nessie the fliphouse

Nessie the Flip House: Week 8

I hope you enjoy these weekly updates as I navigate through the business of flipping houses one house at a time!!  Check in each Friday to see weekly update of how this house progresses!  To catch up on the progress on Nessie, check out her previous posts here.  If you’re new here (Hello!!!),  or just enjoy walking down memory lane, you can see my 6 previous flip houses here.  Thanks for coming along for the ride!! I need to feel more accomplished this week since we're already at week 8 and I feel like progress is still at snail speed, so let's start with a list of what's happened in the last 2 months on this flip:

  • Building permit acquired!
  • Health department approval for new bathroom
  • New septic system installed
  • Electrical clean-up began
  • Old plumbing removed
  • All demo DONE
  • Ordered: Kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanity, faucets, lights, mailbox
  • Re-framing of necessary walls/ceilings- 50%
  • Hardscaping to happen next week (postponed due to weather)
  • Air conditioning being installed TODAY

I know once we get rough sign-offs and we can start hanging drywall, this place is going to come together pretty fast, but right now she's still an empty shell of a house.  Not that it shows hugely in the pictures, but my contractor, plumber, and electrician were all out at the house this week taking care of business.

 

 

In the small hallway that goes from the kitchen to the main bath and 2 of the bedrooms, several walls got reframed.  We made the hallway 6" wider because a 30" hallway is pretty claustrophobic and the rest of the walls required reframing because they were pretty sorry excuses for walls previously and weren't properly framed and lacked fancy things like 2x4s and regular studs.  It was easier for my contractor to reframe them all together then to try and fix the existing.

 

 

And even though the tiniest bedroom has the biggest closet, the medium sized bedroom has gone almost 100 years without a closet.  Until now.

 

 

Even the basement room (aka the "bowling alley") got some new framing.  The existing framing was beefed up so that we have room to properly insulate the concrete wall.

 

 

I usually have one pet project in each house that I really dig my hands into (with the exception of Shorty since I was busy baking a baby instead).  In this house, I'm planning to create a mud room area, or has Hubby has named it, a fud room (fake mud room).  I have my sights set on the wall to the right as you walk in the front door (on the left of the pic as you're looking at the door).

 

 

The lower section of floor needs a purpose and creating a landing spot for shoes, coats, etc should be just the trick.  This is the section of wall that I've been envisioning some sort of entry-way built-in complete with storage and a bench.

 

 

After pricing out a few options including IKEA, I came to the conclusion that it will be the least expensive, probably look best, and most fun if I build it myself.  I've already enlisted Handy Dad's help and need to start planning measurements and details.  This is the general plan- cubbies floor to ceiling on one side with storage above and below a bench with several wall coat hooks.  I love it when I have an idea in my head and am able to find an image that accurately illustrates the concept that I'm trying to explain.  This mud room from Z+Interiors is pretty darn close to how I see the finished product (sans the barn board):

 

 

I have a feeling the next few weeks will also be dealing with a lot of the "guts" of the house and getting the appropriate sign-offs, but at least we've finally hit a steady stride on progress here!  Onward!!

 

Have a great weekend!!

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Nessie the Flip House: Week 7

I hope you enjoy these weekly updates as I navigate through the business of flipping houses one house at a time!!  Check in each Friday to see weekly update of how this house progresses!  To catch up on the progress on Nessie, check out her previous posts here.  If you’re new here (Hello!!!),  or just enjoy walking down memory lane, you can see my 6 previous flip houses here.  Thanks for coming along for the ride!!  

WE HAVE A BUILDING PERMIT!!!!!  Now I breathe a sign of relief and we can really make this house happen.  Building permits are a weird thing and vary so much from town to town.  In this case, aside from there being a wait list due to the building department being under-staffed, the town wanted more documentation than I've ever had to provide as well as having to work around dated town zoning by-laws.  Since the house is on an old non-conforming lot (meaning it doesn't have the amount of land that would currently be required to build a house and is grandfathered in), even refinishing the basement bowling alley room came into question since it wasn't originally counted toward the house square footage.  This weird zoning restriction is the reason I'm not going to be able to do too much with the curb appeal within the timeframe that we own the house.  Thankfully, a chat with the building commissioner and changing some room names on my plans, I was able to finally get sign-off for the bowling alley and the rest of the interior renovations.

 

Now that we have a permit, I'm lucky to have a contractor who wastes no time.  4 guys with the right tools can make quick work of demo.

 

Once upon a time there was a wall between the kitchen and living room, drywall and/or paneling on all these walls, and a warped ceiling.

 

 

Now we have a completely blank slate!

 

 

 

 

When my contractor pulled down the old kitchen ceiling, we realized that the "beam" that was put across the kitchen in the 60s was completely bowed and not actually supported by anything.  Not the right way to remove a wall.  The camera is not playing tricks on you- the ceiling was that bowed...

 

 

Problem solved by adding a new beam and proper supports, but it's things like this that keep chipping away at my budget.  This will probably be my most expensive per square foot renovation and most of it is going to fancy things like plumbing, structure, and electrical.  The silver lining that came with needing the new beam is that now the entire kitchen ceiling will be flush.  There will only be a small transition into the living space which is unavoidable without completely restructuring the living room ceiling which is decidedly NOT in the budget.

 

 

In addition to the kitchen's disappearing act, the bathroom is all gone as well and the new vanity got delivered yesterday.

 

 

After seeing what's not in the house anymore, it's not hard to believe that we've already filled up one 30 yard dumpster and are ready for the next!

 

 

Ahhh, writing this post felt good.  Hooray for progress and hooray for finally having something exciting to share with you!  Fingers crossed that we continue with the momentum since both landscaping and reframing inside the house should be starting next week.

 

Have a stellar weekend!!

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Nessie the Flip House: Week 6

I hope you enjoy these weekly updates as I navigate through the business of flipping houses one house at a time!!  Check in each Friday to see weekly update of how this house progresses!  To catch up on the progress on Nessie, check out her previous posts here.  If you’re new here (Hello!!!),  or just enjoy walking down memory lane, you can see my 6 previous flip houses here.  Thanks for coming along for the ride!!  

Week 6 already?!?!  In previous flips, week six was a busy time.  With Shorty, tiling was happening, Dori had landscaping, and all the way back on flip #1, Clark got kitchen cabinets!  We have a few more "t"s we have to cross for the town to hand us the permit they already have signed (sigh), but in the meantime, I've been planning and dreaming about the 2 bathrooms. The main floor full bath is going a little bolder than I often do, but in a house that's going to have blue cabinets, the bathroom can't be a shrinking violet.

I'm not sold on the floor tile just yet, but the rest is already ordered!

 

The soon to be new basement powder room/laundry room is less set in stone yet, but still going to have some style.  It is in the basement, so I'm hoping to strike a nice balance between industrial/utilitarian and polished.  This design is still evolving and probably will evolve as the walls and room get built out and I see the space coming to fruition- since it has no defined walls or finished space currently.

 

Hopefully the stalled progress has ended and we can really go full steam ahead.  It's looking like hard scaping (patios and such) will be starting next week and I'm crossing my fingers that demo and framing of the new powder room will start as well.  I'm still optimistic about the progress despite the delays!

Have a fantastic weekend!!

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