Dining Evolution

I am pleased and astonished to announce..... the dining room is DONE (well, as done as any room in this designers house gets) In the 3 years we've lived in this house, the dining room has been through several evolutions to get to this point.

The first iteration was the "drop what we have in the existing space" method.  Not terrible, but it always felt dark and drab (aka SO not us!)

The second iteration was a HUGE step in the right direction.  I added picture rail around the room and painted the walls an awesome (in my humble opinion) purple.  Even though the walls are a darker color, somehow the room felt larger and brighter.

Then I made an attempt to finish the space with chairs and a new chandelier, but something felt off still. *coughTABLEcough*

Which brings us to today.  A proper photoshoot of this space is necessary, but I'm just so excited to share the space with you that I can't wait!

Well hello, sexy, refinished, correctly proportioned table.  (Check it out pre-modification/refinishing here)

I have also started using the picture rail for its intended purpose- imagine that!

Of course since I never leave well enough alone, I may modify the chair color at some point, and install a built-in liquor cabinet on the far wall.  But for now, the space finally feels appropriate to us and the house.  It's about time!

I really apologize for the quality of these photos- with the high color contrast and the position of the room in the house, I just can't figure out the best light and camera settings- any suggestions??

Meet Frankie

We've run into a few paperwork filing issues (and an elderly seller in Florida), so we're still waiting to technically own the house.  That means no sledge hammers until at least Monday (pout).  It is what it is, I'm just antsy. I can, however, show you where we'll be starting from!

Meet Franklin, AKA Frankie!  Our second-ever flip house!

The exterior doesn't have a long to do list:

• -New windows
• -Siding repair
• -New side railing
• -Paint front railing and awning
• -Clean up planting beds

The kitchen on the other hand:

Aside from the weirdness of the dishwasher closet (which used to house a washer and dryer apparently) the cabinets don't look too bad... until you open them up.  The insides are not pretty.  or sanitary. or salvageable.  Much like the fridge.  ick.

At least that makes my list for the kitchen pretty easy (ha):

• -Demo entire kitchen
• -New floors, cabinets, appliances
• -Plumbing & electrical for new layout
• -Paint

The living room and the bedrooms are luckily no big.  I'll need to paint pretty much everywhere and polish the wood floors, but that's it. Phew!

And then we reach the bathroom.  Oh the bathroom.  It's getting gutted down to the studs.  It looks soooooo much worse in person, trust me.  I need to take some good detail shots before the sledge hammer comes in.

Tile has been removed from all the walls, but instead of removing the old adhesive or tiling over it, they just painted over it.  Lovely. Oh, and that green spot in the shower?  Instead of redoing the shower, they just placed greenboard over the old wall board and put a plastic shower surround on that.  Not the right way to do it so much.

So the list here:

• -Gut.
• -Salvage toilet & countertop
• -Repaint pink tub
• -Replace all wall board
• -New tile, vanity, mirrors, lights
• -Paint

Then we have the basement.  I'll spare you and not show you the utility side since I don't plan to do much aside from clean up, but the other side is going to transform a bit.

To do here?

• -Add wall to separate bright, usable area from dark, utility space
• -Peel & stick floor tiles
• -Replace drop ceiling
• -Paint!!!

Ah, the lists seem so short!  Good thing I know better by now!  We're hoping to get this diamond in the rough back on the market in just under 3 months.

So what do you think of our next flip endeavor?  Can I make it awesome?

Keep your fingers crossed!

A Little off the Sides

This past week I've had to make the mental shift back to full time flipper in preparation for Frankie.  On this project, I'm attempting to do a little less 'hands on' and hire a bit more out so I can focus more on the project management and the schedule.  Not exactly the fun stuff, but certainly the necessary stuff if I don't want to burn out on flipping after only 2 houses- Don't worry, though I can't help but be hands on and I'm excited to get started!!!!  Hopefully the closing will stay on schedule for Wednesday and we can get started right away.  You know what that means?  Weekly  Flip updates will restart this Friday!!! Until then, I'm still trying to get a few things knocked off my to-do list.  Like trimming down my new dining room table!

If you remember, this is where it was a few days ago.  I didn't actually mind the size too much, but I felt that the large overhang on each end made the legs less of a focal point (detail oriented obsessions of the designer mind).  And since those legs are the best part about the table, I devised a plan.

I feel like I should note- I didn't feel too bad about modifying an antique table since it had already been modified.  It started it's life as a drop-leaf, gate leg table like this one and was modified in recent history to be fixed.  I just wanted to customize it one step further.

The plan was to trim down the table on all 4 sides  (so that there was an even 3" overhang on all sides, unlike previously) and rounded the corners.  As with most of my woodworking projects, I enlisted Handy Dad's help to make sure I didn't screw it up.

We used a circular saw to trim the sides, and clamped on a guide that Dad had created to ensure a straight line.  I swear one of these days I'll have him share the tutorial for the guide- its a simple, but very effective tool.

Taking turns wielding the power tools, Dad and I cut the sides with the circular saw,

rounded the corners carefully with a jig saw, and router-ed the top edge all around with a simple bullnose.

And there was sanding.  Lots and lots of sanding the new edge to make it smooth as a baby's bottom.

I still have to refinish or partially refinish the top and unfinished edges, but until then it's back in place in the dining room.

It's not a drastic change, but it feels right in my opinion.  Before it felt like an oversized top plopped on some really cool legs.  Now it looks like it was always meant to be a table of this size (or at least I think so).  And it's going to look even better once I get the top all refinished!

I'd love to hear what you think- would you have trimmed down the table or left it as is?