Millie: Week 29

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. If you're here visiting from Cuckoo 4 Design, WELCOME!  It's a bit messy over here right now but I'm mere weeks away from my latest flip reveal so I hope you join in on this crazy ride.

This is one of those weeks that it was tough to see the forest through the trees.  After last week's leaps and bounds, this week was spent focusing on minutia to prepare for next week's leaps and bounds (hopefully!!)

I finally conquered removing paint from the damaged canvas ceiling and now I just need to scrub it down and patch a few small tears before I can prime and paint.  This is one of those time consuming projects that no one will notice once the house is done.  If I hadn't done it, however, a water stained, bubbling ceiling would have been one of the house's first impressions.

I suffered a few setbacks this week, though.  The biggest being that I still need to have the first floor walls skim coated.  Did I mention I plan to list in about 3 weeks?

Yeah.... The plasterer who had originally committed went MIA on me and finally told me he was booked up for the next several weeks.  No me gusta.  I had another guy quote, so hopefully, the first floor walls will be ready for paint early next week.  Otherwise my head might explode.

The other major setback this week was plumbing.  The gift that keeps on giving.  Aside from a brand new faucet that I have to replace because it leaks, the basement was where the action was...

After the high of getting working plumbing fixture last week, I got a crushing reality this week when we discovered that every time the toilet flushed, it came rushing out of a giant hole in the old cast iron sewage pipe and directly into the basement floor.  yum.  Luckily it's 100% fixed now and I can boast that the house has all new plumbing #silverlining.  I'm trying not to think about how long the house's sewage has been dumping into the basement for....

Like I said, this week was minutia.  But it all needed to happen.  Like my sister and I spending hours scraping baked on window film from the upper sash of these two living room windows.  Why just the upper sash and just these 2 windows, I do not know.

BUT, I'm trying to see the forest through the trees.  When I was feeling down this week, I would just pick up my trowel and get tiling.  Instant gratification always makes me feel better.  And so does this tile.

I'm at a point with the backsplash tile, however that I can no longer avoid my wet saw.  The cuts are such a process, but I'm hoping that I can bang them out today.  Once all tiled, this large expanse of wall will be getting 2 long open shelves.

My other pick-me up this week was starting to really delve into staging.  With 2 bedrooms on the second floor essentially all set with polished floors (thanks to my helpful mom) I started putting some of my staging furniture in there so I could devise a plan.  I had forgotten how big this room was!

I'm hoping that I can spend as little as possible on the staging furniture itself so that I can focus my staging budget on textiles and details that will make this house feel super cozy and welcoming.

In other not-as-pretty news, this house finally got it's new electrical panel and about half of the snow melted!  There's still several feet to go, but now I can see over the piles #littlewins.

Let's all keep our fingers crossed that I've passed all the speed bumps on this house and I can spend the next 3 weeks happily painting, staging, and doing finishing touches.

Have a great weekend!

Millie: Week 28

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. OMG guys, GUESS WHAT!!!

For the first time in TWENTY-ONE WEEKS, I have not only ONE working toilet in this house, but TWO!  Isn't that just the most exciting news???  Ok, so maybe not for you, but for me it's huge!  My plumbers have finally been busy at work this week to get every last bit of plumbing hooked up and functional.  Hopefully they'll be finishing up today, but as of right now I have 2 working toilets, 1 working faucet, and several other fixtures that are just about there.

AND I have a new bathroom that's actually looking like a bathroom!

Yes, I will be frosting the windows.  The neighbors don't need a free show.  Unless that's your thing and if that's the case, feel free to unfrost the windows after you buy the house for well above asking price.

I'm also in love with the herringbone tile that the kitchen's getting.

I'm doing it slowly- one row at a time so that the weight of the marble doesn't sag and make installation more difficult.  I did, however finish and grout the area behind the sink so that the faucet could be installed.

Imagine that gorgeousness going all the way up to the ceiling.  Dreamy, no?  The day I get to grout all this tile will be so satisfying.

And there are appliances!  None of them have power yet- baby steps- but the fridge fits in it's cabinet like it was made for it.  Cuz it was.

In addition to the pretty stuff, I also chipped away at some tedium.  in the form of a painted canvas ceiling.

Although there are still 3 canvas ceilings in this house, I'm only stripping this one in the dining room.  Previous water damage had the paint bubbling and chipping.  This has to be done gently, slowly, and its tiring scraping paint over your head.  But preserving this super cool ceiling will be totally worth it.  Can we say selling feature?

Yesterday my sister lent a hand taping off all the trim in the living room to prep for the plasterers, giving me time to actually tackle the embarrassingly huge mess that I showed you last week.  While the room isn't empty yet, PROGRESS!

As soon as I can get the plasterers in to smooth out all the walls, this first floor is going to look spectacular.  Aside from infinite tiny details that I feel like I'll be working on until eternity, things are starting to look like they'll be finished very soon!

Millie: Week 27

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. This was the week I needed at this flip.  Millie finally turned a corner!  More rooms are painted than not, and it's starting to feel like it's going to be a liveable home in the very near future #happydance

All 3 bedrooms are painted, have lights, switches AND outlets!

And the artist formerly known as the pink room has shiny, polished up floors.  While the first floor hardwoods are getting sanded and refinished, the second floor started out in better shape and just needs some spiffing up.  My very helpful mom volunteered some time this week and made the floor in the newly yellow room shine like the top of the Chrysler building (using the same product that I used to shine up Frankie's floors- Rejuvinate Floor Restorer)

The other rooms still need some floor love but are looking rather spiffy otherwise.

The upstairs hallway also followed suit with the bedrooms, making the entire 2nd floor close to completion.

Next we take to the kitchen where not only did the countertops get installed, but the walls got covered in backer board and are ready for tile!

Against my Realtor's recommendation, I went with black granite and I stand by my choice 110%.  The room is going to get so bright once I install this tile all the way to the ceiling.

On the other side of the room, I extended the countertop past the cabinet and over the radiator to create a bit of a breakfast bar.

I'm thinking these IKEA bar stools would fit in perfectly.

The room that's really making me smile this week is the new master bathroom.  While it's still plumbing-less until next week, the walls are finally 100% done, it has working light fixtures, a medicine cabinet, and a really sexy vanity top.

I still have to modify the drawers to accommodate the plumbing, but one step at a time here people.

It's getting pretty awesome in this room, I won't lie.  Remember how it wasn't a bathroom 27 weeks ago?

I think this room has found it's calling.

I'm still working on figuring out the right stain combination to match the new door and trim pieces to the existing trim.

And just so you don't think I'm getting all spoiled with these working lights, outlets and fancy countertops, the living rooms still look like this....

But, at least the bathroom's pretty!