Dori the Flip House: week 11

I hope you enjoy these weekly updates as I learn to navigate through the business of flipping houses.  My latest flip house, Dori sports the 3 L’s in real estate, but will need more than a bit of creativity to make the house sellable. You can find more about this house and about my 4 previous flip houses here. After this week, I can't be showing you full rooms anymore- I don't want to ruin the final reveal in a few weeks!  Listing in 17 days!!! (oh crap I have a lot to do)

The biggest transformation of the week was the bathroom.  All the fixtures are installed and working.  There is a medicine cabinet (hiding behind the blue film). There are working lights.  What more could you want?  Only a few small finishing touches and staging and I can put the "done" stamp on here!  My methodology in here was to go for the wow.  I didn't use the lowest-end finishes because in a house like this it would feel cheap.  By upgrading a few things like the shower head, I'm creating a lot more perceived value.

Personally, this week I've been getting my hands rather dirty with painting in between doing client design work.  I finally added my touch of color to the curb appeal with the front door.  I already toned down the color once and am debating toning it down one more notch.

Back inside, the kitchen got countertops and more plumbing. (yay plumbing!!!)

Now you get to see almost the full effect of the new breakfast bar.  I've also been busy picking up a few craigslisted pieces for staging.  You know I can't help myself.  Once they get a wipe-down, 2 of these quirky little stools will be the perfect place for my imaginary future buyer's imaginary kids to sit and do homework.

I see lots of painting in my future.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Dori the Flip House: week 10

I hope you enjoy these weekly updates as I learn to navigate through the business of flipping houses.  My latest flip house, Dori sports the 3 L’s in real estate, but will need more than a bit of creativity to make the house sellable. You can find more about this house and about my 4 previous flip houses here. GUYS GUYS GUYS!  This is the week I've been waiting for!!!!  Dori looks like a HOUSE!!!  I may be a little excited if you can't tell.

Because kitchen.

May I just remind you for a moment.....

It was just bad. BAD. But now it makes sense.  The fridge and the stove will have a home.

My favorite added feature in this kitchen is the beginnings of the peninsula/breakfast bar.  Not only is it huge for added storage and counter space, but it's going to get bar stools and sexy pendant lights.

There's a bathroom in this house too, and that's starting to look like a bathroom too!

Now all it needs is plumbing.  And paint.  And knobs....

The bedrooms got a little love too, not to be left out.  They got baseboards and my new favorite alternative to the dreaded boob light.

I did a whole lot of staying out of the way this week, but it's almost time to tag back in.  There are lots of walls and trim and doors- OH RIGHT, I almost forgot and didn't get a pic- the house got interior doors this week too!

What was I saying... oh yeah... there are lots of walls, trim, and doors that need painting now and I haven't yet trained my houses to paint themselves.  I have lots of work to do in the next few weeks to get this baby ready to list! 23 days until she'll officially be FOR SALE!

Dori the Flip House: week 9

I hope you enjoy these weekly updates as I learn to navigate through the business of flipping houses.  My latest flip house, Dori sports the 3 L’s in real estate, but will need more than a bit of creativity to make the house sellable. You can find more about this house and about my 4 previous flip houses here. I really do wish I had it in the budget to hire my painter, but alas, I don't.  Which means that I spent the better part of my week suited up, trying not to glob up the walls with too much primer as I took my first leap into using an airless paint sprayer.

In order to save myself several thousand dollars on a painter and weeks of time rolling endlessly, I picked up this sprayer from Harbor Freight (on sale and with a coupon naturally).

And in a matter of a few days, every wall and ceiling in the house got primed, and all the ceilings got 2 coats of ceiling paint, and I'm very glad to be done spraying above my head.  Well, every room except the bathroom.  I didn't spray anything in there since I didn't want to risk overspraying onto the new tile and the tub.  For the first time in one of my flips, I didn't use my standard subway tile.  I won't claim responsibility for this work, though, the only tiling I plan to do in this house is the backsplash- everything else the contractors will handle.

Another exciting thing that happened this week is this pile of boxes- you should know what this means by now....

Kitchen!!! AND my contractors are over at Dori as I type this installing it!  I'm still too much of a control freak to just let it autopilot, so I'll be over there shortly to monitor progress.

In addition, a few less exciting for you to look at things that are rather exciting progress-wise for me:

All the windows and the new slider got trim, and I finally sold the old stove on craigslist!  The room looks exponentially bigger without it.

and my electrician got back to work wiring things up so they'll soon work.  Look!  There's even a few light switches!  Who cares if they don't work yet, this to me is a sign that the end is near!

Today, the kitchen cabinets go in, the bathroom floor is getting tiled, and hopefully in the next few days, the interior doors will finally be available for my contractor to pick up and install.  This house may actually have some hope of being finished in the next few weeks!!

Have a wonderful weekend!!