Frankie: Week 7

I hope you enjoy these weekly updates as I learn to navigate through the business of flipping houses.  Check out other posts about Frankie the Fliphouse HERE. Frankie's kind of a disaster area this week.  The contractors are in the bathroom, kitchen/hall, and the basement, leaving only one bedroom free of saws or supplies.  I'm willing to sacrifice space in the house temporarily for things like a new kitchen floor and bathroom, though.

Speaking of kitchen floor.... she's getting pretty!  The grout went down yesterday, so now it just needs trim & transitions.  The tile (from Lowe's) is so pretty in person and almost looks like real stone- it even has a tiny bit of sparkle in it.  I did make a last minute grout change- the first one I bought was WAY WAY too dark and would have ruined the entire floor.

week 7 kitchen tile

I REALLY can't wait until I have all the ceilings painted and can put up new lights- the ones existing are barely bright enough and cast a terrible color on the space as you can see.

Aside from buying the wrong color grout, another thing that I'm kicking myself for a bit is trying to add texture to the ceilings...  The ceilings have some textural issues in most rooms (old cracks etc), so when I saw a product that you add to paint that helps to hide these imperfections, I was on board.

week 7 bedroom ceiling

I was expecting a fine, slightly textured result and I ended up with uneven sandpaper.  I'm going to try and even out the 2 ceilings that I used this on, then attempt to use just flat ceiling paint everywhere else (and pray the ceilings look decent).  It was worth a try, but I'm going to see if I can get my money back on the product.  You live and learn.  It was a great idea that just didn't pan out in execution.

But in brighter news, the bathroom's coming back together!  It has walls!  And electrical boxes for the sconces!

week 7 bathroom walls

Is it weird that the water resistant green-board (which is interestingly NOT green as you can see) kind of makes me want to paint the bathroom purple?  I'm resisting, though... it'll be a serene light green very close to the color of my own kitchen.

The shower walls are 2/3 tiled, too.  The tile won't be going 100% to the ceiling since it's a bit uneven, so it'll be stopping about a foot short with a nice bullnose edge.

week 7 bathroom tile

The bathroom floor tile should be going down today as well.  I'm excited! Git-r-done!

They've also gotten started on some less ecxiting minor work in the basement- dry-walling the utility room.

week 7 basement

And apparently my furniture hoarding has now extended beyond my basement to Frankie's.  It's for a good reason, though!  This pretty guy is going to be transformed into Frankie's kitchen island.  It was a steal for $66 at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  It'll get a fun paint color, new knobs, and a butcher block top.

week 7 dresser island

Aside from buying furniture and paint and lots of supplies this week, I've been trying to stay out of the contractors ways and have been popping from room to room with my primer can, priming trim wherever I can.  The current hall view is making me happy- it's far from done, but with a new floor and almost no more wood trim, I can see where it'll end up.

week 7 hallway

Once the contractors are set with their scope, I have a feeling this place will come together FAST (keeping my fingers crossed at least!).  I'll admit, it's been tough for me to really hand control over to the contractors.  Shocking, I know, but I can be a bit of a control freak at times.

I must be glutton for punishment, though- we just started the hunt for flip #3!  We're hoping to get Frankie on the market at the end of January, and would love to jump right into the next project.  Here's hoping we find the next faster than we found Frankie!