Grover: Week 16

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. Happy 4th of July!!

And it is.  This is the first week where I actually believe that this house will be done soon- progress took visual leaps and bounds!

The biggest single transformation happened outside.

It looked like this a little over a week ago:

Not horrific, but nothing to turn your head.

I curb-appealed the crap out of this house this week!

I trimmed bushes, weeded lots, planted hydrangea and flowers, spread 19 bags of mulch, updated the lamp post with a new topper and some spraypaint, spraypainted the old house #s, installed a new mailbox and light on the house, finished painting the front door AND had a pro painter paint the foundation, stairs and garage door.  Phew!

No major changes, but it just looks so much fresher.

Inside is really starting to show the light at the end of the tunnel too.  Literally.  In addition to the 3 exterior exterior lights that I installed (including one on the back), I also installed 3 lights inside.  3 sexy lights inside.

And look!  Completed cabinets! (minus one panel that I just exchanged at IKEA cuz they gave me the wrong piece)

I've been using my flips as an excuse to experiment with different kitchen finishes.  These cabinets aren't my favorite that I've used so far, but they're totally going to look amazing once the countertop gets installed (Tuesday) and the backsplash gets tiled.

And speaking of tile- she's gonna be purdy.  I know I've professed my love for tiling backsplashes before and this house will be no different.  I just have to figure out if I can use my existing tools to cut glass mosaics.  Anyone have experience with that?

Across the room in the dining room, I finally got around to updating the built-in and what an impact!  (yes, Mom, I did steal inspiration from yours).  After removing the old scallop trim back in demo, I added a new, shallower back, added new trim, and am painting the doors.  Instant(ish) charm in the dining room.  Detailed how-to/before & after coming on Monday!

While I had my chop saw set up, I also cut all the pieces of new baseboard for the living/dining/kitchen.  You may remember when we bought the house, all that baseboard had been at one point replaced with door trim and looked quite silly.  I'll be painting and installing these new pieces within the next few days.

Oh, and after much debating and ignoring the putrid paneled room in the basement , I finally decided to have the painter come back and turn it white.  It would take me at least a week to prep, prime, and paint that garishly high gloss paneling- he's planning to bang it out in a day with his high powered sprayer and super gripping primer.  Deal.  One less thing on my to-finish list before we can SELL!  Fingers crossed that this house sells faster than the last, I'm not sure my fragile ego can handle another house sitting on the market for months.

Have a great holiday weekend!!

BHG DIY Pinning

I'm kind of excited- BHG invited me to be a part of their stellar pinterest community.  I'll be pinning to 2 of their boards: BHG's Best DIY Ideas as well as Blogger's Best DIY Ideas.  The other pinners on these boards include some of my favorite bloggers- Michelle from Decor and the Dog, Chelsea from Lovely Indeed, Carrie from Dream Green DIY, Caitlin from Desert Domicile, Brittni from Paper & Stitch, and Kelly from Studio DIY.  Somehow I've hoodwinked BHG into including me in that group- sweet! In addition to pinning to these curated boards, I'm also planning to use them for my own inspiration.  Here are a few of my favorite pins currently:

**Please pin responsibly and from the original source.  Gracias!**

That wallpaper just makes me happy.  An entire room in this pattern might get overwhelming, but a feature wall is simply stunning.

I am officially a sucker for build-in book cases.  I love how she took these IKEA book cases and made them custom!

On the topic of shelves- these rustic/industrial super easy shelves just go to show that style doesn't have to mean difficult.  If you can hang an IKEA shelf, you can hang these.

Now excuse me while I daydream that this is my laundry room.  There is approximately a 0.0% chance that my laundry area in the basement of my 114+ year old home will ever look remotely like this.

Pop by and visit BHG's BHG's Best DIY Ideas and Blogger's Best DIY Ideas boards to get some DIY ideas and inspiration for you own projects (and maybe discover a few new bloggers to check out too)!

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Outdoor Update

This is one of those years where summer seems to be wizzing past even though it's just started.  Where has it gone already?!  I'm totally behind with our gardens and haven't even finished mulching the veggie garden.  I feel like this should get finished before July hits.... tomorrow... we'll see what kind of motivation I come home from Grover with tonight. Nothing has changed drastically in my back yard/garden in the past year, but I like to share it here each year anyway- it's like my little garden year book.

It's going to be positively paradise once the hydrangea start blooming.  It's my little suburban sanctuary.  When everything is in full bloom late summer, and I've hopefully finished mulching, I'll give you the full 2014 yarden (yard/garden) tour- which will probably look very similar to 2013's.  Between the front, back, and sides of the house, our yard takes 30 bags of mulch and only has 170sf of grass.  Definitely skewed a bit, but I'd rather play in gardens then mow a huge lawn any day.

The newest addition to our yard is a monstrous rain barrel.  I convinced Hubby that we needed one for when our town institutes a water ban (usually during a long hot spell in the summer) and we still need to water the veggies.  When I tried to put the barrel directly under the water spout as I originally intended, however, it looked gargantuan and beyond ridiculous.  I settled on hiding it in a corner, but now have to deal with re-routing the downspout.

Although I ventured to Home Depot for all the parts (which I did get), I got distracted by picking out plants for Grover and subsequently spent my afternoon playing in the dirt at the flip instead of installing my own rain barrel.  I have a feeling this will be the story of my life for the next couple weeks.  We are T minus 14 days before we hope to list Grover, the latest fliphouse.  One-track mind may not even begin to cover it.  I'll do my best not to talk exclusively flip here.  I wouldn't want to bore you with daily updates of what trim I painted or what light fixture I installed.  Enthralling, I know, but I'll keep it to my weekly updates.

Returning to my own abode and veering slightly off topic- guest what finally got ordered!!!!!

After 3.5 years of complaining about my over-sized budget furniture store sofa, he's getting replaced with the gorgeous Diane from Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams!  She's certainly a splurge and will be the most we've spent on any piece of furniture ever.... but I intend on having this pretty lady around for a very long time.  Now I only have to wait about 8 weeks for her to come in (sadface).  Oh well, at least she's ordered!!!  Can you tell I'm excited?

I'll be daydreaming of my new velvetty sofa whilst I manage to cover myself with dirt, mulch, and paint over at Grover.  Happy Monday all!