Grover: Week 10

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. Exciting things are happening!!!! Next week!!!  Windows are getting installed, hard wood flooring is getting started, the bathroom floor will get grouted, and maybe even the bathroom wall paneling will go up!

This week, however is not as exciting as next week will be (am I becoming a broken record?.... will kids even know what that phrase means?....).  This week was a bit of a change for me since I wasn't staring at white trim for days.  Instead I finished painting the walls and closets in the 2 last bedrooms,

scraped, patched, sanded, & primed the bathroom ceiling, patched & partially edged the bathroom walls (where it will even show above the paneling),

got a new door/old door from the ReStore for right around $10 for the bathroom closet- I just have to fit the hinges and paint.

patched random stuff in the kitchen, had a ton of boxes delivered that will eventually turn into a kitchen,

and started to devise my plot to tame the jungle outside.

Part 1 of my jungle-taming plan: get rid of the garden-full of poison ivy- it makes me itch just looking at it.

The exciting thing about my interior progress, though, is that once I have the bathroom set, that entire half of the house will be DONE of my part and just waiting for the pros to refinish the floors!

Across town, however, Frankie is still hanging out on the market.  Although we've been getting positive reviews about the renos, I probably should have been a bit more choosy about the area.  Live and learn!

Have a great holiday weekend!!

Grover: Week 9

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. Remember last week, when I said that this week was sure to be a huge week for progress?  .....I was mistaken.  I know once one big thing gets the ball rolling, several big things will happen at once, but this week was not that week.

This post will now be my attempt at making a mundane week a little more cheeky for your entertainment.

I went a tad type-A on my bathroom tile job this week.  And by type-A I mean crouching and scraping thinset out of approximately half of the grout lines because I used the wrong sized trowel and made a huge mess.  You think I'd know better by now, but nope.

And as you can see, I also pried up several individual tiles because they weren't sitting flush.  They will soon be reset all flat and pretty-like.  So yeah... type-A.  If I'm going to be crazy bold and put blue tile in here, it better be as good as I can possibly make it!

This week was also spent sans contractors or electricians, etc, so I spent quite a bit of time trying to entertain myself and keep up the energy and motivation.  The bright side of being alone in an unfurnished house?

Good acoustics and no one to judge as I belt out showtunes at the top of my lungs.  #sorryneighbors!  While I practiced my best one woman version of Gypsy, I was thankfully able to finally finish painting every last bit of trim and every last door on this side of the house.

The bathroom closet took embarrassingly long to paint.

It was like yoga painting- lots of twisting and maneuvering to get several coats into all the corners.  It will, however remain doorless until I find a suitable replacement for it's previous dingy louvered door.

Flashing forward to next week, I know I have some ceiling patching in my future.  The kitchen/dining room ceiling isn't as bad as it was in the last house- really only 2 large spots of cracking paint, so hopefully I'll be able to fix it much faster than it took me at Frankie.  I actually have a new method to try that Handy Dad suggested after my last ceiling trials.  I'll let you know if it works!

I know you're already overwhelmed by the excitement of my week, but by far, the most exciting thing happened yesterday- new hard wood was delivered!!

It will soon replace the 2 slimy layers of linoleum in the kitchen and the house will immediately smell about 5 thousand times better.  Getting this floor installed and the rest of the hard wood refinished is sure to illicit a happy dance.  You've been warned.

Today I'm taking the day off to go play at Brimfield.  Check me out on instagram for updates of the days adventures and fab finds!

Grover: Week 8

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. Every week I'm appalled at how quickly this flip is flying by and how the work isn't... Somewhat by design, though, since we're trying to space out the large expenses until we sell Frankie.  (quick update: still on the market, 2 very interested parties trying to work out numbers currently.  Fingers crossed we hear something positive today!)

On to this week's update!  Better pictures next week, I promise... my good camera got left at home on the day I needed it... this'll just make the after shots look even better, right?

I spent a good portion of my week staring at more blue tile.  This time it was by design.  I still have to scrape thinset from a few more grout lines (ick) before I can grout, but I can't wait to grout!  That'll take the floor up about 5 notches.  I can't say the floor is perfect... which frustrates me a tiny bit, but I did the best job that I humanly could, so it's a floor I'll be proud of!  I'm pretty sure everyone still thinks I'm crazy for installing blue tile in a bathroom I just removed every trace of blue from, but I'm going to make it awesome and totally work.  Trust me!

And speaking of working, check out that functioning, NON BLUE toilet!!!  It's the little things that make flipping rewarding, people.  The vanity is not installed yet, it's just hanging out while I worked out my plan for the walls.  The board and batten dimensions, placement, and materials are all figured out!  Once I grout the floor, the walls should be able to be banged out in a day.

While I stared at floors, the drywallers got busy in the kitchen/dining/living room.  Next step: paint!!

How's that for straight?

You may also remember that I had the contractor move another small wall behind the fridge to allow for a modern-sized fridge- that also got drywall this week.

On the other side of that wall is the smallest bedroom's now smaller closet.  Today the new closet door is getting installed.

Back in paint land (ugh), doors are starting to reach finished.  Check out the hallway!  The closet is the first door with a new door knob too.

Other doors are hanging out in the back bedroom waiting for final coats.

The electrician was also a busy bee this week and swapped out all the switches and outlets in the house with nice, clean, white ones- today: a new electrical panel!  Aren't you excited??...

I'm thinking that next week will be a huge week of progress over here.  I'm hoping at least!  Also... a week from today... Brimfield!!!  It's going to be a good week.