We are in the home stretch people! This past weekend Mom, Dad, my husband and I have been at the flip house nonstop (except for trips to Home Depot). We stained the back deck, installed transitions pieces for the flooring, touched up painted in every room, swept, mopped, hung doors, weeded flower beds, hauled gravel, mowed, power washed, dug holes, filled holes, and more. The house is looking so fresh and new. The old ugly concrete in the front is gone and replaced with beautiful gravel and limestone steps.
The backyard has gotten some updates with a fresh new deck stain and some gravel along the back of the house as well.
Two of the bedrooms are completely done. That feels so good to say!
The master bedroom is very close to completion. The doors have all been installed. The master bathroom is getting very close to being complete. The only thing we have left is to hang the towel hooks and reconfigure the drawer to the sink vanity. But take a look at the beautiful new shower and sink.
master bedroom closet
We added sliding doors for the master bedroom closet and bathroom. The hope is to give the house a little charm and character.
On Wednesday we are hosting a preview open house for friends and family. We want to show off our work and begin to spread the word about this beautiful home for sale in the hot South Austin market. This house is in a great location and is turn-key ready!
We hope to have a for sale sign in the front yard by the end of the week! Fingers crossed we get asking price in the first week on the market!
As we round the corner to the home stretch of finishing our first flip house, the little details are now piling on and overwhelming me. My to do list seems to only grow and every task seems easy on paper but ends up amounted to hours of physical labor.
In effects to keep the costs down, Mom and I continue to work on these little details with the great help from Dad and my husband. Last weekend Mom and Dad installed ship lap in the kitchen. It looks great! They did a fabulous job!
However, now the detailed work on filling all of the nail holes, caulking the top and edges, and sanding, then painting is left to do.
We also finished the flooring and the contractor has been in to install all baseboards and trim around the doors.
Now we are left with filling nail holes in the trim and baseboard, sanding, taping the floor and the wall in order to then paint all the trim. Not to also mention trying to fix my amateur mistakes on the flooring in some areas.
I have been visiting the house everyday, slowly chipping away at these little task that are left to do. We still have not yet touched the outside landscape which still needs to be done.
The countertop installers were back today to install the bathroom countertops. Then the plumbers will return to finish installing all faucets and toilets. It will be so nice to have inside running water again.
Also left for the contractor to take care of will be the installation of the appliances and the drywall repairs in the garage. The garage walls were in bad shape and they had to make additional holes when moving some electrical and plumbing around for the kitchen. So the walls in the garage will be the last item on the contractor’s list to repair. Soon his work will be done, they will move out, and the small details will be left for us to complete.
Additional small details to work out is the idea of staging and realtor for the sale. I know staged houses sell faster and for more money. However, we just need to finalize our budget to see how much money we have to spend on staging. Also I know having a good realtor is very important, however they require a 6% commission which on a house selling for $385,000 is around $23,100! That could very well be my entire profit! So then what??
So many more details to figure out, finish up, and finalize before we put a for sale sign in the yard. I will continue to stop by the house to work on the small projects that matter. We hopefully will finish the trim this weekend and maybe even hang the barn sliding doors in the master. Then we are left with landscaping the final weekend before we list the house. Fingers crossed we have not spent too much and can sell it fast!
I am already so tired of laying flooring. My husband and I have been working on flooring for about 30 hours now. And we are still not finished! I know, we work slow. Here is our progress.
Yes, my husband and I are laying all of the flooring ourselves. However, the carpenters are coming in to the baseboards and trim work, thank goodness! We are trying hard to lay the flooring without transition pieces. We will have to put transition pieces to the bathroom and it one of the bedrooms where the boards just did not match up well.
Other great progress has been made this past week besides just the flooring. The cabinets and counter tops were installed and look amazing.
You can see we went with white shaker cabinets with slab front drawers. Troo Designs did our cabinet work and did a great job. I also choice modern bar handles for a fresh clean look.
I love the counter tops. It is hard to capture in the photo, but the counter tops are speckled with grey and tan specks. DS Surfaces did the counter tops and I am in love with them! I was very nervous about my selection, but I very pleased with how it turned out. Even my son, Jack, approves.
Cool counter tops Mom.
Another transformation that happened this past week was the exterior paint! I love how the house just comes back to life with the new paint job. Thank you Painting 512, they did exceptional work! I could not be more happy with all the work that has been done on the house so far.
Oh, did you also notice the new porch light fixture. I found that for a steal at Restore for only $20. The electrician also visited the house this week to put up some lighting in the rooms. He reinstalled some of the fans and finished out the recessed lighting in the house.
And to come full circle, we are back to flooring again. Matt and I worked on the flooring today for about 10 hours and will (cross your fingers) finish it up tomorrow. Here is our flooring status right now.
So we need to finish the living room, dining room, and kitchen. We also have to finish the linen closet and the hall coat closet. I will be so thankful with flooring is done!
The tile guys were also back at the house today working on the back splash. I will share more pictures of the kitchen on my next post. On our to do list is to install ship lap in the kitchen and open shelving on the sink side.
Oh and I have failed to mention the amazing, hard work of my parents! Mom has been at the house painting and painting. She has worked on all the door frames, window areas, doors, and more doors. She is amazing! Then Dad has been over reconstructing all the shelving in the closets. The closets were a disaster so during demo work we ripped everything out of the closets and Dad has been providing handy man work to rebuild shelves and hanger rods in each of the bedroom closets. He will then move to reconstructing shelving for the linen and pantry closet. Thanks Dad and Mom!
Also on our to do list is landscaping. We would like to rip out the concrete slab out front and replace it with gravel and concrete pavers. We will also add a gravel flower bed along the left side of the house and along the back. We still need to power wash the back deck and stain it as well. The good news is the do to list is shrinking. So check back again soon, we continue to make progress every week!
Flip City 