Meet Millie- Part One

Without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to Millie, fliphouse #4.  Today I'll just be giving you the exterior tour, and tomorrow I'll let you inside.

Mr. Hedge-trimmer is going to have a very pivotal roll in this exterior make-over since, as you can see, the house is practically hiding in the jungle.

The location of this house, though, is pretty special.  It's part of a block of 6 antique bungalows that are off of the absolutely most charming 'terrace' (aka sidewalk) you have ever seen complete with working gas lamps.

Clearly Millie, the jungle directly on the right, is the delinquent of the block and needs to be brought up to par.

Returning to the front yard...

The porch needs a bit of love, repair, and lots of paint.

I love the sunroom, but the door's knob, hinges, and lock are all painted over.  I know I said the porch needed paint, but that's a little excessive.

I need to work on the view from this room, though- you can't even get to this side yard, it's so overgrown (see the little Terrace beyond?)

On the opposite side of the house, it's only marginally better.  A bit less overgrown but with a falling down fence.

The back yard is sure to be a selling feature once I'm done, though.  I'm sure it once was the homeowner's secret garden oasis, but it's a bit far from that these days.

It's not very deep, but it expands on 3 sides of the property.  This is the back and has a brick patio on the far side and grass in front.  My job here is to weed as much as necessary to reveal the lovely landscaped garden that once was.  On the garage side of the house, there's a would-be-charming outdoor eating area

I'm tempted to call this the lanai (a la Golden Girls).

Our last stop on the exterior tour is back on the opposite side of the house.  There we find a questionably structured deck off the back of the sun room and the so-overgrown-you-can't-get-to side yard.

As with the inside which you'll see tomorrow, the exterior of this house isn't about demoing and starting from scratch.  Instead it's about fixing, repairing, and restoring the beauty that once was.  I've got my hedge trimmer and weed whacker primed and ready to go!

To be continued.....

Flipping Out

New week, new fliphouse apparently.  We closed on Millie on Friday and are closing on selling Grover tomorrow.  That means today I have a day chock full of finishing last touch-ups at Grover, supervising movers as they transfer all the staging furniture over to Millie, and then ripping up an attic floor at Millie so my electrician can re-wire the whole shebang.  Oh what a glamorous life I lead.  Fingers crossed I don't find too many dead things under the attic floor (or living things for that matter). Shifting topics, only slightly... 10 points to anyone who noticed what changed last week over in my menu bar on the left!  (Rss/e-mail readers, click on by the site to check it out)  That's right, there's a new clickable page titled "Flipping."  Last week if you clicked on it, though, you were just told "Coming soon."  Today?

There's now a page for you to check out all my current and past flip houses and click through to see the pretty cool transformations they all went through.  I'd also love to hear from you if there's another way I can make this 'flip index' better.  Project lists/sources per house? Less talky, more pictures?  Let me know!!

In other flip news, I know you are just dying to know more about Millie (amIright?), so let me assure you that I won't make you wait too much longer.  Because the house is so big (in comparison to the other flips) and has wonderful details at every turn, I'll be splitting it into 2 posts.  You'll get a rare Thursday post in addition to my regular Friday post so I can show you as much of the amazingness as possible including all 3 living areas.  THREE!  I barely have one in my own house!  I can't wait to show you the built-inS either.  Yup, plural...there are so many I've lost track... I remember 6 off the top of my head, but there could be more that I'm forgetting.

It'll be a busy week both flipping and here on the blog, so stay tuned for some pretty neat stuff!

Craftsman Curb Appeal Plans

After flipping 3 1000sf mid-century cookie cutter ranches, today, we close on "Millie"

As you can see, Millie is NOT a tiny mid-century ranch.  Instead, Millie is a Craftsman bungalow built in 1902 and is 2.5 times the size of the ranches I've grown so accustomed to flipping.  I just want to spill every last detail about this house, but I'll give you the full tour next week once she's 100% officially ours.  Planning, however, has already begun!

Painting the exterior will be not only necessary, but it will also be the most important factor in adding curb appeal (ok, that and taming the jungle).  This baby needs some contrast!  The house is a sea of gray- even when the sun's out it looks like a cloudy day.  I may keep the base color as a gray (or maybe a gray-green or gray-blue), but alllll that trim is going white along with the porch columns. Here are some of my inspirations:

**as always, please pin responsibly and from the original sources**

The blue plastic shutters also aren't cutting it.  I'm thinking painted or stained wood stutters- wouldn't they look lovely??

I can't wait to dig in and make this house pretty again!!

Craftsman houses 1/2/3

Wood shutters 1/Julie Blanner