Frankie: Week 1

Welcome to the first of many Friday Fliphouse updates.  Check out other posts about Frankie the Fliphouse HERE. Monday late afternoon, we finally got word that all the papers had been signed properly by the seller and the sale was recorded.  Translation- Frankie was officially ours!  And do you know what that means?

Smashy smashy!

Eventually the above kitchen became this:

The lower cabinets actually have water lines running directly below the countertop- good thing we looked before smashing.... otherwise this picture would be significantly wetter.

The bathroom has only been the subject of minor destruction so far, but that won't be for long.  It's one of today's targets.

For future reference: this is NOT how to install a recessed medicine cabinet.  Not. at. all.

Continuing to the basement.  Say Goodbye sailboats, and Hello open plan!

In less smashy news, the 3 planting beds also got cleaned out and let me tell you, that was a b*tch.  Mint plants had taken over everywhere and old landscape fabric was actually a breeding ground for weeds, not a preventor.  There were some areas that just ripping out all the landscape fabric took care of the weeding.

Before:

Less jungle-like and awaiting mulch:

There still quite a bit more destruction and smashing to happen, but Frankie's well on its way.  Knock on wood, but I'm feeling optimistic about this house and my timeline.

I also accomplished a ton of running around, planning and prepping including:

-Getting a dumpster! which I neglected to get a pic of...

-Purchasing kitchen cabinets

-Picking out countertop & appliances (just haven't placed the orders yet)

-Getting quotes from contractors, window installers, & tub refinishers

Hopefully next week will mark the end of destruction and the beginning of rebuilding.  I can't WAIT to see it all come together!

Meet Frankie

We've run into a few paperwork filing issues (and an elderly seller in Florida), so we're still waiting to technically own the house.  That means no sledge hammers until at least Monday (pout).  It is what it is, I'm just antsy. I can, however, show you where we'll be starting from!

Meet Franklin, AKA Frankie!  Our second-ever flip house!

The exterior doesn't have a long to do list:

• -New windows
• -Siding repair
• -New side railing
• -Paint front railing and awning
• -Clean up planting beds

The kitchen on the other hand:

Aside from the weirdness of the dishwasher closet (which used to house a washer and dryer apparently) the cabinets don't look too bad... until you open them up.  The insides are not pretty.  or sanitary. or salvageable.  Much like the fridge.  ick.

At least that makes my list for the kitchen pretty easy (ha):

• -Demo entire kitchen
• -New floors, cabinets, appliances
• -Plumbing & electrical for new layout
• -Paint

The living room and the bedrooms are luckily no big.  I'll need to paint pretty much everywhere and polish the wood floors, but that's it. Phew!

And then we reach the bathroom.  Oh the bathroom.  It's getting gutted down to the studs.  It looks soooooo much worse in person, trust me.  I need to take some good detail shots before the sledge hammer comes in.

Tile has been removed from all the walls, but instead of removing the old adhesive or tiling over it, they just painted over it.  Lovely. Oh, and that green spot in the shower?  Instead of redoing the shower, they just placed greenboard over the old wall board and put a plastic shower surround on that.  Not the right way to do it so much.

So the list here:

• -Gut.
• -Salvage toilet & countertop
• -Repaint pink tub
• -Replace all wall board
• -New tile, vanity, mirrors, lights
• -Paint

Then we have the basement.  I'll spare you and not show you the utility side since I don't plan to do much aside from clean up, but the other side is going to transform a bit.

To do here?

• -Add wall to separate bright, usable area from dark, utility space
• -Peel & stick floor tiles
• -Replace drop ceiling
• -Paint!!!

Ah, the lists seem so short!  Good thing I know better by now!  We're hoping to get this diamond in the rough back on the market in just under 3 months.

So what do you think of our next flip endeavor?  Can I make it awesome?

Keep your fingers crossed!

Kitchen Headaches

This week hasn't been the walk in the park that I was hoping for.  If you follow me on facebook, you may have gotten an inkling about my frustrations with the Home Depot kitchen installers.  We asked them to leave before the completion of the project at the end of the 3rd day.  The whole situation just makes me sick to my stomach- I hate being that person and it takes a LOT to push me over the edge, but they found my breaking point. I apologize ahead of time- this post is largely a rant (and I won't blame you if you'd rather skip it and come back Monday for a more positive post), so I'll start with a kitchen progress picture to ease the pain.

After being rescheduled several times, the installers arrived Monday knowing only half of the scope of work (I hire them for installing cabinets AND running vent duct through it).  Understandably, what they though was an easy one day project turned into 2.  However, when we were nearing the end of day 3, 25 hours of them being in my house, and the end wasn't even in sight.... I was getting fed up.  There were a LOT of little issues going through the project starting from day one that I won't get into, but the recurring excuse/complaint why the project wasn't going well was my unlevel floor.  This is a 100 year old house- it's not unexpected, that's why I thought I was hiring the pros & explained as such when they came to measure and quote the project.

On day 3 when they were working on the base board/toe kick and they told me that I should have ripped up my floors and leveled them before installing the kitchen, I started to lose it.  Insulting my floors or my house is like telling a woman her baby's ugly.  Although these aren't the original floors, the lack of perfectly level floors is part of the charm of an old house and this wasn't an extreme case.  Essentially he was telling me I should remove charm from my house so his job would have been easier.

One cabinet couldn't be installed because we need to wait for a larger filler piece to be ordered (which I discovered on day 1)- not the installers fault and I should have caught that problem when I approved the design- BUT when they proceeded to tell me that I needed to sign off on the completion of the project so that they could get paid sooner- that was the straw that broke me.  After all the little issues they kept bringing up, my patience was wearing thin.  I'm not signing off that it's done, until, ya know it's done!  They kept pushing and an argument ensued which concluded with them being asked to leave.

In the moment, I knew it was 100% the right thing to do, but I keep second guessing myself after the fact... because that's what I do.  I really do feel terrible- I never want to be the reason someone doesn't get paid or gets reprimanded, but from the get go there was a lack of professionalism.

So now I have to wait a few weeks for the filler piece and a few other replacement pieces arrive, THEN I'll hire my own installers to finish the job.  At least we have a functional kitchen until then & I can finally start putting the kitchen and dining room back together (AND work on installing my tile!)

I had decided to go through Home Depot to hopefully streamline the process with them ordering, measuring, and installing, but I missed the mark a bit.  At least Home Depot was SO helpful yesterday when I arrived to tell them of the complete situation- they were apologetic and are doing all they can to make it right.  I'm sure there are those with amazing experiences with their installers, but I was not one of them. C'est la vie.

The kitchen will be amazing when done- I'm just ready to move past this whole thing.  I know I'm not the only who has had contractor issues.  Feel free to share your stories in the comments to help me feel better.

Monday's post will be up-beat, I promise!  Have a great weekend!