost.  If you could, you'd probably hate me for it... its disgusting.  Thankfully it's been nice enough to open windows and air it out, but I have come to the conclusion that whoever installed the cabinets 30 years ago smoked and had non-house-trained pets.  Removing the cabinets released all those lovely, smack-you-in-the-face-when-you-walk-in smells.

Aside holding my nose and effectively covering myself in paint this week, I also repaired the garage door springs (with Handy Dad's help) and ordered the tile for the bathroom floor.  Even though the smashy smashy is fun, my designer side is just giddy about the new finishes!  I'll be sharing the bathroom plan next week and I hope you love it as much as I do!

Happy weekend!