Millie: Week 15

I hope you enjoy these weekly updates as I learn to navigate through the business of flipping houses.  This flip, Millie is the most challenging and most exciting yet! You can find more about this house and about my 3 previous flip houses here. Guys, this is the week I've been impatiently waiting for.  The stars aligned, contractor's schedules cleared, and progress finally took leaps and bounds.  Glorious progress.  It's not the glamorous things like tile or paint JUST YET, but everything that happened this week means that those are not far away.  *relieved happy dance*

This may look like a mess to you, but to me I see wiring for sconces, plumbing for the new sink and wall mounted faucet, and it's just waiting for me to enclose it all with shiplap.

The upstairs bathroom now has this great thing called a sub-floor.

Nice and sturdy.  Next up comes the backer board and then next week, tile!  (once the hot/cold supply lines for the sink get moved into the wall for the wall-hung sink.... I just noticed that now)

While the heating system was down for a few days, my wood flooring guys pulled out all of the radiators on the first floor in order to sand under them.  While they were sanding, I was cleaning each of them and giving them a fresh coat of spraypaint.  All 6 radiators on the first floor are looking shiny and clean (pay no attention the messy walls behind)

In the very near future, the below view will no longer exist- it will be staring at a wall.  The new master closet walls and ceiling are now completely framed in and awaiting electrical then drywall.  Drywall for that area will be a HUGE turning point in which I will no longer be able to walk through the kitchen or back hallway into the new master suite.  I hear people like privacy in their bedrooms.

While my plumbers, electrician, contractors, and flooring guys all plugged away this week, I kept myself busy as well.  The smallest task of which was replacing every knob and deadbolt on the exterior of the house except the front door so they now all use the same key and I don't have to walk around like a janitor with a ring of keys.  Down to 2! Front door and everywhere else.

I also got busy and fixed up and refinished the dresser that I will be using as a vanity for the new master bath.  This will be it's own post later on with much more detail.  The color is nowhere near accurate- it's a nice blue/gray that will look dreamy under the carrara marble top it will eventually have.  It is apparently difficult to photograph by candlelight with a single plug in light.  Still no overhead lights in this house, but we're getting closer!

With the upstairs totally wired (buhbye knob and tube!), the only room up there in need of construction is the bathroom.  The 3 bedrooms are ready for me to patch, paint, and make pretty.  So that's what I've started on!  Some walls are covered in wallpaper with about 17 layers of paint and other walls are completely sans wallpaper and showing off the rough, unfinished plaster.  Either way, they need some serious smoothing.  I've started skim-coating (thin layer of plaster patch).  The hallway is all coated and so is half of the former master bedroom.

The rough raw plaster is on the left and the right is my new skim coat.

Once everything is dry, I'll need to go crazy and sand everything, but the nice, smooth, regular walls will look sooo clean and fresh!  Just check out the texture of the hallway walls before:

And now with a fresh coat of plaster in need of being sanded:

If I can power through the wall patching and skim coating, maybe some painting will happen next week!!!  I'm not eager for that or anything....

Fingers crossed, but if all goes according to plan, next week you'll be seeing, paint, tile, and maybe even a light fixture or two!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Millie: Week 14

I hope you enjoy these weekly updates as I learn to navigate through the business of flipping houses.  This flip, Millie is the most challenging and most exciting yet! You can find more about this house and about my 3 previous flip houses here. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  (And if you're reading from outside the US, a wonderful week!)

I wish you could have seen the visual of me on Thanksgiving.  Millie's lock was stuck, so I stopped by to fix it on my way to my in-law's for dinner.  In my holiday best (skirt, tights, & kitten heels), I successfully broke into Millie to check on a few things, unstick the lock, and do a quick coat of spray paint on the kitchen radiator.  I think I should work in outfits like that every day.  Very practical.

Anyway, on to this week's progress......  This was a very strange week due to the holiday, so I don't have too much to physically show for it.  The biggest item off the to-do list is that the cabinets are ordered... twice.  I started with taking the trek to IKEA last Friday to order the kitchen (by trek, I mean it's about an hour from Millie, and a little over a half hour away from my house).  I ordered the kitchen, but there was a hitch- the gray that I had my heart set on has very limited availability.

So limited that I had to take 2 doors with me since they were available in the store, but no longer in the warehouse and one was already damaged with no replacement available.....  It turns out that as of Feb 1, they are introducing an entirely NEW kitchen system and their entire kitchen line is getting discontinued.  After a second trip to IKEA Saturday morning and a nagging feeling all weekend that something wasn't right, I decided to cancel my order.  If during installation I found that I had a damaged piece or was short, I wouldn't be able to get pieces to fix/finish.  Not cool.

NEW PLAN!  Home Depot also has gray cabinets available to order.  Better quality for just a few more dollars is definitely preferable.  SO, I ordered the kitchen again, this time from Home Depot and I'm even more excited with the way it's going to look.

A nice simple shaker-style door in the exact color that I want (in the square at the bottom).  I actually like this one a WHOLE LOT more than the IKEA ones.  The IKEA ones were super shiny and plastic looking.  These are classic and look painted.  Done and done.

Now I just have to wait 4-6 weeks for them to come in.  At least I can pretty much do everything else in the kitchen before they arrive.

In addition to kitchen ordering and planning, lots of very little things happened.  Little things like: freeing the leaded glass windows from their frames successfully without breaking any glass,

using upholstery staples to create a wider circle around the wiring on the canvas ceilings to allow for a legal electrical box (don't worry, I'll be hiding the staples behind a medallion),

discovering that the coolest key in the box of dozens of keys left for me actually works the lock on the super cool hope chest that was also left,

and moving lots more plaster from the basement.  Sadly, even though I've already moved tons, I still have more to go.

More exciting than all my little accomplishments, however is that all my contractors are freeing up and can finally go full steam ahead.  My contractor and my hard wood flooring guy are there today and I'm confident there will be a lot to show for you next week.  I need to make it happen!!!  I need leaps of progress to keep me sane ish!

Happy weekend!

Millie: Week 13

I hope you enjoy these weekly updates as I learn to navigate through the business of flipping houses.  This flip, Millie is the most challenging and most exciting yet! You can find more about this house and about my 3 previous flip houses here. One huge, fantastic thing happened at the house this week.  Let's see if you notice the change between the pics:

It's a subtle change, I know, but you guys are observant

I kid.  But, YES, the 3 layers of ugly vinyl tiles adhered to my beautiful wood with asbestos adhesive have been taken care of!  The cost of unburying this beautiful floor, however was almost 2 full days of not being able to work on the house.  What should have been only 1 day lead to 2 due to a miscommunication on the asbestos guy's end.  After day 1, the tiles were gone, but all the asbestos-filled adhesive was left.  Um, guys, that adhesive was the reason I payed you the big bucks for removal.  Thankfully after a polite reminder of our adhesives conversation when I hired them, they came back and rough sanded all the icky asbestos off of my floors like they should have in the first place.

My hardwood flooring guy is stopping by today to assess the small water-damaged spots, but I'm super hopeful that she's worth saving (I have decided that the floor is a 'she').

A few other notable things happened this week.

I finished the absolute LAST of demoing the basement ceilings (now to haul alllllll the plaster to the dumpster)

Inside the basement ceiling, under where the kitchen sink used to be, I found a few more trinkets this week:

an army man, a handy man (the box in his hand is labeled 'tools') and a poodle teacup.  I can't help but think that the teacup belongs in my last flip where I found poodle wallpaper.

The tub for the upstairs family bathroom got painted Rustolium Flat Moss Green.  I had Glossy Navy in my cart when the Moss caught my eye.  Suddenly the Gloss Navy seemed harsh, and Moss was the right move.  I adore the flat finish on this tub and the color will be dreamy with the marble hex tiles on the floor.

If you follow me on instagram or facebook (and come on, you totally should.  I'll give you a minute.....),

you probably saw that I had to reluctantly sacrifice the canvas ceiling in the future master bath for the sake of the renovations.

It was actually a good thing in the end because once I uncovered the water-damage from the old shower above, I also found that it was still damp and musty (ick!).  Plaster had to come down and I removed the water-damaged lathe.

BUT it was all for a good cause!  Bring on the master bath!!!  My contractor got started on framing out the doorway and new pocket door and this OFFICIALLY kicks off the rebuilding in this house!!!

I have smashed my last ceiling in here, pulled up my last floor, and sledge hammered my last wall.  Aside from minor clean-up smashing, I'm calling demo D.O.N.E.  Now, can I please put this house back together for sanity's sake??